Given the discussion going on about fake vs real, is there somewhere online that lists the myriad of stone or gem or glass bead names and then their definitions? Somewhere I could go to determine if it really was a rock, or was glass or had been treated or had been dyed, etc?

I saw a list like that somewhere when I was surfing a week or so ago, but didn't think to save the link.

Someone in the previous thread made the remark that hobbyist may not even know its manufactured vs natural, and that is so correct. I have no idea and just buy beads for the color, not the content. But should I ever decide to sell any of my hobby creations, I'd like to feel like I was correctly labeling them.

Kristy

Hi Kristy,

Good question. There are a few on line resources for you.
My own site's Gem index is pretty good, an ongoing work in progress. It's free to read on line or print at http://www.rings-things.com/gemstone/index.html

For checking on a new stone try google.com and type in the name with the word mineral after it. That often give you sites with information about the "stone", not just places selling beads or jewelry using the "stone."

The mineral database at mindat.org has a discussion forum at http://www.mindat.org/forum.php that may be helpful.

Kristy,
Russ's site is a good one and so is www.mindat.org. You can search the site or the discussion forum at mindat for the name of the stone.

A warning - if you Google the name and all (or most) of the references are sites SELLING the stone - especially eBay -, it is very likely to be what I (not so fondly) call a "Makey-uppy" name. Case in point - my recent post about a customer asking for "red malachite" or famous "white buffalo turquoise" or rainbow calsilica from a "secret mine in Mexico". <grrr!>

Russ,

Got a kind of new one for you - how about "white horse turquoise" ? It's really very pretty magnesite - gorgeous brown-gold matrix. Some of the magnesite has a very faint bluish tinge - he swears that it's a natural color, but I have my doubts. The vendor sneaked in under hubby's radar - this time, it won't happen again - because he was upfront calling it magnesite many times (and we'd already paid him - the stuff IS nice for magnesite) BEFORE he started with the "turquoise" stuff. Hubby got onto him about the "white horse" garbage being a lie and a way to jack up the price to customers and he backed down, but still insisted that the Native Americans will ONLY call it "white horse turquoise". Strange, none of my Native American customers has ever asked for any kind of WHITE turquoise!

As he was leaving the store, he "remembered" that he's got a lot of Mohave (or Mojave) turquoise that he's having cut and drilled and if we're interested, we can have a bunch of it - cheap! Yep - and I have a bridge in Death Valley for sale! <LOL>

What a wonderful resource Russ! Thanks!

You are welcome, Gail, we're proud of our on line Gem Index even though it always needs more work.

Deb, "White Horse", "White Buffalo" and "Dry Creek" are frequent names for a white stone sold as white turquoise. Silver Sun's site says "White Horse" was (is) a specific grade of Fox turquoise. Most that I've seen under that name looked like magnesite. (Very nice magnesite to be sure.) Silver Sun's site says "The Dry Creek mine... has also been known as the Godber and Burnham mine...)

The turquoise map is online at http://www.skystonetrading.com/turq_mines.asp
http://www.skystonetrading.com/turquoise.asp says the white stone found at the Dry Creek mine is "actually Aluminite." See http://www.mindat.org/min-154.html for info on aluminite. There is a lot to learn, eh?

Your vendor description sounds like a Nevada miner I've dealt with....