In the 1920s two new style emerged in Zuni jewelry.
The ability to solder and the availability of turquoise allowed the Zunis to indulge their personal taste by setting many small stones where one or a few were used before. This work is known as "cluster."
Cluster is a term that includes many types of stonework --often placed together. "Row work," mainly bracelets, is the usual place where square and rectangular-cut stones are featured because they often don’t cluster very attractively.
"Petit point" is an oval stone with one end coming to a point.
Oval stones which are included in cluster don’t have a special name and they are mostly seen in older work, often combined with round or petit point stones. Round stones of small size are called "snake-eye" and are used in row work also. Snake-eye is usually combined with other shapes otherwise.
Perhaps the most popular Zuni stone-work style is known as "needlepoint." Many people have used this style, but the master was Bryant Waatsa who invented a stone that was unusually long and thin, best approximating the name.
Needlepoint is often compared to a canoe. An oval shape pointed on both ends. Waatsa’s distinctive style was much more logically called needlepoint. It is a shape that is difficult to grind because it is very prone to breakage, being long and thin and pointed. But most true needlepoint is striking and attractive, probably suggesting in its delicacy and its difficulty to make.
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