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Hello beautiful people who enjoy not only black and
white but all the earthly colors and get different pleasure out of all. This is
a guide to help you understand some of the facts about these natural wonders,
also called “gems,” that we use in our jewelry collection.
A few aspects about all gems:
Though in and of itself a gemstone is a magnificent
work of nature, it’s the hand of man that takes that piece of rough and shapes
it into something beautiful…that releases its reflective capacity. Yet it is
reflection on the part of an individual that is the first spark of creation.
Reflection by the cutter on what that particular piece of rough has locked
inside, waiting to be released.
Cut
There are two standard ways of cutting or polishing
a gemstone to enhance their luster:
Cabochon: Gem without facets that is highly
polished and has smooth, rounded edges
Faceted: A desired surface displayed in a gem. It
may grow naturally but is usually hand cut.
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Hardness
Hardness can be tested through scratching. A
scratch on a mineral is actually a groove produced by micro fractures on the
surface of the mineral. It requires either the breaking of bonds or the
displacement of atoms (as in the metallic bonded minerals). A mineral can only
be scratched by a harder substance. A hard mineral can scratch a softer
mineral, but a soft mineral can not scratch a harder mineral (no matter how
hard you try). Therefore, a relative scale can be established to account for
the differences in hardness simply by seeing which mineral scratches another.
That is exactly what French mineralogist Friedrich Mohs proposed almost one
hundred and seventy years ago. Hardness is one of the better physical
properties for minerals. Specimens of the same mineral may vary slightly from
one to another, but generally they are quite consistent.
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Gemstones
Amethyst
Color:
Light to dark purple
Hardness: 7
Amethyst is one of the most
popular gems. Amethyst is mined in Brazil,
Uruguay, Bolivia and Argentina in South America and Zambia, Namibia, and other
African countries. Generally, amethyst from South America tends to be available
in larger sizes than African amethyst but amethyst from Africa has the
reputation for having better, more saturated, color in small sizes. Very dark
amethyst, mostly in small sizes, is also mined in Australia.
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Aquamarine
Color: Light blue, blue, blue-green
Hardness: 7 ½ - 8
Aquamarine,
named for the Latin phrase
"water of the sea", is a durable and lively
gemstone that is appropriate for all jewelry uses. Aquamarine is found in
Brazil, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria, and other countries.
It is often completely
flawless. In fact, an aquamarine gem with a visible flaw is rarely seen. Light
blue
topaz is easily mistaken for aquamarine. The colors of these two gems are
identical, and their physical properties are very similar. Topaz is the less
expensive gem.
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Citrine
Color:
Yellow, yellow-brown,
orange, dark orange-brown, reddish-brown.
Hardness: 7
Sunny and affordable, citrine can brighten almost
any jewelry style, blending especially well with the yellow gleam of polished
gold. It is widely
used as a gem, and is the most valuable Quartz gem. Citrine can be found in the
Ural Mountains of Russia, in Dauphine, France, and in Madagascar but most
material comes from Minas Gerais, Brazil.
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Coral
Color:
Ranges from white to red.
Hardness: 3 ½
Coral grows in branches that look like underwater
trees. Most coral, used in jewelry, is found in the Mediterranean Sea or in the
Pacific off Japan and Taiwan. The coral reefs in the South Pacific like the
Great Barrier Reef off Australia are formed by a different species than the
coral traditionally used in jewelry. The most valuable colors of coral are red,
black, and pink. Coral is much softer than other gem materials therefore it
needs special care to avoid scratches.
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Emerald
Color: Green to dark green.
Hardness: 7 ½ - 8
Fine emeralds come from Colombia, Zambia, Brazil,
Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Russia and other countries.
Deep green is the most
desired color in emeralds. The paler the color of the emerald, the lesser its
value. Flawless emeralds are very uncommon, and are noted for their great
value. Some people actually prefer an emerald with very minute flaws over a
flawless emerald, as this proves authenticity of the stone.
Although many people consider Colombia to be the
source of the best emeralds, country of origin is never a guarantee of quality.
Even the best mine produces mostly low quality gemstones because good qualities
are very rare! Emeralds are traditionally filled with oil to minimize the
impact of their flaws.
Cleaning emeralds with hot soapy water, steam or in
an ultrasonic cleaner should be avoided as this may remove or damage the oil,
making the flaws more visible. They are most often cut in a rectangular
step-cut, which is now popularly known as the emerald cut,
developed specifically for this gem to reduce the amount of pressure during
cutting.
Emerald is the most famous
and favored green gemstone. Its beautiful green color, combined with durability
and rarity, make it one of the most valuable gemstones.
