Golden Hills turquoise is one of the most distinctive stones in the case, and one of the easiest to recognise once you have seen it. The colour is a pale, soft powder blue — sometimes tipping toward lavender — and it is laced with an exceptionally fine chocolate-brown spiderweb matrix. The webbing is the point: it is thinner and more evenly distributed than almost any other turquoise, so the stone reads as a delicate pattern rather than as a block of colour.
It comes from Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, and we say so plainly. Almost everything else in this store is Arizona or Nevada stone, and Golden Hills looks like neither — which is exactly why it is here. The whole point of buying turquoise by mine is that origin and appearance are linked: with a little practice you can tell a Kingman from a Royston from a Golden Hills across a room. A stone worth naming is worth naming accurately, wherever it was dug.
Because the colour is so soft, Golden Hills behaves differently from a strong blue like Sleeping Beauty. It suits lighter, more delicate settings, cluster work and pieces where the silver is detailed, and it photographs paler than it looks in the hand.
How to judge it: the web should be fine, continuous and evenly spread, not clumped into a few heavy veins. The blue should be clean rather than grey or chalky, and the surface should take a proper polish — soft turquoise that has been over-buffed goes slightly dull and waxy. As with any turquoise in this price range, if you want to know how a particular stone has been treated, ask us about that piece.
This is a small collection of around 60 pieces, handmade with natural stones in sterling silver. See the full turquoise collection and the Turquoise Guide. Family owned in Old Town Scottsdale since 1979; free US shipping over $99, and 14-day returns with 30-day exchanges on online orders.