Journal
The idea of “natural” in the turquoise industry can be a little confusing. We often hear consumers and collectors ask if a piece of turquoise is real, if it is natural, or if it is imitation. What does that even mean? To start, I want to define some common terms. By definition, the term “natural” refers […]
Continue reading
Though turquoise is only a moderately hard mineral (5-6 on the Moh’s Scale), it is still not an easy mineral to cut. Why? Well, actually there are a couple of reasons. One is in fact the softness and the other has to do with its crystalline structure. Every mineral has a structure—which is the arrangement […]
Continue reading
Ancient Egyptian Turquoise: The Riches of Hathor’s Mines Thousands of years ago, ancient native Egyptians called the Monitu in the Sinai Peninsula plunged deep into echoing chasms searching for a flash of blue lightly speckled with matrix. The prized turquoise veins of the Serabit el-Khadim and Wadi Maghareh mines have yielded breathtaking stone specimens since […]
Continue reading
For countless cultures around the globe, turquoise has been a coveted stone for many years. It is one of the oldest gemstones used in the making of jewelry, adding a type of beauty that over time has developed associations to certain areas. Paired with silver, it is a stone that has come to be associated […]
Continue reading
Turquoise is a stone with a heritage that is as rich and deep as its hue. In some tribes, this stone is heralded as the sky stone. Others may refer to it as the stone of sky and water. This stone has been used by all of the Indigenous Native American tribes due to its […]
Continue reading