Discovering The Importance Of Turquoise
Turquoise and silver jewelry has long been a part of Country Western fashion and style
. It ornaments many rustic pieces of furniture and is a vibrant splash of color that stands out from the traditional wood and brown colors.
The incorporation of turquoise and silver jewelry into the Country Western fashion began when the Native Americans first began to use turquoise for jewelry and ornamentation. Today we still see hundreds of beautiful handmade pieces of Native American jewelry that use turquoise.
The turquoise itself meant much more to the Native Americans than simply a substance to decorate oneself with. There is a significance and reverence associated with turquoise that is not associated with other decorative substances.
In fact, turquoise seems to have special significance throughout the entire world. This gem has been found in graves dating to be more than 7000 years old.
The bible even mentions turquoise in several locations. It is also a central component of folk lore, myths, religion and legends of various cultures.
The reason turquoise is so revered is still somewhat of a mystery. However, if we look at Native American history and their connection to nature we may draw the conclusion that the color of turquoise could represent the sky.
Many Native American religions had deities who lived in the sky. Another reason is that we like the contrast the sky blue has with the brown skin tones.
Whatever the exact reason for our love of turquoise, this stone definitely has connections to the spirituality of early America. This connection still carries on today in many of the tribes that have survived.
Turquoise is a hydrous copper aluminum phosphate. It forms near the surface of the ground so it was easy for it to be discovered in the first place.
Once it was discovered, ancient peoples would dig to obtain more of it. There are several mines that are still here in America.
The oldest mine is located near Santa Fe, New Mexico and is known as the Cerrillos mine. The mine had been in operation for about 2000 years before it closed.
The turquoise from this mine was traded across the nation. Some of it even reached the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan which was located 1400 miles away from the mine.
Mexico City is located directly on top of where Tenochtitlan was located hundreds of years ago. Even though turquoise is embedded in the Native American culture, the jewelry we love today is very different from what turquoise was actually used for.
Turquoise was not generally used in the making of jewelry until 1850. Until that point most of the jewelry was made out of beads, mosaics, wood, bone, and shell.
However, prehistoric Indians were known to use turquoise in their jewelry. It is believed that they used sandstone to shape the turquoise and polish it until it gleamed.
Then a finer substance, such as clay, fine sand, and rubbing the stone with buckskin or another type of leather was used to finish the polishing. Sharp pieces of quartz or jasper or maybe a dried cactus spine are thought of as possible substances for drilling the hole in the turquoise.
The real beginning of modern turquoise jewelry started with the Navajo in the 1850s. The Zuni and Hopi soon picked up these techniques.
Silver and turquoise jewelry soon became the primary means of trade between tribes until the early European traders flooded the market by producing great amount of silver jewelry for trade.
The jewelry created by the silversmiths featured unique designs of eagles and thunderbirds. As the time it was very inexpensive, but today these pieces are considered to be collectable and are very valuable.
In comparison to the hand-crafted jewelry of the Indians, this newer jewelry was much lower quality. However, it was still very good for trade and it was easy to make.
The most defining characteristics of turquoise include hardness, luster, color, matrix, and rarity. In general, turquoise with the highest quality is very hard with a robin's egg blue color.
It will also have a lot of high luster and absolutely no matrix. Matrix is the mother rock that shows through as speckles in the light blue.
However, in the southwest the turquoise with more variety in color is more valued. Dark blues and light greens say so much more about a person.
In the southwest it can even be better to have a slight matrix visible in the turquoise. This can increase its rarity and value.
by: Jack Landry
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