Gemstones

Gemstone Earring: One Small Way to Express Your Individuality

Some people have specific color preferences while some people also like only specific stones, and are energized by being around them. Gemstone earrings exist so that people may be able to select their jewelry based on their own preferences, and customize their accessories according to their desires.

Experts in psychic phenomena believe that each gemstone stands for something. Certain stones perform certain functions, or encourage a specific aspect of one's personality. For example, wearing garnet is said to help ease the pain of a bad breakup, or cause jealousy between lovers. Amethyst is said to protect its wearer against the ill effects of alcohol, slow down intoxication and prevent hangovers. Turquoise is said to give emotional strength. Jade has always had enormous importance in Asian civilization; it is said to have the mystical power to protect its wearer against nightmares and other psychic attacks.

Diamond -- currently the hardest mineral known to man -- is said to stand for strength and purity, which is why it is in demand in gemstone earrings among both men and women. Emeralds are said to stand for harmony, strength of heart, and luck with love. Emeralds themselves are rare, and the extremely rare red emerald is said to be even more valuable than diamonds. Sapphires stand for wisdom, calm and faith. Finally, rubies stand for passion, excitement, loyalty and sexual pleasure.

Gemstone earrings may also stand for birth months, as some precious and semi-precious stones are also birthstones. The different birthstones per month are listed thus:

* January - Garnet
* February - Amethyst
* March - Aquamarine or Bloodstone
* April - Diamond
* May - Emerald
* June - Pearl, Moonstone or Alexandrite
* July - Ruby
* August - Peridot or Sardonyx
* September - Sapphire
* October - Opal or Tourmaline
* November - Topaz
* December - Turquoise, Zircon or Blue Topaz

Different gemstone earrings may lend strength to different aspects of an individual’s personality. Whether or not a person believes in the mythical and supernatural characteristics and powers associated with these stones, wearing gemstone earrings nevertheless may feel like the wearer has on a tangible part of his or her personality that looks good, as well.

Gemstones

Some of the most beautiful jewelry is made using semi-precious gem stones. A gem stone is a mineral, a rock or a petrified material that is cut or faceted and polished before it can be used in jewelry.

Some gem stones are fairly rare, such as amazonite, which is a bright green variety of feldspar. Formerly it was obtained almost exclusively from Russia, but recently it was found in Colorado and Madagascar. Its limited occurrence makes it prized as a gem stone.

Citrin, also called citrin quartz, is an amber colored gem stone.

Aventurine is commonly a green gem stone, but can be orange, brown, yellow or grey. The rarest is red and highly prized as a gem stone.

Cordierite is a magnesium, iron and aluminum cyclosilicate, the transparent variety of which is iolite, which is used as a gem stone. The name, iolite, is derived from the Greek word for violet.

Lapis lazuli is a stone which has been classified as a gem stone. This deep blue gem stone dates back to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

Jade is an interesting gem stone. The name is applied to two different silicate materials. It is a very tough material and was first used for axe heads, knives and weapons. It was only when other materials were found that could be used for these purposes that jade become a prized gem stone. Nephrite is either green or creamy in color, while jadeite comes in a variety of colors. In New Zealand, where nephrite jade is known as greenstone and not gem stone, the Maoris consider it a treasure. In traditional Maori designs, this gem stone is still widely used to make jewelry. Jade is the official gem stone of British Columbia. Many minerals are sold as jade. These can certainly be used as gem stones, but are not the real thing.

Turquoise is another gem and ornamental stone. The name is a very old word , probably derived from the French meaning Turkish stone, although turquoise was not found in Turkey, but was traded there. Iran and the Sinai Peninsula were sources of very fine turquoise. In the United States, the deposits were mined by pre-Columbian Native Americans. Nowadays there is some imitation turquoise, which is so good, that only an expert could tell the difference between the real stone and the fake!

It’s possible that rings and bracelets and necklaces made with these semi-precious gemstones may not be as valuable as say, gold or diamonds, but they can be exquisite and highly prized. Of course, if the diamond is flawed, it may be impressive to the friends and acquaintances of a newly engaged damsel, but is not of great value.

