Just In!! Asian Inspired Cinnabar & Turquoise Pendant Choker Necklace

I was inspired by these large ornate red cinnabar beads to create a bold, chunky statement necklace and they just happened to be sitting on my workbench right next to the gorgeous turquoise disc and voila!!

Bold and beautiful and exotic, this Asian-inspired necklace has a fantastic palette of large vintage carved cinnabar beads, Chinese turquoise beads, African brass and a gorgeous turquoise disc from the Hubei province in China.

Cinnabar is hand carved lacquer which is derived from resin, or sap, from a family of trees in southern China. It is an amazing material that hardens when exposed to oxygen and becomes a natural plastic. The lacquer can be colored in various hues including black, red, green, yellow and brown although most people are only aware of the red cinnabar color. Cinnabar is actually the powdered mercury sulfide used to get the red color, but it has become more or less synonymous with carved laquer itself.

This gorgeous one-of-a-kind necklace is a choker at 15" and has a 4" extender chain.