Spiny Oyster

Spiny oyster shell has been traded and worked in the Southwest for well over a thousand years, prized by Ancestral Puebloan peoples who carried Gulf shell far inland long before European contact. Archaeological sites across the region contain shell ornaments that speak to its enduring value.

Today it remains a staple of Zuni and Santo Domingo (Kewa) inlay and heishi, and of Navajo cluster work, valued for the warmth it adds beside cool blue turquoise.

Shell carries deep significance in Southwestern cultures, associated with water and life and with the long-distance trade that connected desert peoples to the sea. Spiny oyster's reds, oranges, and purples appear in heishi necklaces, channel inlay, and mosaic work, very often paired with turquoise to balance warm and cool tones.

Spiny oyster is the shell of Spondylus mollusks from the warm waters of the Gulf of California and beyond. Its color grades naturally from bright orange through red to deep purple depending on the part of the shell and the species, requiring no dye — the lapidary simply selects and cuts to the color wanted.