Hi TaraFawn, I’m gonna say that’s the real stuff. Here’s why…There are many imitations of turquoise out there. Most are dyed stones like howlite or magnesite. The man-made materials outside of straight up plastic are Pressed block and reconstituted turquoise. Pressed block is made of chunks of real turquoise mixed with a colored resin and pressed into blocks that can be cut into most anything its durable and very suitable for carving.
Reconstituted turquoise is made of finely ground turquoise powder that is mixed with a clear or colored resin and cast into a block or any shape desired. this generally shows no pattern, matrix or areas of nonuniform color. Picture of block included
Now for your piece. The beads do show some inclusions and small patches of matrix, a granular pattern so it is not reconstituted material. It also does not look like chunks of turquoise pressed together like block. My guess it that the artist/stone cutter wanted clear cut stone and took the time to cut his stones without matrix. Sometimes I cut my stones this way depending on the piece I am making. When looking for clear cuts I go to Sleeping beauty or Royston or I may choose Variscite ( what I call a sister of turquoise). Without actually handling your beads I would guess this is a clear cut piece of Royston or Variscite. Here are some pictures below. The first pic is block turquoise. Top slabs are Royston, Bottom slabs by the penny are sleeping beauty. Cabs are labeled.
Variscite—
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