Posts Tagged ‘Mohs’

Other Colored Gemstones Unknown to the World – 6

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

• Coral

In sixteenth century, it was experimentally proved, that coral could cure madness, provide wisdom, and halt the flow of blood from wounds or gashes. It is also believed that carrying these sea creatures, could calm storms and enable safe voyage across broad rivers or seas.

Corals are basically dead marine organisms which, when alive, existed as sea anemones. However, due to their fascinating range of colors, they are kept aside as precious gemstones like diamond, ruby, emerald, pearl etc.

It is available in abundant colors such as pink, white, orange, red, and black. However it’s the red specimen that reserves a special place, topping demands. Most demanded one, is the blood coral which has become very popular in recent years.

After cut and polished, the glossiness allures buyers, making them a hot selling item. It is a fairly soft stone measuring 3.5 Mohs’ on scale. Therefore, it’s often found in cabochon cuts and beads. A belief persists that a coral tends to lose its magical powers, if cut.

• Jade

Jade derives its name from Spanish ‘piedra de ijada’ or loin stone. It’s called so because of its reputed efficacy in curing human flaws occurring in loin and kidney.

Favored long by Chinese, it is an effective gemstone to cure intestinal disturbances. This abundantly colored substance is found in different shades. In addition, it has been prominently placed into various ancient cultures, across the world, naming Mesoamerica, MÄori, prehistoric and early historic Korea.

Talking about jewelry, jade carvings and delicate rings and earrings have been found in plenty. There are mainly two types of this-nephrite and jadeite. However, both of them flaunt distinct physical properties involving weight, hardness, and color range. Both are called jade.

• Labradorite

A bright fascinating gemstone, with alluring gray shades, almost opaque stone, with in which surprising brilliant flashes of peacock blue, greens, and/or yellows, are visible at certain angles.

A feldspar mineral family crystal, this fairly soft stone is carved into cabochon and beads to use into jewelry. It measures 6 to 6.5 Mohs’ on scale.

Other varieties of this fabulous stone are spectrolite, moonstone, and sunstone. These actually differ from each other in high degree of iridescence.

The amazing world of precious valuables, discussed above, is more than fascinating. It is wonderful to come across such adorable varieties of gemstones, with an interesting mythological, and other factual background.

Today’s trends show that apart from sapphire earrings, tanzanite pendants etc, and the uncommonly used mineral crystals will soon be a fashion statement to possess.

Sapphire Engagement Rings, Sapphire Earrings and Sapphire Rings at angara.com

Jewelry is not just in writing but a fascination for me. I grew into it since the day I started my research. There is a lot that one needs to know about jewelry simply because they are so valuable that you cannot afford to miss a single bit. My alliance with online gemstone and jewelry selling website enables me to bring you the best of jewelry fashion and jewelry education.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/jewelry-articles/other-colored-gemstones-unknown-to-the-world-6-1537581.html

Other Colored Gemstones Unknown to the World – 3

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Leading on to the tradition of continuation of knowledge availability to readers, here comes more information of hidden yet glinting wonders of the world of gemstones. Below is a description on some real facts.

• Garnet

Garnets are some abundantly colored vivifying gemstones which are believed to make the ware loyal, devoted and energetic than ever before. If you opt on sincerity and cure loss of blood, cure hemorrhaging and cure inflammatory diseases, the garnet ids the right choice.

The name originates from English word ‘garnet’ meaning dark red.

Ethereally fascinating sub species of it are -

• pyrope,

• almandite,

• rhodolite,

• spessartite,

• spessartite-mandarin,

• hydrogrossular garnet,

• hydrogrossular garnet- hessonite,

• grossular garnet- tsavorite, g

• rossular garnet- malay,

• demantoid,and

• color change garnet.

This gemstone measures its hardness as 6.5 to 7.5 Mohs’ on scale. Making it a relatively accepted crystal for durable jewelry, this is one of the few untreated gemstones which are seen almost flawless.

Garnets are found in all brilliant colors like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless. Color change quality makes it resemble an alexandrite. It reflects as red colored in artificial light and blue in daylight or florescence.

A star garnet is found unique in reddish to purplish variety.

• Iolite

A cordierite mineral family member, iolite is a crystal consisting elements like iron, aluminium and magnesium. It has derived its name from its founder’s name, the French geologist Louis Cordier.

In addition its said that its name originates from the Greek for violet. Also, it’s called as dichroite which means two colored crystal, in the same language.

Its hardness measures 7 to 7.5 Mohs’ on scale which it’s less durable unlike sapphire. However, in appearance, iolite’s very clean colors resemble with blue sapphire. The shades range from deep blue to light gray-blue to yellowish grey.

Because of this physical characteristic, iolite which is a strong pleochroic reflects distinct colors when viewed from different angles. Moreover, this good value stone brings a low priced substitute fro sapphire.

In the near future, this very less prized gemstone is predicted to make a mark in the colored gemstone jewelry world. Whatsoever, be the scenario of the future, king like sparkling rocks like sapphire, tanzanite, ruby, will never lose their sheen.

Contemporary gemstone jewelry will retain their positions as much coveted ones like sapphire rings, tanzanite earrings and diamond rings

Emerald Earrings, Sapphire Earrings and Tanzanite Earrings

Jewelry is not just in writing but a fascination for me. I grew into it since the day I started my research. There is a lot that one needs to know about jewelry simply because they are so valuable that you cannot afford to miss a single bit. My alliance with online gemstone and jewelry selling website enables me to bring you the best of jewelry fashion and jewelry education.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/jewelry-articles/other-colored-gemstones-unknown-to-the-world-3-1515157.html

February 2012
S M T W T F S
« Jan    
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
26272829  
Archives
Add to Technorati Favorites