Turquoise, Water, Sky: Meaning and Beauty in Southwest Native Arts by Maxine E. McBrinn, Ross E. Altshuler

This book provides an overview of the uses of turquoise in native arts of the Southwest, beginning with the earliest people who mined and processed the stone for use in jewelry, on decorative objects, and as a powerful element in ceremony. In the past, as now, turquoise was valued for its color and beauty but also for its symbolic nature: sky, water, health, protection, abundance. The book traces historical and contemporary jewelry made by Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Santo Domingo artisans, and the continuously inventive ways the stone has been worked.

2015 Museum of New Mexico Press

172 pages 142 color photos, 20 color illustrations