About Our Mines

Wildflower mines its own turquoise from two American claims. Here is the long version of where our stones come from.

When you buy a piece of turquoise jewelry online, the most honest question you can ask is where the stone came from. Most of the time, the answer is hard to get. The supply chain runs from a mine, to a wholesaler, to a cutter, to a setter, to a retailer. By the time a piece is listed for sale, the connection to the source has been hand-passed through enough steps that nobody can tell you the full story.

We built Wildflower differently. We own claims on two American turquoise deposits. We mine the rough ourselves. Greg cuts the stones in his lapidary shop. We work with a small group of local silversmiths who set most of our pieces. When you buy from us, the chain from the ground to your jewelry box is short, and we can tell you each step of it.

Our two claims

Together these two claims give us a complementary palette. Manassa brings warm greens and earth tones. White Buffalo brings dramatic black and white contrast.

Why owned-mine sourcing matters

The turquoise market has a transparency problem. Most online turquoise jewelry is built on stones the seller cannot fully trace. Wholesalers buy rough from multiple mines and mix it together. Cutters buy from multiple wholesalers. By the time material reaches a setter or retailer, the original mine of origin is often a guess.

That is how you end up with online listings that describe stones as "American turquoise" or "Southwest turquoise" without naming a specific deposit. It is not always dishonest. Sometimes the seller genuinely does not know. But the buyer pays the cost of that uncertainty.

When you own the claim, you remove the uncertainty. You know what came out of the ground. You know what grade it is. You know what you stabilized and what you did not. You know who cut it. You know who set it. The pieces in our shop are not American turquoise in some general sense. They are specifically our King's Manassa or our White Buffalo, cut and set by people we know.

The process, start to finish

Mining. We work our claims directly. Yield is always low. Most of what comes out of any turquoise mine is not gem grade and is not cuttable.

Sorting and grading. Every piece of rough is sorted by hardness, color, matrix pattern, and overall quality. Gem grade material is reserved for higher-end pieces. Standard grade goes into smaller cabs, earrings, and inlay.

Stabilization (when needed). Most American turquoise on the market is stabilized for durability. We stabilize the material that requires it before cutting, and we disclose stabilization on every piece. Some material, particularly from our White Buffalo claim, is hard enough to be sold natural.

Cutting. Greg cuts the stones. Every cabochon is designed around the natural matrix patterns in the specific piece of rough it is cut from. Every cab is a one-off.

Setting. Some pieces are set in-house by us. Others are set by a small group of local silversmiths we have worked with for years. Every piece uses sterling silver. Every piece is stamped 925 or Sterling.

Inspection. Before a piece is listed for sale, it gets one final inspection. Setting integrity, bezel finish, polish, stamp, bail or shank quality. Pieces that do not pass do not ship.

The pieces we do not mine ourselves

Honesty matters here too. Not every piece in our shop starts with stone from our own claims.

Some pieces are designed by Kimberly and made by local silversmiths using stones we source from other reputable American mines. These are disclosed on the product page.

A small portion of our inventory is fully sourced, meaning Kimberly bought finished pieces from artisans whose work she trusts. These are also disclosed.

When a piece is from our claims, we say so on the listing. When a piece uses stones from other sources, we disclose that too. The whole point of building Wildflower this way is that you do not have to guess.

What we promise

Every piece in our shop tells you what stone it is, where the stone came from, whether it was stabilized, and who made it. We do not use vague terms like "genuine blue stone" or "authentic turquoise" without specifics. We do not dye howlite and sell it as turquoise. We do not sell block synthetic material as the real thing.

If you have a question about a piece in our shop, ask. We will answer.