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Lander Blue Web Turquoise in a Charles Loloma Ring ca. 1975 
Damele Turquoise Spiderweb Ring (approx 25 cts) 
Bisbee Turquoise - Arizona 
Gem Morenci Turquoise Sterling Box by Gary Reeves 
Finest Morenci Turquoise w/ uniform Pyrite Matrix 
Over 400 carats of Rare Green Web #8 Turquoise 
Carico Lake Turquoise - Nevada 
Carico Turquoise in Jewelry 
Tyrone Turquoise - New Mexico 
Tyrone Vein Turquoise 
Stennich Turquoise - Nevada 
Stennich Vein Turquoise 
Stennich Turquoise finished Beads 
Blue Gem Turquoise - Nevada 
Orvil Jack Turquoise - Nevada 
Orvil Vein Turquoise 
Carico Lake Pseudomorph Clams Closed 
Carico Lake Pseudomorph Clams Open 
Thin vein of Pilot Mtn with backing 
Carico Lake & Orvil Jack Turquoise 
Blue Jay Turquoise - Nevada 
Damele - Nevada 
Old Duvall Kingman formed in Quartz Crystal - Arizona 
Royston Turquoise - Nevada 
Royston Vein Turquoise - Nevada 
Mastrada Turquoise - Nevada 
side shot, Mastrada Turquoise 
Indian Mountain Turquoise - Nevada 
Indian Mtn Vein Turquoise 
Pixie Turquoise - Nevada 
Pixie Vein Turquoise 
Cerrillos Turquoise - New Mexico 
Cerrillos Vein Turquoise 
Edgar #8 Turquoise - Nevada 
Edgar #8 Turquoise 
Green Turquoise - Unknown Source 
Sleeping Beauty Nugget Turquoise - Arizona 
Military Royston Turquoise - Nevada 
Nevada Blue Turquoise 
Large piece of Gem Damele Variscite 
Gem Damele Variscite nuggets 
Number 8 Turquoise vein 
Number 8 Turquoise nuggets 
Number 8 Turquoise cabochons 
Rare 'Green Matrix' #8 Turquoise closeup 
Large piece of Gem Royston Turquoise 
Dark Gem Carico Turquoise in Jewelry 
Bisbee Turquoise - another view 
Rare "Black-Web Kingman" Turquoise in Jewelry 
Last Chance Turquoise in Jewelry 
Timberline Turquoise in Jewelry 
Bisbee Turquoise in Jewelry 
Lone Mtn Turquoise in Jewelry 
Cripple Creek Turquoise in Jewelry 
damele Web Turquoise Polished 
Rare Tyrone Turquoise Vein 
Rare Red damele Turquoise in Jewelry
Gem damele Turquoise Nuggets 
Damele Turquoise in Jewelry 
Morenci Turquoise in Jewelry 
Orvil Jack Turquoise in Jewelry 
Pilot Mtn Turquoise in Jewelry 
Royston Turquoise in Jewelry
Over 400 carats of Rare Green Web #8 Turquoise 
Persian Turquoise 
Examples of Chinese Turquoise |
When we glimpse the blue gem between harvest clouds We are reminded of the Legend of Shu-we-mi - "sky stone" Joyous tears penetrate into mother earth -Kathleen Sanchez, San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico, 2000
Legend has it that the People danced and rejoiced when the rains came. Their tears of joy mixed with the rain and seeped into Mother Earth to become the SkyStone - Turquoise. Turquoise, the "fallen sky stone" hidden in Mother Earth, has been valued by cultures for its beauty and reputed spiritual and life-giving qualities for over 7000 years. It is a true gem of the centuries. A long time ago someone noticed a clear blue line running through gray rock, and saw the imagery of sky and water in stone, and from that time on, turquoise has been cherished above all else in creation - turquoise, stone of sky, stone of water, stone of blessings, good fortune, protection, good health and long life. Here in the United States, turquoise is synonymous with the Southwest. In streets, plazas and in the middle of the desert; over plain dresses, velvet blouses, satin skirts, cowboy shirts and ceremonial costumes, Anglos as well as Pueblo and Navajo Indians wear turquoise necklaces, turquoise pendant, turquoise bracelets, belts and pins and as much as they can at one time. Elsewhere, turquoise may come and go with fashion. Here turquoise is more precious than gold, an enduring expression of Native American culture. It is the birthstone of December and signifies success. All pictures on this page are of untreated, beautiful, Natural Turquoise. Turquoise, once a luxury intended only for the noble, is worn by every native of the Southwest as a sign of relative wealth. The rain gods and the kachinas wear it. The Earth Mother herself was once a little figure made of turquoise, before Talking God brought Changing Woman to life. There is a wonderful fascination to turquoise, a feeling that takes hold of a person who comes in contact with it for a time. This fascination has been the same down through the centuries and it has been prized for thousands of years through many countries of the world. Today, turquoise can be found in many countries of the world, but high-grade turquoise is found mostly in China, Tibet, Persia and the Southwest.
