Chrysocolla. The gemstone Chrysocolla is often confused with turquoise. It is a copper bearing mineral found wherever copper deposits occur especially in areas of the southwestern USA, Chili, Zaire, Australia, France and England.
The most common substitutes for genuine Turquoise are Howlite and Magnesite. On the Mohs hardness scale, the hardness of Howlite is 3.5, and the hardness of Magnesite is 3.5-4.5.
Chrysocolla, on the other hand, is a copper silicate mineral, but has characteristics which bear many striking similarities to turquoise. The crystals are microcrystalline, and usually occur as vein-filling or as botryoidal masses. They may be opal-like in appearance.
Turquoise is a shade of blue that lies on the scale between blue and green. It has characteristics associated with both of these, such as the calmness of blue and the growth that is represented in green. Turquoise can also has the energy that yellow transmits, becoming an uplifting color.
Don't Be Scammed - How to Tell Real Turquoise From Fake Stone - (stabilized vs reconstituted)
What is the white rock that looks like turquoise?
Known scientifically as silico-boro-calcite, or white buffalo turquoise, howlite is a borate mineral gemstone that grows in irregular nodules. The nodules are most commonly referred to as cauliflower heads. These stones resemble marble or porcelain with their opaque white color and black and dark-brown veins.
How can you tell the difference between turquoise and magnesite?
Acetone Test
Gently rub the acetone on the stone in a circular motion. If the stone is actually dyed howlite/magnesite, you will be left with a white circle where you put the acetone. Genuine turquoise beads will not be affected by this test. If you don't end up with a white circle, congratulations!
Both Turquoise and Lapis Lazuli are opaque gems which have been used in jewels and ornaments for millennia. Perhaps less known than their traditional crystalline gem counterparts, both are actually rock aggregates which contain several minerals.
Fox turquoise runs a range of rich forest greens to soft blue, but is generally recognized for its teal and green stones, found as veins and nuggets. The Fox mine continues to be a successful producing mine today.
Fake turquoise is actually an absorbent white mineral called howlite. And this super absorbent mineral howlite can be dyed in almost any color imaginable. And when it's done right, it can be very difficult to know if what you have is real or fake.
Description. These Spiny Oyster Turquoise cabochons might be the perfect stone if you are looking for something a little different! They are made from turquoise and shells (a by-product from the seafood trade) compressed together and stabilised with resin.
Lapis lazuli is treasured the world over for its beautiful deep blue color. Variously described as indigo, royal, midnight, or marine blue, lapis lazuli's signature hue is slightly greenish blue to violetish blue, medium to dark in tone, and highly saturated.
Turquoise Coral Jewelry in the Southwest is a combination of Turquoise and Mediteranian Coral in the same piece of Jewelry. The Navajo and Zuni Native American Indians have been making Turquoise Coral Jewelry for nearly 100 years.
Since the earliest of times, lapis lazuli has been associated with strength and courage, royalty and wisdom, intellect and truth. From antiquity, lapis lazuli has been worn in the belief that it will ward off evil. In ancient Egypt, it was powdered and worn about the eyes to improve eyesight.
What is the difference between Larimar and turquoise?
Both Larimar and Turquoise have some pretty distinct patterns. Turquoise contains dark or brown veins and can have brown and grey spots throughout the stone, whereas Larimar has a smooth light blue surface decorated with a web of white lines/spots.
Lander Blue Spiderweb Turquoise is some of the rarest Turquoise on earth and in high demand, Buyers must beware of impersonators, the highest grade of Chinese Spiderweb Turquoise is often sold as Lander Blue Turquoise, it takes an experienced professional to detect true Lander Blue Turquoise.
If a stone is perfectly and completely deep blue, without any flecks of gold or streaks of white, the odds are that it is not real lapis lazuli. Ultimately, the best way to be sure that the piece you are purchasing is real is to buy from a reputable source and at a respectable price.
The fake Turquoise is usually made from howlite. It is a gray and white stone with dark gray veins. This can be dyed blue to look like the real Turquoise stone. Because the howlite stone has gray veins, when it is dyed blue it kind of looks like Turquoise.
To put it in layman terms, Variscite is a brighter green and typically has less complex matrix than its sister Turquoise. Variscite is usually seen to be on its own- it's a brighter green color- and we try to identify it as its own mineral.
The original definition of 'Turquenite', as used in lapidary and mineral trade since the 1970s is as an artificially-coloured blue variety of Howlite or Magnesite dyed to resemble Turquoise and sold as a (fake) gemstone, often as tumbled stones.
Weathered and broken trachyte is host to the turquoise, which is found both in situ between layers of limonite and sandstone and amongst the scree at the mountain's base. These workings are the oldest known, together with those of the Sinai Peninsula.
Howlite is an opaque white or light grey porous stone, marked with black, grey or dark brown veining. It does not facet well, but looks beautiful when carved into large shapes with curves (such as globes, eggs or skulls), or cut en cabochon .
Legend has it that Aquamarine is the treasure of mermaids. These lovely sea sprites gifted pieces of the gemstone to sailors they favored as a talisman of luck and protection. The ancient Romans considered Aquamarine to be the sacred stone of Neptune.
Pliny the Elder wrote that lapis lazuli is “opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold”. Because the stone combines the blue of the heavens and golden glitter of the sun, it was emblematic of success in the old Jewish tradition.