Emeralds are durable gemstones. With a little care,
your emerald will be treasured by you and your descendants thousands of years
to come!
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Garnet
Color:
Garnet occurs in every
color except for blue (Red,
reddish-brown, brown, green, yellow, orange, pink, purplish-red, white, etc.)
Hardness: 6½ - 8½
Due to the
great color variations of garnet, many other gemstones may be confused with it.
Garnets are often thought of as dark red gems. Garnets, however, have a great
color variation, and gems of all colors (except blue) are cut from them.
Garnets do possess high indices of refraction, are
hard enough (except for demantoid garnet), have pretty colors, are wonderfully
transparent, lack cleavage and are durable; thus making good candidates for
gemstones.
Garnets come from different parts of
the world. Here are some most popular colors and their origins:
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Rhodolite garnet: Ranges from pink to
purplish red in color. Mined in Africa, India, and Sri Lanka.
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Tsavorite garnet: Bright yellow green to
grass green. Mined in Tanzania and Kenya.
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Demantoid garnet (extremely rare today):
Bright green with dazzling brilliance. Mined in Russia.
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Malaya garnet: Ranges from orange to gold
in color. Mined in Tanzania and Kenya.
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Pyrope garnet: Very saturated red. Mined
in Arizona.
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Iolite
Color: Various shades of yellowish gray to blue to
a blue violet.
Hardness: 7 – 7 ½
Iolite is mined in India, Sri Lanka, Burma,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Brazil. It has an attractive violet blue color that
is unlike other gemstones. It has been compared to a light blue sapphire, for
this reason it is sometimes known as "water sapphire". Not being an
extremely rare gemstone makes this gem available for an affordable price.
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Kunzite
Color:
Pink, light pink, and light
purple.
Hardness: 6½ - 7
Kunzite
was first
found in Pala, California, in 1902, and is named after the gemologist George F.
Kunz. Today most kunzite is mined in Brazil,
Afghanistan, and Madagascar.
Kunzite is a very
attractive pink gem, but is notorious for its habit of color fading in strong
light. Although the color-fading effect is not drastic in most kunzite, it is
still important not to expose this gemstone to strong light (especially
sunlight) for long periods. Kunzite is sometimes called "evening stone" for
this reason.
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Lapis Lazuli
Color: dark blue (Often sparkles with golden pyrite
inclusions.)
Hardness: 5 ½
Lapis lazuli is mined in Afghanistan, Chile,
Siberia, Colorado in the United States, and in Myanmar. Lapis is not very hard
and should be protected from other jewelry when stored to avoid scratches. When
it comes to Lapis, top quality means stones with a deep uniform blue that are
free of white calcite veining the surface and virtually free of more tolerable
golden pyrite flecks.
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Malachite
Color: Banded (The presence of color zoning lines, or "bands")
light and dark green or just dark green.
Hardness:
3½ - 4
Fine Malachite comes from many
places around the world. Countries that produce large amounts of Malachite are
Zambia, Namibia, Zaire, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Romania, Chile,
Mexico, and the U.S. Malachite is named for the Greek
word for "mallow", a green herb. Its banded light and dark green designs are
one-of-a-kind, and give it a unique ornamental quality unlike that of any other
stone. For that aspect Malachite is one of the most easily recognized minerals
by the general public. Malachite is a famous and very popular stone in jewelry.
Although it is not as precious as jade; it is hard to argue that it is less
beautiful.
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Opal
Color: Colorless, white, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue,
green, gray, brown, and black.
Hardness: 5½ - 6½
Opal is found in Western USA localities, Mexico, Australia,
England, Czech Republic and many other localities around the world.
It is the
most colorful of all gems. The most desired and beautiful form of opal is
black
opal, which is opal with a dark blue, dark green, or black
background with a strong play of color. Black opal is followed by
white
opal (opal with a light colored body color with strong play of
color) and Mexican
fire opal
(transparent to translucent orange red color). Precious opals (black and white)
are used in all forms of jewelry.
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Peridot
Color: shades of green usually from yellow-green to greenish
yellow.
Hardness: 6½ - 7
Peridot is mined in Arizona in the U.S., Myanmar (formerly
Burma) China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Norway, the Ural Mountains of Russia and
Germany. The finest Peridot comes from St. Johns Island (Zebirget) in the Red
Sea off Egypt. But new sources in Pakistan are challenging that claim with some
exceptional specimens. Although peridot is distinctly a different shade of
green, many jewelers refer to peridot as "evening emerald". Emerald is a
dark green as opposed to a yellow green and always contains inclusions.
Peridot has been mined as a gemstone for an estimated four
thousand years. It is the gem variety of Olivine.
