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About Turquoise Beads
Native American Turquoise Bead History
Prehistoric Indians mined turquoise and turned it into jewelry, primarily drilled turquoise beads and other hanging ornaments. They made green Turquoise beads, blue turquoise beads in all kinds of shapes and designs such as turquoise nugget beads which they turned into turquoise bead jewelry and loose turquoise beads that were used for gifts and ceremony. However, archeological findings include appliqué on shell and other rock, which means that turquoise was probably used with wood for ear decoration as well (the wood would have deteriorated). Extensive evidence of prehistoric mining operations has been found in several areas: the Cerillos and Burro Mountain regions of New Mexico, the Kingman and Morenci regions of Arizona, and the Conejos area of Colorado. The Cerrillos and Conejos areas mainly produced Green turquoise beads. The Kingman and Morenci areas produced mainly blue turquoise beads. Turquoise bead jewelry found in southern Mexico and loose turquoise beads found in excavated mounds east of the Mississippi has been identified as originating from New Mexico’s Cerillos mining area.
The most famous of the Native American Vintage Turquoise Bead Jewelry finds was located at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. Here archeologists found a large amount of ancient Anasazi Loose Turquoise Beads, Turquoise bead jewelry, along with pottery, tools and more. The same types of turquoise bead deposits were found in several of the mining claims in the Cerrillos Mining District outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Turquoise beads, Turquoise nugget beads, and Turquoise bead jewelry found also included Arizona Blue Turquoise Beads, Nevada Green Turquoise Beads.
In Last 200 years the major producers of turquoise beads have been the Santo Domingo American Indians. The Santo Domingos have been a staple in Southwestern Jewelry and known for their wonderful handmade blue turquoise beads and green turquoise beads. The Santo Domingos make mostly handmade heishi style turquoise beads which they string individually or in multi strand necklaces.
More information on Santo Domingo Turquoise Bead Jewelry | Buy Turquoise Bead Jewelry
Egyptian Turquoise Bead Jewelry History
Did you know that archaeologists excavated the oldest group of Turquoise Jewelry and turquoise beads known in the world at the cemetery of the royal tombs at Abydos, in upper Egypt? Gold and blue Turquoise bead jewelry, green turquoise beads, loose turquoise beads and turquoise gold jewelry among other items, found are now in the Cairo Museum. These items are claimed to be from approximately 5500 B.C. or earlier.
The Egyptian loved turquoise. They made many, many turquoise beads. Some of these beads date back to 5500 B.C. The Egyptians made many kinds of Turquoise beads such as, barrel beads, heishi, and roundel beads. Most of these were blue Turquoise beads, but they also made some green Most of these beads were mixed with Carnelian, obsidian, glass and Moss agate beads. The Egyptian wore turquoise bead earrings, turquoise bead bracelets and turquoise bead necklaces, they loved to adorn themselves with turquoise bead jewelry.
Tibetan Turquoise Bead History
Mined from the Himilayas, Tibetan Turquoise is the most sought after type of turquoise for its beautiful colors, veins, and its cultural significance among the Tibetan and Nepalese people. Turquoise is found on nearly all types of jewelry, including turquoise bead jewelry worn by the the various ethnic groups that live among the Himilayas, and continues today to be a highly valued item.
Turquoise, with its unique sky blue hue, is among the oldest known gemstones. It graced the necks of Egyptian Pharaohs and adorned the ceremonial dress of early native Americans as well as Tibetans and has been attributed with healing powers, prosperity and spirituality. Turquoise beads were the first form of adornment made by humans.
It is a known fact that every person in Tibet and Napal owns at least one piece of Turquoise. Many have vast amounts of turquoise beads, Turquoise bracelets, Turquoise pendants, Turquoise earrings, Turquoise rings, even Turquoise encrusted headstalls for their horses. Most tibetans wear blue turquoise beads or green turquoise beads on a daily basis and have had this practice for thousands of years. They wear turquoise bead earrings, turquoise bead bracelets, and turquoise bead necklaces. They use loose turquoise beads as gifts and for ceremonial purposes. Now a days many of these wonderful beads are faked with Chinese turquoise beads.
