Ask ten jewelry makers to name a turquoise variety and you'll get ten different answers — and most of them will be right. Turquoise isn't one stone. It's a family of stones that formed under different conditions in different deposits, and the differences between them are large enough to change how a piece looks, how it wears, and what you can charge for it.

Turquoise varieties are named for the deposit they came from, and each deposit produces a characteristic combination of color, matrix pattern, and hardness. Royston runs green to blue with golden-brown matrix. Golden Hills is pale blue with fine tan webbing. White Buffalo isn't turquoise at all. Knowing which is which is the difference between choosing a stone and hoping one works.

Here's a working guide to the varieties jewelry makers ask about most.

Why Understanding Turquoise Varieties Matters for Your Craft

Three practical reasons, beyond the pleasure of knowing.

Design fit. A heavy spiderweb matrix and a clean uniform blue produce completely different pieces. If you're building a minimalist pendant, a busy stone fights the design. If you're building something with texture and weight, a plain stone disappears.

Durability. All turquoise sits around 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale, but stability varies meaningfully between deposits and between individual stones. That matters more for a ring worn daily than for earrings.

Pricing and provenance. Variety name is a large part of what a finished piece is worth, and customers increasingly ask. Being able to say "this is Royston, from a Nevada district still in production, and here's why it looks like this" is worth real money at the point of sale.

If you want a head-to-head on the three most-asked-about American mines, our Kingman vs. Royston vs. Number 8 comparison goes deeper on those specifically. This guide is the wider tour.

Royston Turquoise: The Desert Beauty

Royston comes from the Royston Mining District near Tonopah, Nevada, and it's one of the most recognizable American turquoises precisely because it refuses to settle on one color.

A single Royston cabochon can run from forest green through blue-green to a solid sky blue, often within the same stone, framed by a chocolate-brown or golden host rock. That color range is the variety's signature — where most deposits produce a fairly predictable palette, Royston produces a spectrum.

The district is still producing, which keeps Royston more available and more affordable than closed-mine material at similar quality. For makers building a line rather than a one-off, that consistency of supply matters.

What Makes Royston Turquoise Unique?

• The green-to-blue range within single stones. Iron content varies through the deposit, and where iron replaces aluminum the stone runs greener. You can source a matched-looking group or a deliberately varied one from the same mine.
• Golden-brown host matrix. The warm brown backing and veining is what most people are actually recognizing when they identify Royston on sight. It pairs unusually well with brass, bronze, and yellow gold — a useful property when most turquoise defaults to silver.
• Good working hardness. Royston in natural form takes a strong polish and holds up well in wearable pieces. As with any deposit, individual stones vary, and stabilized Royston is the more forgiving choice for a daily-wear ring.
• Every cabochon is one of a kind. With this much natural variation, no two stones match — which is a selling point, not a caveat.

Best for: statement pendants, Southwestern-style silverwork, mixed-metal designs, and anything where you want the stone's own variation to carry the piece.

Golden Hills Turquoise: Vivid Blue with a Golden Matrix

Golden Hills comes from a Kazakhstan deposit and looks like nothing else on the bench.

The base color is a pale, almost icy blue — lighter and cooler than most American turquoise — shot through with fine chocolate-brown to golden webbing. Some stones carry a distinct lavender cast, which is genuinely uncommon in turquoise and is what collectors chase.

It's a relatively recent arrival to the American market, and the fine even webbing over a light ground gives it a delicate, almost porcelain quality that suits contemporary work far better than heavy Southwestern silver.

How to Work with Golden Hills Turquoise in Your Designs

• It carries both metals. The cool blue reads crisp against sterling; the golden matrix picks up yellow gold and brass. One of the few turquoises that genuinely works either way.
• Give it room. The webbing is fine and detailed. A simple bezel and a clean shank let it be seen — heavy stamped silverwork buries it.
• Use it as the focal point. The color is unusual enough that it should be the piece rather than an accent in one.
• Watch the lavender. Stones with a violet cast are worth setting aside for special work. They're not consistently available.

Best for: contemporary and minimalist designs, gold and mixed-metal settings, focal pendants, and collector pieces.

White Buffalo Stone: The Pristine Alternative

White Buffalo is the reverse of everything you expect from turquoise: pure white ground with bold black veining, no blue anywhere.

An important clarification, because it's widely reported wrong: White Buffalo is not turquoise, and it is not howlite. It's a naturally occurring combination of calcite, dolomite, and chert, found on Nevada claims. It contains no copper, which is exactly why it has no blue — copper is what makes turquoise blue in the first place.