Gemstones – Girl’s New Best Friend?

Colorful gemstones are just anybody’s dream to have. Their natural colors more than match your very fashionable dresses. Their sheer range could strike you spell bound. Gemstones are precious or semiprecious mineral stones which when cut and faceted can be used as jewels.

There is more to gemstones than just being jewelry items. They are regarded as lucky when worn specific to an individual’s birth month. Before we deal with this aspect in detail lets see the classification of gemstones.

Classification and Characteristics of Gemstones
There is a tri-level classification of gemstones namely, groups, species and varieties. Simply put, rubies which are red in color belong to conundrum species which in turn belong to hematite group. Others like emerald, aquamarine, goshenite, heliodor and morganite, all of them belong to that variety known as beryl. There are over 150 different species available.

Gemstones display all characteristics of crystals like dispersion, refractive indices, hardness, and specific gravity etc. They also possess characters like inclusions, fractures and cleavage which play upon their quality and values. However gemologists include all gems into the precious list.

Hardness is another important characteristic of gemstones. Simply put, hardness means resistance to scratch which is measured in Mohs, a system developed by an Austrian mineralogist F. Mohs. The scale of hardness reads from 1-10 with higher number indicating the hardest. If talc is at the bottom with just 1Moh, diamond has 10Mohs. Other popular gemstones like feldspar, topaz and sapphire having Mohs of 6, 8 and 9 respectively.

Birth Stones
US Geological Survey lists gemstones classified as birth stones. It is believed by most people that wearing birthstones brings luck to their lives. It is not surprising that all societies have this kind of faith with regards to gemstones, albeit with differences here and there, looking at the romancing tryst every society had with these ‘stones’. The list is in the order of calendar months with each month having at least one gemstone specific to that month. One can find a list of birth stones on official website of USGS.

Buying Gemstones
USGS cautions buyers against unscrupulous sellers as more and more of them are trying to push through synthetic gemstones as genuine pieces to unsuspecting, inexperienced buyers. Gemstones are measured by size and carats. (1carat=1/5th of a gram.)

When buying gemstones, watch out for:

1.Heating alters the color sometimes improving clarity
2.Irradiation darkens colors
3.Impregnation with wax, resins etc fills cracks, flaws
4.Fractures filled by injecting plastic
5.Differential colors in center and surface indicates diffusion treatment

Always buy from reputed sellers who produce certificates by Gemological Institute of America to prevent a lucky stone turn unlucky.

Gemstones - The Crowning Glory Of Ornaments

Gemstones need no formal introduction when it comes to evaluating how much they were defining man's beautifying techniques. Gemstone jewelry has always played a key role in making the humans look more glamorous since time immemorial. You may have as many bracelets, necklaces and finger rings of pure gold and platinum as desired, but unless you had had a couple of them studded with gemstones, the desire of having an impressive collection of jewelry items will go unfulfilled. Men and women have always craved for owning the ornaments like gemstone rings as a result, to display out their possession of power and wealth.

Gemstones, also called gems, are basically mineral parts that are cut and polished to look charming and be available for inserting inside ornaments. Some organic compounds and non-minerals like amber are also treated as gemstones by the ornament manufacturers. Gemstones are classified according to their chemical composition, crystalline structure and the original forms they were found in; the phrase habit stands for the last of these three categories. Hard brilliant diamonds, for example, are made of carbon (C), and soothing red rubies of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) as per their chemical analysis. In the same way, different stones may have different crystalline formations as per their physical mapping, such as a cubic or a trigonal one. Some diamonds, originally found in the nature as octahedrons, are treated to have cubic crystalline formations for the sake of making specific industrial usage, thus transforming their basic physical state, the habit.

