Posted 5 years ago
krysciobrad
(186 items)
Found these beads in the larger bead lot I bought back a week ago and just pulled these beauties out. Calling All Turquoise Experts! Name that turquoise! The five larger beads all seem to be different kinds of turquoise, I wonder what kind?
I brought them into a jeweler. The three larger ones might be Sonoran. The green ball and white colored ones were Howlite. I’m going to bring the three to a different gemstone expert and see what he says. Some gut feeling to be safe :)
I'm stickin with Mary here too. Especially the last one, it's a pretty bead but no way turquoise. Howlite is what gives off the black matrix and howlite is white and accepts the dye well. There are also different kinds of processes with turquoise that has been going on for years now. There's block turquoise, which has been crushed and compressed into a block, then cut... Stabilized, which is injected with resin to hold it together and so on. Turquoise is a very delicate stone, and that's why at times you may see some that have a fissure or "crack" across it, although it's stable inside of the setting but will most always tell you it's natural and those are the pieces I love and are actually hard to find because people think they are worthless. They aren't. A huge clue is the weight, if it's light in weight and inexpensive, it could be anything other than the real deal. It' s cold to the touch too, not as cold as Jadeite, but cold. AND the other thing about it is that it comes from all over the world. Your piece you have here that does have a fissure in it, seems to be intentional. People will do anything to sell what they have, unfortunately! But don't stop hunting. Your eye will become sharp and you will know when you see that special piece!!!