Turquoise has been loved for thousands of years. Long ago, people in ancient Egypt, Persia, Tibet, and the American Southwest wore it close to their hearts. They thought the bright blue-green color came from the sky or the sea. Native American tribes saw it as a piece of the sky that fell to earth. They made necklaces, rings, and special items with it to bring good luck, protection, and healing.
The stone gets its pretty color from tiny bits of copper. Over millions of years, copper mixes with aluminum and water to make the soft blue we know. You often see thin brown or black lines running through it — that's called matrix. It's usually iron or leftover rock from where the turquoise grew. Some people like clean blue pieces with little matrix, while others love the webbed patterns because every stone looks different, like a fingerprint from nature.
Turquoise isn't super hard — it's about 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale. A knife can scratch it if you're not careful, but it's strong enough for everyday jewelry when treated right. Jewelers love using it as cabochons because the smooth dome shape shows off the color and patterns nicely. In silver, a bezel setting works best to protect the edges from chipping. Keep it away from harsh cleaners, heat, or chemicals — it can dry out or change color over time.
Most turquoise you buy today is stabilized. That means someone added a clear resin to fill tiny holes and make it tougher for rings and pendants. Some is dyed to look brighter, and a little is pressed from small bits (called reconstituted). Natural turquoise from places like Sleeping Beauty Mine in Arizona is rarer now and costs more, but even treated pieces still have that classic sky-blue magic.
People have always felt special about turquoise. In the Southwest, it stands for water, rain, and life. In old Persia, traders carried it as a lucky charm against bad things. When you set a turquoise cabochon in sterling silver today, you're part of a very old story. It's not just a pretty stone — it's a little piece of history you can wear every day. Clean it gently with a soft cloth and warm soapy water, and it will stay beautiful for years.
Quick Facts About Turquoise
CategoryDetails
Common NamesTurquoise, Turq, Sleeping Beauty, Persian Turquoise
Chemical FormulaCuAl₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈·4H₂O
Mohs Hardness5–6
Specific Gravity2.6–2.8
ColorSky blue to greenish-blue, often with matrix veins
LusterWaxy to subvitreous
TransparencyOpaque
Cuts & ShapesMostly cabochon, sometimes tumbled or carved
Common TreatmentsStabilized, dyed, reconstituted
Durability NotesAvoid chemicals, heat, hard knocks
Best Silver SettingsBezel (protects edges)
Birthstone MonthDecember
Main SourcesUSA (Arizona, Nevada), China, Iran, Egypt, Mexico
00:01.2
I just dug this out of this old mine behind me right here
00:05.2
near Kingman, Arizona.
00:10.0
Let's see if there's any turquoise left in this old
00:12.6
mine.
00:17.5
Whoa, bats.
00:20.6
All right, enough of that. Let's get out of here
00:24.7
and go visit my favorite turquoise dealer.
00:28.4
There's something about turquoise.
00:29.8
It's got a magic to it. Every piece of
00:33.6
turquoise is special on its own. According to the
00:37.6
Library of Congress, turquoise is the first gemstone ever used by man.
00:41.6
Every culture in the world holds it in a very high regard.
00:44.7
There's so much variety. When you look at a piece of turquoise, it's the color that
00:48.5
grabs you, and that's the one that's calling you.
00:50.9
That's your stone. This is something special, very
00:54.3
personal. Every stone is different.
00:57.0
We treat each stone like it's the last piece of turquoise left in the
01:00.0
world.
01:02.5
We're on what they call Turquoise Mountain.
01:05.6
So if you start up there on top, you see a fault line.
01:08.9
Turquoise is a secondary replacement where the ground cracks, and over billions of
01:13.0
years, water percolates down and collects all the metals and minerals, copper,
01:16.3
aluminum, phosphorus that's in turquoise, and it becomes a liquid solution that
01:19.9
solidifies into a stone. That vein of turquoise starts all the
01:23.9
way up on top of that mountain. As it goes right down, it'll just continue
01:27.6
changing color. The deeper we go, the more compact, the more
01:31.6
pure and solid the turquoise is. So here
01:35.6
we've got it exposed. Now you can see the material
01:40.0
as it exists in the ground. Every day you're mining, it can be a
01:43.9
big surprise.
01:46.6
All of this type of turquoise is a complete different structure and color
01:50.4
than the large vein right here.
01:54.8
Every piece of turquoise is different that comes out of here.
01:59.5
Every day you don't know what you're gonna find.
02:01.7
Every day is a new
02:02.5
adventure.
02:08.1
My grandfather cut his first stone in nineteen twenty-nine.
02:11.8
He was an inventor. He was a contract miner.
02:14.3
Mined some of the more famous mines known in the world today.
02:17.4
He had all the lapidary patents on the automatic cutting equipment in the nineteen
02:21.1
sixties in the United States. He was able to put all these things together
02:25.0
and created the business that we have today.
02:27.7
And then my father, then myself, and then now with, with my son Josh and
02:31.6
his four boys, the passion's even stronger knowing that what I'm doing is
02:35.5
gonna continue on.
02:41.0
The Kingman turquoise is very special for one main reason.
02:45.0
We get every color of green and blue there is.
02:47.4
We set the standards for the whole industry.
02:50.0
Everybody is trying to reach our level of innovation, new ideas, new
02:53.9
product lines. We have the rough material. We have the natural.
02:57.4
We have the stabilized, cut stones, everything you need to make your own
03:00.7
jewelry. We also have finished jewelry.
03:03.1
We are a one-stop shop for turquoise.
03:06.6
It's a handcrafted product. We guarantee what we have.
03:09.7
We back it up. We are the oldest family in the world that does what we
03:13.7
do.
Transcript provided for accessibility and search indexing.