re: #119 Dragon_Lady

Pretty stuff Walter, just up my alley! I’ve been collecting semi and precious colored stones for over two decades and in the last decade I’ve become a bead-a-holic. In the jewelry industry downtown Los Angeles we refer to the type of turquoise you’re cutting as “Matrix” Turquoise. I love the color variations and the zoning I’m seeing.

The two pieces of turquoise on either end are Kingman, I’m not sure were the baby blue one with the quartz matrix is from, the one second from the right turns out to be a Morceni Mine piece I found yesterday in my supplies. That black band in the middle is peppered with pyrite, which doesn’t show up well in the picture…

My favorite color turquoise would be the darker blue as in that Morceni piece. From what I am told, the folks in the East and far east are more impressed with “pure” turquoise, without all the matrix, where as matrix turquoise is more popular with westerners.

One thing I can say about the matrix stuff, you can be sure it’s not stabilized chalky stuff so predominate coming out of China.