Turquoise, jewelry made with turquoise

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TURQUOISE AND ITS JEWELRY

Turquoise is definitely a popular stone. Numerous cultures throughout the world have widely used turquoise for centuries in jewelry design and decoration of other items such as weapons, armor and religious artifacts.

However, it’s the Middle East that stands out from the rest when it comes to the level of use and the importance being assigned to the stone itself. There, the turquoise was held in particularly high regard as it was thought that it also had magical powers to protect its owner from bad luck and premature death.

Turquoise was introduced in Europe by Crusaders returning from Turkey. Its name hints at that as turquoise means “Turkish stone” in French. Since then, the stone has been shown an increasing amount of appreciation in Europe but it never came close to the amount of it shown in the Middle East and the Americas.

Chemically speaking, turquoise is chiefly made of copper, aluminum and phosphorus while other elements such as iron can also be present in minor quantities. Turquoise’s non-transparent deep blue/green color matches beautifully with silver and steel, which largely explains why the stone has been used so extensively in the jewelry design.

Intricate, small brown or black spots are commonly found on the stone. While these brown/black spots in our opinion do not diminish the overall beauty of the stone, the blue colored turquoise without the spots is the most appreciated kind.

While the mineral can be found in many localities in the world, turquoise that comes from Iran is considered to be the best.

Caring for turquoise jewelry:

Turquoise is a fairly delicate mineral. It has a rating of between 5 and 6 on Mohs hardness scale. This rating indicates that turquoise is a fairly tough mineral. However, it is still susceptible to scratches.

Turquoise is very sensitive to sunlight. The owner of a jewelry piece that features turquoise should make sure that it is not exposed too much to sunlight as that can change stone's color in a drastic fashion. Please read our guide to jewelry care or other relevant literature to learn more on how to care for jewelry.

Related pages:
Birthstones
Turquoise Jewelry