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American Turquoise
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Turquoise Jewelry
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Know Your Stones - Buy Only
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- High Grade Natural Turquoise: found in all shades
from sky blue to apple green. It is the hardest grade and
takes the best polish. The contrast between the color of
turquoise and the color of matrix {or mother rock} enhances
the beauty of each stone. Many mines produce distinctive
stones whose origin can be identified by an experienced
person.
Examples of High Grade Natural Turquoise
For
More Examples and to buy Highgrade Turquoise Jewelry Click
Here!
- Enhanced turquoise: The Zachery or Foutz process impregnates
turquoise with vaporized quartz. This makes the stone harder,
darkens the color and takes a good polish. This process
is hard to detect by normal methods because quartz occurs
naturally with some turquoise.
- Stabilized or Treated Turquoise: American manufacturers
have perfected a process using pressure and heat to fill
the microscopic gaps in the stone with plastic resin. When
cured the product is a treated stone hard enough to cut
and polish. Most nugget and some heishi products are made
from real turquoise that has been stabilized. Stabilization
allows genuine but lower grade turquoise to be used in jewelry.
- Wax Treated: Much of the turquoise from China is wax
impregnated. The paraffin treatment deepens and stabilizes
the color but only affects the surface.
- Reconstituted: This term describes pulverized turquoise
scrap from stone cutting mixed with blue dye and plastic
binder. Most products marketed under this name should really
by labeled as simulated “block”. Compressed Nugget
is a similar product made from larger pieces.
- Block: A mixture of plastic resin and dyes that is
produced in loaf sized blocks. We used to call this reconstituted
because we were told it was made from ground up turquoise
scraps. In reality there is no actual rock of any sort in
block turquoise; it is entirely man-made and should be labeled
“simulated”. Block is produced in many colors,
simulating many different stones and shells. Except for
occasional batches of Lapis Block that contain ground up
iron pyrite, these are entirely simulated. Block is used
heavily for inlay and heishi.
- Dyed Stones: There are several naturally occurring
stones that look similar to turquoise when they are dyed
blue. These include Howlite, a white rock with black or
gray markings, and Magnite or Magnesite, a chalky white
mineral that forms in rough nodules looking faintly like
the vegetable cauliflower. Other simulations include glass,
plastic, faience ceramic and polymer clay.
- This information on the treatments and grades was originally
written by Homer Milfred published by the New Mexico Abandoned
Mine Land Bureau in the Report 1994 – 1 – November
15, 1995. We feel that this is the most accurate and simplistic
information on the grades of turquoise. We would like to
add that there are some lesser grades of natural turquoise
in smaller pieces that are used in small settings and inlay
work. These come in varying grades of hardness. The “block
turquoise” referred to here is really imitation or
plastic and is quite often marketed as the real thing. They
can even create a matrix in it. Plastic turquoise or other
block stones can melt, fade and become quite less attractive
after purchase and wear. Imitation stones are quite often
used in machine stamped silver jewelry made overseas and
marketed here as Native American jewelry.
Natural Blue Wind Turquoise Ring |
Natural Blue Gem Turquoise Cabochon |
Natural Broken Arrow and Sugilite |
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