There are many individual factors that affect price and there are few 'absolutes' in evaluating this type of jewelry. Our best advice is to look around, immerse yourself in what's available and at what price, notice how turquoise is being marketed. You'll be surprised at how much you learn in such a short time. We had a gentleman call and say that the jewelers are telling him to "go for the blue" but he says "all the blue turquoise he sees in NYC looks like plastic". What to do? All we can offer is go with what you like, and stay away from what you don't, no matter what people are saying while understanding that 99% of the people in the world have no idea turquoise comes in any other color than blue.

The fact that you can see inside the matrix crevice shows you the stone is natural, if it had been stabilized, that crevice would be smooth and filled in with a dyed plastic. The image on the right shows a piece of Sleeping Beauty from 1975 in the rough and finished. You can see how the matrix (including quartz and pyrite) is still present in the finished beads, and is looked upon as a positive part of each bead's character. Matrix that is light in color can turn darker brown with oils also and become more interesting over time (or just be leftover polishing creme in need of a good cleaning).

TURQUOISE IN BEADS: There is an old term used to refer to any bead made out of the United States and that term is "trade bead". Most of what you're seeing out there, like the nugget necklaces are actually "stabilized and manufactured Chinese turquoise trade beads strung in the Southwest style." They have value for what they are and many are very beautiful. The difference between Native American-made and trade beads will be reflected in the price.

STABILIZED VS. NATURAL TURQUOISE BEADS: There are pros and cons to both, most definitely there is a place for stabilized turquoise, for a number of reasons. The long-time heishe and rolled bead makers in the Southwest have come from the Santo Domingo Pueblo, a small pueblo south of Santa Fe. They have traded their neckware to other tribes for centuries. Almost 100% of the rolled beads from Santo Domingo today is made from stabilized turquoise due to the prohibitive cost of natural ($150-$1200/pound), the inability to even find good-quality natural and because the loss factor is less with stabilized. High-quality stabilized Kingman turquoise heishe can be beautiful and show matrix and character as well as be affordable (although the cost for the artists has risen from $90/lb to $130/lb in the last six months). Stabilized is preferred because it's less prone to chipping, breaking and the waste factor is reduced (still 80%+ of the original material is lost in beadmaking). Natural takes a long time to work, the stonecutter must be patient as it is hard and brittle and can chip, break, crack at any point in the laborious process. The picture to the left shows a natural Castledome Turquoise bead necklace next to a stabilized Kingman Turquoise bead necklace, both made by the Lovatos of Santo Domingo, winners of many awards at Santa Fe's Indian Market.

TURQUOISE IN OLD PAWN JEWELRY: Pictured to the left are some pieces of "old pawn jewelry". "Old pawn" is just that: jewelry that was pawned many years ago and never picked up. Many of these traders kept these pieces in their vaults for years, through generations, always allowing the Native to come back for his 'house' jewelry until it's finally released for sale. Old pieces with blue and green colored stones were most-likely all the same color when it was made but the softer, more porous stones turned varying shades of green while the harder stones stayed blue.
That's part of the charm of older, well-worn Indian Jewelry. The turquoise (and silver) has aged and seasoned, something that can only happen with time. In a way, turquoise arrives at your doorstep in a "dormant" state, open and ready if you are drawn to it. Over time, the stone can seem to 'come to life' and become a very personal, sacred thing in our lives. Europeans have preferred the 'pure blue' of classic Persian turquoise, but Americans like variety, matrix and character in their turquoise.

You might think "well, all those mines were producing way back 60 years ago, I'll go find good turquoise in old-pawn cases". What you'll find is that most of the turquoise worked back then was low-grade due to the limits of the artist's lapidary equipment; they couldn't use gem-grade natural even if they had it and wanted to work it. That's why you see alot of deep-aqua to military-green colored turquoise in old pawn. Look at and buy pawn for the piece: it's charm, history and craftsmanship, not necessarily for the turquoise unless it's something like Zuni "Blue Gem Turquoise" jewelry from the 60's and 70's.

An interesting note: Navajo's rarely had access to high-grade turquoise, and didn't want their blue turquoise to turn green so much of the Navajo jewelry from the 70's and beyond was purposely set with stabilized turquoise.

Top-left shows a slab of natural Fox vein turquoise. See how high-grade, darker-green and blue turquoise can be found so close to soft, porous whitish areas. Also see how the brown matrix areas are immersed within and a part of the whole look of the stone. This also shows you how the artists 'gamble' on high-dollar natural turquoise with no guarantee of it being high-grade all the way through the stone. The turquoise is high-grade but the matrix is too soft and crumbles so is only useable if stabilized. (Everything has to be "just right" for these stones to turn into the turquoise jewelry that's on this site.) Next is a nugget of natural yellow-green Carico showing beautiful color amidst natural lighter-colored matrix.

A Word about Chinese Turquoise -There is gem-grade Chinese that sells for $1200/pound but it's rare and most people will never see it; it's set in gold right away. The fetishes carved from jewelry-grade Hubei Province turquoise are incredible for the stone's ability to have three distinct colors in one stone and great matrix to go with it. It's just that there's more Chinese available so American is more valuable. You should know what you're really buying, American turquoise should, and will, always cost more (if you can guarantee it's really natural American).

There is some turquoise being marketed under the name "Emerald Valley" which sounds like Nevada but really stands for "Maanshan, China" and other famous turquoises being marketed with the words "old" in front of them which is really a tipoff that it's neither from Arizona or Nevada but from China, and most likely stabilized.



Random, practical thoughts : Just some things that come to mind