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Emerald Crystal Gemstones

  • Posted on May 25, 2010 at 10:47 PM

Enticing Emerald
Author: Angara.com

Emerald Gemstone CrystalEmerald is a splendid crystal belonging to the mineral beryl. It is one of the oldest of the found and practiced, precious gemstone in the whole world.

Emerald jewelry featuring charms like emerald rings, pendants, and earrings in accordance with other fancier styles like bracelets etc. It has been a matter of fascination since ages. This rare member of the gemstone family is highly prized.

Fortunately, emerald was discovered and mined in first century BC, in Egypt. Such is the irresistible glam and intense shade of this stone, that even the most beautiful, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, couldn’t keep herself away from admiring it.

Emerald in various cultures has shared a significant mythological position. Folklores say that whosoever wore emerald becomes an owner of virtues like faithfulness and unchanging love. In addition, he could also forecast events due to powers bestowed by emerald.

Islam’s sacred color, green, contained by emerald made it a much coveted stone in the Indian subcontinent. During the Mughal period, kings and queens would wear bracelets, rings etc., set with emerald to bring God’s grace on them. Emerald was usually carved with Islamic writings to ward off evil.

Emerald boasts a relative hardness of 7.5-8 Mohs. This property makes it resistible to daily wear and tear. However, it is a brittle stone. Therefore, under stressful conditions it may develop fractures or internal cracks. This is the same reason behind most emerald roughs to contain flaws and inclusions. Violent geologic conditions and nature’s forces inside earth, exercise emeralds to rigorous situations. This process results in cracks and fissures.

To correct these, there are various enhancements or treatments. Commonly practiced is to fill surface-reaching cracks with oil (sometimes tinted green). This is an age old Greek formula.

As science has developed, technology has advanced too. Current enhancement method of oiling by vacuum/heat technology is carried on as treatment.

This method proves quite helpful due to emerald’s fragile nature. Therefore, oiling is a much widely accepted treatment in almost the whole world. It helps in covering the white cracks, making them less visible.

However, while cleaning emerald, the extensiveness of enhancement above, comes to light. An oil-treated emerald crystal should never be exposed to an ‘Ultrasonic Cleaner’. This electronic device is very well able to remove the built up, off stone, along with oil-filling inside cracks. Unwanted fading away of color with visible flaws emerged in the stone. An ‘Ionic Cleaner’ is suitable for emerald as well as for other jewelry.

There are newcomers like resin-fillers. Since emerald is rarely found flawless, this practice is gaining popularity in many source countries like Colombia and Brazil. Jewelers and buyers always make a point about intensity of color while judging and pricing beryl. Thus, more carat weight and stress is laid on improvement of color.

Otherwise, talking about its color, elements like chromium and vanadium are responsible for producing its youthful shade. Emerald is a candidly splendorous gemstone. Its lush-green, vibrant vividness simply allures buyers. Demands are very high for purchasing loose gemstones too. Therefore, if greater is the value and demand, more presence of imitations and fraudulent is possible.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/jewelry-articles/enticing-emerald-1467730.html

About the AuthorI am an obsessive gems and jewelry person. Nothing to be scared about! Working for an online gemstone jewelry portal has made me one as I get updated about recent fashion twits around the world. If you want to tickle your jewelry knowledge for more updates and information about latest ‘explorations and discoveries’ in gemstone designs and launches, you can go through my featured articles.

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Jade Becomes a Modern Fashion

  • Posted on May 22, 2010 at 10:04 AM

The Jade Comes Into Fashion
Author: sharon0610

Purple Jade Gemstone Beaded EarringsIt is said that in the early 13th century, a Yunan salt merchant carried a stone from Myanmar. The green translucent stone conquered Chinese people who love jade instantly. This stone is the jade, because it has beautiful color, rare production, vitreous luster, moisture texture, more toughness and hardness, it was called “jadeite”, also known as the “king of jade”.

The origin of most jade is in the undeveloped mountainous areas, although there can not see ghosts and demons, wolves and tigers ,when deep in the mountains, often can not see the sunshine, in the boundless forest, only the path which the jade seeker went pass; The fog dew river, the billowing muddy stream, on the summer day in the thunderstorm weather, soaks raise on the water surface everywhere, the smoke rise continuously, when the smoke rise three feet high, it doesn’t disperse, the human in boat can’t see the five fingers, as if entering a five miles fog. Except the malaria smoke, mosquito and python, the environment is very bad, in addition, the tool is primitive, the dry season is very short, the commodity lacks, so the jade mining is very difficult.