--Joseph Payne Turquoise stone is a hydrous basic phosphate of copper and aluminum which is formed as water trickles through a host stone for about 30 million years, gradually leaving a deposit. The presence of sky and water inside a stone is indeed miraculous, a piece of heaven on earth, a round ripple of water inside the hard dry pebble. In the mineral world, geologists will tell you, these elements do intermingle. The sky comes down to earth and enters stone. Oxygen mixes with andesite, augite, feldspar, kaolin clay, aluminum, and traces of copper. In time, turquoise grains and crystals grow. The stone holds moisture. If turquoise dries out in sunlight, it will even change color, from bright blue to leaf green. The elements found in turquoise are present in seaweed, hay, eggs and feathers. The Color of Turquoise can vary greatly within the same mine. If the mix has more copper, the turquoise will be colored in the blue range; if more aluminum, in the green to white range. The addition of zinc yields a yellow-green color and hardens the stone even more. The yellow-green color has been found so far only in Carico Lake, Damali, and Orvil Jack turquoise from Nevada. In many cases, stones from one mine resemble very closely those from another mine and can be virtually impossible for an expert, or lapidary, to tell the difference. No one should say that stones from a certain mine are all one color. Turquoise can also come in varying grades and the higher-quality is generally harder with very little porosity and will not change color by absorbing oil and grease. Usually, however, stones of a lighter color have a tendency to be softer and more porous, and will change color with wear. Years of wear and gentle magic of skin oils can perfect the patina of the combination of gorgeous, rich colors in turquoise and make them glow (zat). Other colors that appear in a turquoise stone come from the host stone that the turquoise formed in, and are called "matrix." The host rock can be rust-colored, black, brown or be darker shades of green or blue. A black matrix is usually from iron pyrite; a gold-brown matrix from iron oxide, and a yellow to brown matrix from rhyolite. Matrix that is thin and evenly spaced over the surface of the stone is commonly known as "spider web" matrix. Spider web matrix usually enhances the collectibility and value of turquoise. Turquoise is set throughout the world, with the exception of the Southwest, in gold. Because yellow gold forms a quite different background for blue stones than does silver, light blue stones are favored for finer pieces, stones often so pale that they are not wanted by workers in silver. Most Persian Turquoise, set at very high prices, is pale and almost always set in gold. It is impossibly hard to find enough Gem-Grade Turquoise to set in gold on a large scale as it is so rare, much rarer than diamonds. Only 1/10 of one percent of all the Turquoise mined is of a high enough grade that can be set in gold. First and foremost, the 'best' color of turquoise is largely a matter of personal choice. Most turquoise authorities in the world would agree that the ideal color for turquoise is called "Royal Blue". It is the most vivid and intense of all shades. Some mines, even good mines, may never produce a single carat of it. Other mines may yield only a few ounces of it in thousands of pounds of normally high-grade material. There is also new evidence that suggests the Green shades were highly prized by the Navajo.
