Turquoise is one of the most popular stones, it has been for centuries and the reasons are obvious. So much has been written about turquoise and there’s a huge amount of information and disagreement on the subject. In recent times, the market has been flooded with a worrying amount of cheap imitations, and synthetics. Some of these imitations are difficult to detect and because it can be a confusing subject anyway, its very easy to end up paying out hard cash on something that isn’t exactly everything it appears to be.
Before you Buy Here are a few things to consider before buying turquoise (or any gem):
>> Any time you pay a premium for gemstone jewelry you should be sure the seller is reputable and knowledgeable about all aspects of the item.
>> Is it marked or listed in any way as authentic, genuine, natural etc? You can ask the seller about this but you’ll only have their word for it. I would wonder why something genuine is not marked as such since that would be it’s main selling point?
>> Ask for information such as grade and origin. If the seller can‘t tell the difference between a AA and B- stone or doesn’t know whether their turquoise is from Arizona, China or Pluto, then I would wonder if they knew what they were doing.
>> Ask about any treatments that may have been made to the stone. Is it dyed, enhanced, wax-treated, stabilized, reconstituted etc. Do they do even know what these treatments are?
>> Is it $0.50? Generally, you get what you pay for.
>> If it’s called triple choc strawberry pie ancient pink turquoise, it might be a fake. Watch out for suspicious sounding, two parted fantasy type names.
Regarding the different treatments: Enhanced Turquoise (Zachary treatment/process) Turquoise that has been treated with chemicals, then heated but because the heating process destroys any traces of the chemicals, it‘s virtually impossible to tell the difference from natural turquoise. Only higher grade stones can be treated in this way.
Enhanced Turquoise (Foutz treatment/process) This process involves taking medium grade turquoise and impregnating it with vaporized quartz to improve it’s strength. Like the Zachary treatment, this is very difficult to detect.
Natural Processed Turquoise This is an excellent new treatment where the stone is treated with non-toxic chemicals before being soaked in water. The treatment is then impossible to detect and is the highest grade of treatment. It also has the benefit that the stone does not become more green over time, as untreated turquoise does.
Wax Treated (also called waxing or oiling) The surface of the stone is applied with a paraffin wax or oil treatment. This is a very old, historic treatment given to turquoise in order to enhance the color and surface luster of the stone. A lot of turquoise from China was treated in this way but Chinese producers now prefer the stabilization method.
Stabilized Turquoise This treatment consists of using an epoxy or acrylic (plastic) resin to bond lower grade turquoise material to strengthen it and make it acceptable for use in jewelry. Over time, exposure to pollution, detergents, lotions and oils may change its color.
Reconstituted Turquoise This treatment is where tiny pieces or powdered down stone is taken with dye, fillers and plastics to form a larger solid “stone”. This is considered to be an imitation . Reconstituted turquoise cuts easier than stabilized material, but has a lower value.
Block Turquoise This is an outright imitation and it contains no actual turquoise. Its creation involves taking stimulants of ceramic, plastic and other materials. Swirls of black dye are added to simulate the matrix.
Backed Turquoise This treatment is used on stones like cabochons and cuts that will be set in jewelry pieces. It involves placing a layer of epoxy or acrylic bonding resin on the back on the stone, which is then concealed by the setting.
Dyed Turquoise This could be anything really. It could be turquoise that has been dyed to enhance its overall color or veins. Or more likely, it could be a number of other stones that can be dyed to look like turquoise. Your “dyed turquoise” will often be revealed as “dyed howlite, magnesite or dolomite” posing turquoise. Even certain ceramics, plastics and glass can be dyed to look like turquoise.
Turquoise Grades & Common Descriptions AA - gems-grade natural turquoise. Origin: (probably one of the larger mines such as the Sleeping Beauty mine in Arizona)
-A & -B (c)- commercial quality, probably enhanced in some way or even stabilized. Origin: Various (China, Mexico, USA)
African Turquoise - Actually a Misnomer This is a type Jasper found in Africa that is sold as “African Turquoise” due to its similar matrix. Apple Turquoise - Probably Stabilized or Reconstituted Green-Green Color, with or (especially)without a matrix.
Australian Turquoise - Another Misnomer Probably variscite
Chinese Turquoise - Be careful Stabilized/Reconstituted Possible dyed calcite or soapstone parading as turquoise.
Fox Turquoise - NOT to be mistaken for faux turquoise! High quality Fox is one of Nevada’s most productive turquoise mines.
Mexican Turquoise - Stabilized Color and matrix (or lack of it) emulates Sleeping Beauty turquoise
Viennese Turquoise - This is actually glass!
