The Mine Files — A Collector's Guide to Turquoise and Western Stones

Len's road to Turquoise Mustang started in Albuquerque in 1969 when he bought his first piece of turquoise. In the decades since, he has handled tens of thousands of stones, built direct relationships with miners and artists, and developed the kind of knowledge that only comes from that much time with the material. These pages are our attempt to put that knowledge in writing — to give collectors the context they need to understand what they are looking at, what they are buying, and why it matters.

American Turquoise

• Kingman Turquoise — Arizona's most storied mine. Birdseye, waterweb, premium blue, blue-green, and sage green from the Cerbat Mountains of Mohave County.
• Royston Turquoise — Nevada's most complex stone. Rich blue-green with warm brown matrix from the Royston Mining District of Lander County.
• Sleeping Beauty Turquoise — Pure sky blue from Globe, Arizona. Mine closed 2012 — natural material increasingly scarce.
• Number 8 Turquoise — Nevada's golden spiderweb. Vivid blue-green with orange-gold matrix from an exhausted Elko County mine.
• Dry Creek Turquoise — The rarest American variety. Pale sky blue, cream matrix, largely exhausted deposit in Lander County.
• Carico Lake Turquoise — Nevada's apple green. Vivid, clear green from a zinc-rich Lander County deposit.
• Pilot Mountain Turquoise — Deep blue-green with golden matrix from Mineral County, Nevada.

International Stones

• Golden Hills Turquoise — Kazakhstan's periwinkle stone. A soft lavender-blue from the Altyn-Tyube deposit, unlike any American turquoise.

Western Stones (Non-Turquoise)

• White Buffalo Stone — Black matrix on creamy white ground from Nevada's Tonopah-Belmont mine. Single source, globally.
• Bumblebee Jasper — Vivid yellow, orange, and charcoal from Java's volcanic vents. Found nowhere else on earth.

Silversmithing Techniques

• Tufa Casting — The ancient Navajo technique of pouring silver into hand-carved volcanic stone molds. Why no two pieces are ever identical.
• Repousse — Silver pushed from behind to create dimensional relief. How it works, what it looks like, and how to recognize quality.
• Navajo vs. Zuni vs. Hopi Silversmithing — The definitive guide to the three traditions: techniques, aesthetics, and how to tell them apart.

Buyer's Guides

• How to Identify Authentic Native American Jewelry — Hallmarks, silver standards, turquoise authentication, and construction quality.
• Natural vs. Stabilized vs. Treated Turquoise — What the treatments mean and what they mean for collector value.
• The Squash Blossom Necklace — History, the Moorish origins of the naja, how to identify quality, and how to wear it.
• Mustang Silver Pearls — What makes our sterling silver pearl strands different — and why the construction details matter.

More From Turquoise Mustang

Visit our Meet Our Artists page to learn about the Navajo and Zuni silversmiths whose work defines our collection. Browse the Native American Collection to shop by artist and stone. Or contact us directly — Len has been working with turquoise since his first piece in Albuquerque in 1969, and there is very little about Western jewelry we cannot answer.