Don't get me wrong here—the sterling
work is where the real artistry comes in. But closer examination of
Native American works show that the stone was the inspiration for the
piece, and the sterling work is often designed around it. This is the
case when a stone 'speaks' to the artisan.
Certain mines produce stones that are
soft, yet stable, and are easily carved to fit into a particular
style of jewelry. Zuni Petit Point and Needle Point pieces are almost
exclusively done using Sleeping Beauty mine stones for this reason.
Their sky blue color and absence of matrix make for some pretty
amazing displays.
Many mines produced for a short period
and some rendered stones that are easily identified, but there are so
many mines that have been in operation for decades, the different turquoise veins that are tapped will often have stones of drastically
varying characteristics. This can make stone identification difficult
as one mine will produce stones very similar to another.
There are a few exceptions; turquoise
from the Lander Blue mine, the #8 mine, the Bisbee mine and a few
others, have an unmistakable matrix and color as the veins of the
mine continually produce turquoise of the same look and quality. The
desire for this type of stone is high, with Lander Blue being the
most expensive turquoise on the market due to the low production rate
of the mine and the unusual matrix and color of the stones. As you
might guess, we don't find a lot of Lander pieces, but when we do,
they sell very quickly.
Turquoise is such a wonderful and time
honored offering from the earth, its importance in Native American
works is highly significant, and when a piece is true to the stone,
it increases its value considerably. We see a lot of work and it's
always disappointing to see sterling work that was obviously done
with great care, only to have an inferior stone slapped into it. But
turquoise prices, especially for high-grade stones, have proven
prohibitive to artisan's that produce a lot of work. It's the pieces
that are done by artisans with little concern for mass production
that invariably incorporate quality stones. These are the pieces we
present on the website.
Stone selection is a major factor in
the pieces we offer, and turquoise that has been treated / stabilized
is shied away from—its color and matrix are no longer natural and
it gives the stones a plastic appearance. The stabilization process
became popular in the 1950s as a way to offer more stones to the
jewelry manufacturing industry—the process was used on inferior
grade materials that were prone to breaking, and its still being done
today, with the stones being incorporated into mass produced jewelry.
We do the best we can when identifying
natural turquoise stones, and will not give a definitive
identification unless we're certain of their origin, which is often
the case. There are just too many variations produced by a single
source to say with absolute certainty in some instances, and
misleading our buyers is simply not an option. The pieces we offer
incorporate superior stones, many being gem quality, from high-grade
sources. There's just no reason to do it any other way.
