Hello to all and thank you for allowing me to join. I’m a December birthday girl, as was my great aunt. She was an extensive traveler and loved buying turquoise when she went to various places both within the US and often abroad (she was so much fun). Towards the end of her 93 years, she wore one particular strand of turquoise beads often and she left them to me. I was a young new mother when she died 30 years ago and I didn’t pay any attention to this necklace. The silk was broken and I simply put it in the back of a drawer. I rediscovered it recently. I do not know where she bought it nor any details. It is natural and untreated, pretty bright blue with black matrix. The clasp is 14 k but has no hallmark. Could any of you help me with details or suggest where I should turn? Many thanks, Lucia
Hi Lucia. Welcome to the forum. These are faux turquoise beads (glass or plastic, hard to tell from the photos). Lovely nonetheless.
Welcome to the forums Lucia 
Hi, and thank you for responding. Will you tell me what your eye saw that caused you to say they were faux? I’m simply trying to learn. I always feel the more information I gather on any particular topic, the more I might see a big picture.
I looked at a few YouTube videos about home testing. I did the acetone test first, soaking a bead in acetone and then rubbing an acetone soaked cotton swab on the bead. No color rubbed off of the bead nor did the acetone change the color of the bead. Then I did the resin test, I think that’s what it was called. I heated a sewing needle in a lighter and tried to penetrate the bead to no avail. Today I ran it by a jeweler I know to have the necklace restrung. He picked it up and played with it for a minute and thought it was real but he did not test it. So I’d love to learn what you saw.
Again, thank you for your time.
I am not an expert at all (@mmrogers is), but right away to me it looked not right to be real turquoise. The perfectly round beads, the matrix, and it looks a little translucentish (I know that’s not a word 
). The matrix looks too thready, and generally real turquoise is not carved that perfectly smooth and round. At least from what I’ve seen. This also looks strange to me…
Doesn’t mean it’s not a nice necklace, but I agree with @mmrogers; I don’t think it’s turquoise. And if they are glass beads, I wouldn’t think the tests that you do to see if turquoise is block would result in any color change.
It’s easy to see, if you’ve looked at a lot of turquoise, that these beads simply don’t look like turquoise. The black squiggly lines aren’t true to nature, that is, they’re unlike what you see as matrix in turquoise the gemstone. They are instead very characteristic of manmade faux materials and glass. If they’re very cool or cold to the touch, they may well be glass.
The hand-knotting between the beads is typical of Chinese imitation-turquoise bead necklaces, but perhaps used in other countries of origin too.
Fascinating. Thank you for helping me learn!
Poetic license! Translucentish makes sense to me!
My Asian bead knowledge is a bit limited @Lucia , but your beads look like mid-century to a little later People’s Republic of China or more likely Japan made. @Steve found a great selection of beads being offered now. Yours look like possible earlier renditions as they don’t seem as “perfect”, an indication to me that a human hand may have had a “hand” in the process (pun intended). The black lines may even have been hand painted on back then. A 14k gold clasp and hand knotting are typically done on better quality goods. Definitely collectable and attractive. Worth more investigation. You should also look closer at the clasp since almost all karat gold is hallmarked.
Apologies for my late reply but I still want to thank you for your help, your time and the specific links you sent me. Most appreciated!
Knock knock. At the risk of bothering you, though I hope I am not, I was writing with an update on a necklace I asked about in November of ‘23. You were very gracious and knowledgeable and helpful. It was an old strand of “turquoise” beads on a 14k clasp that had been my great aunt’s. Said great aunt died 35 years ago so I couldn’t ask her if the necklace was special to her or special in any way. You and others told me it was not turquoise because the matrix was not legit (you used much better terminology!). I took it in to a couple of local jewelers who do appraisals and got one answer of “yes, it’s turquoise,” though he did nothing but hold it and one answer of, “it’s not turquoise but it’s a good fake. Not howlite. I wouldn’t know without doing a full appraisal and if I’m right and it’s fake then it wouldn’t be worth your while to pay me to appraise it.” I went home and smashed a bead; I couldn’t stand it anymore! I was left just as confused. I soaked the smashed bead in nail polish overnight. No stains. The inside is rough to the touch. There is no white substance inside the smashed bead. I stuffed it all in a bag and forgot about it for a year and a half but I just ran across it again. Would you have any ideas what this might be? Thanks much for considering. Sincerely, Lucia
Hi again,
Opinion here isn’t going to change on the basis of the color permeating the whole bead; evidently you had in mind that faux has a white core. But block turquoise (a synthetic) is fabricated to have color throughout: think of it as commercial “batter,” with the color thoroughly mixed.
Your beads may have finely ground turquoise powder as a component, or not–but they are not turquoise the gemstone from a mine but are composited, manmade materials. Maybe this info about block will make it clearer:
It always mystified me as to why 14k gold fittings would be used with imitation or costume stones, but it is employed sometimes. These look to me like block material. The absolutely uniform color throughout and that the beads are all the exact same color, smooth, etc…these weren’t found in nature. Plus the black veining looks swirled in the mix when the block material was mixed.
A good quality piece of what I’d call costume jewelry.