? In fact, they are Hetian jade, Dushan jade, Xiuyan jade, and turquoise!

There is a kind of jade that is not called jade, but called stone. It is shaped like a pine cone and has a color close to turquoise. It is turquoise. In recent years, more and more jewelry lovers have been attracted by this touch of blue-green.

How popular is turquoise?

Turquoise is a mineral composed of water, copper and aluminum phosphates. The types and proportions of the minerals vary slightly. It shows different colors such as blue, blue-green, green, yellow-green and so on.

Turquoise is one of the oldest jade stones in the world. From ancient times to the present, through the long river of history, turquoise has witnessed the development and progress of human civilization.

In China, there are many legends about turquoise. According to legend, the place where Nuwa mended the sky was the mining area that produced turquoise. The "five-color stone" refers to turquoise.

As early as the Neolithic Age, turquoise products appeared in my country, and the ancients called them "Bidianzi" and "Qinglanghu". In ancient times, turquoise was a symbol of nobility, and it was usually found only in the palace.

In Tibet, turquoise has a strong religious color. Tibetans believe that turquoise is the incarnation of God and has irresistible divine power. It is often used on Buddhist beads.

Abroad, turquoise is still used as a talisman to ward off evil spirits and has a long history of mining. The Egyptian pharaohs wore turquoise as early as 5500 AD.

The former First Lady Hillary often wore turquoise to attend various occasions.

Teach you how to choose turquoise

China is an important producer of turquoise, accounting for about 60-70% of the world's output. Among them, Shiyan, Hubei is the most important turquoise producing area.

For a long time, the light of turquoise was overshadowed by other kinds of jade, and the price never reached the highest level. However, in the past ten years, turquoise has increased by at least ten times, making turquoise the first choice for collection.

When purchasing turquoise, color, hardness, clarity, texture, and the presence of iron wires are all considerations.

The highest grade of turquoise is porcelain pine grade, also known as Persian grade. This kind of turquoise has a uniform natural color, high hardness, strong gloss, and a condensed porcelain luster.

The color of second-grade turquoise is mostly dark blue, blue-green, and emerald green. The texture is relatively hard and the gloss is strong. The price is slightly lower than the first-grade grade.

The color of third-grade turquoise is generally lighter, light blue, light white, etc., with poor hardness. It is rare in the market. Unscrupulous merchants often use third-grade turquoise dyeing and then pass it off as high-quality turquoise. Be careful when buying!

Turquoise counterfeiting

Like colored gemstones, some turquoises on the market have also been optimized. As the price of turquoise rises, synthetic and counterfeit products also appear.

Manual processing

Strictly speaking, the optimization processing of turquoise should be divided into two aspects: optimization and manual processing. Optimization is accepted by the market, while manual processing requires special labeling.

We all know that turquoise generally has a low hardness, and very few of them reach the porcelain pine level, so 90% turquoise has been optimized. Generally, in the last step of processing turquoise, optimization and waxing are carried out to increase the gloss of turquoise and also to protect it.

There are also some manual processing methods? Glue dipping and glue filling.

Dip refers to soaking raw turquoise ore or semi-finished products in colorless resin. After the turquoise has completely absorbed the resin, it is then heated in an oven to solidify the resin.

Glue filling, also known as "glue injection", refers to adding crispy foam pine or white pine that is not a turquoise family to colored pigments, melting it at high temperature and then sealing and exhausting it. After processing, it is mixed with high-quality turquoise resemblance.

Turquoise processing, processing, and synthesis are so common, I think everyone must have doubts: How to make a preliminary identification when purchasing?

For optimized turquoise, the main methods are water measurement, refractive index, and visual inspection.

Water test method: Untreated turquoise will absorb water immediately, turquoise dipped in glue or wax will be difficult to absorb, and turquoise injected with glue will not absorb it at all.

Refractive index: The refractive index reflects the amount of mineral impurities. Generally, the refractive index of glue-filled turquoise will be lower than 1.61.

In addition, each natural turquoise bead is different, and if each bead looks like it is carved from the same mold, it can basically be judged that it has been processed.

Synthetic

In addition to optimized processing, there is also synthetic turquoise. The main raw material of synthetic turquoise is ceramics or materials similar to surrounding rocks. They are very similar in physical and chemical properties, and some even look more beautiful than turquoise.

(The picture shows synthetic turquoise)

For synthetic turquoise, we can judge it by its color, composition, structure, etc.

Natural turquoise is rich in color and unevenly distributed, while synthetic turquoise is single and dull in color.

Under the microscope, natural turquoise has small patches and gaps, while synthetic turquoise has a uniform composition.

(The picture shows synthetic turquoise)

The natural iron wires of turquoise are an important point that distinguishes it from other jade. The naturally formed iron wires are unevenly distributed and have a concave and convex feel. The lines of artificial iron wire are uniform, stiff, and have no three-dimensional effect.

In fact, there are some stones similar to turquoise in nature, such as gibbsite, chrysocolla, etc.

Gibbsite is lighter in color, has a glassy luster, and smells like earthy turquoise.

Chrysocolla is brighter in color and slightly more transparent. It turns black when heated.