In the Museum
- Michael Jay Tucker's explosive-cargo
- May 1
- 5 min read
Okay, I left off last time saying that today I was going to give you a very brief, very quick overview of our visit to the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque. I also said that it was going to be just a teaser, and that I’d have to let you go see the place yourself.
So...we had just finished the video presentation from Jacob Lowry. The Guide then led us out of the glass enclosure in the lobby and into the first floor of the Museum. There are, I think I recall, two floors of the Museum...both very large.
The first thing we noticed as we came in was the enormous chandelier hanging from the second floor ceiling and all the way down to the first. It’s hard to describe (which is why I’m going to post a picture of it) but envision 93 long stands of line sporting no less than 25000 turquoise and glass beads. You stand under it and look up...and Up...and UP...wondering at the vast effort it required of the artist to string it all, and to get it all into place. (1)
We then moved into the Museum proper. I’m having a hard time remembering exactly what was where, but I recall there being on this floor a number of contemporary works of jewelry and art, as well as much technical material--for instance, displays on the chemistry of turquoise (exactly what makes it blue, anyway?), maps of where it’s mined, and exhibits on how it is graded and worked.
There was even a mock-up of a turquoise mine, which was fascinating, but which also reminded me that I am very glad that I don’t work in a mine...and (God willing) never will.
About the photos: A lot today. First, here’s a shot of the chandelier in the entrance. It is amazing. Second, an interior shot of one of the galleries on the second floor. Third, a huge turquoise piece from China. Fourth, Martha in another of the second floor galleries. And, finally, Martha and I both wearing turquoise. This was her birthday in 2024.
Anyway, we then worked our way up a long stairway past the chandelier to the second floor. (Just fyi, there is an elevator and we used it to get back down again. But you do have to ask a guide to help you with it.) Here, we found ourselves in a variety of other, additional galleries. The one we explored first was “The Global Gallery.” This has on display works of art--turquoise related, of course -- from all over the world. It was, honestly, fairly breathtaking.
I knew that turquoise is and has been used world-wide, but I guess I really didn’t understand the scope. For instance, I knew that you see turquoise a lot in Chinese art, but I was unaware that it was quite such a big deal in Iranian and Central Asian work...yet, there it was... front and center... a major part of Iranian jewelry, architecture, and objet d'art.(2)
Similarly, I knew that turquoise was a major part of the jewelry scene in Ancient Egypt -- Tutankhamun’s burial mask was richly inlaid with turquoise.(3) But, I didn’t realize that it was important in ancient Israel as well. Yet, in Exodus chapter 28, we have the High Priest’s breastplate described with, “Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be carnelian, chrysolite and beryl; the second row shall be turquoise, lapis lazuli and emerald; he third row shall be jacinth, agate and amethyst; the fourth row shall be topaz, onyx and jasper.”(4) Seems those High Priests were some snazzy dressers.
Then, of course, there’s South America and Mexico. Again, turquoise played an enormous role in local cultures. I’m given to believe that the Aztecs regarded the stone as an incarnation of fire, and crafted elaborate masks of it. I took a picture of myself standing next to one such and I’ll try to remember to post it here.
From there, we went into the “Southwest Gallery,” which contains (of course) jewelry and other works from the American Southwest. I loved the Global Gallery, but, I’m a New Mexican at heart, so I guess that was my favorite part of the Museum. I got some excellent photos there.
There was also another gallery that intrigued me -- the Imitation Gallery. Turquoise is, of course, a natural stone. That means there is a finite amount of it to be had. That, in turn, means it can get expensive. So, there’s serious motivation to find things that look like turquoise, but are cheaper, and to use that instead of the actual stone.
The bad news is that there’s a lot of stuff sold as “real” turquoise that isn’t turquoise at all, including some rather wretched blue-colored plastic. However, there are also some amazing alternatives to turquoise and some equally amazing variants of it.
To take one of the latter, all “real” (i.e., mined out of the ground or wherever) turquoise *is* turquoise--that is, it is chemically the same.(5) But not all turquoise looks and feels alike. “Gem Quality” turquoise is hard and has the famous blue to blue-green coloring. Other forms will be whitish and soft. Needless to say, the Gem-quality turquoise is way more expensive than the softer stone.
So, jewelers and their suppliers will sometimes “stabilize” the less expensive version. This involves subjecting the stone to high pressure while also injecting it with an epoxy or plastic filler. The result is a stone that’s a lot harder, and looks a lot more like Gem-quality turquoise.(6) I’m sure I’ve bought a lot of it, not knowing what it was.
Still...whatever I bought looked great, and particularly so if it was on Martha, so I’m not going to worry about it.
Anyway, after we finished our tour of the second floor, we realized we were getting tired, and so headed down the elevator, and were headed toward the exit.
But, there was still just a little more to come.
Footnotes:
1. The Museum has a video you can watch on the chandelier which you can see here: https://turquoisemuseum.com/turquoise-chandelier-story/. In it, Joe Dan describes the chandelier and its painstaking construction. The chandelier is also mentioned in the previously referenced article, “Turquoise Museum takes over castle,” by Hayley Estrada, NM News Port, April 29, 2019, https://newmexiconewsport.com/turquoise-museums-takes-over-castle/
2. Turquoise’s entry in Wikipedia notes that turquoise was the Persian “de facto national stone for millennia, extensively used to decorate objects (from turbans to bridles), mosques, and other important buildings both inside and out...” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquoise#History_of_use
3. See the Wikipedia page, “The Mask of Tutankhamun,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask_of_Tutankhamun
4. I picked this translation off the web more or less at random. But, it seems effective, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2028&version=NIV
5. Specifically, it is “a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O,” or so says Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquoise#Formation
6. Again, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquoise#Stabilization
Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker
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