The eye that grades

Five points on one stone. The photograph stays the same — the loupe, the map and the note are what change. Nothing here is a grade.

A hand holds two polished round turquoise cabochons in dark brown matrix.

NIS-2026-003 · dark matrix

ReadingHold the stone. The loupe follows your finger.

The fingerprint — map of this stone

1 VEIN · 2 COLOUR · 3 CUT EDGE · 4 POLISH · 5 MATRIX
Tap a point — the loupe jumps to it. The note appears only when the loupe rests on a marked point.

Drawn reading — a diagram, not the stone.

AWAITING ASSAY

This device grades nothing — every reading ends at the same stamp.

The grader reads the stone in hand.

The dictionary

Dictionary

One stone, many entries. Each word defined by what the photographs show.

The dictionary is a reference book, not a sales page. An entry stays only if its definition can be checked against a stone.

FILE — 8 LOTS · 46 PHOTOGRAPHS

Close view of a round polished turquoise cabochon in dark blue with black-brown matrix veining. — NIS-2026-003 · dark matrix

ENTRY 01

Colour

Read second, after the matrix. Blue runs from pale blue-green to deep blue; green and brown come from the host rock. Colour is named from the photograph, never from a catalogue name.

A hand holds polished turquoise cabochons in blue-green tones with green and brown matrix. — NIS-2026-002 · host matrix

A plastic tub filled with round drilled turquoise beads in blue with brown and green matrix. — NIS-2026-007 · spiderweb matrix

ENTRY 02

Cut

The shape the cutter gives the stone. Cabochons are domed; beads are drilled round. The cut follows the vein — a stone is never cut against its matrix.

The cut, drawn step by step

ENTRY 03

Grade

What earns a grade, stated as principles — not as a ladder, and not as a claim about any lot.

01Colour, even across the face of the stone.
02Matrix, read for pattern — not for the mere presence of veins.
03Cut and polish, judged by hand and by light.

No lot is graded yet. When an assay returns, exactly one line of the file is filled in — until then, every lot carries the same stamp.

AWAITING ASSAY

ENTRY 04

Matrix

The dark veining inside the stone — the host rock caught in the turquoise. No two parcels share one matrix, so a buyer reads the matrix before anything else.

Spiderweb