Turquoise is known as the “master Healer,” and is said to be the bridge between Heaven, Sky and the Earth. Many Native American cultures believe that Turquoise helps to connect the mind to the infinite possibilities of the Universe and is considered very sacred in Chinese cultures as well. It is a throat Chakra stone, as it helps to foster honest and open communication from the heart. It works to protect and align the chakras, strengthening the overall body in the process.

---

IGS (International Gem Society) As early as 4,000 – 5,000 BCE humans, first in the Sinai region of Egypt, and a millennium later in Mesoamerica and China, were mining and working turquoise into jewelry and ceremonial objects. It was so highly valued in Eqypt, that when high quality deposits were exhausted, artisans developed a copper glazed ceramic simulant called faience, rather than abandon use of that sky blue color in their artwork. Chemically, turquoise is a hydrated copper/aluminum phosphate, of aggregate, cryptocrystalline structure. There is only one known deposit, in the state of Virginia, where turquoise is found in transparent to translucent visible crystals. Specimens from that locale are rare and bring a hefty price from collectors. More typically, turquoise is found as an opaque deposit in nodules, or veins within host rocks, or as shallow crusts on the surface of rocks.

---

Care and Use: As a gem material turquoise has its limitations: it is relatively fragile, porous, and susceptible to heat and/or chemical damage. Turquoise averages 18 – 20% water content and, as the gem is heated, (perhaps from an unwary jeweler’s torch,) that water is progressively lost until at 400 degrees C, the structural integrity of the mineral is destroyed.