Posts Tagged ‘turquoise magnesite’

July’s featured birthstone: Turquoise

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Because July’s birthstones are a motley crew (see the end of this post), I’m picking out just one of them to feature, since there’s so much to know about turquoise!

July's featured birthstone: turquoise

July's featured birthstone: turquoise

Turquoise is the modern, more often seen replacement for the traditional July “Foundation stone”, sardonyx.  I’d like to start out by showing you some of the affordable genuine turquoise beads that are available.  (I’ll try to show similar-sized beads to make comparison easier.)

  • For the highest-quality birthstone jewelry, use AA-grade turquoise (natural turquoise) like these delicate 2mm rounds:aa_grade_turquoise_21-882-502
  • Also excelling in their class are A- to B-grade turquoise (stabilized turquoise) beads such as these nice Kingman heishi:
    a_to_b_grade_turquoise_20-470-04
  • Good Mexican turquoise is also sometimes available.  It’s often in nugget forms, like these extra-small beads:mexican_turquoise_20-421-02
  • Another variety of genuine turquoise, which is available reasonable prices, is stabilized Chinese turquoise.  To illustrate this type, let’s look at some 2-3mm rounds:
    chinese_turquoise_20-410-2


    For even greater economy, and a wider color range to work with, try some other stones that are called turquoise.

  • There’s African turquoise (actually a kind of jasper!), like these 3×5mm tubes:
    african_turquoise_21-613-125
  • Yellow turquoise (more likely a jasper or serpentine) is a pleasingly-colored stone often imported from China, like these 4mm rounds: yellow_turquoise_21-884-064
  • Block turquoise is manmade from plastic resins and dyes.  So it’s often one of the more affordable varieties, like these low-priced 2mm rounds: block_turquoise_21-882-202
  • You might also be interested in our economically-priced “turquoise” magnesite.  It’s a thrifty alternative and still looks pretty, like these 4mm rounds:
    turquoise_magnesite_21-884-700

    • Finally, consider some other stones in the turquoise family (which you can read about in our Gemstone Beads Index).  There’s apple-green turquoise and lime turquoise, for example.  You can often find specially purchased, special-priced strands of these and similar stones at Rings & Things’ BeadTour bead shows…another great reason to attend when we’re in your town!

    Other July birthstones run the gamut: ruby (also Summer’s birthstone), synthetic corundum, emerald (for Cancer), onyx (for Leo), and topaz (St. Matthew’s stone).Thanks once again to Bruce G. Knuths’ “Jeweler’s Resource” book for all of this information!

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    For that turquoise look: Turquoise Magnesite

    Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

    Now you can afford to make jewelry with that coveted turquoise look!

    You’re probably aware that gemstones are a non-renewable resource (we’ll take up that idea later this week).  Turquoise is one of the most desired gemstones, so it’s been getting “mined out” over the last several years — leading to steep price increases.

    What’s a blue-and-green-loving designer to do?  Substitute Turquoise Magnesite beads, now in 32 new styles at Rings & Things!

    As always, we work to label our gemstone beads as honestly and clearly as possible.  (We’ve gone so far as to create a very popular Gemstone Beads Index that gives as much background information as possible on these stones.)  So let us stress that these beads are made, not of turquoise, but of magnesite enhanced with dyes in the appropriate colors. With their surface “crazing” of black or brown lines, Turquoise Magnesite beads often resemble the real thing so closely that it takes an expert to tell which is which.

    Our new Turquoise Magnesite beads include classic turquoise shapes.  There are cushiony-looking puffed ovals:

    Puffed oval Turquoise Magnesite beads

    Puffed oval Turquoise Magnesite beads

    And glittering faceted rounds:

    Faceted round beads of Turquoise Magnesite from Rings & Things

    Faceted round beads of Turquoise Magnesite

    As well as wheel-like rondelles:

    Rondelle beads of Turquoise Magnesite

    Rondelle beads of Turquoise Magnesite

    And smooth oval nuggets:

    Smooth oval nugget beads of Turquoise Magnesite

    Smooth oval nugget beads of Turquoise Magnesite

    These are just a sampling.  Grab a cup of tea and look through all of the Turquoise Magnesite beads in our online store!

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