Care And Treatment Of Your Turquoise Jewelry:
Don't store turquoise with harder gemstones that might rub against it and scratch it. Keep turquoise away from high heat and chemicals. Take it off when using household cleaners. Even stabilized turquoise can be affected by common household cleaners. Clean your turquoise in warm, sudsy water and dry it immediately with a soft cloth.

Turquoise is believed to be the master healer and protect against environmental pollutants, strengthen anatomy & guard against disease. From ancient times, turquoise is believed to insure happiness, dispel fear and protect against snake bite. In the American Southwest, the turquoise is believed to be from the sky, the color of heaven and has the power to bring rain and therefore, good harvests.

Most of the turquoise found in today's jewelry has been treated or enhanced in some way, and that's ok as long as you know it is treated and pay a reasonable price for it. If the artists and silversmiths had to rely on only high quality, natural stones, high prices would prohibit many of us from owning any turquoise at all.

Different Forms Of Turquoise

• Stabilized Turquoise
  An epoxy resin is infused into the pores of the stone. The stone will stay the same beautiful color and will not fade over time. Stabilization allows the artists to use turquoise that might otherwise not be suitable for jewelry
  
• Color Treated Turquoise
  Chemicals are used to enhance or change the color of the stone.
  
• Reconstituted or Block Turquoise
  Turquoise chips that have been mixed with resin then molded into shapes.
• Chalk Turquoise
  Chalk turquoise is a form of natural turquoise that has a white chalk-like consistency. It has the same chemical composition as turquoise, only without the copper (it's the copper that causes the turquoise color). The chalk is then dyed and stabilized to produce a material that's hard enough to use in jewelry with a pleasing turquoise color.
• African turquoise
  African Turquoise is actually a dyed jasper.

What is Natural Turquoise? Natural turquoise stones may have been cut and polished, but no artificial changes have been made. Color may change over time. Only high quality stones can be used in their natural state.

A Little Bit About The Turquoise:
Turquoise has been mined throughout the world. Besides the US, turquoise is mined in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, China, and India. Clear blue Persian turquoise is believed to be among the finest turquoise in the world. Mines in India and China produce green turquoise. The name turquoise is from the French and means "turkish stone".

Some of the mines in the American Southwest are:

• Ajax Turquoise Nevada
  Stones from light blue with darker blue veins to a predominate dark green with light blue areas
  
• Birdseye Turquoise Arizona
  This turquoise has areas of light blue circled with dark blue matrix, resembling the eye of a bird
  
• Bisbee Turquoise Bisbee, Arizona
  A hard, finely webbed, high blue stone. It is one of the most highly collectible stones
  
• Blue Gem Turquoise Nevada
  Intense blues to deep green combinations with a hard, irregularly distributed matrix
  
• Candelaria Turquoise Nevada mine
  Hard, attractive, turquoise. A good quality stone of high blue color with an intermittent black or brown, non-webbed matrix
  
• Carico Lake Turquoise Nevada
  A dark blue-green color with a black, spider web matrix
  
• Cerrillos Turquoise New Mexico
  Colors from tan to khaki-green to rich, blue-green to bright and light colors. Cerrillos is a very hard stone and so takes a brilliant polish
  
• Damele Turquoise Nevada
  Webbed with a dark brown to black matrix
  
• Dry Creek Turquoise Nevada
  Both a pale blue and a cream white turquoise. Very hard, the matrix is typically light golden or brown-gray to gray-black
  
• Enchantment Turquoise New Mexico
  A deep green color with tan or golden brown matrix, but can range to a deep, rich blue
  
• Lone Mountain Turquoise Nevada
  The color is from clear blue to spider-web
  
• Morenci Turquoise Arizona
  It is high to light blue in color with an unusual matrix of irregular black pyrite
  
• No. 8 Turquoise Nevada
  Bright powder blue with a spider web matrix of colors ranging from golden brown to black
  
• Orvil Jack Turquoise Nevada
  A yellow-green color
  
• Pilot Mountain Turquoise Nevada
  Deep blue-green, light blue to dark green colors. The matrix is black to golden brown. A hard stone and takes a good polish
  
• Royston Turquoise Nevada
  Colors range from deep green to rich, light blues set off by a heavy brown matrix. It is a soft turquoise
  
• Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Arizona
  A solid, light blue color with no matrix. A favorite of the Zuni Pueblo silversmiths for use in petit point, needlepoint, and inlay jewelry
  
• Turquoise Mountain Turquoise Arizona
  It is light to high blue, with both webbed and non-webbed matrix
  
• Tyrone Turquoise New Mexico
  It is medium brilliant blue in its high grade form