Hello this is Alan at Chaco Canyon Trading here in Milan, New Mexico. I will be blogging a bit about Native American Jewelry, the Trading Business, Turquoise and other things surrounding this wonderful occupation. To kick things off I thought I would like to talk some about Turquoise itself, the thing that this whole craft is built upon.
Turquoise is one of the first stones used in Jewelry, it is mentioned in ancient books such as the Bible, and Koran, found in tombs from South America to the Middle East to Tibet. This is truly a magical mineral that transcends culture, race and religion while still being tied to all those things. Before going to far lets look at the science side.
Turquoise is a blue/green mineral, measuring between 5 and 6 on the MOH’s hardness scale. The mineral is mostly made of aluminum and copper. The coloration of the mineral comes from copper and iron in the surrounding ore where turquoise is found. Most turquoise is not usable in its natural form, which has led to many ways of enhancing the stone to make it usable. The prized turquoise in our business is the stone that is able to be cut and polished without enhancement. Centuries back turquoise was much more common and was often found cut into bead necklaces or set into gold as either pendants or rings.
Since the 1950’s Turquoise has become very popular in American culture, born from Native American jewelry found in the Southwest. Many people from outside the Southwest started buying Native American silver and turquoise jewelry from roadside stands, wearing this jewelry back home started a national interest. Because of the growing popularity of turquoise the stone began to be enhanced to increase its usability. So I’ll hit the highlights of what kinds of turquoise are out there in jewelry.
Natural Turquoise: This is simply the turquoise that is usable just the way it is. Sometimes gem quality turquoise was coated in wax to simultaneously increase and protect its luster.
Stabilized Turquoise: This is turquoise that is often found closer to the surface and it too soft and chalky to use the way it is. The stone is treated with with an epoxy and resin mixture to increase its hardness making it easy to cut and use. You will find stabilized turquoise most often in beads.
Enhanced Turquoise: This process is under copy-write held by R.H & Company. It is a company secret but the basics are this, stone is submerged in water, which then has an electric current run through it. This process darkens the color of the stone. This process is done to stone that is strong enough to cut and polish but has a pale color.
Reconstituted Turquoise: This is the plywood of the turquoise industry, the flakes and chips from cutting are compressed into blocks and stabilized. Often times this is found in jewelry made with base metals. Reconstituted turquoise is also seen in bathroom and kitchen tiles and other similar applications.
Imitation Turquoise: There are many things used to imitate turquoise over the years. The famous imitation in the past was due to the Harvey House jewelry which was base metals set with melted down Downey bottles. Plastic is usually very easy to tell apart from actual turquoise, but recently “Block” has hit the scene, which is stone dust mixed with turquoise colored plastic. Another imitation is Magnasite, which is a white chalky stone which takes dyes very well, being a mineral makes it look and feel right if the color takes well. Telling the difference between turquoise and magnasite is not too hard for those who spend a lot of time around turquoise, but for those outside the Southwest or this business it can be quite hard.
Well thats a lot of information about turquoise, but no matter where it comes from, what process its gone through the fact is turquoise is a multi-cultural gem, a prized stone for its beauty, healing abilities and spiritual virtues. I hope you all enjoy this blog.
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