My mom’s New Mexico roots were woven throughout our lives. Among other things, our living room had a southwestern feel; chile was a type of vegetable that was roasted, peeled and cooked with; and my parents had turquoise wedding bands. They were married in the 70’s and as my mom described it, “didn’t want to do anything the traditional way.” After meeting in Hawaii and deciding to get married, the came to New Mexico for the wedding, and picked out inexpensive matching bands with inlaid triangles of turquoise.

Soon I had a few pieces of jewelry passed down to me, it on our trips to Albuquerque it became a regular tradition to stop in at the Palms. The Palms is a unique store that has a large selection of indian made silver and turquoise jewelry. Even better, everything is half off the marked prices.

My collection of turquoise jewelry has slowly grown over the years, and not only do I love it’s look I like that it feels so connected to my family history. Rings are the thing I have most and on our recent trip in April I picked up a new gorgeous ring. It’s my current favorite. The bright blue is the typical turquoise color most people think of when mentioning the word, but there is a lot of variation in the stone. The older looking pieces were passed down to me, others have been picked up throughout the years… and look forward to continuing the tradition of passing along some of these pieces of jewelry some day.