I came across these as a set of earrings that were heavily glued in the back (turned green and bubbly with an even but not dark patina on the silverish unmarked metal). Took them to the jewelry class I am taking to pry them off and it is whitened under the glue. They didnt scratch when I was using the xacto knife to get them off and are as weighty as a real cab set. Next to them is my authenticated sleeping beauty bolo.
Funny enough, if they were Howlite or Magnesite they would have scratched easily.
IMHO it still could be turquoise. Possibly stabilized lower grade Kingman (sorry @Ziacat) white the white underside or possibly dyed howlite but looks more like turquoise to me. Kingman is attractive and fairly inexpensive and may have been used. Looks similar to the recent Kingman I’ve seen. Others should chime in with much more experience.
To add to this, I did an acetone test last night with the 100% acetone canister I had on hand to test the back. There was no blue coming off but it did clean the glue residue off hehe.
I’ve been doing similar stuff lately with the ‘bad’ turquoise that i’ve found. To practice and because i find it interesting. Sometimes only the outer ‘shell’ of the turquoise seems to be treated. In a couple of cases i was able to polish the dyed layer away and then there seems to be ‘normal’ turquoise underneath.
For example:
Other stones were completely infused with disgusting smelling dyes, smelling like chemical bubblegum.
Also sometimes dyed stones wouldn’t react to acetone at all. Perhaps those were dyed with some kind of acrylic base dye.
That is super interesting! I just find it fascinating how some fakes are like extreme plastic and some are less noticeable or more complicated like a glass piece or dyed alternative stone. Still going to make something out of them since they look fun.
