Thursday, January 24, 2008

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.

Tests
There are a number of tests you can use to ascertain if your turquoise is natural or otherwise treated. You'll find them here: LINK: http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/feature/may03str.cfm

Labels: buying, common misnomers, descriptions, fakes, gemstone, grades, guide, guide to buying gemstones, guide to buying turquoise, howto, information, turquoise

posted @ 2:56 PM
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Monday, January 21, 2008

Unique Expressions: How to Promote Your Website: "How to Promote Your Website"

- 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!

Labels: etsy, guide, howto, info, online, promote, seller, selling, venue, website

posted @ 1:25 PM
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Friday, January 18, 2008

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.

Labels: costs, enclose, etsy, extras, how, howto, packaging, postage, to

posted @ 4:25 AM
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