NEW! Bold Navajo turquoise silver decorated tufa cast ring. Tufa casting is similar to sandcast, but the silversmith uses the readily available volcanic rock found in New Mexico and Arizona. The raw volcanic rock is what gives the “textured” appearance where the silversmith carves a design into the rock and pours molten silver into the casting. The volcanic rock is soft and the artist is usually lucky to get one pour from the cast without it breaking. With that said, most tufa cast jewelry is considered one-of-a-kind. This particular ring once the artist removed it from the casting and formed it into a band he then has mounted a beautiful cut and polished blue turquoise nugget that sports brown matrix and silvery pyrite. Appears to be from the Carico Lake Mines. Setting the stone into a deep smooth silver bezel, he finishes by applying a polished finish on the outer rims and the crossed bars on both sides of the stone.

The ring face measures 5/8” wide with the stone being 3/8” diameter. It weighs 14.6 grams and is a size 11. The ring is hallmarked SY by Navajo silversmith Stanford Yazzie. Bold thick one-of-a-kind tufa cast silver ring with beautiful turquoise nugget! $259.95