Black onyx does the quiet work in Southwest jewelry. It is the dark field that everything else is read against: put a turquoise cabochon on silver alone and it floats, but set it into black and the colour snaps forward. Most of the Zuni and Navajo channel inlay we carry uses onyx exactly that way — as the background, the outline, and the shadow that gives a flat piece depth.
Onyx is a banded chalcedony, a form of quartz. It takes an unusually good polish, wears hard, and holds a crisp cut edge, which is why it suits inlay where every piece has to meet its neighbour cleanly. One thing buyers should know: essentially all commercial black onyx on the market, from every source, has been colour-treated to achieve that even dense black. This is long-standing, accepted practice across the whole jewelry trade rather than anything unusual to Southwest work. If you want to know the specifics of a particular piece, ask us about it.
How to judge it: the black should be deep and even, with no grey clouding or brownish cast when you turn it to the light. The polish should be glassy, not satin. On inlay, run a fingernail across the seams — good work is dead level, with the onyx and the neighbouring stones sitting in one continuous plane and no visible adhesive.
We carry more than 400 onyx pieces, handmade with natural stones in sterling silver — rings, cuffs, pendants and earrings, from fine Zuni inlay to bold men’s designs.
It is most often set with opal, red coral and turquoise; for the reverse effect see white buffalo. More on stones and settings in the Turquoise Guide. Family owned in Old Town Scottsdale since 1979. Free US shipping over $99; 14-day returns and 30-day exchanges on online orders.