Turquoise is a gem that is both refined and popular. It can be inlaid on formal traditional jewelry or worn casually. The iron thread pattern provides a natural contrast with the color of turquoise, which makes people love it more. Turquoise is the birthstone of December, symbolizing “success and victory”.
The color of turquoise is sky blue, light blue, gray blue, blue green, 緑, gray green, and khaki. その中で, sky blue is the most noble.
The quality evaluation of turquoise depends on the color, テクスチャ, block size and shape.
(1) 色: The best hue is sky blue, followed by green, and gray and yellow are the most avoidable. High-quality sky blue turquoise must have a bright, pure and uniform color.
(2) Structure: Turquoise with dense structure has higher density and hardness. The denser the structure, the higher the value.
Those turquoises with low density and low hardness have very low value and are generally used after optimized treatment.
Turquoise often has a special brown-black pattern, 一般に知られています “iron wire”. When iron wire and turquoise form a beautiful pattern, its value will greatly increase, but when there are too many iron wires to form a beautiful pattern, the value will be greatly reduced.
(3) 透明性: Turquoise is mostly opaque. A small amount of slightly transparent or even translucent ones have higher quality.
(4) Lumpiness: the same quality, the larger the lumpiness, より良い; for the same size, it depends on the shape.
Turquoise can generally be divided into:
Porcelain pine: the color is sky blue, the structure is dense, the texture is fine, the waxy luster, the hardness (5.5-6), the density is high, it is the top grade among turquoise.
Green turquoise: blue-green to bean-green, good texture, strong luster, hardness and density, it is a medium-quality turquoise.
Iron wire turquoise: The iron oxide wires are distributed in the turquoise in the form of veins or disseminated. 例えば, the distribution of iron wires in hard turquoise can form beautiful patterns.
Pao pine (face pine): It is a kind of moon white, light blue-white turquoise, with poor color, poor gloss, low hardness (4), light hand feeling, and a low-grade turquoise. This type of turquoise is often processed manually to improve its quality.
The main producing areas of turquoise in my country are Hubei, Shaanxi, Qinghai and other places, among which the high-quality turquoise produced in Hubei is famous at home and abroad. The main production areas abroad are Turkey, Iran, the United States, Afghanistan and Australia. Iran and the United States produce the most and their quality is relatively good.