What is “Multi Turquoise”, “Turkey Turquoise” And “Striped Turquoise”?

Turkey turquoise is NOT the same thing as rainbow cal silica!

Rainbow cal silica occurs naturally and is very expensive. I noticed that someone on Etsy advertised the Turkey Turquoise, which is man made, to the Rainbow Calsilica….do your research please.

When I touch Turkey Turquoise, it’s a bit soft so for me it’s definitely man-made, but it looks nice and I use it in my jewelry. The Chinese factories certainly don’t lack imagination 😉

Mirabelle
http://www.leblogdelamirabelle.net

I like many others wondered what Turkey Turquoise actually is.

Now I’m better informed. Thanks for the information.

I was just noticing comments about “Turkey Turquoise” and so I also did some research.

In addition to the comments already made, I wanted to add that quite a bit of what I am seeing by this name is really Magnesite or Howlite that has been dyed to different colors.

I see this mistake all over Ebay, Etsy, and Tophatter. Internetstones.com says “There is a misconception about turquoise. Turquoise is not found in Turkey. The name is probably derived from Turkey because the Turkish merchants and dealers took these gemstones to Venice for sale.”

To add to this confusion is that the “Turkish Riviera” is known as the Turquoise Coast but it is because of the color of the water.

Turquoise can be found in Iran, Egypt, India, China ,Tibet, Afghanistan, Australia. The Turquoise from Iran is considered to be the best quality from outside the US. In the Southwest part of the US, Turquoise can be found in California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

You’re very welcome. It is beautiful, isn’t it!? 🙂

Thanks Stacey. Very informative. I make jewellery and I’ve been trying to find out exactly what this bead is.

This is really called Rainbow Calsilica. I sell them on my site and so I did some research and copied what I found below:

“An artifical material created for carving / lapidary purposes. Contains a mixture of calcite, plastic and artifical colouring pigments (PB15, an art-supply pigment), and a paraffin-like material. [ref: Winter 2002, Gems and Gemology, journal of Gemological Institute of America]

Although suppliers claim it to be a natural stone, tests have indicated that it is probably powdered carbonate rock artificially coloured and then stabilized with plastic.”

Some people say these stones are natural, some say they are man-made. I would assume that they are dyed calcite. Whatever they are, they sure are pretty!!

Hope this helps!

Stacy
Simply Stacy Jewelry and Supply