Turquoise!

If you read this blog regularly, you know my well-documented love of my home state's official stone: turquoise. I can never get enough of it! And I recently received a "pick box" from one of my new favorite suppliers.

A pick box is a box of stones sent by a stone dealer. You take what you went and send the rest back with a check. It's not as perfect as picking out your own stones at a show, because sometimes it's hard to communicate to the stone seller exactly what you want (size, depth, color, shape all figure into designing), but it's better than running out of stones, which almost happened...I broke a stone when setting it and I was sorting through my cabs for another stone, when I realized that I didn't have very many left in the sizes / shapes that I needed. So I requested the pick box.

Here are my recent spoils:

A bunch of good-lookers, no? These are all Chinese turquoise. I love the American turquoise but sometimes it's just too pricey, especially if I can't hand pick it. And there's nothing wrong with turquoise from Asia, as long as you know what to look for (sometimes "turquoise" is actually dyed howlite in costume - though that certainly isn't a problem just in China. It happens here too).

And a few more:

All slightly different, but all with great color and in the kind of loosely organic shapes I like.

Can't wait to get started with them! My fall schedule is heating up so it's time to get my torch on.  :)