Roots of Turquoise Jewelry

Turquoise Jewelry is made with the unforgettable greenish-blue opaque turquoise stone. Turquoise is a hydrous phosphate compound of aluminum and copper its chemical formula is CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8•4H2O. The color and properties range slightly due to its formation processes, typically it is fairly fragile with hardness around that of glass.

This precious material has been admired by cultures around the world for thousands of years. It takes a role in many cultural traditions and ceremonies, it is also recognized as the birthstone for December. Turqoise was used as a ornamental material by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and European cultures. The Aztecs made adhesives to bond turquoise to materials and began to inlay the stone with gold, quartz, malachite, coral, and jade to make decorative weapons and jewelry. It is believed that these technologies traveled north and brought great wealth to the Anasazi, the ancestral Puebloan Native Americans around 1000 A.D. Today 1000 years later, descendent Native tribes of the southwest have mastered this craft and their turquoise jewelry can be seen around the world.

Turquoise Jewelry of the Southwest

A vast amount of the world’s turquoise originates in the southwestern United States. The dry climate, high elevation and other environmental factors make it an ideal location for turquoise formation. The quality of turquoise is measured by the hardness of the mineral, the harder it is the better it will shine. Harder turquoise is also very rare; the majority of turquoise mined in the world comes in the form of chalk. The chalk and other softer forms of turquoise must undergo physical or chemical treatments, usually with plastics and resins in order to be usable for jewelry making. As a rule of thumb for Native American turquoise the richer and darker the color of a sample of turquoise the higher quality and more expensive it will be.

Another key factor of southwestern turquoise jewelry is the matrix. The matrix is the part of the turquoise host rock that can bee seen in a stone between the turquoise vein formations. The base host rock material and distribution of the turquoise with in that material will affect the value turquoise in the jewelry. Turquoise is usually formed on types of igneous rocks and depending on the type of rock the stone can have a variety of different colors and patterns. Each turquoise mine has its own distinct turquoise fingerprint which can be used to differentiate the source and rarity of the materials used in the jewelry.

Jewelry Makers

Turquoise has found a special place in the hearts of the southwestern Native American tribes, evidence dates turquoise use as far back as the 6th century A.D. Over the years the stone has taken up many responsibilities; ranging from a form of currency to trade to key pieces in sacred healing rituals. It is not hard to imagine why these people put their most cherished stone in their jewelry.

When making jewelry a good craftsmen treats the turquoise with the upmost respect, cutting, shaping and polishing the stone is art in itself and done very vigilantly. The Navajo picked up silversmithing after a European influence in the late 1800s. This new found technology, also picked up by the Hopi, Zuni, and Apache Indians, allowed native tribes to make great strides in turquoise Jewel craft.

Today southwestern turquoise jewelry a highly prized part of the areas Native American culture. It is now world renowned and foreigners from distant lands are bewildered by its beauty. Higher end pieces can be found in art galleries and museums across the globe. It’s hard for anyone visiting the area to leave without purchasing a dazzling piece of turquoise jewelry as a souvenir.