Other attributes: Matrix and Color The matrix is the dark pattern or variegation appearing all over the stone. The perfect matrix is a matter of opinion and personal taste but be careful of stones that have no matrix at all because that MAY be an indication that they are treated (see above). Stones completely covered with these markings are less valuable. I prefer a nice bluey-green stone with a middling of darkest brown-black matrix. A web matrix is considered most valuable
Ultimately, you will be buying the stone because you enjoy its wonderful features, including its color. Turquoise is available in a huge range of colors from aqua blue to very, very green. You should choose the color that pleases you best.
In fact, the “perfect” turquoise stone is the one that speaks to you. Don’t buy an “investment” or “money worth” piece. Don’t buy a stone that by all accounts has the best attributes or is in fashion right now. It's all realative and you should choose the stone that has the most value for you.
- Great post with lots of helpful info on promoting your website online. It's really generous and nice of jessprkle to compile and post all of this information, which is invaluable for the old hand and newbie alike!
Etsy is THE venue for so many wonderful and talented people that standing out from the crowd can be an excruciatingly difficult task.
Entering the TimeMachine or Treasury is like getting on some type of cool crafty rollercoaster. You’re immediately slapped in the face with all this fantastic stuff and there really is just no end to the talent. The problem is that you start drooling over everything and can’t really focus on any one thing.
Basically, it takes something really special to draw you out of sensory overload, just stop you dead in your tracks and absorb your attention. Here are a few of the stores that get my undivided attention:
http://gobuggy.etsy.com/ GoBuggy is a very obvious choice for me because the product itself just so great! The items in this store are interesting, fun, imaginative and very well made. You look and this shop and become really quite convinced that you do need everything in it!
http://christinegant.etsy.com/ ChristineGant sells wonderful bath and beauty products. All fabulous, original choices here and everything looks so edible too!
http://cottonbirddesigns.etsy.com Cottonbirddesigns hand stitched little paper and fabric birds are just delightful. A really great idea and each one begs you to take it home! !
posted @ 3:55 PM
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Following up on my recent Packing for Etsy Post, I found this post http://cmguajardo.blogspot.com/2008/01/jewelry-gift-box-template.html detailing Cynthia’s experiments and giving step by step instructions on using a Mirk Wood template to make your own gift boxes from recycled cardboard. It really is a great idea, it’s not difficult to do and all the materials are probably lurking somewhere around your every own house! Must read.
posted @ 12:55 PM
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January tends to be slow on Etsy so there’s a lot time that you spend thinking about how to improve your store. I was thinking back on sellers that I’d purchased from and what made them memorable to me. Packaging, I think, is a huge factor. All the products were fabulous and unique of course but they were also all packaged really beautifully.
So that’s what I’ve been doing today, trying to improve my packaging. There’s quite a bit more to it than you’d think.
I’ve had great packaging ideas but when you break it down to individual costs and its $15 on each parcel, then it’s just not feasible. You have to really hunt down those bulk lots and work hard to get good deals.
To start with, you have essentials like the padded envelopes stuffed with shredded paper, tissue paper, micro-fiber or whatever else you use to protect your precious items. After that you have to go for simple enclosures like paper flowers, stickers, professionally printed business cards and “next order” discount cards, tags and jewelry cards, ribbon, boxes or embellished jewelry bags or whatever else you use.
If the postal costs alone on each parcel is around $3-4 depending on the destination and you’re only prepared to charge a max of $6 p&p (because you don’t want to be accused of having outrageous postage and packing charges) then you don’t have a lot of funds left to spend on nice packaging! I think that wherever you see really low p&p costs, a portion of the packaging costs have actually been worked into the purchase price of the item.
The other thing that you have to consider is whether something is appropriate to enclose with your package. Generally speaking, I’d stay away from enclosures of the flavored or fragrant kind as they might not be to the recipients taste. If you sell soap or perfume, enclosing samples is fine. If you sell any foodstuffs, enclosing samples is fine but just watch out for the nut allergies. If you sell jewelry, enclosing e.g. soap samples is not fine. A recipient that has ordered jewelry probably doesn’t want to be attacked by anything smelly upon opening their parcel. Just remember, you think it smells wonderful but maybe I think it smells like satans a**! (sorry)
Yes, so that got a bit rantish but it is very difficult because you have to think of everything. I’ll post photos of my new packaging once everything I’ve ordered arrives. I'm happy that I got the most that I could whilst making sure that shipping doesn’t go over $6.
I’m going to talk about the white balance function in the simplest terms I can. I’m probably stepping into hot water here but when I first started trying to figure out these settings, I was just looking to find a few simple tips to help improve my Etsy photos.
I found lots of places where the white balance function was being discussed feverishly and everybody seemed to have some type of opinion. There’s just so much information there and it’s very confusing if you’re starting from a zero knowledge base and only want simple information.
