Turquoise

Luck, love, protection and healing. Known as a symbol of wealth in many ancient cultures. Protects from negative energy. Turquoise carries wisdom of basic truth within it. Helps in creative problem solving. It’s one of the oldest stones known.

Birthstone: December
Zodiac: Aquarius, Taurus and Sagittarius.

I use Turquoise in my jewelry designs due to it's popularity. Turquoise has been in style for hundreds of years, it's always been popular and continues to be so. I believe this semi precious stone will never go out of style.

DISCLOSURE: I do my best to disclose what I know about the turquoise I use in the jewelry I make. Less than 10% (more like 3%) of the turquoise mined today is gemstone quality. Natural turquoise is a soft stone and eventually will take on a darker color over time from the oils in your skin and the environment. Natural turquoise is hard to come by these days, and is very expensive.

The various colors found in turquoise are the result of the presence of either copper or iron; vivid blue is from copper, and the softer green colors are from iron. Turquoise stones can also have patterns of brown, yellow ochre, brown and black matrix, produced from copper compounds.

Because turquoise is a soft stone most turquoise today is "stabilized" to set its color, and make it strong enough to be used in jewelry components. Stabilization is a process of injecting resin type substance into the stone, fill voids, and to enhance its hardness and maintain its shine. Stabilized turquoise is the norm today when it comes to turquoise. Most high quality stabilized turquoise retains its natural state however its been "stabilized" to provide strength to its composition. Most all turquoise on the market today has been stabilized one way or another. You can find natural turquoise which hasn't been stabilized but, mostly in nugget form. I have natural turquoise which I've broken into pieces with my hands, thats how soft natural turquoise is.

Ground natural turquoise is now mixed with a variety of other natural stones such as serpentine, jasper and quartz to produce a variation of colors, especially yellow turquoise. Because the aforementioned stones are found in and near turquoise minds, some which highy resemble turquoise, they have now been named as turquoise; because the stone may have a percentage of turquoise compound in it. Natural turquoise is also stabilized and enhanced to produce such colors as purple, yellow, pink, red and composition colors; which is several colors compressed together to create a rainbow of colors in a single stone.

Chalk turquoise is stabilized turquoise which has been injected with a color enhancer. This form of natural turquoise has a white chalk-like consistency and has the same chemical composition as natural turquoise with one exception, it doesn't contain copper, which is the element that causes the blue color of natural blue turquoise .

Magnesite resembles turquoise and has most of the natural and chemical compounds of turquoise thus magnesite is stabilized, enhanced, and sold as turquoise.