Boulder turquoise is not a mine. It is a way of cutting. Turquoise forms as seams and nodules inside a much larger mass of host rock, and normally a cutter’s job is to free the blue from the brown and throw the brown away. Boulder turquoise is what you get when the cutter decides the brown is worth keeping and shapes the whole thing — blue seam and surrounding rock together — into a single cabochon.
The result is that each stone carries a visible record of how it actually sat in the ground. A vein of blue might wander across a field of tan and rust; a nodule might sit in the middle of it like an island. It is the most geological-looking material we sell, and it is entirely one of a kind by definition — you cannot cut two boulder stones the same way twice because no two pieces of ground are the same.
How to judge it: the host rock has to be sound. Good boulder material takes the same polish as the turquoise itself and sits flush with it; poor material is soft, pits under the buff, or crumbles at the edge of the bezel, and no amount of pretty pattern makes up for it. Look for a clear, confident blue that holds its own against the brown rather than being swamped by it, and for a composition that looks deliberate — the cutter chose where to place that vein.
This is a small collection of around 38 pieces, handmade with natural stones and set in sterling silver, mostly single-stone rings, pendants and cuffs where one strong cabochon carries the piece.
If the interplay of stone and matrix is what appeals, see also Royston turquoise, which carries heavy golden-brown matrix of its own. Browse the full turquoise collection or read the Turquoise Guide. Old Town Scottsdale since 1979 — (480) 949-1101.