No. 1 – What is this white balance thingy anyway? White balance is simply a color correction function. You know you might need to adjust your white balance if your photos are too blue, too orange or too green.
No. 2 – Why does that happen? I could go into this for a couple of paragraphs but basically, different light sources offer different color light. Normally, you don’t notice this because your eye makes up for it. Your camera is not able to do that.
No. 3 – Oh, I see, I need to increase the intensity of light then? No! It’s about the color of the light and has nothing to do with intensity of the light. You might be outside taking great photos under natural daylight, and then you go inside and start taking icky photos under light bulbs. This is not happening because you have a crappy camera or need to increase the intensity of the light. The light bulb IS giving off a different color light.
No. 4 – Ok, so what can I do? Your camera defines all color based on what it thinks the color white looks like and hence the importance of having the correct white balance. If you set the correct value for white then everything else with be alright (that rhymed, I’m really sorry).
No. 5 – Just tell me how to fix it already? Purchase Paint Shop Pro or alternatively, your camera will have a number of settings to deal with this problem. Go the white balance menu (the one with the little pictures of a light bulb, sun, cloud and whatnot etc.)
Depending on your camera, you generally will have the following options:
Auto Incandescent Fluorescent Sunlight Flash Cloud Night Smart/Preset/Manual
Auto tries to figure everything out on its own and virtually never succeeds. The rest of them are guesstimates, which means that if you’re taking photo’s under direct sunlight then a good place to start is to select “Sunlight” from the white balance menu but these are general settings and do not guarantee perfection. Preset allows you to take a photo of something white and select “this is white”. The camera then uses that value to define all other color and produce what should be good photos.
So you see that this white balance thingy is actually not very complicated at all! Don’t’ be afraid to experiment with ANY of your camera settings. Adjusting your white balance is something that gives immediate results. I find that the best thing is to find what works for you. Think of it as nothing more than a tool to help solve color issues.
Every now and again I make a point of throwing my eye over the list of common gemstone misnomers. It’s important to have researched this area if you’re going to be buying and selling gems. You don’t want to sell somebody the wrong thing and you don’t want go get ripped off yourself by buying something that is not what it appears to be.
I’ve seen these misnomers crop up in the jewelry category on Etsy and other places. I really don’t think sellers are deliberately mis-naming stones but suppliers will sometimes mislabel supplies to help them sell. Some unscrupulous suppliers will mislabel gems to help them sell and to attract a higher sale price. To combat falling victim to this type of thing, Robert Shipley’s Dictionary of Gems and Gemology is an invaluable guide to have. If you don’t already have it, take a look at the link below, it actually takes a lot of it’s definitions from Shipley’s Dictionary.
Rudraksha berries are a sacred bead for followers of the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism and Zen and are often used to make sacred m`ala prayer beads or rosaries. Buddha wore these Beads, so did Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and enlightened Indian Yogis.
Another great site that I've only just found and really must share: http://www.tenthousandvillages.com (I've added a permanent link to my menu) What a great site! Not just the principle of it, but the products too.
Quoted from TenTousandVillages...
"Ten Thousand Villages is a founding member of the International Fair Trade Association, an organization that includes over 200 members in 55 countries, including many artisan groups in developing countries. We are part of a worldwide movement that is striving to improve the livelihood of disadvantaged people in developing countries through the expansion of fair trade...
We market quality products from diverse cultures around the world made by people that we know and care enough about to do business in a manner that together we consider fair. We strive to operate as a business with a compassionate mission so that we can provide vital, fair income to artisans. Our dream is to one day see that all artisans in developing countries will earn a fair wage, be treated with dignity and respect and be able to live a life of quality. "
The site offers wonderful handcrafted items that are beautiful and unique. Items that you just won't find anywhere else. Personally, I have my eye set on the Cinnamon Bark Tea Box. I'm encouraged by the aroma reported in customer reviews, which is exactly what I would have hoped for.
I wanted to share my new favorite site, FreeRice. This site is fun and totally addictive, it improves your vocabulary and encourages you to become more articulate (<---see). If that's not enough, it's also for a very good cause!
Happy New Year! Even I can’t believe I let so long go by without an update. I am suitably ashamed!
I’m not going to even try to make excuses for myself. I have been just too busy these last couple weeks. I’m thinking of shutting down my kituchi shop. The truth is that I just don’t have the time to promote it. I sell my work outside of etsy as well as working on my TenJewel Etsy store and working full time. With Etsy, you sorta get what you put into it and that’s all there is to it.
Anyways, I hope that everybody had a great holiday. I’ve personally just gotten so fat, I really have. I'm on a cabbage soup diet now.
