Turquoise and terracotta complement each other in this Southwestern inspired turquoise color palette.
Living in New Mexico, you could be forgiven for taking turquoise for granted. We're surrounded by the silver jewelry and artwork crafted around this semi-precious stone. It's both beautiful and ubiquitous.
But when you really look closely, each turquoise stone has a different personality, with unique facets of crystal and even a variety of colors.
This is one stone where the imperfections are what make it interesting.
Turquoise Color Palette
When I set out to add turquoise to my collection of semi-precious stone color palettes, I didn't consider how hard it would be to write an entire article about the stone, given that I've spelled it 7 different incorrect ways so far alone.
But spelling notwithstanding, this is one of my favorite stones. I have an early memory of myself at about eight years old, wandering around the Santa Fe plaza with my parents, carefully searching each artisan's collection for the perfect silver and turquoise ring. It was my first piece of grown up jewelry, and the first time I'd been allowed to choose my own treasure.
At the time, it never occurred to me that I might one day end up living here.
That tiny chip of real gem stone was precious to me. I've long since lost track of the ring, after several moves across the country. But I've never forgotten that feeling of wonder that the earth could produce such a variety of colors. In a rock.
You could argue that semi precious stones aren't as valuable as certain other gem stones, but I would beg to disagree. I think any time you find something this beautiful in the ground, it's truly precious.
I wonder if that's why terracotta makes such a perfect complement to the turquoise blue color? They're both natural colors, straight out of the earth, with very little human intervention.
It seems fitting that they travel well together, maybe with a little accent of silver here and there along the way.
Leave a Reply