Campitos Natural Turquoise & Pyrite Nugget Sterling Silver Pendant

Campitos Turquoise

From the mines of Pino Chueco and Cananea in Sonora, Mexico, Campitos Turquoise has a long history of being used in trade with Native American peoples. Campitos grows as nuggets, rather than veins, which is more typiocal of North American turquoises. The mine as we know it today has been producing since the 1980's. Campito in Spanish is a derivative of the word “campo”, meaning “field” or “countryside”.

Turquoise Information

All of our turquoise is stabilised unless otherwise stated in the main listing. Stones that are naturally very soft or porous tend to be stabilised for jewellery. Modern methods of stabilisation involve injecting epoxy resin into the stone in a high pressure oven, which seals all the cracks and pores. It also stops the gem from changing over time - people who wear non-stabilised Turquoise often complain about their stone darkening and going green over time (this is due to natural body oils reacting with the minerals, causing the colour to change.) Some stabilised stones are chemically dyed at the same time, however colour enhancements are never made by Two Skies, which is in line with gem industry standards - you can be assured the colours displayed in our stones are 100% natural.

Sterling Silver (925%)

Why do silversmiths use 925%? Measured in parts per thousand, pure silver (999%) is too soft so silversmiths mix it with other metals to make it it harder. The purer the metal, the higher the polish, but it is a lot softer (thus less durable). The harder the metal is, the more hard wearing the jewellery is, but it will also tarnish easier as it has less silver content. Therefore, the silver industry set a standard percentage content for fine silver (925); what we know as "sterling silver". At Two Skies our silversmiths use 925 (sterling) silver for ring shafts and moving parts, and a very high 950% on our stones settings, which enables us to get a strong jewellery item with a beautiful and secure stone setting, without any gluing. Each piece of our jewellery is hand stamped with our Two Skies Hallmark alongside the recognised industry 925 Hallmark.