Chinese Turquoise Beads Past & Present
Chinese Turquoise beads have been a part of Asian culture for thousands of years. The Chinese, in contrast to the Tibetans and Americans like their beads to be clear blue or "pure turquoise", so most of the chinese turquoise beads of the past were clear blue turquoise beads. Chinese turquoise beads of the past were often refined shapes, and especially popular were the round turquoise beads. Today the Chinese turquoise beads come in green turquoise beads, blue turquoise beads, turquoise nugget beads, loose turquoise beads, round turquoise beads, turquoise disc beads, and any other shape and color you can imagine. Unfortunately, these days China is more known for producing fake turquoise beads, and turquoise beads made from howlite or other substances than turquoise. The Chinese to funny things to turquoise beads, they dye them pink, purple, darker blue, lime green, red... sky is the limit. It is hard these days to find natural Chinese Turquoise beads.
Cutting Handmade Beads Much Like a Turquoise Bead
Preparing the Rough Stone for Cutting
Choose your stones then figure out:
If you have a piece of stone large enough to just slice it up into various size squares, this is all you need to do.
If you are using small pieces of rough stone, which you can only get one, two or three beads out of, then this process is a lot more involved.
On a flat lap, face the rough on the side that will produce the largest bead blank. Knowing that in the final shaping process you will lose some material from the side of the bead.
After grinding the rough to thickness, then saw or grind a flat face to do your layout from. Working from this face, with the use of a dial caliper and a carpenter square, lay out lines on the stone to show the largest square that you can get. With the use of a 4" trim saw, cut along the lines you laid out. After sawing the blank from the rough, if you have not ground the second side of the bead blank, then grind it flat and parallel to its opposite side.
Drilling The Bead
Some bead makers drill
their bead blanks by visually drilling at or near the center of
the blank. We think it is best if you measure and mark the center
of each bead blank prior to drilling. In doing this you will nearly
always get the maximum size finished bead from your blank. If you are using material that costs up to $200.00 dollars a gram this
is a must as far as we are concerned.
For drilling,
you can use the "Daniel Lopacki"set up as he describes
on his website (www.lopacki.com),
which is a diamond drills in conjunction with a Foredom with a #30
handpiece a Foredom drill press and a table top variable speed control.
He uses a brass water tray that screws to the drill press table
with a thumb screw from below, and in the bottom of this tray he
has adhered with dop wax a piece of a hard stone slab. The reason
for the hard stone in the bottom is two fold: It gives you something
very flat to place the bead blank on and it reduces blow out to
a minimum. Blow out results from the pressure of the drill point
breaking a circular portion from the bottom of the blank just before
it drills through.
You can drill your blanks with them submerged in water, but you will need to change the water in the tray quite often so you can see the layout lines.
You can avoid this problem by making a pressurized water system from an ordinary garden sprayer, a valve that I purchased at the hardware store, and a small hypodermic needle.
With
this system you can direct the flow of the water precisely where
you want it to go. With a drain hole in the tray, you will always
have clear water to see the layout lines on the bead blank.
If needed, to achieve a standard size hole you should drill your first hole undersize. Then come back and drill it with the desired sized hole drill. This results in a hole that is the same size in every bead blank.
If you want a large sized hole start with 1 mm and then step up to finish size i.e. 1mm / 1.25mm / 1.5mm / finish at 2mm. The logic for doing this, it is much easier and quicker for the 1mm drill face to penetrate than the 2 mm. Once you have the initial 1mm hole all other holes go very quick, usually a matter of a few seconds. Not to mention you have less of a chance of a stone blowout on the back side.
The recommended speed of the drill is about 3,000 to 4,000 RPM for the .75 mm diamond drill. As the diameter of the drill increases, the speed should come down accordingly 2.5 mm about 1500 RPM. Excessive speed keeps the water from reaching the bottom of the hole.
Diamonds create ultra fine dust as they drill, so it is a must that you clear the drill quite often -- drill down a little bit and then raise the drill out of the hole, repeating this process until you are through the bead blank.
Please note: The deeper you drill the less time you can keep the tip at the bottom of the hole as it is very hard for the dust to work up out of the hole.
Remember,
too high of speed or not keeping the hole washed out will result
in the diamond plating burning off the drill shaft.