The howlite confusion is worth clearing up specifically, because howlite is the material most commonly dyed and sold as fake turquoise. White Buffalo is a genuine, naturally occurring stone with its own identity and its own following. Being able to explain that difference to a customer is a mark of a seller who knows their material.

When Should You Choose White Buffalo Stone?

• Minimalist and modern work. The black-and-white palette is graphic and contemporary in a way blue turquoise isn't.
• Maximum contrast. Set against oxidized silver or blackened metal, the white reads almost luminous.
• Color pairings. It's effectively a neutral, so it combines with coral, spiny oyster, and lapis without competing.
• Customers who don't wear turquoise. A meaningful share of buyers like Southwestern design but not the color blue. This is the answer for them.

One working note: the calcite content makes White Buffalo more sensitive to acids than true turquoise, and the pale ground shows absorbed oil sooner. Handle with clean hands and keep it away from citrus and acidic cleaners.

If you like the palette, magnesite and Wild Horse offer related white-and-brown looks at different price points.

Apache Nugget Turquoise: Bold Character and Texture

Apache Nugget is the choice when you want the stone to look like it came out of the ground rather than out of a catalog.

The material runs deep green and blue-green with heavy brown and black matrix — considerably more matrix than most deposits, sometimes to the point where the host rock is as much of the stone's face as the turquoise itself. Cutters often follow the material's natural nugget form rather than forcing it into a calibrated shape.

Supply is limited and the collection is small, so this is a variety to buy when you see something you like rather than one to plan a production run around.

Design Ideas for Apache Nugget Turquoise

• Freeform bezels. Build the setting to the stone's actual outline instead of trimming its character away.
• Wire wrapping. Irregular shapes suit a wrap better than a soldered bezel, and the technique celebrates the outline rather than correcting it. Our setting guide covers both approaches.
• Heavy, textured metalwork. Unlike Golden Hills, this stone can hold its own against stamped and forged silver.
• Organic and bohemian lines. The earthy greens and dense matrix suit designs built around natural texture.

Best for: one-of-a-kind pieces, freeform work, rustic and organic designs, and anything where authenticity of appearance is the point.

Varieties You'll Hear About That We Don't Carry

A few famous names come up constantly in customer conversations. It's worth knowing what they are and what to reach for instead.

Sleeping Beauty. The Arizona deposit famous for clean sky-blue material with little to no matrix, and the reference point for a great deal of classic Southwestern and Native American jewelry. The mine stopped producing turquoise in 2012, and what circulates now is old stock at prices that reflect it. For a clean, saturated blue we'd point you at Hubei, which delivers deep blue with a well-defined matrix, or Nacozari for intensely saturated blue with dark pyrite. Neither is a substitute for a matrix-free stone — genuinely clean blue turquoise is difficult to source at any price now — but both scratch the same itch.

Lander Blue and Morenci. Both closed or effectively exhausted, both commanding collector prices when authentic material surfaces. Treat any inexpensive stone offered under these names with real skepticism.

The Full Range: Other Turquoise Varieties We Carry

The four above are where the questions cluster, but they're a fraction of what's on the bench — and in several cases not the deepest inventory. Here's the rest of the catalog, grouped by what you'd actually reach for it.

Everyday Workhorses

Consistent, well-supplied, and priced for production work.

• Sonoran Mountain — rich blue and blue-green with warm red, orange, and golden iron-oxide matrix. One of the most distinctive palettes available and one of our deepest collections.
• Hubei — deep blue to blue-green with clean, well-defined matrix. Consistent and widely available; a reliable choice when you need to repeat a design.
• Fox — blue to blue-green with moderate matrix, from the Fox Mine in Lander County, Nevada. Genuine Nevada provenance at a working price.
• Crow Springs — from the Monte Cristo Range, discovered in 1909 and still producing both classic and boulder ribbon material. Pale to rich blue-green with tan and brown matrix, and a higher ratio of green-toned material than most Nevada sources.
• Carico Lake — apple-green to lime-green, the greenest of the well-known Nevada deposits.
• Kingman — from the Ithaca Peak Mine, one of the largest American turquoise mines and in continuous operation for over a century. Broad color range, dependable supply.
• Black Jack — Nevada material defined by black matrix running through blue-green turquoise. High contrast, and cut and backed for added strength.
• Sierra Bella — rich blue-green with strong matrix and good natural hardness. Equally at home in traditional silverwork and contemporary settings.
• Pressed Turquoise Nuggets — stabilized turquoise composite, cut and backed. The most forgiving and affordable option in the case, and a sensible choice for practice pieces and volume work.

