Small Multi Color Chokers by Dorene Calabaza (B)

This choker is made by Dorene Calabaza. This is 17" long and the beads are 4mm in diameter. Made from turquoise, melo shell, olive shell, jet and pipestone.

This single-strand choker is built in blocks of color rather than a random mix. Runs of black jet and creamy white shell meet sections where black and white beads alternate like piano keys, then give way to red-brown pipestone, a stretch of striped brown and cream beads, and a short bright run of turquoise near the front. Every bead is the same small disc, so the strand is smooth and even all the way around. At 17 inches it sits close around the base of the neck and closes with a clasp at the back. The pattern is lively enough to wear alone and narrow enough to layer with a longer turquoise necklace.

Dorene Calabaza makes chokers, necklaces and bracelets in these multi-color patterns by hand at Santo Domingo (Kewa) Pueblo, and this single strand is her color-block pattern in its simplest form. The discs are heishe: each one cut, drilled and then ground smooth on the strand so the whole run is even.