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07-04-2015 02:26 PM
07-04-2015 02:33 PM
I have one piece of SB turquoise. That's enough for me. It does look kind of fake to me. In fact I don't know how one could tell the difference between the real and plastic. So I don't buy any more. I preferred the interest that matrix provided. But it does seem to be quite popular. (I, too, am weary of hearing of the mine closing. All the artisans must have really stocked up before it closed!)
07-04-2015 02:38 PM
07-04-2015 03:00 PM
07-04-2015 03:11 PM
I think the color of the sleeping beauty is really nice. I have one ring from Evine and it is very nice it has amethyst with it. I also like it with blue topaz that combination is really nice. However at this point one sleeping beauty piece is enough for me for now.
07-04-2015 04:26 PM
I think in person, the SB stone doesn't look fake or plastic. Its vivid and vey real to my eye.
I really like the matrix in some stones and years ago when grandpa took me to Tombstone, AZ he found a ring for himself in the Bisbee Blue turquoise that was and is amazing. My brother inherited it and he wears it a lot. I'd include a picture here but I don't have one!
07-04-2015 05:29 PM
@Moonchilde wrote:
Most of the time, I like the color of Sleeping Beauty turquoise, although I am tired of the can't get any more, it'll soon be gone shtick from every place that sells it, not just QVC.
But in some pieces, like the TSV, all of the small stones make me think of plastic/fake or reconstituted turquoise because that is the color and size of stones that often are plastic, resin, reconstituted, dyed, etc and to me it looks cheap rather than what the designer intended. And when it's used in stamped, pre-made settings, it looks even more like tourist jewelry from the local five and dime.
The TSV is way too much neklace and looks overdone. Everyone has different taste but this is not a piece I would purchase. Less is more.
07-04-2015 06:59 PM
07-04-2015 07:26 PM - edited 07-04-2015 07:27 PM
Without either proper provenance or lab testing, a lot of stones are difficult to identify.
There are a lot of amazingly realistic fakes out there of both SB and any other turquoise one can think of.
Matrixing alone means nothing although for some people it causes them to think the stone looks more "from the earth" and therefore genuine.
Long gone are the days of cheapy fakes that almost looked like plastic hollow Easter egg plastic. lol
There is sooooooo much money in Native American-made jewelry, that some con artists go to great lengths to produce fakes on just as high a fake scale as some other forger might paint a Da Vinci that could fool a museum.
Lab testing can be fairly expensive. And they have to take the stone out generally. It can, though, usually tell you precisely what it is. Although, living in Santa Fe, its amazing how sometimes even those results can come out "inconclusive".
Simple tests which usually work - although never a guarantee - are to hold the stone to your (dry, clean) lips. It should be COLD or very cool as they touch your lips. Plastic and resins don't do that.
Another if you're more adventuresome is to take a needle, heat it up and find a spot on the stone that isn't too noticeable. Poke the needle at/into the stone. A true stone won't be penetrated. Plastic or resin will - and will leave a tiny needle mark or hole.
And there is something to developing one's EYE. Its like a picture of a fake next to a genuine stone can make them both look either real...or fake.
In person. you get to sort of feel the difference. You knd of develop an eye for the glow which a natural or genuine SB stone possesses (which a plastic or resin does not).
I hope some of that might be helpful to someone out there wandering the sometimes slippery streets of Turquoiseland.
07-04-2015 08:51 PM - edited 07-04-2015 09:01 PM
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