not fake, not painted. the dark material you see is a common backing material used to strengthen turquoise for setting, or to make a thinner cab thicker to stand up out of the bezel a little higher. totally legit.
Thank you, I appreciate your response.
Yep I totally agree with Jemez2. The black you see is probably Devcon plastic steel. It has been around for 50 years and I use it often in my lapidary work. It can add thickness and strength to thin stones. Ideally you should not see it after the stone is mounted. Kyle
i hadn’t thought of this earlier, but if you are seeing that much backing material under your stones, you might get the whole piece checked over to make sure none of them are loose in their bezels. If there is additional sawdust backing under the stones, it may have come loose over time.
Great question! Thank you for asking it. I have a bracelet with stones like that and now I know why.