John Hartman, founder of Durango Silver Company, began his life in Turquoise by mining with Cutler Edgar and Dowell Ward of Nevada USA. By the late 1960's John had got the Turquoise bug from his room mate Steve, a Native American from the Taos Pueblo. Steve taught John a lot about Turquoise and went on to introduce him to many knowledgeable people in the trade. John mined with Cutler at the Stormy Mountain Mine and with Cutler and Dowell at the #8 Turquoise Mine. John was taught early on by Cutler and Dowell that high-grade natural Turquoise Cabochons were the only type to cut if you wanted to have a good market for his product.

Hand Cut Natural Turquoise Cabochons

It was not long after John began accumulating Turquoise that he learned how to cut Turquoise into cabochons. Both John and wife Estell began cutting Turquoise together and would cut about 300 cabochons per week. It was not long and they began making Turquoise Jewelry and the business grew exponentially immediately as high quality natural Turquoise cabochons were expensive to buy so most Jewelry manufacturers used medium grade Turquoise Stones in their Jewelry. Hand Cut Natural Turquoise Cabochons was the key to John and Estell's success in the Turquoise business.

Natural Turquoise Cabochons

Today, more than forty years later, the entire Hartman family; John, Estell, Dillon, Nattarika and Crystal are all deeply involved in the Turquoise Business and cutting more Turquoise Cabochons then ever. John and son Dillon cut natural Turquoise cabochons on a daily basis and sell them on DurangoSilver.com - you can see examples at http://www.durangosilver.com/turquoise_cabochons_35_ctg.htm.

You can also see some good examples of Natural Turquoise Cabochons at; http://www.pinterest.com/durangosilver/natural-turquoise-cabochons/ as well as http://www.durangosilver.com/natural-turquoise-cabochons.html

We hope you will think of Durango Silver Company the next time you are searching for Natural Turquoise Cabochons.