THIS LISTING IS ONLY FOR A PAIR OF EARRINGS!
Teardrop 1⅜” x ⅝”
Finding two turquoise stones that match is not common. Finding two that match like this same vivid sky blue, same fine brown matrix, same clean teardrop form, pulled from the same Kingman pocket and cut to mirror each other with precision is the kind of thing that makes a silversmith stop and set everything else aside. These earrings begin there, with two perfectly matched Kingman turquoise cabochons, each measuring 1⅜” x ⅝”, each carrying the saturated robin’s egg blue that made Mineral Park famous and a delicate thread of brown matrix that gives the stones depth without interrupting their clarity.
The settings are as considered as the stones. Each cabochon sits in a clean .925 sterling silver teardrop bezel surrounded by a full border of hand-applied granulation balls small, even, running the entire perimeter of each piece in a continuous ring that frames the blue like a statement and anchors the silverwork firmly in the Fire & Stone tradition. Sterling shepherd hooks keep the drop clean and the movement natural. At 1⅜” these earrings have presence long enough to move, substantial enough to be seen, and blue enough to carry the whole outfit.
Details:
Stone: Kingman Turquoise · Origin: Arizona · Matrix: Turquoise & Tans · Metal: Custom Sterling Silver · Pendant Setting: 1⅜” x ⅝” · One of a Kind with Makers Mark
Made in Taos by a Taosena.
Some Jewelry is made. Some is found. At Fire & Stone, it's both.
Kingman Turquoise Earrings
The Kingman mine sits in Mineral Park, Mohave County in northwestern Arizona one of the oldest and most storied turquoise operations in North America. Archaeological evidence places turquoise mining at Kingman as far back as 1000 AD, when Ancestral Puebloan and Mojave peoples worked the deposit long before European contact. The mine has been in continuous or near-continuous production ever since, making it one of the longest-running turquoise sources on the continent.
What distinguishes Kingman turquoise is the exceptional range and consistency of its color a vivid, saturated blue that collectors and silversmiths have prized for generations. Kingman produces some of the bluest turquoise in the world, ranging from bright robin’s egg and sky blue to deeper Persian blue, often with a distinctive black, brown, or silver matrix that provides striking contrast against the stone’s saturated ground. The water web Kingman where fine silver and black matrix forms a delicate web across the surface of the stone is among the most coveted turquoise formations anywhere, sought by serious collectors and commanding significant premiums over unmarked material.
Kingman turquoise is natural and genuine the mine produces both stabilized material for the commercial market and high grade natural stones for collectors and artisan jewelers who insist on untreated material. The distinction matters. Natural Kingman holds its color without treatment, a testament to the mineral stability of the deposit and the quality of the stone coming out of the ground.
The Mineral Park mine has passed through several ownership periods over the decades and production has been inconsistent periods of active mining followed by closure, each reopening producing new material of sometimes dramatically different character. What comes out of Kingman today is not guaranteed to look like what came out twenty years ago. Each period of production has its own signature. This stone carries the Kingman name because it earned it in the ground, in the color, and in the hands of a Taoseña who knows the difference.
