Hi again! Can I get some experienced opinions on this please
Being sold as 100% natural, 5 - 6mm nuggets.
Does it look to be genuine and fully natural (not stabilised)?
Hi again! Can I get some experienced opinions on this please
Being sold as 100% natural, 5 - 6mm nuggets.
Does it look to be genuine and fully natural (not stabilised)?
Being stabilized doesn’t take away from the value from what i have read. I have a beautiful piece of Kingman that is old and unstabilized and its pretty soft.
I think it’s true that stabilizing turquoise doesn’t make that piece of turquoise less valuable—if it did no one would do it. Only a small percentage of turquoise is gem grade, which means it’s hard enough to stand up to being cut, set in jewelry, and worn without stabilization. The rest of the turquoise which comes out of the ground has to be stabilized first. But it is true that a piece of gem grade turquoise is more valuable and collectible than a piece of stabilized turquoise, which by definition is a lower grade.
Yes, it seems like stabilization gets a bad name from people who don’t completely understand why it’s done. Obviously if I had all the money I wanted to spend, I could search out high-grade gemstones in jewelry all the time. And to be honest, sometimes I see pieces with stabilized turquoise that I prefer over pieces with natural. Because I’m looking at the whole thing, not just the stone.
No one’s saying stabilisation is bad or it necessarily takes away from the value. I don’t want stabilised - it’s just that straightforward.
If I did want stabilised I would want to buy it being informed.
Sounds like you need to search out the owners of turquoise mines to make sure you are accurately getting what you want.
And, yeah, I do often hear people (not necessarily on this site) imply stabilized turquoise is bad.
Searching names of owners of turquoise mines to cross reference info from sellers, definitely sounds like a great thing to do - thank you!
Oh I do believe stabilised turquoise is “bad” in so much as I believe oiled emeralds and heated sapphires are “bad”; they’re bad for me because I wouldn’t want them. Other people are totally entitled to think what they like, and buy what they like.
Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy them though either (haha confused enough yet) but I wouldn’t be putting in the effort to search out something untreated then be happy with treated. If I wanted a quick, shiny and pretty, natural (but treated) gemstone jewellery as a pick me up - great, wouldn’t even ask about treatments.
But when I care about treatments, I definitely care.
Bluesky, do you make Jewelry? I was wondering since you prefer Turquoise that is not stabilized, do you use it in Jewelry? I assume you could but maybe not in rings?
Natural unstabilized turquoise can most certainly be used in rings. I have quite a few.