Shell, Heishi, and Mother-of-Pearl in Southwest Jewelry: Materials, Meaning, and the Art of Drilling
Shell predates silver in the Southwest jewelry tradition. White abalone shell, red and white spiny oyster, and mother-of-pearl were worked into beads, heishi, and mosaic elements for centuries before silversmiths appeared. The heishi bead — a disk-shaped shell bead drilled and ground to uniform thickness — is one of the oldest continuous jewelry forms in North America, and spiny oyster is folded into this same tradition as a reddish-orange mosaic element.
Mateo's Field Notes
Bedinger establishes the pre-silver antiquity of shell directly: "they learned to use… shell — in their pierced ears long before" silverworking. (~line 3179.) Shell was not adopted because silver was unavailable — it was a self-sufficient tradition that silverwork later entered alongside.
The specific shell materials in documented Zuni mosaic are itemized in detail by Bedinger. The canonical list from ~line 9568–9574: "To the turquoise, white shell, and jet of their ancestors, the Zunis have added cannel coal from England, several kinds of shell, including the red abalone, white spiny oyster, mother-of-pearl, and the prestigious coral." And from a specific mosaic object at ~line 7307–7308: "Small pieces of blue turquoise, white abalone shell, red spiny oyster, and black cannel coal are arranged in a pattern on a silver backing." The red spiny oyster provides the warm orange-red element in combination with turquoise blue and cannel coal black — the classic Zuni color vocabulary.
The heishi form appears in ISJ-1868 in an early photograph context: "a white shell (heishe)" (~line 1409) is listed as a worn item in early Hopi documentation — confirming the form by name in the primary period record. The jacla configuration documented in ISJ-1868 at ~line 2951–2956 illustrates the relationship between shell and turquoise in bead form: "The two strings or loops of turquoise beads with graded sizes below have four shell beads at the center and three coral beads at each end. These are the popular 'jacklases,' turquoise beads once [used] as chunk turquoise necklaces as pendants." Shell beads mark the center of the configuration; the structural logic is intentional.
The drilling technology is documented in ISJ-1868 at ~line 925–926: "a piece of carbon steel… used to drill turquoise, coral, and shell beads in order to string them onto necklaces." The same tool drills all three bead materials — shell, coral, and turquoise are processed through the same lapidary workflow. ISJ-1868 also documents spiny oyster in a different context: at ~line 360, "spiny oyster carved" on a ketoh (bow guard) — spiny oyster as a carved element, not just mosaic.
Bedinger at ~line 5377 references paired bivalve shells used in beadwork: "(1960:115, 117) mentions pairs of bivalve shells for the purpose." Bivalve shell pairing in bead and pendant applications is thus documented alongside the flat-drilled heishi tradition.
Spiny oyster note: "Spiny oyster" refers to shells in the Spondylus family. The reddish-orange form used in Zuni mosaic — specifically the form Bedinger calls "red spiny oyster" — is valued for its color contrast against turquoise and silver. White spiny oyster is also documented as a separate element in the same mosaic vocabulary.
Collector's Handbook
- Heishi is a form, not a material. True heishi are disk-shaped beads drilled through the center and ground flat; they can be made from shell, turquoise, coral, or stone. "Heishi" sold as plastic or resin is not heishi — it is an imitation of the form.
- Spiny oyster identification. The red-orange variant is Spondylus shell, not coral. In mosaic work it provides warm tones similar to coral but with a different surface texture — smoother, more uniform color. Sellers should specify which material they mean.
- Shell as pre-contact provenance signal. Shell beads and heishi that pre-date silverworking are a genuine archaeological form. Museum-quality pieces from Pueblo IV and earlier periods are documented. Modern reproduction heishi is commercially produced, sometimes machine-drilled.
- Mother-of-pearl vs. abalone. Both are iridescent shell materials but from different sources. Abalone (red abalone in the Bedinger record) is univalve with strong iridescence; mother-of-pearl is the inner layer of various bivalves, typically whiter and less strongly iridescent. Both appear in documented Southwest work.
- Drilling tool context. The carbon steel drill documented in ISJ-1868 replaced earlier stone or bone drills. Drill hole character — shape, size, finish — is one diagnostic for estimating period on old bead work. Hand-drilled holes show slight irregularity; machine-drilled holes are perfectly round.
Related Entries in the Directory
Browse artists working in shell, heishi, and mosaic traditions in the Silversmith Directory.
Primary Sources
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, 1973, ~line 3179 (shell pre-dates silver); ~line 5377 (paired bivalve shells); ~line 7307–7308 (Zuni mosaic materials list); ~line 9568–9574 (expanded Zuni material vocabulary).
- Frank, Larry. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest 1868–1930. Schiffer, ~line 360 (spiny oyster carved on ketoh); ~line 925–926 (carbon steel drilling tool); ~line 1409 (heishe, early Hopi photograph); ~line 2951–2956 (jacla configuration, shell and coral beads).