While attempting to reorganize some jewelry I decided to wear this clear blue pendant (Mike Platero), and decided I really like it! Typically I’m attracted to matrix, especially spiderweb, but I got to wondering about this cab…Persian, Sleeping Beauty, or ???
And just for comparison, this is a large Sleeping Beauty cab I purchased 15+ years ago from the Sleeping Beauty Turquoise shop in Globe AZ. Same tone, but ???
@Bmpdvm That’s a beautiful pendant! I like everything about it including the handmade chain. Wellllll, IMHO, this a wonderful piece of Kingman turquoise. (I have no idea if Mr. Platero uses Kingman turquoise in his jewelry or if he mostly uses more “higher-end” turquoise. You would know that more than I.) Hopefully, others will chime in.
Good thought @Patina, one always must consider the great impersonator!!! I’ve not see Kingman without some degree of matrix, but…certainly could be! Close up the cab has a diffuse milky infiltrate (that’s a medical term, but don’t know what else to call it🥴). Now, I’ll spend some time looking at the variety of Kingman out there. Thanks for weighing in😄
@Bmpdvm FWIW, it’s actually the diffuse milky infiltrate (I looked that up) that led me to Kingman and away from either Sleeping Beauty or Persian turquoise. Of course, this is just my opinion. But, now, my curiosity is piqued about this turquoise!
Ya Know, after looking around on my trusted turquoise sites, I’m coming around to think Kingman also. It’s not common, but Ive seen a bit of it with “diffuse white infiltrates!”
This short video about Kingman (along with turquoise Mountain and Ithica Peak) by Dillon Hartman at Durango Silver Co. is very informative. Thanks @Patina!
@Bmpdvm Thank you for posting this enjoyable & very informative video! He even mentioned “Ceremonial Kingman” which has been discussed on the forum. Soooo much gorgeous turquoise! I’m familiar with Durango Silver Co. but not aware that they produce YouTube vids. YouTube here I come.
I will try to take photos when I get home.
This reminds me of the Thunder Creek Turquoise I recently made earrings from.
I love that video, especially the bit where he gets a little excited and goes This_is_Kingman!
I know! Dillon shows gorgeous Ceremonial Kingman (as you said, previously discussed here), but does not explain what actually defines Ceremonial Kingman!
By the way, regarding the whitish infiltrates, I found this on a rock hound site regarding Kingman:
“White matrix is commonly found within the turquoise, but also black and reddish-brown, as well…”
So I’m as sure as I can be, without documentation, my pendant is Kingman😉. Now I’m on a quest to find out more about Ceremonial Turquoise.
I’m also very intrigued with Ceremonial Kingman. What i think so far is that it might have something to do with it being polychrome.
The Kingman area in general seems to harbour some interesting, lesser known types of turquoise, e.g. Kaolin Blue and Phoenix Rising. Very little info available on these as well (Phoenix Rising seems to be a more recent mine).
So, all I’ve found is that Kingman Ceremonial is the name given to certain Kingman turquoise because of the way it looks. Blues and greens with waves of black and or brown matrix running through it. Or as @Bluegreen put it, polychrome! Just wondering if it is mined in specific areas in the Kingman district, or it’s a random occurrence
It’s amazing the different kinds of turquoise in jewelry sold online…Purple and Blue Mojave? Campitos Turquoise(Mexico); at least I’ve heard of this one! Amaroo Station Turquoise (Australia)? Bluejoy? Baby blue Baja? And then my favorite…Howlite turquoise; that’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one🤣
The purple Mojave is man made. I was given a small slab of it.
Beautiful blue pendant.
I thought I’d heard that, but interesting online they state:
“Purple Mojave Turquoise is a kind of Turquoise that may be found in the Mojave Desert in southeast California and northwest Arizona in the United States”.
Then they go on to say:
“Natural Turquoise is mixed with a matrix made of bronze metal during the stabilization process, which produces Purple Mojave Turquoise”.
And:
The stone is crafted from genuine turquoise clusters or nuggets mined and processed at the Kingman Turquoise Mine in Kingman, Arizona.
So it’s reconstituted Kingman!!#!
Interesting. Now I need to find my slab and look at it closer.
My friend got it while working for a mining company in AZ.
@Bmpdvm Just to throw a wrench into the works…I have this piece of almost clear Blue Gem from the Lowery’s gift shop at the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque! It’s a much more uniform color than the picture shows, I think it’s the rooms lighting. It may be a shade or two lighter but it has those same diffused milky infiltrates! In addition to some spots that are not so diffused.
Very informative, thank you for the link; I enjoy their videos. I have a ring with a natural stone that (after watching this) I imagine might be described as “ceremonial.” Although I’m thinking it could just be a descriptive term for a certain look of Kingman. The Kewa artist said mine was natural, but couldn’t remember where it came from.
And those black web Kingman stones…wow!
Well @Ziacat is going to love this, so you can probably guess where my opinion is going. Long ago I was given a 400 carat stone by my then trading company employers to fashion a bracelet around. That stone, like this one, was nearly clear. I say ‘nearly’ because I see some tiny flecks of matrix in the center and around the margins of this stone. In any case the characteristic cloudy areas of lighter and darker blue look exactly like that magnificent Kingman stone I worked with to make that bracelet. I’m going to say this is very likely Kingman.
Funny that you mention this. Yesterday, after reading this topic and checking out some Cermonial Kingman photos, i saw a ring of yours in an older topic and thought that it looked a lot like Ceremonial (:
(can’t remember the topic, but you showed 3 rings in that post and the one on the bottom had that look)
This is the one.
I bought it from a Kewa artist at one of the Eiteljorg Indian Art Markets years ago. The only thing he was completely sure about was that it was natural turquoise, and that he had never seen a stone quite like it. He said he bought a stone large enough to make two cabs out of, and he had sold the other one. He thought it was from NV, but he wasn’t sure.