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Rubellite
Variety of tourmaline, which exhibits a deep red color.
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Ruby
Color: Bright red, brownish-red, purplish-red, dark red.
Hardness: 9
Fine rubies are found in Thailand, India, Madagascar, Zimbabwe,
North Carolina in the U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania,
Cambodia, and perhaps most notably, Burma. Ruby is the second hardest natural
mineral known to mankind, the red variety of corundum. Beside for its color, it
is a most desirable gem due to its hardness, durability, luster, and rarity.
The best shade of red for ruby is often given the name "pigeon blood red", but
ruby can be any shade of red up to almost pink. To possess gem value Ruby must
be transparent and “pigeon blood red” (deep blood red with a slightly bluish
hue). Transparent, flawless rubies exceed
all other gems in value, except for deeply colored "fancy diamonds".
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Sapphire
Color: Various colors (Blue, yellow, green, white, colorless,
pink, orange, brown, and purple), except for red.
Hardness: 9
Fine Sapphires are found in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Thailand,
Australia, and Cambodia. Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, China, Vietnam, Madagascar,
and the United States also produce some sapphire. The non-red variety of
corundum is Sapphire, encompasses all colors of corundum aside from red (Ruby).
The most famous and valuable sapphires have a medium intense, vivid blue
color, a truly royal hue. Any black, gray, or green overtones mixed in with the
blue will reduce its value. Sapphire is the most precious of blue gemstones. It
is a most desirable gem due to its color, hardness, durability, and luster. The
blue color is by far the most popular color for sapphire but a rare orange-pink
variety, known as padparadscha,
is even more valued than blue sapphire.
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Tanzanite
Color: Various shades of blue to lavender.
Hardness: 6 ½ - 7
Tanzanite’s blue-lavender color is rather unique and a wonderful
addition to the gemstone family. It is found in Tanzania in 1967 and has since
become a well known and widely distributed gemstone. Its only one direction of
cleavage is somewhat of a problem because it is the gem-cutter who would
usually select the direction to maximize the color. However, with tanzanite’s
strong color that is hardly an issue.
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Topaz
Color: Colorless, white, yellow, orange, brown, pink, light
purple, gray, light blue, greenish blue, green.
Hardness: 8
Topaz is mainly found in Brazil. Huge, transparent, gem-quality
crystals are found there. Topaz has also come from the Ural Mountains of
Russia, Mexico and the U.S. (Texas, Colorado and Utah). Topaz is often confused
with the less valuable citrine. Topaz is a very hard gemstone but it can be
split with a single blow, a trait it shares with diamond. Any "Topaz" labeled
with a prefix name (such as Gold Topaz, Madeira Topaz, False Topaz, Brazilian
Topaz, Bahia Topaz, and Citrine Topaz) is heat-treated Citrine. Topaz is a
popular gemstone. All colors are fashioned into gemstones, and the yellow-brown
("Imperial") and pink varieties are the most valuable.
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Tourmaline
Color: Green, red, blue, purple, pink, yellow, orange, brown,
colorless, white, black.
Hardness: 7 - 7½
Tourmaline is mined in Brazil, Tanzania,
Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and
California and Maine in the United States. Scientifically, tourmaline is not a
single mineral, but a group of minerals related in physical and chemical
properties. The four most common and well known tourmalines distinguished by
their color and transparencies are: Elbaite (extremely variable with the most
common colors being red, pink, green, blue, orange and yellow), Schorl (Black),
Dravite (light brown to dark brown) and Uvite (green, colorless, white, light
brown or black). The mineral elbaite
is a member of the tourmaline group responsible for almost all the gem
varieties.
In 1989, the new type of tourmaline has been discovered, unlike
any that had ever been seen before, which soon became known as Paraiba
tourmaline, came in incredibly vivid blues and greens.
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Tsavorite
Color: Various shades of green.
Hardness: 6½ - 7½
Tsavorite is not the only green garnet. Uvarovite (almost never
used as a gemstone) and Andradite garnet variety called Demantoid (remarkably
rare) are also green color members of the
garnet family. Fine quality tsavorite is mined in Tsavo, Kenya. The rarity of
the stone has led jewelers around the world to treat tsavorite as a specialty
item, like alexandrite. Tsavorite still needs to break out of a cycle of lack
of demand caused by lack of supply.
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Turqoise
Color: Varies from greenish blue to sky blue shades.
Hardness: 5 – 6
The finest turquoise comes from Iran but is challenged by some
southwestern United States specimens. It is a valuable mineral and is possibly
the most valuable, non-transparent mineral in the jewelry trade.
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