Turquoise Birthstone Fashion Stylish Jewellery In Iran 34

Turquoise Birthstone Fashion Stylish Jewellery In Iran.

 By Aamir Mannan 

The use of Prussian blue and other dyes (often in conjunction with bonding treatments) to "enhance"—that is, make uniform or completely change—colour is regarded as fraudulent by some purists, especially since some dyes may fade or rub off on the wearer. Dyes have also been used to darken the veins of turquoise.

Perhaps the most extreme of treatments is "reconstitution", wherein fragments of fine turquoise material, too small to be used individually, are powdered and then bonded with resin to form a solid mass. Very often the material sold as "reconstituted" turquoise is artificial, with little or no natural stone, made entirely from resins and dyes. In the trade "reconstituted" turquoise is often called "block" turquoise or simply "block."

Since finer turquoise is often found as thin seams, it may be glued to a base of stronger foreign material as a means of reinforcement. These stones are termed "backed," and it is standard practice that all thinly cut turquoise in the Southwestern United States is backed. Native indigenous peoples of this region, because of their considerable use and wearing of turquoise, have found that backing increases the durability of thinly cut slabs and cabs of turquoise. They observe that if the stone is not backed it will often crack. Early backing materials included the casings of old model T

batteries, old phonograph records, and more recently epoxy steel resins. Backing of turquoise is not widely known outside of the Native American and Southwestern United States jewellery trade. Backing does not diminish the value of high quality turquoise, and indeed the process is expected for most thinly cut American commercial gemstones.