Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Rough — Rare Arizona Lapidary Material

This is genuine Sleeping Beauty Turquoise rough from the famous mine at Globe, Arizona, offered in five individually measured pieces from an older collection. If you cut stone, you already know why this material matters: that clean, even sky blue with little to no matrix is exactly what made Sleeping Beauty the benchmark against which other American turquoise gets judged. These pieces are chosen for cabochon cutting, inlay, and silverwork.

The question every serious buyer asks is why this material has become so hard to find, and the answer is simple. The Sleeping Beauty mine stopped turquoise production in 2012 and turned to copper, which was the more profitable ore. Nothing new has come out of the ground since. Everything on the market is old stock, and old stock only gets thinner. That's the whole basis for what this rough now commands.

A closer look at this material

Turquoise is a copper aluminium phosphate, and it's the copper that gives it that blue, which is a neat coincidence given the mine's eventual pivot. Sleeping Beauty forms in nuggets and seams within granite host rock, and it comes out of the ground hard and uniform enough that it generally needs little or no stabilizing, unlike softer chalky material from other deposits. The mine takes its name from the mountain ridge above it, which from a distance reads as a woman lying on her back with her arms crossed. For anyone building a collection, that closed-mine provenance is the point.

• Stone: Natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, minimal to no matrix
• Origin: Sleeping Beauty mine, Globe, Arizona, USA (closed 2012)
• Form: Rough lapidary material, from an old collection
• Colour: Uniform sky blue
• Chakras: Throat

Five separate pieces are offered. Option 1: 49 x 41 x 13mm, 31g. Option 2: 37 x 38 x 24mm, 36g. Option 3: 42 x 35 x 14mm, 28g. Option 4: 48 x 34 x 12mm, 22g. Option 5: 33 x 17mm, 13g. You receive the exact piece you select.

Working with and caring for it

Cutters will want to slab with a fine blade and finish gently, since turquoise is softer than agate and heat sensitive. Away from the workshop, keep it clear of oils, perfumes, and prolonged sunlight, all of which can shift the colour over time. For collectors, a dry display case suits it best. Traditionally turquoise is a stone of protection, communication, and truth, sitting at the throat chakra, and it has been worn as an amulet across the Southwest and far beyond for thousands of years.

Please note: crystals are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Keep small pieces away from young children.