Maybe it’s the move toward “green.” Maybe it’s the calming character of the color. Maybe it’s me, but I am simply mad about the special green turquoises from Nevada.
Turquoise has been found in abundance throughout the Southwest, but only the turquoise from deposits in Nevada can be called more green than they are blue. The greens range from a light lime to the dark colors of evergreen forests. Each of the deposits from which the turquoise is mined typically carry a characteristic green color. For example, Broken Arrow turquoise has a solid rich green color, whereas Carico Lake turquoise displays a spiderweb pattern in light and dark lime green.
Qualities vary from mine to mine as well. Green turquoise is found in seams in ground rock. Surrounding rock may be included with the green turquoise when cut, ground, and polished as gemstone. The non-turquoise rock is called matrix. Spiderweb patterns of turquoise and dark matrix create a valuable gemstone. Less valuable turquoise occurs when a light matrix predominates in the gemstone.
That the Nevada turquoises are green in no way devaluates the material as gemstones. Green turquoises are no more or less valuable than the traditionally colored turquoise. What affects value more than anything is whether the mine is still producing. Obviously, turquoise is more valuable from mines that are spent or have closed down.
Jewelers combine the various greens of special turquoises from Nevada for a richness in color and texture that few other gemstones can provide. A mélange of green turquoises in a jewelry design imparts a connection with “green” in all that the word implies.
Name Nevada as the place that gave us the gift of green in turquoise.