Until the 18th century, with the development of the science and technology, the jade only then entered the Chinese Yunnan massively. Although the jade from introduction to application was only 300~400 years, because the people who love jade entrusted jade with mysterious cultural connotation, its short and splendid history made other jades envy sufficiently, and with other jades constituted the Chinese nation continuity of jade culture. The Ming Dynasty, the Burmese jade appeared in our country; Qing Dynasty, because affection of nobility (especially the Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong canonized and empress dowager Cixi hobby love), it was called ” the imperial jade “.

From then on the jade price increased greatly, became the best quality goods in the jadeite. The jade linked closely with people’s life, in people’s mind, it is not only a beautiful stone, but also has the mystical belief and attaches the request. Both the ancient and the modern people like jade, happy about jade, playing jade, “the gentleman for no reason, the jade does not leave the body”. Presently the jade is the most popular with Chinese and South Korean, wearing jade and loving jade becomes one kind of modern fashion.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/jewelry-articles/the-jade-comes-into-fashion-565034.html

About the Author: Sharon, Ayong Culture Development Co. ,Ltd.
We engaged in handmade jewelry and fashion jewelry.

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Amethyst – Tears of Beauty Article

  • Posted on May 19, 2010 at 3:23 PM

Amethyst – Tears of Beauty
 – Nigel Makin -

Purple Varascite Amethyst Jasper Gemstone Beaded NecklaceThe Amethyst Gemstone is a semi-precious jewel of violet or purple colour that is available in many different shapes and sizes and is a common form of transparent crystallized Quartz. Amethyst is the Birthstone for the month of February and is mined in Brazil, Uruguay, Russia, Bolivia and Argentina, as well as Namibia, Zambia and a few other African countries, within the United States of America, Arizona is a good source of Amethyst. The purple colouring of the Amethyst is caused by impurities of iron and manganese.

Amethyst compliments both warm and cool colours so it does look good set in white and yellow metals, many of today’s designers favour the Amethyst as the ideal Gemstone for use in Jewelry because of it’s royal colouring and the sheer variety of shapes and sizes available to use. The stone is also very affordable and the wide tonal range from pale lavender to dark purple gives the designer a lot of scope to work with. Stones from South America tends to be available in larger sizes than African Amethyst but the African offerings have a reputation for better, more saturated colours in the smaller sizes. When Amethyst is heated it turns yellow and a lot of yellow Topaz and Citrine seen today comes from the use of this treatment, although Citrine is available naturally it is very rarely found.

Fine examples of this lovely stone are featured in the British Crown Jewels and they were also a favourite of Catherine the Great, as well as Egyptian royalty, it is believed that the tears of the gods had stained the Quartz purple and created the Gemstone we know today. Because Amethyst Gemstones were thought to encourage celibacy and symbolize piety, the stones were very important in the ornamentation of Catholic churches in the middle ages. In Tibet the Gemstone is considered to be sacred to Buddha with rosaries being fashioned from it, therefore the jewel is believed to be an excellent stone for meditation.

The healing power of the stone is said to be good for addictions, helping with arthritis, headaches, blood sugar levels, brain imbalances and a remedy for stomach disorders. The jewel is also said to bring serenity and calm and to better one’s ability to assimilate new ideas. The famous Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote that Amethyst Gemstones were able to dissipate evil thoughts and quicken the intelligence; the stone is also believed to bring money and success to the wearer and to aid in general healing after an illness or operation. The ancient Greeks believed that wearing Amethyst Jewelry would keep the effects of intoxication at bay, so strong were there beliefs that even drinking vessels and amulets were made from this lovely jewel.

It is possible to find Ametrine crystals, these are part Amethyst and part Citrine and often contain a number of inclusions where the colours change. Some examples of this Gemstone have been known to lose colour with continued exposure to sunlight but the original colouring can be restored by x-ray radiation. Like all varieties of Quartz, Amethyst has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale so care should be taken when wearing the stone. Above everything the Amethyst is a beautiful Gemstone and blend this with the fact that it is very popular with designers, means there is a lot of variety in jewelry stores to tempt you to purchase this very affordable Gemstone.

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