I remembered I was given this some time ago by a relative and told it was turquoise. But… meh. I don’t really know. The stones do have a noticeable waxy luster, are greenish blue to greener to very light dirty chalk blue (I couldn’t take pictures that really render the actual color…), and one strongly smells of earth. The color is also consistent through and through, so not likely to have been dyed. The stones are porous, when I put a little saliva I can clearly see it being absorbed. I looked it up for potential candidates but I don’t know what to think about this. Is it low grade, chalky shitty turquoise, or is it another stone (or other stones) entirely?
Thank you!
Google Lens is vaguely pointing towards turquoise (Kingman) and maybe it is. Persian Kerman sometimes looks similar.
While this one doesn’t look like turquoise too me.
Not a pro myself.
Thanks! I looked it up with google lens too and it’s true it showed results for turquoise. But well, google lens also has limited reliability sometimes… the slab is, strangely, the one with the most “turquoise” color, albeit in a really light greyish blue. It has also a waxy shine.
This looks like natural Turquoise to me. The color isn’t great on the surface, and can vary from piece to piece. A couple of these look like parts of them might yield some decent looking cabs.This is actually a good example of the type of material used for treating (stabilization with color added).
Thanks! So if it is indeed turquoise, you mean those are unstabilized pieces? Because I understand when people say “natural” turquoise, they mean untreated and unstabilized, no? In the meanwhile I made a (crude) pendant with the small slab, and it didn’t crumble outright. The color is as you say, not great, but I like the end result, I made it after a piece I saw in a museum video.
Correct. The pieces shown don’t look stabilized or treated. Using the material ‘as is’, is a great idea. If you can find a marketing approach that captures peoples attention and interest, you’ll likely be able to sell your creations.
Oh okay thanks! Well I’m no jeweler or stone cutter, I just thought it was fun, but thanks for the suggestion!
Wanna show it to us? I’m curious.
And here is Kerman, for comparison:
Well thanks for the pictures! It looks obviously much better quality than what I have though, and it’s quite beautiful!
Well with pleasure, as I said, it is a crude pendant, and it is indeed. Nothing incredible. I only used a file for the big work, a piece of obsidian and a razor strap for finer polish, and a metal pointy thing used to carve chinese seal that I used to pierce the hole, along with the point of a jewel plier. I also dipped the finished pendant in molten be wax, as I understand it what is done sometimes . Here it is:
Quite thick.
Inspired by this, seen in a Youtube video from the Museum of Indian Arts en culture:
It’s beautiful. I would further cut and polish the piece. Look how well-known John Hartman is doing it:
Going through many prices, I feel typically (professional) cabs are about 5-10 times as expensive as rough turquoise, per ct. So a good polish will pay off. Surely you will lose some material during the process. That’s part of the job.
You don’t need professional equipment. My brother is using a simple Dremel and some grinding disks to work on much harder stones. Mount the Dremel and move the stone.
Thanks!
Love John Hartman videos. He explains everything so well.
Thanks, great video! Unfortunately I don’t have a Dremel either haha, when I live alone I’ll be able to think about it! I filed it more to give a more prononced bevel to the sides and edges, gave it a very basic polish and re dipped it in wax. For now I think I will leave it at that as with the tools I have and my very limited skill I won’t be able to achieve better than that. It’s more than enough to wear it though.
Thank you!
Just one more question, so it is plausible that the pieces be this big? Because generaly when I see natural turquoise it’s always very small chunks. Or are those pieces big because they are very low grade? I don’t kow if I make sense, sorry, English is not my native language.
Turquoise comes in all sizes. Smaller pieces are more common, but I don’t see anything unusual at all about the size of the pieces you have.
Oh okay! Well thanks!