African "Turquoise" Jasper
I bought some very nice African "turquoise" beads today. I knew they weren't really turquoise, on accounta I read a lot and all, but I couldn't remember what they really are and did a search to find out. I'm happy to say I got the actual substance right (jasper!), but I am less than happy to find that a HUGE number of people out there on the web are selling jewelry made with African "turquoise" as being actual, legitimate turquoise. It is not. Please do not pay turquoise prices for it or buy jewelry thinking you're getting turquoise when you are not.
As the title of this entry should tell you, African "turquoise" is actually a very common rock - jasper - and is completely unrelated to the stone it is often misrepresented as being. My Google search for "african turquoise" turned up 9,760 sites selling jasper beads, jewelry, or other ornamentation, and of those, easily 90% or more of the links I clicked misrepresented the stone as real turquoise, either out of mistaken belief that it is, or because they're trying to capitalize and make money fraudulently off of the name. It would not be nice of me to assume which, but I will say that I educate myself as well as possible on every stone I use in my jewelry, and I feel it is up to a seller to know and understand what one is selling and honestly disclose that to the buyer. A search for "african turquoise jasper" turned up a mere 2 pages of finds, and of those, at least 2 sites were there because of the proximity of the words "african turquoise" to the word jasper, not because the stone was fairly identified. In fact, they did not appropriately identify the stone as actually being jasper. Jasper is a member of the quartz group and ranges from 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, making it a somewhat sturdier rock than turquoise, but it is still far less expensive, and while african turquoise jasper is an acceptable substitute for actual turquoise if all you are concerned with is appearance, the difference in stones should certainly be reflected in a much lower price for jasper.
All of that being said, I will have both stabilized turquoise and african turquoise jasper earrings available as soon as I can get their photos ready. In the meantime, if you'd like to read more about jasper, please see this GemRocks jasper page, and to read more about semi-precious stones in general, see the Dragonfly semi-precious stone page, which I constantly update in an effort to educate the jewelry-buying public. I just posted a lot about turquoise a few days ago, along with descriptions of faustite and apple-green or green apple turquoise.
Ciao for now,
Jenie
As the title of this entry should tell you, African "turquoise" is actually a very common rock - jasper - and is completely unrelated to the stone it is often misrepresented as being. My Google search for "african turquoise" turned up 9,760 sites selling jasper beads, jewelry, or other ornamentation, and of those, easily 90% or more of the links I clicked misrepresented the stone as real turquoise, either out of mistaken belief that it is, or because they're trying to capitalize and make money fraudulently off of the name. It would not be nice of me to assume which, but I will say that I educate myself as well as possible on every stone I use in my jewelry, and I feel it is up to a seller to know and understand what one is selling and honestly disclose that to the buyer. A search for "african turquoise jasper" turned up a mere 2 pages of finds, and of those, at least 2 sites were there because of the proximity of the words "african turquoise" to the word jasper, not because the stone was fairly identified. In fact, they did not appropriately identify the stone as actually being jasper. Jasper is a member of the quartz group and ranges from 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, making it a somewhat sturdier rock than turquoise, but it is still far less expensive, and while african turquoise jasper is an acceptable substitute for actual turquoise if all you are concerned with is appearance, the difference in stones should certainly be reflected in a much lower price for jasper.
All of that being said, I will have both stabilized turquoise and african turquoise jasper earrings available as soon as I can get their photos ready. In the meantime, if you'd like to read more about jasper, please see this GemRocks jasper page, and to read more about semi-precious stones in general, see the Dragonfly semi-precious stone page, which I constantly update in an effort to educate the jewelry-buying public. I just posted a lot about turquoise a few days ago, along with descriptions of faustite and apple-green or green apple turquoise.
Ciao for now,
Jenie
posted by Jenie at 10:50 PM
2 Comments:
Interestingly enough, I was doing a search for african jasper, african turquoise jasper, african turquoise... and ran into the same problem finding good information. I love the back story of the gemstones that I buy and I try to read up on them as well. Thanks for the blog post!
Hey, thanks for the nice comment. :) Your jewelry is fabulous. :) (I had to go take a peek!) As a fellow craftsman, I appreciate you take the time to find out what you're working with. I think it makes you more responsible and ethical to do so. So props for you, and also for your mad skillz with the stones. :)
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