So excited to share.
My 1970’s to 1990’s Kingman cabochons and Hachita performs arrived yesterday.
They are more than I hoped for.
The Kingman depicts the many colors/patterns that came/come from this mine.
The Hachita is the classic, older variety, more blue than the photo shows.
Now, I really have to stop spending money on turquoise cabochons, preforms and rough.
I want to have some $ left to buy jewelry, lol.
Crazy how much variety! Some of them remind of what is in @Bluegreen’s necklace. Could it be Number 8?
Me too. I am beginning to really like the Kingman with black inclusions.
I was assured by the seller that the black was natural and not filler.
What a treasure, congrats on such an awesome find!
Did someone draw a few lines on one of the stones (a sketch for a carving perhaps) or is that a type of matrix?
That is the matrix I am falling in love with. Phil, who I purchased these from, has some old cabs with this black in them. Even though he is so honest and trustworthy, I had to examine them under high magnification.
Yes, that is part of the matrix.
I now have 4 of his vintage cabs with the black.
Wow, that is so cool! That one also catches my eye every time i look at the photos. I love how some of that matrix fades out, into a more ‘stormy’ way. Some of the others look just like the ocean photographed from above. Such incredible stones <3
I need help understanding how the black “matrix” crosses the natural greenish-brown matrix that is evident in the cab. Matrix is the remnants of host rock within which turquoise forms; so these black markings don’t make sense from that perspective.
I’d appreciate any of you geologist giving a perspective…Thanks😄
@Bmpdvm That was exactly my question, though I didn’t know how to phrase it. Hope to be illuminated!
Looks like sharpie to me. Maybe they were trying to darken some areas and did not clean the excess off
Btw, i now also have a stone with the ‘sharpie look’, the one pictured below on the left. It’s from an unknown US mine and when i look at it i often go, nah, this is a man made line with a blue marker. Yet when i look under magnification i always end up thinking that it is a natural occurrence. I’m intrigued by the colors as well.
It makes me think about this topic often too, so i thought i’d share it.
@Bluegreen That “sharpie” look in turquoise is an interesting topic to say the least. Here’s a turquoise ring I’ve had for many years. It has a very blue “sharpie” mark - the overall turquoise is lighter (than appears in the photo) so that mark stands out. It kinda bugs me, lol. I’m leaning toward it being natural, though.
That’s a pretty ring and i agree, i am getting bugged out regularly too by blue marks on turquoise. The pics i posted here before are also natural (i’m 99,99% sure about it anyway), but i also have a bunch of stones that have been enhanced, where the stabilization blobs are of a blue color instead of transparent. This dye creates an effect that i have seen in both natural and enhanced turquoise and i find it one of the hardest things to distinguish atm. Below are some exaggerated examples of the blue dyed stuff that i mean:
By the way, this must have been done fairly regularly back in the day, since i have found it in different stones from different sellers
Oh no, now I’m going to have to go look at all my stuff and see if I see any blue lines…
Some of these cabs look like fused composites of different stone fragments bonded together and filled before cutting into oval cabochon shapes. How was this material represented to you @fernwood ?
Something to bear in mind is that natural Turquoise is porous (some stones more than others), and something like permanent solvent based marker like a Sharpie can permeate the pores in the stone leaving permanent indelible marks, or coloring.
IMHO, I vote sharpie. Not only does nature not like a vacuum, it does not like straight lines either. One line is typical of a sharpie running out of ink where the middle is lighter.
Thank you for this helpful explanation. I’ve always removed my turquoise rings when washing my hands or applying hand lotion due to the stone’s porosity. But, I never connected-the-dots to something like a Sharpie permeating the pores and leaving a mark. I understand it now.
I hear what you’re saying @StevesTrail , and i started to have some doubts again, so i decided on a little test. I had recently read that sharpie apparently gets dissolved by acetone. Where i live sharpie markers are rarely seen, but what i did was take 2 other (brand) permanent markers and made little markings on the side of the stone. I let them dry for a bit and then i rubbed with an acetone soaked q-tip on the spots i made and also on the line that was already on the turquoise. The spots i made disappeared, while the original line remained intact, no matter how hard i rubbed it, leading me to believe that that line is indeed a natural occurrence.
Love the uniqueness of the Hachita. Old school looking : )
The truth is someone did draw a few lines on the above stone. This is permanent marker. I’m very sorry @fernwood, but in this case, I would lay odds that the stone is a composite of Turquoise fragments pressed together at high pressure and treated with an binary fixative resin to bond the mass together and fill the voids.
