A Sleeping Beauty turquoise necklace is a strand made from turquoise mined at the Sleeping Beauty mine in Globe, Arizona, known for its clear sky blue color with little or no dark matrix running through it. The mine stopped producing turquoise for the jewelry market in 2012, so every strand made today comes from rough and beads that were mined before then, which is a big part of why these necklaces are so loved and so sought after.
I get asked about Sleeping Beauty turquoise all the time, usually by someone who has fallen for that soft robin's egg blue and wants to know what they should be looking for before they buy a strand of their own, so I wanted to put everything I look for when I'm choosing turquoise for my own necklaces in one place.
What makes Sleeping Beauty turquoise different from other turquoise?
Most turquoise has matrix, the brown, black or golden veins of host rock that run through the blue, and I truly love matrix in the right stone, but Sleeping Beauty is famous for the opposite. The color is clean and even, a sky blue that can run from soft and powdery to a deeper, brighter blue, and when you see a strand of it all together the color reads almost like one continuous ribbon. If you want to know where the name comes from, I wrote about the mountain behind it in Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, Why the Name?
Every now and then you'll find Sleeping Beauty with tiny flecks of pyrite, little sparkles of silvery gold sitting right in the blue, and I'll admit those are my favorite. The strand I have right now has them, and every time it catches the light I find something new in it.
How can you tell if a Sleeping Beauty turquoise necklace is real?
Because this turquoise is so loved, there are a lot of look alikes out there, mostly dyed howlite or magnesite that has been colored to that same bright blue. A few things I always look at:
The color up close. Real turquoise has a natural variation from bead to bead, even in a very matched strand. Dyed stones often look flat, or the color pools in cracks and pits where the dye soaked in.
The seller and the story. Someone who works with turquoise every day should be able to tell you where the stones came from and how they were treated, without any hesitation. A lot of turquoise on the market, Sleeping Beauty included, is stabilized so it holds up to daily wear, and that is a normal and honest practice as long as it is disclosed. Ask, and expect a clear answer.
The price. If a strand that calls itself Sleeping Beauty is priced like costume jewelry, that tells you something. I go into a few more simple checks in Is Your Turquoise Real?
What should you look for in how the necklace is made?
This is the part people don't always think to ask about, and it matters just as much as the stones. A strand that is hand knotted on silk has a tiny knot between every single bead, so the beads don't rub against each other and wear down, the necklace drapes softly against you instead of sitting stiff, and if the strand were ever to break you would only lose one bead instead of all of them.
Then look at the finish. Solid gold clasps and solid gold French wire at the ends, the little coil that protects the silk where it meets the clasp, are what let a strand be worn every day for years. I finish my Signature strands in solid gold so they can be worn with a t shirt on a Tuesday just as easily as they can be worn somewhere special.
The Sleeping Beauty turquoise strand on my bench right now
The Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Knotted Gem Necklace is made from 6 to 7mm Sleeping Beauty turquoise nuggets with those little flecks of pyrite I love so much, and I hand knotted it on red silk because the contrast of that red against the blue is just so striking. I wanted it to have a little more character and personality than a classic strand, so I added a solid 18k yellow gold daisy bead off to one side, and it completely finishes the piece.
It is 17.75 inches long with a 14k yellow gold cast lobster clasp, infinity link and hand coiled 14k gold French wire, plus my engraved signature heart tag, and it is the exact strand you would receive. It is $1,690 and it is the only one.
Other turquoise worth knowing about
If you love that clean blue, you might also love Kingman turquoise from Arizona, which can be so bright and so clean that people mistake it for Sleeping Beauty, and my Kingman turquoise strand is one of the cleanest I've ever worked with. And if a softer, almost lavender blue speaks to you, Golden Hills turquoise from Kazakhstan is a completely different and beautiful stone, which you can see in my Golden Hills turquoise necklace.
You can see every turquoise piece I have available in my turquoise collection, and if you have a question about a strand, or you're hoping for a certain length, just send me a message. I love talking turquoise.
