Addendums: What is Turquoise? And Could We Make It?
- Michael Jay Tucker's explosive-cargo
- May 8
- 5 min read
Hi, Something very different today. You know last time we were just exiting the Turquoise Museum? Well, before we move on, I thought I’d offer you some background info on Turquoise. Like what is it? And could we make it in a lab?
So, without further ado, here’s some Turquoise backgrounders.
A) What’s Turquoise...and where does it come from?
Okay, what *is* Turquoise is and where does it comes from. First of all, obviously, it is a gem-stone and a decorative stone (an unusual combination, I’m told) and it has long been prized. It is, I gather, one of the oldest continually used gem stones in human history.
Scientists define it as “an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminum, with the chemical formula CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O.” (1) Apparently, it’s formed via a complicated process by which water, rich in copper and other minerals, seeps into rocks through cracks and crevices. Over time, these minerals combine with elements like aluminum and phosphorus in the surrounding environment. The result is turquoise.
We think of it as being one color (blue, blue-green) and we also think of it as being a fairly hard stone. This is, I’m told, far from the truth. Turquoise ranges in color from deep blue to white, and in hardness from flinty to chalk-like softness. The harder and bluer the stone, the more costly it is. Soft stones can’t be used as jewelry (they fall apart at the first opportunity) and they tend to have unattractive coloration.
As an aside, there is an enormous industry devoted to taking lower grade turquoise and making it usable for jewelers and artisans. This involves injecting the stone with plastic or epoxy to make it harder, and colors to give it a better color. More about this later.
Anyway, that’s what turquoise is and where it comes from. But, something of interest. It turns out that sometimes that same metal-rich water that becomes turquoise in stone can play a role in fossils. A fossil, of course, is what you get when bone and other organic material is gradually replaced by stone over the course of many millennia.
Well, it turns out that when bones become stone in this way, sometimes...rarely, but sometimes...the material that replaces the organic matter is the same material that becomes turquoise or turquoise-like rock, technically known as Odontolite. Thus, you have a fossil that looks like any other fossil -- a bone, a whole skeleton, a leaf --but it is made of turquoise.
In a word, whoa.
I’m thus left with the dream that somewhere, someday, some lucky rockhound is going to break open a rock...and find a T.Rex skull...
As blue as the Aegean, and as glorious as a whole museum full of wonders.
About the photos: I was startled by how few photos I have that are just turquoise. That being the case, for my first photograph today, I’m using this one by Tim Evanson. It is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en). The image is of a “...fine Cerrillos Turquoise specimen at the Smithsonian” Museum. You can see it here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turquoise_Cerillos_Smithsonian.jpg
Second, here is an example of imitation Odontolite. You’ll recall that natural Odontolite is a fossil which is made of turquoise or something like it. But it can also be simulated. Artists will soak natural bones in solutions of copper to give them the greenish-blue look of Odontolite. This photo, which I *did* take, is the work of Mark Ruzicka. This particular piece is in the Turquoise Museum.
Finally, no turquoise, but at least it has a Southwestern Vibe. Here’s a photo of Martha at the Albuquerque Museum back in 2018. And, again, this is my own photo.
II) Can we make Turquoise?
One quick aside. Something I’ve always wondered about is whether it would be possible to manufacture Turquoise in a lab or factory. I even asked the guide about it when we were at the Turquoise Museum. I don’t think he’d ever heard of any effort to do so, and instead shifted the topic of conversation to treated Turquoise and Turquoise-substitutes (glass, plastic, and so on). He was extremely knowledgable on this and I rather enjoyed what he had to say.
However, what I meant was whether or not we could produce “real” turquoise -- that is, turquoise that was chemically identical to mined turquoise, but produced artificially, the way that we can produce other gemstones, such as rubies and diamonds.
Oh, and I’ve a couple of good reasons for my interest. First, there is some weird part of me that always worries about resource exhaustion. Give me a break. I grew up during the Oil Crisis of the 1970s.
Second, I have a cousin...well, technically, a first cousin once removed...who runs with her husband the company “Frank Darling,” a jewelry business that offers both mined and “lab” diamonds.(2) Now, when I say “lab” diamonds, I mean they are “real” diamonds. They are chemically identical to any other diamond. They’re just not dug out of the ground.
Which is a good thing in that it removes the risk your buying a “blood diamond” -- i.e., a diamond mined and sold by a criminal enterprise or a terrorist organization. You’d be surprised how many blood diamonds are in the world.
Anyway, check out Frank Darling when you get a chance: https://frankdarling.com/
But, I was wondering whether you could also manufacture turquoise. Well, after a bit of searching, I’ve learned that you can. Just this week I ran across a paper by Hiroaki Onoda and Ayaka Nishimura in the journal Cerâmica entitled “Preparation of artificial turquoise pellets by hydrothermal hot pressing method.” It describes a method of doing pretty much exactly that -- i.e., a way method of producing a jewelry-quality turquoise in a lab.(3)
The paper is waaaay beyond my understanding of the technology. But, I gather that the researchers took the chemicals that make up natural turquoise, combined them under heat and pressure, and produced a powder that looks and acts like fine particles of natural turquoise. They then used “hydrothermal hot pressing” to turn the powder into larger pieces -- pellets. The same techniques could be used to produce a jewelry-quality turquoise that would rival mined turquoise.
So there you have it. Someday, when we have finally mined every tiny bit of turquoise out the earth (heaven grant that it isn’t soon), maybe we’ll still have turquoise jewelry.
I suppose there is something a little sad in that. Still, maybe there’s something hopeful, too. At least I know that our most remote descendants, even if they are steel and silicon, will still be able to boast a pair of lovely turquoise earrings or a wonderful turquoise bolo tie...
Even if the sun itself is red, and the sky...unlike the stone...is no longer even remotely...
Blue.
Footnotes
1. Turquoise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquoise
2. I’ve seen examples of Frank Darling’s work. It is rather beautiful. That is not easy for me to say because, well, honestly, I don’t like diamonds...at least not blue-white ones. I’d much rather see semiprecious stones or, of course, my beloved turquoise, silver, coral, and spiny oyster.
That said, I do admire what Frank Darling does. The webpage is here: https://frankdarling.com/
3. “Preparation of artificial turquoise pellets by hydrothermal hot pressing method,” Hiroaki Onoda and Ayaka Nishimura, Department of Informatics and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, 1-5, Shimogamo Nakaragi-cyo, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8522, Japan SCImago, Cerâmica, 2024, Volume 70, https://doi.org/10.1590/PPJA9080
Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker
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