10x18mm Tibetan Turquoise Teardrop. There are four major Turquoise mining regions in Tibet; the Turquoise in the above pendant has its origin in the mining area in the east of the country. Its blue-green colour is typical of Tibetan Turquoise. Tibetans have long treasured Turquoise, considering it to have spiritual qualities.
Turquoise is one of only two gemstones that are considered rocks, neither crystal nor organic, the other being the dark blue Lapis Lazuli, represented in the above necklace in the bead directly above the Tibetan Turquoise pendant, and in the two tube-cut beads at the beginnings of the Silver chain. The source of the Lapis Lazuli is the far north-east, high country region of Afghanistan.
The other element in this Sydney-created elegant necklace is the old deep orange Carnelian bead, taken from a graduated strand of such barrel-cut AGrade Carnelians, from one of the tribes of Nagaland, mined and handcut in Gujerat in east India in the early 1900s specifically for trade with that Naga tribe far away on the other side of the sub-continent.
Note: the last image shows the rear of the Tibetan Turquoise teardrop.