ROUNDING
Daniel Lopacki has developed a fixture for rounding the blanks one at a time. In using this fixture you lose some time in the process of rounding each blank, but your end result on any given bead is the largest bead possible from that blank, again if you are using expensive
He found that you can achieve near-perfect rounds for a whole strand in as little as an hour using this fixture. Even if it takes two or three hours to get your near-perfect rounds, the time it saves in the next step of the process more than makes up for the time spent in rounding.
The fixture is very simple to make: all it requires is a pin vise, a piece of metal bent at a ninety-degree angle with a slotted hole on one side.
The reason for the slotted hole is so you can adjust the height of the pin vise so that its center sits just below the center of the grinding wheel.
You will need to secure the pin vise to the slotted metal piece. Daniel's choice is the screw clamp that is commonly used to secure electrical wires going into a knock-out box.
Once your fixture is made you will need to drill and thread a hole in the side of your splash pan for mounting the fixture to your machine. Bolt the fixture to your machine tight enough to allow it to move backward and forward, but not loose enough to allow the grinding process to push the blank away from the wheel.
Pull the
fixture away from the wheel, place a bead blank onto the pin in
the pin vise (the pin should be slightly smaller than the hole size),
slowly push the fixture forward until the blank touches the wheel,
then slowly turn the blank around with your fingers. The result
will be an almost perfect tube that is ready for the next step in
the process.
SHAPING
Shaping is the process that literally makes or breaks the beads that you are making. If you are trying to achieve a smooth symmetrical bead, you need to shape each half of the bead exactly the same. In order to do this consistently, it takes practice, practice and more practice!
You will eventually get to the point where you will be able to shape a bead with only one hand and with excellent results.
First you want to choose a pin for the pin vise that is just slightly smaller than the hole in your bead and just loose enough for the bead to spin freely. You will need to keep a moist bar of soap on hand, as this is used to lubricate the bead on the pin.
You will use a soft stone "spinner bead", below any bead you are working on. This spinner bead keeps the pin vise from cutting a groove into your bead as it spins.
It is preferable to work with bead blanks starting with the thickest and working down to the thinnest. The reason for doing this is that you want the tip of the pin to be just below the top of the bead face. If you start with the thick beads and work your way down, you just have to lower the pin in the vise from time to time.
Place your spinner bead on the pin, rub the pin on the moist soap bar and place your bead blank on the pin. Then loosen the pin vise just enough to allow you to push the pin just below the surface of the blank. This done, tighten the pin vise.
Start the
shaping process by holding the pin vise as near vertical as possible
to the grinding wheel and lightly touching the edge of the blank
just below the center of the wheel, the blank will start spinning.
Break the edge a little and then tilt the blank inward toward the
hole, as you do this apply a small amount of pressure against the
wheel. This will start the grinding process and also keep the bead
spinning. Make it a point to shape beads right down to the hole,
as this allows you to grind off any blow out that resulted from
the drilling process.
Working from the hole out, you can start to grind the material from the blank. Watching the side of the blank works best for because you can see the bead as it is shaped. Rough out the shape on one-half, and then the other, to remove the excess material. To assure that the bead is balanced go back over the bead to achieve the final shape.
Three bead shapes from same blank.
Remember to use the soap every time you put a blank on or turn a blank over!
SANDING
Sanding your shaped bead is exactly the same as the shaping process, except that at this point you are only smoothing out any rough spots on the shaped bead, not removing excess material. If the bead seems to have an irregular shape that you do not like, it is best to go back to the grinding wheel to reshape it; trying to do this on the sanding drum is a very slow process.
Use a worn 600 grit sanding drum for sanding. This will remove any scratches from the grinding process and leave no new coarse scratches on the surface of the bead. It is suggest that you use either a five or ten power eye loupe to inspect each bead for scratches prior to polishing, as you cannot remove a grinding scratch in the polishing process.
The sanding steps follow: rub the pin on the soap, place your small jet spinner bead on the pin, place the shaped bead on the pin and make sure that the pin is just below the surface of the hole in the bead. Using the same technique that you used in shaping, start sanding the bead from the hole out. As you come around to the face of the bead, make it a point to sand past the center of the bead face.
