Native American Indians use a plethora of turquoise their handcrafted jewelry. For the most part jewelry created with turquoise by Native American Indians is of very high quality but, some unfortunately is not even real turquoise at all. For the most part, Native American turquoise jewelry quality lands somewhere between these to two extremes.
How can you identify the quality of turquoise?
Many people think the stone color has everything to do with the turquoise stone quality. That myth is far from the truth. Native American Turquoise can be tested for quality by a studying the hardness of the stone, the harder the turquoise, the better the quality. Only ten percent of turquoise used in Native American Jewelry is actually concerned gem quality. Many artists who create jewelry with turquoise will dip the turquoise stone in stone resin to make sure the stone remains hard and keeps color while it is worn year after year. When turquoise is treated in this way don't think that your piece of Native jewelry is not valuable. Many excellent Native American Turquoise pieces are stabilized. If you want the best quality, just make sure you communicate exactly what you are looking for. Much of the turquoise that is "gem quality is blue, green or both. Turquoise stone of higher quality can range from ten to twenty dollars per carat. These higher stone prices will of course raise the over pricing of you desired Native American turquoise jewelry.
