A Special Turquoise and Silver Pendant by Jud

Every February the author makes a pilgrimage to his old home town of Tucson Arizona, to attend the internationally acclaimed Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. When there I always visit my friend Mike DeMerritt who is an expert gem cutter. Mike grew up in Southern Arizona near Bisbee where the presence of the worlds largest open pit copper mine was also associated with the presence of turquoise. This is in fact the rule for turquoise and many of the sources have wonderful romantic names: Sleeping Beauty Mine, Kingman, Morenci, Cloud Mountain, Nacozari, Pilot Mountain and Cananea. But perhaps the most famous for gem grade, stabile turquoise is a mine in Eureka County, Nevada, called simply #8 Mine.
Number Eight Mine was actively mined for turquoise until 1949, at which time all the available precious stone was gone - mined out. A few pieces of boulder turquoise can still be found in collections. This first photo shows a hunk of #8 that was for sale at the Gem Show in 2018. It measured about 5 by 8 inches and scrawled on the top is 4900 ($) and #8 Mine.

On the day I spent time with Mike I looked through quite a few boxes of fine Bisbee, Kingman and Sleeping Beauty, and in the last box found this.

It was a large and thick cabochon, a perfect robins egg blue. Cohesive without need for stabilization. "I like this one" I said. "You would" said Mike! "That's #8 Mine! I only have 4 of those. They're very rare". I bought the gem, just for its beauty, without any notion of an intended use.

This fall I imagined the perfect recipient. I asked Jud to fashion a pendant for a colleague - a cancer doctor whose compassion, empathy and loyalty for her patients are beyond compare. This is the result - 100% pure silver and beautiful - for a beautiful soul!