Gemstone Monday

If you've been following my blog or facebook, your aware of the recent jewelry giveaway that happened over at String Bean Studios. I gave away a pair of Turquoise earrings to a lucky winner that will announced tomorrow on Keri's blog. So, for Gemstone Monday...lets stay in the spirit and talk about Turquoise!

Turquoise has such a diverse look. Some stones have more markings than others. There are also different hues of Turquoise. The blue colour is created by copper,

the green by iron and a certain amount of chrome. Often, the material has veins or blotches running through it, which are brown, light grey or black depending on where it was found.

In recent times, turquoise, like most other gems, has been devalued by the introduction of treatments, imitations, and synthetics onto the market. The most well known deposits of turquoise are in the USA, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and China. The most beautiful turquoises, in a splendid light blue, come from deposits in the north of Iran.

Turquoise is one of the birthstones for the month of December.

I personally LOVE this gemstone. I've always been a earthy kind of girl, and to me this stone is the epitome of earthy loving hippy. I often create jewelry using this stone and find much inspiration from turquoise. Here is just one sample of how I have used turquoise in my jewelry designs.

Tribal Turquoise Teardrops