id="HtmlEditorContent_htmlEditor">Once upon a time, turquoise was not considered a versatile stone. Lately, however, jewelers have been combining its beautiful robin's-egg blue with the darker blue of lapis, or the pink of coral. It works well with pearls, and many designs now match it with small diamonds, whose sparkle provides a perfect counterpoint to the subdued glow of turquoise. Traditionally, turquoise's natural setting has been silver, but more recently, American designers have been experimenting - very successfully - with yellow and white gold.
If you love turquoise jewelry, be sure you buy from a knowledgeable jeweler. A lot of the turquoise on the market today is chalky and fragile. It takes a sharp eye to identify top-quality product. We will explain the differences among the turquoises produced by various mines. Some is a solid deep blue; some is a lighter sky-blue; some is more on the green side; some is spotted or scored with a matrix of brown and black. The solid robin's-egg color is most often seen on the finest turquoise jewelry, as it mixes most readily with gold, but any type of good-quality turquoise can find a home in the right piece.
Another plus: Even though turquoise is seen more and more on higher-end jewelry, it's still relatively inexpensive, providing quite a lot of bang for the buck.
Graduate Gemologist, GIA
Certified Appraiser