Closed-Mine and Collector Material

Finite supply, documented provenance, and prices that reflect both.

• Bisbee — from the Lavender Pit copper mine in Bisbee, Arizona, which stopped producing turquoise decades ago. Deep cobalt blue with dark brown limonite matrix, among the richest colors in American turquoise. The name to know for high-end work.
• Number 8 — the classic spiderweb: fine black or golden veining over blue-green. The mine closed in the 1970s, so every stone is old stock.
• Nacozari — deeply saturated blue with dark iron pyrite, a contrast distinct from American varieties. Permanently closed source.
• Cerrillos — from the Cerrillos Hills district near Santa Fe, one of the oldest known turquoise sources in North America with documented Ancestral Puebloan use going back over 2,000 years. Modern production is minimal.
• Blue Moon — limited production from Esmeralda County, Nevada, which keeps it off most general supplier lists. Saturated blue with light to moderate brown and tan webbing.
• Egyptian — from the Sinai Peninsula, the oldest documented turquoise source on Earth, with mining evidence going back over 5,000 years. Pale blue-green to dark blue with chocolate webbing.

Character Stones

Stones you choose because of what makes them odd.

• Pilot Mountain — Mineral County, Nevada, running bright blue to deep green, sometimes grading from one to the other within a single stone. Matrix ranges from dark brown limonite to red, brown, and black spiderweb. It's also one of very few mines in the world producing dendrites — fossilized manganese plant patterns locked inside the turquoise. Hard, takes an excellent polish, holds color well.
• Turquoise Mountain — polychrome and matrix-heavy, with blue, green, and warm brown-cream tones shifting within a single stone. Every cabochon looks like a landscape.
• Blue Bird — clean saturated sky blue with strong matrix patterning and reliable natural hardness. Consistent enough in color to build a multi-piece collection around, with enough matrix variation to keep each stone distinct.

Beyond Turquoise: Stones That Work Alongside It

Turquoise pairs well, and a good portion of Southwestern and contemporary design depends on what you set next to it. These aren't turquoise, and we don't pretend otherwise.

• Spiny Oyster — shell rather than stone, in vivid oranges, reds, and purples. The traditional partner to turquoise in Southwestern inlay and the fastest way to add heat to a cool palette.
• Coral — natural red and pink, from crimson-orange through soft salmon. A staple of Navajo, Zuni, and Pueblo-inspired work.
• Lapis Lazuli — Afghan material in royal blue with gold pyrite flecks. Deeper and more saturated than any turquoise, and striking set beside it.
• Larimar — a blue pectolite found only in the Dominican Republic, formed when copper-rich hydrothermal fluids filled cavities in volcanic basalt. Sky-blue to turquoise with white matrix, sometimes called the Atlantis Stone. Cabochons are unbacked.
• Charoite — from a single location on Earth, the Chara River basin in Siberia. Swirling fibrous violet, lavender, and white in a structure no other mineral produces. The stone to reach for when you want something entirely outside the usual palette.
• Variscite — green with distinctive matrix patterning, backed and polished. Frequently mistaken for green turquoise, and a good option when you want that look at a different price.
• Magnesite — white and brown with natural iron-oxide veining. A neutral that carries organic pattern.
• Wild Horse — Arizona white magnesite host rock with reddish-brown iron oxide inclusions. Warmer than White Buffalo and a good bridge between the white and earth-toned palettes.
• Bloody Bison Jasper — a composite with deep red base and black matrix. Bold contrast, useful as an accent stone.

Working across materials in one piece? Match dome height and thickness first — mixed hardness is manageable, but stones sitting at different levels never looks intentional.

How to Select the Right Turquoise Variety for Your Project

Start with the design, not the stone. Decide whether the piece needs a quiet stone or a loud one. Heavy matrix in a delicate setting reads as noise; a plain stone in heavy silverwork reads as an afterthought.

Match durability to the piece. Rings and bracelets take abuse that pendants and earrings never see. For daily-wear pieces, stabilized material is the practical choice regardless of variety. Save untreated stones for work that gets worn occasionally or protected by a full bezel.

Let budget shape the variety, not the quality. A well-cut stone from an in-production mine beats a poorly cut stone from a famous closed one at the same price. Closed-mine material — Number 8, Nacozari, Bisbee — carries a premium for scarcity, not necessarily for beauty.

Think about the story. Provenance sells. A named mine with a real history gives you something to write on a tag and something to say to a customer, and that's part of what they're buying.

