Turquoise Fish Scale Inlay Ring

A large oval silver sand cast inlaid turquoise ring. The ring has a very intricately hand cut inlaid pattern comprised of a number of pieces of unusual and beautiful sea green turquoise. All pieced together with the silver borders, they combine to make this stunning and very traditional Native American design inspired from fish skin. The design is that of the Zuni Native American tribe, and was made by a jeweler from this tribe. This is an example of the Zuni inlay work, characterized by a series of shaped stones set into various bezel settings. This 'cluster work' later evolved into the more intricate petit point and needlepoint styles.A variety of bold and colourful stones are cemented into channels created by soldering pieces of silver to a backing plate. The stones are then polished flat, resulting in sometimes multicolored designs with veins of silver running through them. This example of silver work is made via sand casting the ring shank.  Sand casting is a manufacturing process