Tuesday

Turquoise from the San Simon Valley

One of the pieces of rough turquoise found several weeks ago was cut, resulting in 3 smaller pieces.  After partial polishing this one measures 3/4" x 1/2" x 3/8" and should make a nice pendent.  Potentially a nice Christmas present for someone.  As opposed to the other piece found, this one was soft and cut fairly easily and has nice blues and greens.

Cut Turquoise found in New Mexico

6 comments:

  1. nice. I have a friend who used to work in the Ajo, AZ copper mine. He said turquoise was found in the same area as the copper.

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  2. Thank you and you are correct. The chemical formula for turquoise is CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O. Basically hydrated copper and aluminum and different trace elements will alter the color.

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  3. Wow ... I clicked on the image to see the enlarged version. It's beautiful -- and very nicely photographed!

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  4. Thank you. It is coming along nicely but is slow work with the Dremel.

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  5. Thank you. Working on the other pieces now, slowly cutting slices with the Dremel.

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