A turquoise-vaulted dome - the sky, That spans the world with majesty --Omar Khayyam
There has been such a big demand for turquoise, the supply has not been able to satisfy the demand. This has created a problem. Someone discovered that soft, light colored turquoise soaked in a liquid plastic would produce a material of deeper color when the plastic hardened, somewhat like the better grade of turquoise. This was nothing new as it was done with animal fat and tallow thousands of years ago, not with the plastic permanence, but with the same effect. The words treated and stabilized are synonymous. They describe the same type process, and there are several, for impregnating soft porous turquoise with liquid plastic and hardening or stabilizing it. One of the newer processes being used today is called 'enhancing'. This process actually bombards the turquoise with electrical energy, intensifying its hardness and color. The actual chemical structure does not change, as opposed to stabilizing with plastic. The treating of turquoise is not to be condemned and it is not wrong to buy or sell it; but it is wrong to misrepresent it or to mislead people. It should be sold as treated or stabilized and should not hold the status and value of Natural Gem Turquoise, which is the true gemstone. 80 percent of all turquoise mined is stabilized or enhanced in some way. This is generally the turquoise that is softer, porous and chalky and will not hold together by itself. Treating the stone in this way makes it darker and harder, less likely to fall apart or crack when worked. To complicate the subject even further, there is high-quality turquoise that is stabilized due to the seam-structure in the stone that might fracture if not treated. This turquoise is too hard to absorb the plastic, most of it settles in the matrix cracks. It is getting harder and harder for even gemologists and turquoise experts to tell the difference between treated and natural turquoise. The turquoise in many of the pieces we offer on this website represents less than 1 percent of the all the turquoise mined. If we state that the turquoise is Untreated and Natural, we can guarantee it. We buy our jewelry and rough stones either directly from the miner or from the lapidary who cut the rough stones and had them made into jewelry. That way we can guarantee the quality and authenticity of our jewelry and stones. The best guarantee to the buyer as to the authenticity of a piece and the stones that are set in it is to deal with a reputable dealer that you can trust. After 30 years as an Indian Trader, and being fortunate to live and work in Santa Fe, the 'heart of the Indian Jewelry business', we have access to the sources that enable us to offer such quality items. Native American artisans may buy turquoise cabochons directly from miners, but most buy from jewelry supply stores or trading posts.
Turquoise deposits, with few exceptions, are not massive and often productive mines return good earnings for a few months or years and then the deposits are depleted, the vein pinches out or the pocket is exhausted. Years often pass during which a mine lies unworked. Then, as has often occurred, a new owner buys or leases the claim and reactivates the workings. Most turquoise mining operations are very small, some as small as one family. The mining sites, of course, are very isolated, and living and working conditions are primitive and sometimes dangerous. One advantage modern miners have over previous miners, who worked with hand tools, is a gas generator. To this the miner hooks up a saw with a diamond cutting blade and a machine with a grinding wheel. Using water to cool the cutting blade, the miner cuts away chunks of host stone to get to the turquoise vein. Refined extraction and shaping of the turquoise is done with the grinding wheel. Final shaping is done and some of the the pieces are backed by epoxy to form a cabochon, a cut and polished stone ready for setting. The epoxy backing helps to protect the stone against chipping and breaking when it is set in silver jewelry and worn. This is all very labor intensive and time consuming. Initiating a larger-scale mining operation for turquoise today requires an immense amount of commitment, equipment and money running into the millions of dollars. Due to environmental regulations, bonds are required to be put up that will guarantee that the surrounding area will be returned to its natural state when the mining operation is finished. It can become so complicated and costly (with no guarantee of return) that few people are mining for turquoise on a large scale today.
The small Ajax mine, located in south central Nevada in the Royston area, is one of the relatively new turquoise mines. The mine yields stones from light blue with darker blue veins to a predominate dark green with light blue areas. This latter coloration is considered quite unusual for turquoise. The Bisbee mine, near Bisbee, Arizona, is one of the more famous of the American mines because Bisbee turquoise was one of the first put onto the market. The turquoise mine is part of the Bisbee copper mine, the main operation of the site. Bisbee turquoise has developed a reputation as a hard, finely webbed, high blue stone. Most of this turquoise has already been mined, and it is one of the most highly collectible stones. Read and see more about Bisbee...
