March 2016: Joclas

Turquoise has powerful associations among the cultures of the southwest. It was an important object of trade and symbol of prestige. As a means of personal adornment, its history in the southwest stretches back millennia. Turquoise is connected with the Sky as well as the Earth. Among the Navajo, turquoise is the color of the south and of Mount Taylor.

The jocla is one of the earlier forms of earrings found in the southwest, and used by Navajo and Pueblo peoples alike. Joclas are pendant-like earrings of disc-shaped turquoise beads with a large center bead at the bottom. The were originally made without the luxury of metal tools. Worn by both men and women, upon marriage, women would often tie the earrings to their tab necklaces as additional ornamentation.

Contemporary jewelers continue to experiment with this ancestral form by using old jaclas and incorporating into them into new bracelets, making longer and highly wearable necklaces, or rolling high quality stone into exquisitely delicate earrings.