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50 years of carefully curated genuine coral, turquoise, mother of pearl raw materials & jewelry…

11/05/2026

We commission handmade traditional Navajo jewelry using the finest domestic turquoise and Mediterranean coral, set in heavy-gauge sterling silver by Navajo silversmiths. Many pieces are one of a kind, hand-selected for their distinct beauty and quality of stone.

See the current jewelry collection: TradeRoots.com

11/03/2026

📘 The Macaw Chronicle — A Story of Trade, Journey & Connection

For decades, J. Cosmo Lewis traveled the Southwest, Central America and many countries in Asia and Europe, retracing ancient trade routes, seeking the materials and relationships that shape our craft traditions. The Macaw Chronicle is his personal account of that lifetime of adventure, culture, and discovery. This is a narrative that goes beyond places and people into the very heart of why we make what we make.

In this book, Cosmo shares stories of Pueblo artisans and elders, long-forgotten barter paths, tropical feathers and ocean shells moving across continents, and the living traditions that continue to influence art and trade today. It’s a story of curiosity, connection, and the very human drive to seek meaning through material, relationship, and travel.
This book is a story of lived experience, passion for craft, and the threads that tie past and present together.

📖 The Macaw Chronicle is available now at TradeRoots — a meaningful gift for anyone interested in craft, culture, and the deeper story behind the materials we work with.

🛍 Find it at TradeRoots.com

10/31/2026

One-of-a-kind creations made of rare and exotic natural materials.

This one features graduated sugilite roundels, run with natural turquoise beads, 7 to 15 millimeters, finished with hammered sterling silver cones and clasps. Others on the bench combine turquoise h***e, lapis, antique Sea of Japan coral, Chiapas amber, and mother of pearl in as many as 50 strands.

The designs come out of decades of world travel and study of history and anthropology, and years of living and trading among the people of the Southwest. Each piece is one of a kind.

Tomorrow begins National Native American Heritage Month, designated by joint resolution in 1990 and proclaimed every year since 1994.

See the neckwear: https://traderoots.com/Jewelry_Neckwear/Jeff_s_Neckware/

10/30/2026

Heavy-gauge sterling and stones with some size to them.

A seven-stone Blue Gem bracelet by Randy Smith of Gallup, New Mexico — 50 carats of blue-green turquoise in silver. Leonard Chee’s seventeen-stone Number 8 spiderweb cluster, 26 carats. A three-stone Persian turquoise cluster cuff. Bolo ties, buckles, and pendants alongside them.

Native American handmade by Navajo silversmiths, with natural turquoise and Mediterranean coral. Most pieces are one of a kind, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

By appointment at 411 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. Shop bracelets: https://traderoots.com/Jewelry_Neckwear/Turquoise_Bracelets/

10/29/2026

Sleeping Beauty turquoise comes from Globe, Arizona — prized for a solid, soft blue with little or no matrix, ranging from deep royal to light sky blue.

The site was originally mined for copper and gold; turquoise became the focus over the last four decades, with miners working leased sections of the dumps. The mine is now closed.

That clear, matrix-free blue is the reason Sleeping Beauty is so often compared to old Persian turquoise, and why it has long been the stone most preferred in European markets — particularly for cameo work.

See the collection: https://traderoots.com/Turquoise/Turquoise_Mines/Sleeping_Beauty_Turquoise/

10/27/2026

The red coral we work with is Corallium rubrum, gathered in the Mediterranean and introduced to the New World by the Spaniards. It is typical of the Mediterranean and does not grow off the western coast of Mexico, nor in the Gulf of California.

Its meaning is not simple. Red coral has always combined myth and magic — its bright red color fascinated people in the East and West alike, and it long stood for procreative force and a link with the divine.

In the Southwest, the readings differ: one Navajo shaman held that coral has no ceremonial significance and is used purely as ornament, while other accounts describe it as protection from bad medicine, envy, and jealousy. What is consistent is that coral, like all things coming from water, is treated as a sacred, life-giving symbol by people living in a semi-arid country.

Our rough runs from dark salmon to bright tomato red, and we carry it rough, as cabochons, as beads, and in finished jewelry — sourced at origin since 1970.

Read the coral story: https://traderoots.com/Coral/The_Coral_Story/

10/24/2026

The inner nacreous layer of a mollusk shell, with its iridescent play of color, is mother of pearl — one of the earliest materials people used for adornment.

The black shell is the one that surprises people: turn it in the light, and it goes green, then peacock, then near-violet.

TradeRoots carries black mother of pearl as whole shells, rough and polished, cut strips and pieces, and discs from 16 mm up to 45 mm. The 45 mm discs are thick enough that we only get one out of each shell.

Shop mother of pearl: https://traderoots.com/Pearl_Shell/Mother_of_Pearl/

10/22/2026

Fretboard markers, headstock logos, rosettes, furniture, frames — inlay work asks for material cut flat, even, and to an exact thickness. That’s what we cut.

White and black mother of pearl in precision-cut pieces, cut strips, and chunky nubs. Abalone and green snail shell.

Kingman turquoise inlay material — a soft blue that’s hard enough to hold together.

Pearl shell is ecologically harvested from self-replenishing beds around the Philippines, directly from the source since 1970.
Explore the shell: https://traderoots.com/Pearl_Shell/

10/20/2026

Kingman turquoise comes from the Mineral Park Mining District in Arizona. The range is wide — light to dark blue, with a matrix that can be white, light brown, or black.

Pictured is the one collectors chase: deep blue shot through with fine black webbing. That material came out of the ground in the 1970s and hasn’t been seen since.

TradeRoots carries Kingman in birdseye slabs, nuggets, spiderweb, inlay material, and old 1970s Turquoise Mountain stone.

See the collection: https://traderoots.com/Turquoise/Turquoise_Mines/Kingman_Turquoise/

10/16/2026

Royston isn’t one mine. It’s a district in Nevada made up of three: Bunker Hill, Oscar Wehrend, and the main producer, the Royal Blue.

Royston is known for colors ranging from deep green to rich, light blues, set off by a heavy brown matrix. Most of what comes out of the ground now is processed into finished cabochons by the Ottison family, with very little rough released to the market — which is why the price of rough Royston has climbed steadily in recent years.

See the collection: https://traderoots.com/Turquoise/Turquoise_Mines/Royston_Turquoise/

Address

411 Paseo De Peralta
Santa Fe, NM
87501

Telephone

+15059828168

Website

https://www.TradeRoots.com/

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