Hi all, I’m looking for something to help me better identify the stones in my Southwestern jewelry. The turquoise chart that always pops up on Google images only gets me so far!
I see there are a lot of books on Amazon, all with rave reviews… But I’d much rather hear from the turquoise people.
I like the books by Joe Dan Lowry, including Turquoise Unearthed. It has a short summary of most of the classic southwestern mines and their history along with multiple examples. However, remember that no matter how educated you become on turquoise mines, turquoise identification is always a guess without provenance. The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
Yes I have those too. The other one with good turquoise pictures is Turquoise in American part 2. The pictures in this one were taken by Arland Ben and are beautiful. Then tend to be top of the line examples though.
You can see cabs online at Durango Silver and there’s a seller on Etsy that seems to know what they are talking about that sells turquoise cabochons.
There are also some great videos on YouTube.
Yes, yes to both @OrbitOrange and @Islandmomma. I have a number of small books that have helped me, and one is Turquoise Unearthed. I’ve been thinking about eventually purchasing some more, so I’ll have to check out Islandmomma’s choice (and see what others on here mention). I also often look at the Durango Silver website and watch YouTube vids. Sometimes I just Google a particular type of turquoise and look at what comes up. BUT I’m pretty picky when I do that as to which ones; I’m generally leery of many things on Etsy and even ebay. There are so many there that just guess or (IMO) are wrong. I like websites of legit shops (Perry Null, Garland’s, etc). I have a great book called Trading Post Guidebook by Patrick Eddington and Susan Makov which won’t help identify stones, but will tell you where are some great places to buy (and look), and has the websites of those stores.
I also completely agree with OrbitOrange in that even when you think you might know what turquoise from a particular mine should look like, then you find out it’s from somewhere else (here’s looking at you Kingman). So it ends up being an educated guess.
I would also add that, if you can, physically go to the source (the southwest or even some great museums). Seeing the stones in person makes a HUGE difference. I have learned SO much on this site, but realize that the time I’ve spent learning (often from wonderful trading posts owners) on my trips to AZ and NM gave me the base to have the feel for turquoise. But I totally know that’s not an option for all.
Have fun learning!!
Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation. I just snagged a copy on eBay for a few bucks. 
Thank you! This is all helpful info. I will check out Trading Post Guidebook.
Oh, awesome. I will check that one out. And thanks for the heads up on the Duango site! I like that they give examples of the stones in actual jewelry.
I need to get the latest addition; I hope it’s still in print. A few of my favorite trading posts that I found from that book have since closed. 
Despite my extensive library, I just don’t think print material does all that well in conveying color and type accurately. The quality of the original image, the type and gloss of the paper, plus the fact that pages can fade over time all contribute to inaccuracies. It’s been a longtime frustration.
Best of all is seeing material in person, repeatedly, from highly reputable sellers of stones or finished jewelry, and building familiarity with your own good pieces.
I agree totally. For me that’s why the Trading Post Guidebook was such a help. When I first started learning and looking in the early 90s, I wanted to find places that I knew would not only be honest in what they were selling, but also have history. The book is so good at breaking down the Southwest into geographical areas, and describing which Trading Posts/shops had quality work. Unfortunately, like I mentioned earlier, a number of the older wonderful shops/posts have closed. I imagine as the owners get older there’s no one to pass them on to. So sad.
I even wanted it with me last summer in Albuquerque, because I had heard so much from my nephew who is a government agent there and has worked on fake Native American jewelry cases, that I didn’t want to just shop in any store.