Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Faux Turquoise Tutorial
Lucy at CraftBerryBush brings us this great little tutorial for making faux turquoise. It's hard to imagine two groups of fandom more dissimilar than Lovecraftian propmakers and polymer clay jewelry makers, but they've developed some amazing techniques for reproducing the look of semi-precious stones. Just the kind of thing that's ideal for all manner of amulets and occult artifacts.
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Faux turquoise is a good thing to know, since gem quality turquoise has gotten so expensive over the years. Turquoise is a fairly soft material, easy to carve, but prone to breakage. When making props, keep in mind that ancient turquoise might have color shifts over the years, either darkening due to body oils from wearing, especially against the skin or fading/paling to white due to exposure or leeching.
Most modern turquoise has been color enhanced and impregnated with plastic for stability, so don’t use the modern standard of shiny highly colored stones if you want realism. Also there are a number of matrixes depending on the origin of the stone, which is identifiable by experts. Also the finest grade of Persian turquoise has no matrix at all. It actually looks incredibly fake, looking like a blob of plastic or chewing gum. This was the type preferred in antiquity. Ancient turquoise buried in dry conditions, cut off from air and moisture will retain its original color and vibrancy. You might want to review Propnomicon’s post on a turquoise mask: http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2013/04/turquoise-mosiac-cthulhu-mask.html
http://www.durangosilver.com/anasazi-turquoise.html and http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/forgotten-archaeological-gems-ancient-turquoise-mines-south-sinai and http://mattsko.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/ancient-mayan-turquoise-inlaid-skull/
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