Turquoise

​Turquoise is perhaps the oldest stone in man’s history, the talisman of kings, shamans, and warriors. The name Turquoise is derived from the French, pierre turquoise, meaning “Turkish stone,” because the trade routes that brought Turquoise to Europe from the mines in central Asia went through Turkey, and Venetian merchants often purchased the stone in Turkish bazaars. The earliest turquoise beads were found in Iraq, dating to 5000 B.C. There were also stones found in Egypt dating to 3200 B.C. The other findings included the death mask of Tutankhamun to be studded with Turquoise, along with the skulls, shields, and power statues of the Moctezuma, the last ruler of the Aztecs. Chinese Turquoise or Tibetan Turquoise is sometimes slightly greener in hue and carries a slightly different vibration than the more vivid blue. When Chinese Turquoise is used in jewelry, it is considered a promise of fidelity and protectiveness to a lover. Ribbon Turquoise is a term that refers to a process of cutting the rock. To obtain Ribbon Turquoise, a stone cutter takes natural Turquoise in its natural host rock and cuts in the direction to create the vein going through the rock like a ribbon or splotches of Turquoise in the host rock like a Boulder Opal. In the olden days stone cutters would take the is Ribbon turquoise or Boulder Turquoise, which they called "Saw Rock" and they would cut the thin vein out for a pure Turquoise stone.