Questions to Ask Before Purchasing Turquoise Cabochons

1. Is it natural, stabilized, composite, or backed? This is the single most important question, and the answer should be stated up front. Ours is on every listing.
2. How thick is it? Thin stones limit your setting options and are more fragile to set. Our sizing guide covers the numbers.
3. Is it calibrated or freeform? Calibrated drops into pre-made findings. Freeform needs a bezel built to it.
4. What does the dome look like from the side? Dome height determines bezel height and how the finished piece sits.
5. Does the matrix run to an edge? Matrix at the girdle can be a weak point under bezel pressure.
6. Can you get a match? If you need a pair, buy the pair together. Our matched pairs exist for exactly this.

Our designer's sourcing guide works through each of these in more detail.

Caring for Different Turquoise Varieties in Your Workshop

Care is broadly the same across varieties, with a few differences worth knowing.

• Store every stone separately. At 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale turquoise loses to most of what's in your inventory. Compartmented boxes or individual pouches, never a shared tray.
• Separate the softer materials. White Buffalo, magnesite, and Wild Horse are more variable in hardness than turquoise and are easily marked by it.
• Keep chemicals away from all of it. Perfume, lotion, solvents, and jewelry dips damage every variety. Acidic substances are especially hard on the calcite in White Buffalo.
• No ultrasonic or steam cleaning, ever. A dry microfiber cloth handles nearly everything.
• Keep records. Log variety and treatment when stock arrives. Six months later you will not remember which green stone was Carico Lake and which was Royston — and your customer will ask.
• Mind the heat. Sunny windowsills, hot photo lights, and torches near set stones all cause permanent fading.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the hardest type of turquoise for jewelry making?

All turquoise falls around 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale, so no variety is dramatically harder than another — hardness varies as much between individual stones as between deposits. In practice, stabilized turquoise of any variety is the most durable option for jewelry, because the resin hardens the stone throughout. For daily-wear rings and bracelets, choose stabilized material and a protective bezel setting over chasing a specific mine.

How can I tell the difference between real turquoise varieties and imitations?

Imitations are usually dyed howlite or magnesite, or plastic. Dyed stone often shows color concentrated in the veining rather than the body, and can leave color on a cotton swab dampened with acetone. Plastic feels warm and light and may show mold seams. The most reliable protection is buying from a seller who states the treatment on every listing and names the deposit. Note that White Buffalo, though not turquoise, is a genuine natural stone rather than an imitation.

Which turquoise variety holds its value best over time?

Material from closed deposits generally holds value best, because supply is fixed — Number 8, Nacozari, Bisbee, and Lander Blue among them. Natural untreated stones hold value better than stabilized ones, and high-grade material from any deposit holds better than low-grade material from a famous one. Provenance you can document matters more than the mine name alone.

Are stabilized turquoise cabochons as valuable as natural untreated stones?

No — natural untreated turquoise commands a premium, sometimes a large one, because much less material is hard enough to cut and wear without treatment. That said, stabilized turquoise is real turquoise, it's a disclosed and standard industry treatment, and it is often the better practical choice for jewelry that gets worn hard. Value and suitability are separate questions.

What turquoise variety is best for beginners just starting jewelry making?

Stabilized Hubei or Kingman in calibrated sizes. Both are widely available, consistent in appearance, forgiving under bezel pressure, and inexpensive enough that a ruined stone is a lesson rather than a loss. Calibrated shapes also drop into pre-made bezel cups, removing one variable while you learn. Save freeform and high-grade natural stones for once your setting is reliable.

Can different turquoise varieties be combined in the same jewelry piece?

Yes, and it can be striking — a green Carico Lake beside a deep blue Nacozari, or turquoise paired with White Buffalo for contrast. Two guidelines: match dome height and thickness so the stones sit at consistent levels, and either commit to obvious contrast or match closely. Slightly different blues read as a mistake rather than a choice.

Why are some turquoise varieties more expensive than others?

Four factors. Scarcity — closed mines cost more than producing ones. Treatment — natural untreated material costs more than stabilized. Grade — color saturation, matrix pattern, and hardness vary enormously within a single deposit. And demand — famous names carry a premium partly on reputation. A high-grade stone from a lesser-known mine frequently outperforms a mediocre stone from a famous one at the same price.

Find Your Variety

The best way to learn varieties is to handle them. Colors that look similar in a listing separate immediately side by side, and after a few orders you'll recognize a Royston or a Sonoran Mountain across a room.

Browse every cabochon in stock by mine, or start with our sourcing guide if you're still working out what to look for. New to the cut itself? Begin with what cabochons are and how they're made.