Gemstones have to go through many procedures before being inducted into ornaments. They are heated, irradiated, waxed and filled up with oil, apart from being targeted with several other techniques to gather lasting effects. Some of these treatments may last permanently while others may fade out with time, thus deciding how much value they should add to the resulting gemstone jewelry. Gemstones are basically either cut and polished into cabochons or faceted structures, depending on their physical properties. Stones that are opaque such as turquoise, variscite, opal, etc are normally cut and polished into dome shaped forms called cabochons, while those with transparent characters are made to look multi-faceted. One can always select to buy ornaments such as gemstone rings studded with either of the two kinds of stones.

The reason given for not cutting and polishing the opaque gems into multi-faceted ones is their lack of ability to showcase interiors. Apart from that, hardness does also play out a key role in deciding what shape any stone should finally have as gemstone jewelry. Normally, less hard stones are prone to getting more scratched compared to the harder ones, hence providing them with a dome like shape lessens the chance of those scratches being picked up visually. These aspects usually guide the way gemstone jewelry was manufactured across the globe.

There is a vast market available for the synthetically produced gemstones and their ornaments as well. They are generally valued just a fraction of what the naturally made gemstone jewelry might usually cost. These stones may have similar optical properties to their original counter parts on occasions, but may vary in terms of physical and chemical properties in a substantial manner. So, you should decide in advance the nature of stones you may wish to wear before stepping inside any jewelry showroom the next time, as there may be dozens of styles and price tags to choose from in various categories of the gemstone rings, necklaces and bracelets that you might get to look at.

Gemstones Are All About Tales And Colors

Gemstones carry many popular stories and beliefs regarding their colorful displays. Each such class of stones may have a distinct crystalline and optical identity to speak of, which shall provide a unique identity to the gemstone jewelry produced from them. As per many popular stories, they are believed to influence the human mind in different ways when adorned as gemstone rings and other ornaments. These stories do have some scientific reasoning as well to rely on, as the human mind is known to react depending on the kind of optical and colorful displays it was exposed to. We are going to examine some of these tale telling facts about gemstones and their influences in the everyday life through the following paragraphs.

We often wear gemstone rings studded with Sapphires or Rubies on different occasions. These stones are basically mineral forms of corundum, an aluminum oxide (Al2O3). The mineral is called Ruby or Sapphire depending on the kind of light it was able to reflect back. A red mineral corundum is always called a Ruby while the rest other shades are classified either as Sapphires or Padparadschais. Gemstone rings should be worn according to one's zodiac sign, one popular belief says, and Sapphires work out best for those individuals who had an Aquarius sign. In the same way, Ruby is known to calm down aggressive individuals of a particular lineage of stars. Similarly, Opal and Topaz, two more precious stones that manufacturers often try making use of while assembling gemstone jewelry, are known to make individuals of certain stars successful.

Some southwest Indian tribes are widely seen wearing Turquoise to promote healing and good luck and to perform religious ceremonies. Hematite, another metallic gray colored stone, is adorned in the same region as a way to energize one's bloodstreams, while the brownish red Jasper is believed to nullify one's negativity. Jasper also gets known for healing up kidney, bladder, spleen and liver ailments and thus plays out the role of a medic. A dark green colored stone named Malachite, is supposed to help in garnering mental insightfulness and arousing the levels of loyalty and fidelity from those around. Another stone named as Adventurine and found in light greens, is often thought to aid people in getting rid of anxiety and garnering a tranquil life in exchange.

Purple colored stones Amethysts are known to help out people in getting rid of their addictive habits and in garnering mental peace. Similarly, Rhodonite is thought to raise up the levels of positive thoughts in one’s life and help out them have emotional soundness. These and many other notions regarding precious stones dictate how people would normally buy gemstone jewelry across the globe. Not only the charm of adorning oneself with lustrous jewels but also the thought of having positive effects is what makes people go in for the ornaments like gemstone rings, bracelets, necklaces etc.

Many websites may be seen offering a great deal of information regarding gemstone jewelry these days. These include stones produced in natural mines and scientifically synthesized both. One can log on at these sites to instantly order their selections of gemstone items at highly cut-throat rates any day.