Cocos (Keeling) Islands Turquoise Bridal Fashion Ring Earring Necklace Bracelet Gold Jewellery. By Aamir Mannan.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands Turquoise Bridal Fashion Ring Earring Necklace Bracelet Gold Jewellery.

By Aamir Mannan.

Some natural blue to blue-green materials, such as this botryoidal chrysocolla with drusy quartz, are occasionally confused with, or used to imitate turquoise.

The Egyptians were the first to produce an artificial imitation of turquoise, in the glazed earthenware product faience. Later glass and enamel were also used, and in modern times more sophisticated porcelain, 

plastics, and various assembled, pressed, bonded, and sintered products (composed of various copper and aluminium compounds) have been developed: examples of the latter include "Viennese turquoise", made from precipitated aluminium phosphate coloured by copper oleate; and "neolith", a mixture of bayerite and copper phosphate. Most of these products differ markedly from natural turquoise in both physical and chemical properties, but in 1972 Pierre Gilson introduced one fairly close to a true synthetic (it does differ in chemical composition owing to a binder used, meaning it is best described as a simulant rather than a synthetic). Gilson turquoise is made in both a uniform colour and with black "spiderweb matrix" veining not unlike the natural Nevada material.