This takes some practice so don't be surprised if your bead jumps off the pin when you first try this technique. Turn the bead over and repeat this process. When you feel that the bead is finished, check it with the loupe for scratches. If no scratches are visible, the bead is ready for polishing.
POLISHING
You can use any of three hand techniques to polish beads. The one you use depends on how hard the material is and how much of a water wet look you want on the bead. These techniques work best if you have sanded all of the scratches off of the beads and have used a worn sanding drum. If so your bead should look almost polished.
For softer material such as Turquoise or stone of similar hardness, we have found that you can use Zam, a commercial green buffing compound, to achieve a brilliant polish. Apply the Zam to a treated muslin buffing wheel and use exactly the same techniques that you have used in the sanding process. One point to remember is that you don't use the soap for a lubricant in this process; you can only use soap when water is present. In this and all other processes you need to remember to use the jet spinner bead.
For harder material such as Lapis, Sugilite and similar material, you can use diamond powder mixed with honing oil, or the diamond paste that comes in a syringe. As long as there are no scratches on the beads, you should be able to go right to a 14,000 mesh compound. If you are using the syringe with the paste, apply directly from the syringe. If you want to mix your own diamond compound you will need to purchase diamond powder and honing oil. Crystalite sells an oil called diamond extender which works well for this purpose. In a small bottle (the five carat diamond bottle works great), mix approximately two carats diamond powder with ten to fifteen drops oil. Each time you apply this mixture, shake the bottle vigorously to suspend the diamond in the oil.
Using a hard felt 4" buffing wheel, apply the diamond compound to the buff with your finger tip. Rub the paste or the homemade mixture over the entire face of the felt wheel. When you first start to use the felt wheel, you will need to apply the compound quite often, but after awhile you will find that you need only apply the compound infrequently. Again use the same technique that you used in sanding, to polish the bead. A note of caution -- the felt buff will cause a heat build-up in the bead, so do not use this technique to polish heat sensitive material such as Opal.
The third process is for very hard material such as petrified wood, agate, tourmaline, and ruby. This process is somewhat involved and we don't recommend that it be used, unless you are using very unusual or very expensive material. It is recommended to use this process on Opal as it will make the Opal beads look like they are wet.
You will need to purchase a few special things for this process -- a small motor, Foredom Bench Lathe which can be used in many more applications other than polishing.
The wheels that you will be using are of redwood or a similar softer wood, and most likely you will need to have them made at your local wood working shop. The wheels that I use are two inches in diameter and roughly one inch wide. The diameter of the wheel can vary but I think anything over four inches is unnecessary.You will need three wheels on three seperate mandrels.
After you have your set-up put together, you will need to charge one wheel with 1,200 mesh, one with 14,000 mesh and one with 50,000 mesh diamond. Apply the diamond oil mixture in the same way as with the hard felt wheel. I use the diamond oil mixture only on wood: Diamond has an affinity to oil and as the oil/diamond penetrates the wood it has a cutting plus lubricating effect with no heat buildup.
PLEASE NOTE: It is very important that you store your polishing wheels in their own zip lock bags, mark each bag and wheel with the mesh size. If you neglect to do this you will contaminate the wheels and they will always drop scratches on your surface being polished.
You will need to do the following steps with all three of the diamond grits, first 1,200 then 14,000 and finally 50,000. It is imperative that you clean all of the compound from each bead before going to the next step, otherwise you will contaminate the wheel of your next step with the coarser grit and this will cause scratches that you won't be able to overcome. You must also make sure that the holes are throughly clean. I do this by drawing a bead cord with the wire needle that is slightly oversize, through the beads in warm soapy water.
On the 1200 mesh wheel use the same technique that you used in the sanding process. Using the variable speed control, set the speed of the wheel at the speed which seems to work best for the mesh size you are using. You do not need high speed, you want the diamond to have a chance to cut. Repeat this process for each mesh size. You will notice a distinct difference in the bead as you go from 1,200 to 14,000 to 50,000. If you choose to polish your beads in this way you will be amazed at the end results, and you will have a strand of beads that will show off your material to its best.
Thank you Daniel Lopaki.
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