The Blue Diamond Mine, south of Austin, Nevada produces a very hard light to deep blue turquoise, with an attractive swirl or mottled pattern of light and dark blues. It has brown to black matrix resembling a stormy pattern not unlike light and dark clouds being blown around in a blue sky. The mine is located at a high altitude and cannot be mined in the winter months due to the extreme cold and snow. Carico Lake turquoise is named after the location of its mine on a dried up lake bed in a high, cool area of Lander County, Nevada. Its clear, iridescent, spring green color is due to its zinc content and is highly unique and collectible. Carico Lake turquoise is also found in a dark blue-green color with a black, spider web matrix. The Carico Lake mine is primarily a gold producing mine. However, from time to time, the mining company leases the turquoise producing part of the mine to individual miners who are permitted to work that part. The limited amount of Carico Lake turquoise and the limited amount of time allowed to mine it combine to make Carico Lake turquoise a valuable addition to one's collection. Cerrillos is not only an uncommon and unique form of native New Mexican turquoise, but has a history entwined with both ancient Native peoples of the Southwest and more recent American mining companies. Cerrillos turquoise was created and mined under unusual circumstances. It is the only turquoise that formed at the base of a volcano. Thus, a variety of colors developed from the minerals in the various volcanic host stones. In fact, seventy-five colors have been identified, from tan to khaki-green to rich, blue-green to bright and light colors. Cerrillos is a very hard stone and so takes a brilliant polish. In addition to producing a distinctive stone, the Cerrillos mine is the oldest mine of any kind in North America. Located ten miles south of Santa Fe, it was the site of the largest prehistoric mining activity on the continent because the huge turquoise deposit was partially exposed at the surface. Miners from the San Marcos Pueblo, who later moved to Santo Domingo Pueblo south of Santa Fe, most heavily worked the mine. Using only stone axes, mauls, antler picks, and chisels, Pueblo miners removed 100,000 tons of solid rock to create a pit mine 200 feet deep. They dug other vertical shafts into the ground to reach veins of turquoise. Miners carried tools and leather rock buckets on their backs as they climbed in and out of the shafts using notched logs as ladders. The turquoise obtained from this hard work traded among early peoples from Mexico to the Midwest and from the east to west coasts. In New Mexico, many pieces of Cerrillos turquoise for personal and trade use have been unearthed in the prehistoric ruins of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. The Pueblo peoples continued to extract turquoise from the Cerrillos mine until the 1870's when a silver mining boom raised interest in the area. The Tiffany Company in New York and its associates bought up the mine area and extracted $2,000,000 worth of turquoise between 1892 and 1899.
The damele mine is located thirty miles from Austin, Nevada. Damele turquoise is distinctive because it is one of the few turquoises that is truly yellow-green, either from iron or environmental conditions, but without zinc. The matrix of damele is webbed with a dark brown to black matrix. its availability is limited because the mine is small. Due to its rare color and quality, damele is a collectible turquoise.
The Dry Creek mine, which has also been known as the Godber and Burnham mine is a creamy pastel-blue and blue-white turquoise, very hard, gemmy and available only in very small quantities. The unusual whitish-blue turquoise is very hard, the color due to a preponderance of aluminum rather than copper in the stone's chemistry. (They also find a white stone at this deposite that is mistaken as 'white turquoise.' This is actually Aluminite.) The matrix in Dry Creek Turquoise is typically light golden or brown-gray to gray-black. This turquoise is beautiful alone in a piece of jewelry and is especially striking when juxtaposed with other colors of turquoise in a single creation.
Kingman Turquoise comes as a by-product from a large open-pit copper mine in the Mineral Park Mining District, northwest of Kingman, Arizona. It was mined first by Indians many years before the Europeans came to America and later by a number of individuals and companies. New franchised miners and dealers sell the turquoise commercially. Although there are quantities of fine deep blue turquoise available, a large percentage of that mined in being treated or stabilized. The colors run from light blue to very dark blue with some tints of green. The matrix is from light brown to black and frequently flecked with pyrite. In the past, some of the medium to good quality stones changed color sometime after being cut. It seems that the good quality being produced now is fairly color stable.
