TheHunt for Variscite

The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona has a wonderful Museum Shop. www.heardmuseumshop.com. When I was there a few years ago, they had a fine necklace made by an American Indian artist. It combined turquoise, lapis lazuli (royal blue), spiny oyster(orange) , and a beautiful opaque emerald green stone I had never seen before called Variscite. I wanted that variscite to use in a necklace. but could not find it. I supposed it was rare and that only the native American jewelers had access to it.
However, in researching the variscite I discovered it was a relatively common mineral that was found in Western and Southern United States, Ireland, Wales, Hungary and more. It is a cousin to turquoise.

A while later I was again traveling in Arizona, this time to Jerome, an old mining town . There was a mineral shop there and I spotted one strand of variscite shards (shown in the pictured necklace above) hanging on the wall. The new store owner could not identify the stones. The label from the previous owner said "Snake River". There is a Snake River in Utah and a Snake River Mine that produces variscite and I think that is where the stone shards in my necklace are from. The necklace above has two strands of variscite, Nepalese inlaid beads, and ethiopian handmade brass beads. It can be purchased through necklacesbyadner.com