Private Stock Jewelry.com ©         A Wearable Investment    ~The Luxury of Hand Crafting Each piece of jewelry is a personal statement of my art. I use sterling and fine silver, yellow or rose gold filled, and copper wire and it's all about color. You are welcome to ask any questions or make any comments to Private Stock Jewelry @ Gmail.com Thank you for stopping by! PrivateStockJewelery.com Necklaces Earrings Bracelets Rings Pins Portland Pearl Girl        Gallery Quality The turquoise is ancient, yet again and again it finds itself back in fashion. Its shining sky blue is one of the most popular trend colors in the world of jewelry and fashion In many cultures of the Old and New Worlds, this gemstone has been esteemed for thousands of years as a holy stone, a bringer of good fortune or a talisman. It really does have the right to be called a 'gemstone of the peoples'. The oldest evidence for this claim was found in Egypt, where grave furnishings with turquoise inlay were discovered, dating from approximately 3000 B.C.. In the ancient Persian kingdom, the sky-blue gemstones were earlier worn round the neck or wrist as protection against unnatural death. If they changed color, the wearer was thought to have reason to fear the approach of doom. Meanwhile, it has been discovered that the turquoise certainly can change color, but that this is not necessarily a sign of impending danger. The change can be caused by the light, or by a chemical reaction brought about by cosmetics, dust or the acidity of the skin. A good reason to buy only stabalized Turquoise, which doesn't change for any reason. Turquoise is a copper aluminium phosphate with a hardness of 6, i.e. considerably softer than quartz. In Nature, it occurs in the whole range of hues from sky blue to grey-green, and it is mostly found in places where there is a high concentration of copper in the soil. However, turquoise is only really turquoise in the very best quality; mostly, the colour is paler, or bluish-green or greenish. The blue colour is created by copper, the green by bivalent iron and a certain amount of chrome. Often, the material has veins or blotches running through it, which are brown, light grey or black depending on where it was found. These lively, more or less regular patterns are known as 'turquoise matrix'. The crystals are microscopically small and can hardly ever be recognised with the naked eye. As a rule, turquoise occurs as a fillung in veins or crevices, or in the form of nuggets. The most well known deposits are in the USA, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and China. The most beautiful turquoises, in a splendid light blue, come from deposits in the north of Iran. Turquoise is rarely faceted. Usually, it is cut into cabochons or beads, or into some more imaginative shape. Wax makes turquoise more resistant Being relatively soft, turquoises are sensitive. As the colour may pale when the stone has been worn for a long time, even high-quality recognizedstones today are treated with wax and subsequently hardened. This treatment makes the sensitive gemstone more resistant. In the trade, there are a large number of reasonably priced turquoises sealed with synthetic resin. They have a fresh color and good durability. And there is also such a thing as a 'reconstructed turquoise', which is made from pulverized turquoise. Because of their sensitivity, turquoises are almost always subjected to treatment of one kind or another, though this may take any of a number of different forms. For this reason, turquoises which have a good natural color and are simply hardened with colorless wax or synthetic resin have a much higher value than stones whose color has been 'improved'.   Necklaces ¦ Earrings ¦ Bracelets ¦ Rings ¦ Pins Retail Locations ¦ Component Information ¦ Contact Information ¦ Guarantee & Return ¦ Care and Cleaning ¦ Free Shipping & Handling ¦ Friends ¦ Blog Classes PSJ © 2002 - 2009 All Rights Reserved Worldwide. web sites work. net Member Sauvie Island Artisans