Love that Turquoise

I love Turquoise. It's a wonderful gem material that plays well with so many other colors. Red, White and Turquoise is one of my favorite summer color combinations, and Turquoise and Black together are so dramatic they can stop traffic -- or catch every eye.

Naturally, when you think of Turquoise, you think of Southwestern jewelry. Please think outside that taco. Envision yourself wearing earrings of plump Turquoise drops. Or a sleek necklace of slender Turquoise beads and gold accents.

For jewelry such as this, you'll want Turquoise from the United States. Arizona and Nevada Turquoise is the finest in the world. U.S. Turquoise colors range from blue to green. The veining or matrix in U.S. turquoise is so distinctive that U.S. dealers usually can tell you the area from which it was mined -- in the case of Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, they even can name the mine itself.


Like most other good things, genuine Turquoise is becoming rare, and quite expensive.

Therefore, imitations and fakes are flooding the market. Watch out for something called "African Turquoise," which actually is dyed jasper, or "Chinese Yellow Turquoise," which is serpentine. Really inexpensive "Turquoise" almost always is imitation, either Magnesite or Howlite that has been dyed, or glass or plastic. If you like it and you can accept that it's fake, try it.

Once at a big gem show, I bought a magnificent 16" strand of graduated Turquoise beads, ranging in size from ping pong ball to raisin. Every bead was perfectly matched and each was as blue as a turquoise crayon. I bargained the dealer down to $30, as that was all I was willing to pay for Howlite. The necklace I made was stunning, and I wore it all summer. The next summer, I remade the necklace with silver, and sold it for $35 as "Imitation Turquoise, but Fun."

Turquoise is fun. It flatters almost every complexion and many clothing colors. Once you try Turquoise, you'll love it just as I do.

Art Does Not Lie

My daughter-in-law, Missy, just asked me to make two necklaces to match the Murano glass earrings she recently found in her Air Force Base Exchange in Germany. Missy has lived in Italy several times, so she recognized that the earrings probably weren't real authentic Murano glass, but she liked them enough to buy them anyway.

Since I won't knowingly deal in counterfeit, I went online to my Murano glass supplier to find some glass beads to match her earrings.

The difference in color and craftsmanship is amazing. Genuine Murano glass is slightly heavy, because in almost every style of glass, there's a base against which the other colored glass is laid, and then a clear glass overlay to protect the gold or silver leaf which has been applied.

Missy's earrings were so lightweight, they felt like plastic.

These genuine beads I found (right) were vivid, concentrated colors applied over Silver or 14KT Gold leaf. I'll wire them together and put them onto a front-opening chain so they'll be easy to get on and off and lightweight to wear.

If you don't care what you are buying, then perhaps counterfeit beads or stones really don't matter. The jewelry is pretty enough to wear, after all.

But to Jewelry Designers, counterfeit screams "wrong." It's a lie. Jewelry Design is Art, and Art does not lie.

When is Silver not Silver? When it's Vermeil!

When you're buying jewelry, you're faced with several different standards of Silver. Knowing which is which will help you make educated buying decisions.

Silver Plate, which is a micro-coating of Silver over a base metal, is relatively inexpensive, but may turn your neck, ears or fingers black through a chemical reaction with your skin. It wears off easily, so is not long-lasting on a piece of jewelry.

Fine Silver is 99.9% pure silver, and tarnishes about eight times slower than Sterling Silver because it has no copper in it. Fine Silver, however, is very soft, and must be "work hardened" to be used in jewelry.

Sterling Silver is 92.5% pure silver hardened with a 7.5% of a base metal, most usually copper. Because of the copper, Sterling Silver tarnishes rapidly. Sterling Silver often is coated with an invisible protective layer to eliminate tarnish. This means you cannot polish it or dip it in silver cleaner, as this would remove the protective layer.

Argentium Silver is Fine Silver which has been alloyed with Germanium, which greatly decreases tarnishing. Argentium Silver jewelry rarely needs polishing.

But what Silver isn't Silver? Vermeil is Sterling Silver that is coated (plated) with at least 10K or more gold that is at least 2.5 microns thick (100/1,000,000 of an inch. Vermeil stays its beautiful gold color longer, but again because of the copper in the Sterling, eventually will tarnish. Vermeil gives you the appearance of gold, though at a much lower cost.

When you're selecting jewelry, be aware of the Silver differences, and choose carefully.