About Native American Natural Turquoise Jewelry

Native american natural turquoise jewelry finds its origins in the oldest turquoise mine in North America. This the Cerrillos turquoise mine just south of Santa Fe, New Mexico that has been providing turquoise stones for over 2000 years! The Pueblo peoples for have produced authentic indian turquoise jewelry using gem stones from the mine for almost as long.

Originally the Pueblo peoples mined the Cerrillos turquoise using antlers and boulders to pry the turquoise treasure from rock veins. The stones were used to make small figures and fetishes. When the Spanish introduced silver smithing into the Southwest in the sixteenth century, making silver indian turquoise jewelry became a full time craft for the Pueblos.

The most valuable stones are a bright blue. These bright blue stones that are so signature to native american natural turquoise jewelry gets their color from a large amount of copper in their composition. Stones with a lot of white in them get their color from aluminum deposits and the rarer green turquoises contain a great deal of zinc.

It is worth investing in native american natural turquoise jewelry because it is made from "natural turquoise. These stones are hard and beautiful and easily polished and set. Less than 3% of all the turquoise on the market worldwide is natural. Most stones on the market that come from other areas in the world such as China, India or Persia are a bit man-made. These man-made types of turquoise include stabilized turquoise (which is infused with epoxy resin), treated turquoise (which is dyed blue), pulverized turquoise (which is stones made from powdered turquoise chalk) and imitation turquoise (which is plastic!).

Check out these online stores for all your jewelry needs.

Never pay retail at UltraDiamonds.com

More Genuine Gems

Beliefs about Native American Jewelry