Twist on Turquoise

Although often mistaken by fakes such as Howlite, Chrysocolla, and Magnesite (which are all natural gemstones in their own rights), Turquoise is generally very distinctive with its vivid blue-green color and smooth, waxy appearance. One of the most beautifully colored of all stones; turquoise is a phosphate that combines copper and aluminum. The copper causes the exquisite blue-green, but the color varies from green to yellowish gray. Pale sky blue, such as the most sought after Sleeping Beauty, is the most cherish gem color; especially when infused with fine veins of impurities that show it is natural and not artificial.

For thousands of year, the best Turquoise came from the deserts of Persia and was known as Persian Turquoise. In the late 1800’s, deposits of Turquoise were discovered in the American southwest, and this is now the world’s prime source of high-quality ‘Persian’ Turquoise.

Southwest turquoise mines cover Nevada (where the majority of turquoise deposits are found), Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado; with one lone mine in California.
Nevada hosts the majority of the turquoise mines such as Valley Blue, #8, Montezuma, Zuni, Lone Mountain, Red Mountain, and Godber just to name a few. Arizona of course has the famed Kingman and Sleeping Beauty mines along and Colorado has Cripple Creek, Kind’s Manassa and Leadville. And of course the lone mine of San Bernardino in California rounds out the southwestern turquoise mines.

Of course, the American Southwest is not the only place to find Turquoise. Excellent mine finds have come out of China, Mexico and parts of Africa.

This piece highlighted here is a twist on the old Turquoise favorite matched with Picture Jasper. I’ve highlighted some of the Picture Jasper stones with non-tarnish brass wire swirls. Dangle hoops complete this causal yet classy look in the same turquoise and picture jasper gemstones.







Traditional Gemstone Properties
Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.

Unusual Gemstone Combination

Blue Peruvian Opal and Citrine gemstones; Dichroic Pendant and Swarovski Crystals
Visit Timeless Designs for more details.

Timeless Designs custom jewelry Sale ends soon --- hurry to get in on the great deals!

Dichroic Pendant Pearls Quartz Crystals

Sail into spring with this lovely little number; wear it as a casual accent topping of that adventure or to dress up that spring attire for a day or evening on the town.

Streaming in shades of yellow and brassy gold; set off by a focal pendant of dichroic glass in dramatic shades of gold, greens and blues; pulling the colors of the Caribbean waters in Swarovski crystals of blue, cantaloupe (which changes colors with the refraction of light) and light yellow jonquil. Nestled between teardrops of freshwater cultured pearls in light and dark yellowish gold, butterscotch Quartz nugget gemstones and handcrafted links and toggle in non-tarnish brass wire. Top it all off with a set of dangle hoop earrings in matching pearls and crystals.

Another Timeless Designs uniquely handcrafted jewelry piece!

Turquoise Onyx

Beautiful black Onyx mixed among nuggets of blue Turquoise, sterling silver spacers and accented by a large square Turquoise pendant that has very nice dark/black matrix veining and accompanied by pewter end-caps. The matching earrings are dangling charm style from a round hoop and fishhook.






Traditional Gemstone Properties

Onyx: Self-control, decision making, intuition, recognition of personal strengths.
Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.

Visit our website for this necklace set and many other designs using natural gemstone that have been highlighted with wire sculpture.

Red Mexican Fire Agate

This lovely necklace set is made from Red Mexican Fire Agate with beautiful graining in deep reds, rusts, and browns against a pale creamy background. They have been accented by Red Jasper well beads, gold lined glass seed beads and gunmetal daisy spacers; with handcrafted non-tarnish gunmetal wire coil links bring the look all together. The matching pair of earrings is done in a dangle from silver toned posts.



Traditional Gemstone Properties:
Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening talents.

Jaspers: Protection, nurturing, joy, awareness; balancing of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies.


Visit our website for this necklace set and many other one-of-kind wire sculpture and gemstone jewelry.

Tucson in Review

A week in Tucson, the weather was great at about 80 degrees everyday; vendors were wonderful and I was able to find many new and unusual stones for new designs this year! Whew, it was a wild and long week, hand picking thru all the merchandize, looking for that perfect strand that reflected the personalities of many of my great clients!

The week started out by visiting across the freeway from the Tucson Convention Center to the Street Vendors….miles and miles of vendors selling wears; anything from raw materials strait from the mines, polished undrilled stones to strands of beads; for as far as the eyes could see! The afternoon was spent at JOGS a favorite buying ground for many wholesale purchases. They play host to many international dealers from as far away as Poland for Amber to China for Pearls and many great U.S. dealers from AZ, NM, TX, CA, and NY. Here you could find many types of stones, finished jewelry pieces and geodes of many shapes and sizes.


The next several days included highlights to GL&W shows Gem Mall and Holidome, JGX (a miniture AGTA show), and back to JOGs and the Street Vendors.

Many great finds from deep red coral, apple red sponge coral, turquoise, ivoryite, pipestone, white magnesite (howlite), lapis, crystals, freshwater cultured pearls, agates, jaspers, pendants, copper, sterling silver and gold vermeil findings and on the very last day I was able to come across some Wild Horse Magnesite – WOW, what a find direct from mine!!



I’m very excited to begin designing with the unusual cuts, colors and stones that I found in Tucson! In the coming weeks I’ll be premiering the designs here on the blog and also on our website. For now, I’ll be busy over the next few days getting everything inventoried and then begin working in the studio!


In the meantime, over the next few weeks we will continue to mark down and deeply discount existing designs to make room for our new ones! Get in on some great deals while you can, before the original pieces and Sale are gone gone gone!

Making Room For Tucson Designs

Well, it was a great week in Tucson; weather was bright sunny 80 degree days, with lots of shopping! And now we need to make room for some of the upcoming designs from all the unique and fantastic stones we bought in Tucson.

Just in time for Valentine's Day too, check out our Sales Section for deeply discounted necklaces, sets, and earrings (Sale only available thru our website) --- help us make room for some incredible new designs, as each day we will be adding more to this section ...... and stay tuned, we'll be premiering our new designs over the coming weeks!