A Turquoise Lesson from History

Purdy Wallcoverings

Veranda - Jan.-Feb. 2007

When I was five years old my mother suddenly passed away at the young age of 29. There are very few of her possessions that I have and now that I am an adult, I realize why. At such a young age, she simply had not enough time to acquire meaningful treasures to pass on to me. Be that as it may, of the few possessions I have from her, one of them is a simple little ring of oval turquoise stones set in sterling. Although I have always cherished the ring and have never altered the design, I can honestly say that I have never been a fan of turquoise set in silver. I believe it lacks warmth and elegance.

On the other hand, as an interior designer, I have always been enamored with the turquoise/aqua family and it is scattered all over my home. One of my collecting passions is Sevres Blue. Additionally, I have had entire rooms in my home that were designed around this aqua blue family. It is a very calming and restful color to me. I still hold onto the theory that everyone looks tan when surrounded by aqua (even though it may be February when we are at our most pasty white)!

As I studied my little Sevres Blue collection, I came to realize that historically, it was always trimmed and banded in gold. Apparently, I am not the only person that thinks that gold brings out the richness of the color and counterbalances the coolness of aqua and turquoise.

While researching some images for this post, I stumbled across two unusual blog sites called “House of Turquoise” and “Everything Turquoise” with some of the most divine images of all ranges of turquoise – what an inspiration! Who knew! Erin, thank you for allowing me to “borrow” a bit of inspiration for this post.

At the Tucson Gem Show recently, I came across some wonderful Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, purchased it and promptly set it aside for later. Later came sooner than I suspected. I received a call from the agency that is handling some of my PR, that a local magazine was looking for some turquoise jewelry set in gold for a photo shoot. Needless to say, it jogged my memory and an entire weekend was devoted to creating an earthy but elegant - lovely turquoise necklace and earrings set in 24K gold vermeil.

Since I had design carte blanche with this set, I indulged my senses by mixing the elegant Sleeping Beauty Turquoise with little frills of gorgeous Capri blue Kyanite, soft Sky Blue Topaz and a heavy dose of mesmerizing blue flash Labradorite. Of course, the piece de resistance of the necklace is the free form turquoise slice pendant encased in 24k gold.

Just as the Sevres Blue collection lives happily in my home with a more relaxed atmosphere – the chic turquoise and gold of this jewelry design can live contentedly with either a ball gown or a blue jean skirt.