15 Recommended Pieces of Turquoise Jewelry: All Affordable

All about turquoise

Turquoise is one of the most ancient gemstones with a splendid history of thousands of years and is very popular among people of all ages.

The word turquoise is derived from French and means Turkish stone. But Turkey does not produce such a gemstome. It is said that the turquoise was originally produced by ancient Persian and was named after the Turkish transport to Europe.

Composition and properties

Turquoise is classified as a semi-precious stone in the modern gemstone identification classification. It is a water and copper aluminophosphate mineral and belongs to phosphate minerals.

The hardness of turquoise is between 5 and 6 (only moderate), the density is between 2.6 and 2.9, and the refractive index is 1.62, which belongs to the triclinic system.

Places of origin

Though most often identified by their blue-green color, Turquoise stones can be found as extreme as yellowish green. Used to decorate the domes of mosques in Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Central Asia and Russia, clergy believed this stone represented the origins of heaven and gifts God sent to earth.

Mined as far away as China and Kazakhstan and as near as Chile, Mexico, California, Arkansas, Texas, Nevada and Arizona–New Mexico was the leading Turquoise-producing state in the 1920s, replaced by Nevada in the 1980s and Arizona most recently.

Care and cleaning of turquoise jewelry

When turquoise comes into contact with human skin, it will be contaminated with a layer of oil secreted by the human body. These greases form a thin protective film on the surface of the turquoise to prevent the stone from losing water too quickly.

At the same time, grease and sweat will slowly penetrate into the inside of the turquoise and change its color, which is a wonderful process.

• When we wear turquoise jewelry, it is best to keep them away from cosmetics, perfumes and other chemical items to avoid damaging the stones. Since most of turquoise has pores, it absorbs hand oil, lip balm and perfume, etc. Therefore, when you wear it, you should pay attention to avoid excessive contact with sweat, oil and cosmetics.
• Turquoise is not very hard, so we should avoid collision with other jewelry.
• The color of turquoise is delicate and afraid of pollution. Avoid contact with tea, soapy water, oil, rust and alcohol to prevent discoloration caused by penetration into gems.
• Turquoise is afraid of high temperature, so we should avoid fire or direct sunlight to prevent fading and cracking. Prolonged sunlight exposure will cause turquoise to crack and fade due to dehydration, and excessively high temperature will make turquoise break and become brittle.
• Do not put turquoise in an ultrasonic cleaner, because the stone will absorb the solution and fade.

In the end

Thank you for reading this article on turquoise jewelry, feel free to share your thoughts below or check other articles on jewelry that we have published: 10 hand picked pieces of minimalist jewelry: affordable and delicate.

Image sources: Tiffany, Gorjana, David Moris, Farfetch