A Tourist’s Turquoise Tale

I’m so glad you have stopped by the blog to get to know QuirkyGirlz better. I will do my best to keep it interesting and I look forward to all of your input. Let’s talk!
I will spend a lot of time stirring up conversation about jewelry, but I am hopeful that we can talk about fashion; fun, and just about anything that affects our lives as modern women. Bear with me, as I journey through the lesson of the world of blogging, and chime in often with your suggestions and comments! I will be lost without you! If you have a related blog of your own, let’s get linked!
Being a small business owner means that this woman’s work is never done! In addition to beaded jewelry design, I am also designing a line of sterling silver jewelry and enjoy the art of silversmithing very much. In the future, I plan on adding copper designs as well. There is much to learn about the world of gemstones, and to my surprise I find learning about all of the different kinds of rocks very interesting and I hope you do too!
I took a trip to Kingman, AZ a few weeks ago to check out the Mineral Park Mine, which is operated primarily as a copper mine. There, I learned that where there is copper, there is often turquoise, but you will never discover turquoise where there is not copper. The Mineral Park Mine is the last remaining commercial turquoise mine in the United States. It turns out that the Mineral Park Mine has been mined for centuries, first by Indians, then a host of companies. The family that facilitates the collection of the turquoise from this mine is known as Colbaugh Processing, Inc. Grandpa Colbaugh invented the process of turquoise stabilization. This is a process, which infuses the turquoise with resin under pressure, strengthening it, while maintaining workability, and giving it a lasting shine. This process takes months, but it allows softer, lower grade turquoise to be viable in many applications. Since harder, higher grade turquoise is now extremely rare (and untreated turquoise will discolor, crack, and fade in sunlight) this process is often used with this and other gemstones.
Turquoise is in very high demand now, and the prices are skyrocketing for the material. It has always been one of my favorites, and you will notice that I use a lot of this stone in my designs, but jewelry artists all over the world are noticing the pinch for quality products and affordability.
It was just over a two-hour drive to the city limits of Kingman, a small city surrounded by desert. My husband and I put on our tourist hats and made our way through the available shops and scenery to learn more about the area. We were told most of the people from Kingman live outside of town, for privacy. It seemed like a relatively depressed area marginally supported by tourism due to its location just south of the west rim of the Grand Canyon. Seven miles north and west of town, just off highway 93, we discovered the processing/retail shop (the mine itself was located another seven miles up the road.)
It is an unremarkable building with just a small sign on one of the wooden doors indicating the office. If I had not plugged the address into my GPS or had been a typical tourist just driving by, it would have appeared as a small forgotten roadside building and I would have driven past it without notice. As I stepped out of the car, I noticed that the typical rock parking lot was filled with tiny beautiful turquoise chips.
I stepped inside the door marked “office” to discover a sales room filled with tables, multiple paint style buckets, and shelves full of all shapes and sizes of various minerals, including turquoise. It was dusty, and things were thrown about. It featured long forgotten sterling jewelry in a glass case that was discolored and unappealing.
This small room was loaded with so many inventories, yet it was still hard to fathom that this place represents some of the last remaining turquoise in the world. It became easier to grasp once we saw the prices and realized the value represented in this little showroom.
It is a family operated business and several generations worked in a small office in back of the tiny sales floor. They were knowledgeable and happily shared their hard earned years of knowledge about the mine, the stones, and history of the family business. They were helpful in guiding me though the selection process. It appeared that they were doing a hardy Internet business from this space.
I spent much time looking into buckets and through a vast amount of strands displayed on a pegboard wall. The natural turquoise they offered was beautiful, and I had to stop a moment and revel in the marvel of nature to have created this magnificent color within the earth, and how humans had been decorating themselves with stones beginning with early man.
I selected a bag full of what I thought was the perfect stones to be used in my jewelry designs. I covered my husband’s ears as they weighed the turquoise to compute the price in grams and I skipped merrily to the car with my prized sack heavy with stones.
As mentioned in the “All about our stones” section of the QuirkyGirlz website, turquoise is thought to be a healing stone with amazing cleansing effects. It helps to bring you peace of mind and clarity when meditating. It is said to improve intuition and increase your wisdom. In folklore, it is said that wearing this stone increases happiness, and its energy brings more friends into your life. Want to have a chance at winning the lottery, turquoise is the stone for you, it is said to bring the wearer great luck!
You will soon find these stones used in my necklace, earring and ring designs on my website and I look forward to your comments.
Now it’s your chance to chime in, what do you think about turquoise jewelry, what is your favorite stone used in jewelry? Tell us a little about yourself and your favorite day trip.
Until next time,