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SkyStoneTrading.com is owned and operated by Julia Audrey in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The online business was launched in 1998 in Ketchum, Idaho using Zuni fetishes and Native American jewelry left over when the brick-and-mortar store's going out of business sale.  After a quick six weeks on eBay, a trip to the Southwest was required, and after about eight trips back and forth between Idaho and New Mexico every two months, I moved to Santa Fe and have been here ever since.  While we started specializing in unique Zuni Fetishes carved from rare, high-grade materials, the business has been carrying mainly jewelry since 2005.  SkyStone is all about the 'sky stone' : natural, high-grade American turquoise from such pedigreed mines as Bisbee, Morenci, Cerrillos, Blue Gem, Carico Lake, Kingman and the list goes on...   Just about every piece on the site is one of a kind, hand-fabricated and of a high-quality that you can see but just as importantly, feel in person. 

My background is varied but has mainly involved some form of sales, and includes a science degree in Computer Information Sciences.   When not maintaining the website, taking photographs or dealing directly with the artists, I go on hikes or to the dog park with my two fur-babies, ski Taos in the winter after a fresh snowfall, get out and enjoy the live music scene and go dancing here in town, visit with friends, try to keep up with the endless pile of books that interests me and whenever possible, travel to a warm ocean beach since that's the one thing Santa Fe lacks. 

   

I live with Nikki, a pit-bull/labrador-looking mix, was adopted Sept. 2009, and is now one year old, and Dolly, who found me all the way from Colorado in Feb. of 2010. She is an adorable terrier-mix, approx. 3 years and a fun size of 30lbs. Last but not least, is "Tank".  We just got him in July of 2010, he's one and a half, 15 pounds of sweetness, snuggles and adorableness.  The pups were found on Petfinder.com and adopted from shelters - an amazing resource for matching people with their next best friend.

Turquoise can be enjoyed and appreciated on a number of levels. It is a stone of blessings, prosperity and healing. The more you know about it, the more interesting it is, and it can take a lifetime to learn all there is. Turquoise is a finite material, and mining today is an expensive, risky undertaking. At least 99% off all turquoise mined needs to be treated in some way to be useful. Only 3% of the turquoise you see on the market is American, the rest comes from China and Iran.