Joe Dan’s Corner
Top 25 Turquoise Mines
A ranked list of the top 25 turquoise mines and reasoning as to why.
A Color Can Be Bottled But Never Contained
Joe Dan traces how blue turquoise became visually tied to Southwest jewelry and public imagination.
I don’t Like Turquoise BUT I love everything else about it
A personal essay on why turquoise is bigger than one stone, one color, or one collector opinion.
Turquoise Trade In The Western Hemisphere
A long-form argument for rethinking turquoise trade in the Western Hemisphere through people, data, and regional movement.
Is Turquoise Rare?
A direct look at what people mean when they call turquoise rare, valuable, or hard to replace.
Turquoise Grading Systems
A practical discussion of turquoise grading systems and the trouble with reducing a complex stone to a simple label.
The People’s Gemstone
A short essay on why turquoise connects so strongly to personal taste, identity, and human perspective.
Don’t Believe Everything you See and Read! Shocking but True
A skeptical reading of claims, labels, photos, and the stories people repeat about turquoise.
Turquoise Expert?
Joe Dan frames turquoise knowledge as a broad, unfinished subject that no single expert can fully own.
Turquoise Group Minerals
A field guide style essay on turquoise group minerals, chemistry, formation, and visual identification.