Legend has it that the Native American Indians danced and celebrated when seasonal cloudbursts came at last. Their tears of joy mixed with the rain and absorbed into Mother Earth to become SkyStone.
Without detracting from the mystery of this eloquent testament to nature’s creativity, modern analysis has revealed that, in some arid climates, water has very gradually seeped through a host rock containing copper, iron and aluminum -- an exceptional combination -- over a period of many thousands, even millions, of years. The resultant deposit is secreted below the surface, hard to find and tricky to extract. Other minerals included in the host rock often lend a handsome interwoven design of black or browns, known as matrix. The overall process that creates turquoise is so rare that diamond formation is common by comparison.
Top Hat Spotted — A Rarity Among Rarities
Mines that produce the finest, rarest turquoise tend to be modest in size. “Top Hat” -- Mitchell Binder’s preferred source near Tonopah, Nev. -- is humorously named for its pit being “so small, you can cover it with a top hat.” Mitchell’s designs capture a perfect balance between silver’s solid, neutral gleam and the greens and browns of this unique spotted turquoise. King Baby's Arrayed Cabochon Ring creates the sense of gazing into a shimmering underground pool; this Baroque Scroll Ring, features a stone that reveals more of the host’s matrix and an astronaut’s-eye view of space with asteroids hurtling past.
Each stone in Mitchell’s collections is carefully chosen and sculpted to maximize the beauty and mystery inherent in the natural structure and composition of turquoise. Handcrafted from scratch for The Chosen Few.
itchell Binder’s preferred source near Tonopah, Nev. -- is humorously named for its pit being “so small, you can cover it with a top hat.” Mitchell’s designs capture a perfect balance between silver’s solid, neutral gleam and the greens and browns of this unique spotted turquoise. King Baby's Arrayed Cabochon Ring creates the sense of gazing into a shimmering underground pool; this Baroque Scroll Ring, features a stone that reveals more of the host’s matrix and an astronaut’s-eye view of space with asteroids hurtling past.