Turquoise has been in style for quite a while and is currently gaining more popularity. It comes in such a wide variety of blues and yes, greens. It has been the valued gemstone choice of Kings and Queens of ancient times. There’s nothing finer than Persian Turquoise for its beautiful Robin’s egg blue color. And besides, it really looks great mounted in sterling silver and shown off by your summer tan.
American Turquoise is known by different mines, such as Sleeping Beauty, Ajax, Bisbee, Kingman, Lone Mountain, Pixie to name a few. Each of the mines has its own defining characteristics and colors. It comes from the U.S., India, Iran, Sinai, China, and Africa. Some mines produce an olive green color with brown matrix, Robin’s egg blue without matrix or a deep blue with black matrix. It just depends where it’s mined from. The matrix is the veining that occurs in some of the gemstones. Not all turquoise has it.
It is a very porous stone and turns color from the oils in your skin. Natural turquoise is hardly ever found anymore. Over time, the natural turquoise will gain a beautiful patina. The turquoise seen in the market today is stabilized, treated and dyed. Treatments range from soaking in tallow, epoxies, waxes, dyeing, or oiling. Reconstituted turquoise is ground up into a powder, mixed with polymers, and then formed into the desired piece of jewelry.
When you think of turquoise, American Indian jewelry is the first to come to mind. Each Indian tribe has it own unique style of jewelry. The jewelry may be inlaid, natural pebbles that are bezel set, tumbled stones with drilled holes, heshi (tubes of turquoise that are strung together), small to tiny bezel set stones (needlepoint), or natural nuggets to name a few.
The 80’s craze for Indian jewelry is now what is generally being re-sold at the moment. This has not held its value and you can get great bargains on it. The much older 20’s-30’s-40’s jewelry has held value and especially so with particular jeweler signatures. The very old jewelry and some Old Pawn (called such because it was pawned at a pawn shop) are in a class by their self. China has gone into the Indian jewelry manufacture. It contains some of the feel of the American Indian style of jewelry but not the heart. This hasn’t held any value as far as re-sale value. Currently the style is for a strong neon lime green dyed turquoise. Any turquoise aficionado will generally not find this color attractive.
You can get some fabulous deals on American Indian jewelry at pawn shops or estate and antique dealers. The more current the piece, the better the price will be for you. Other retail outlets that specialize in American Indian jewelry are a good source too but you won’t get as good of a deal. Rule of thumb: if you see something that you like, buy it. Most of the time if you leave and come back to it later the item will have sold.
There isn’t any style worn that can’t be enhanced by turquoise. It doesn’t mean that it has to be set in American Indian jewelry style. You can find it in designs of Egyptian, Indian, modern jewelry to name a few. Tiffany and Cartier have used turquoise in some of their designs. The Victorian’s were particularly fond of turquoise and set lots of it in their gold jewelry.
Turquoise has had an understated timelessness about it. It is a good staple in your jewelry wardrobe. You can wear it as an accent piece. It will always get you noticed. Cool down that hot summer heat with a great deal on turquoise set in sterling silver. It’s not just for western wear anymore!