The Lone Mountain turquoise mine near Tonopah, Nevada was one of the leading producers of fine turquoise in Nevada. It was discovered by Lee Hand in 1920 and filed under the name of Blue Jay Mining Lode. At first it was called the Blue Jay Mine on Lone Mountain and later just Lone Mountain. It is presently closed. As with most mines it was at first a tunnel and shaft project but when Menless Winfield bought the mine it was made an open pit operation. The turquoise from this mine is mostly good to high-grade and usually in the form of nuggets although there is a quantity of vein material. A very interesting occurrence of turquoise found here is a condition where the turquoise was deposited in cavities or molds left when parts of fossil plants were dissolved out of a harder rock. The turquoise is graded into golden matrix, black matrix and spider web. At present, most of it is cut and polished or the nuggets drilled and polished at the mine and very little rough is sold. Very collectible turquoise.
Morenci Turquoise is mined in southeastern Arizona. It is high to light blue in color. Morenci has an unusual matrix of irregular black pyrite that, when polished, often looks like silver. Morenci turquoise is well known because it was one of the first American turquoises to come on the market. It is very difficult to obtain now because the mine is depleted. It is a collectible turquoise.
The Number 8 Turquoise mine in Eureka county, north of Carlin, Nevada, was discovered in 1925 and first mined in 1929. At present, the mine is closed and considered depleted. The mine produced some of the largest nuggets of turquoise ever discovered. Almost all the turquoise produced is of the spiderweb-type, with the matrix varying from golden brown to black. The colors grade from very light blue to very dark blue, some with interesting hints of green. Very collectible turquoise.
Orvil Jack discovered and developed the mine in the northern Nevada known as Crescent Valley that bears his name. This mine is actually two mines: when the blue turquoise is mined, it is called the "Blue Ridge Turquoise Mine." When the yellow-green 'faustite' is mined, it is referred to as "Orvil Jack Turquoise." The rare yellow-green color of the turquoise comes from the zinc content. Mr. Jack is now deceased, but his daughter Grace Jack Wintle continues to manage and work the mine. Only a small amount is now being produced, and the turquoise is considered very collectible due to its rare color and scarcity.
The Pilot Mountain mine is located in northern Nevada. It is still producing and is worked by one family. The stone is highly admires for its deep blue-green colors. In addition, it can show light blue to dark green colors on the same stone. This graduation in color is unusual and makes the turquoise very collectible. The matrix is black to golden brown. Pilot Mountain is a hard stone and takes a good polish.
Royston is a district in Nevada consisting of three turquoise mines: Bunker Hill, Oscar Wehrend, and the main producer, Royal Blue. Royston is known for its beautiful colors ranging from deep green to rich, light blues set off by a heavy brown matrix. The Royston mine is not producing anymore and is a very collectible turquoise.
Why is natural American turquoise a good and enjoyable investment?
A main general rule in evaluating the price of a turquoise jewelry piece (or specimen) is to establish the excellence of color and 'Zat': that hard-to-describe heavenly quality that reveals the Life in the Stone. Next is the shape and setting. The size of a single piece, or the total weight of the related pieces, increases not only the price but also the value of the aggregate. Finished turquoise gem stones are bought and sold in the trade by the carat - a unit of weight equal to 5 carats per gram. Price per carat of workable stones can run from thiry cents per carat to as well over a hundred dollars per carat for extra fine specimen pieces. Turquoise and silver jewelry is a pleasure to wear and enjoy and most pieces just get better with the years. We're happy to be able to share our enthusiasm for the sky stone with you and hope you find the same enjoyment with it as we do. Your appreciation for your turquoise will only increase as it becomes 'yours' and takes on your spirit and energy. As your love for your turquoise grows, we hope you will find that you will choose to wear it for yourself first, and last for how it looks to others.
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