Aquamarine Earrings, Rings, Jewelry and Gemstone

Thailand Gemstone - Aquamarine gemstones: A pleasant gem to hold and own, aquamarine belongs to the beryl family of mainerals. Often occurring in lighter shades of "sky" blue aquamarine has been a long time favorite gem of The USA and Europe. Colored by iron, the color ranges from light blue to greenish blue.

Aquamarines can be found in Brazil, Russia, Zambia, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, California and Myanmar. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5-8 with the cleavage being indistinct and the fracture conchoidal to uneven. Aquamarine occurs from small sizes to very large crystals reaching a few feet in height. Aquamarine is a member of the beryl family, a group of gemstones including: Emerald (green beryl), Heliordor (golden beryl), Goshenite (colorless beryl), Morganite (pink beryl), Bixbite (red beryl), Maxixe (Blue beryl which color fade in sunlight).

Aquamarine is the name given to iron colored beryl which comes in colors from pale blue to rich sky blue or greenish blue. Aquamarine was named by the Romans over 2000 years ago, derived from words that mean ?water of the sea?, which is what it reminds one of with its clear blue color. The preferred color today is rich sky blue. Most aquamarine occurs without any, or very few, inclusions, making it a very eye-pleasing stone. Because of the shape of the rough that occurs as long prismatic crystals, aquamarine is most often fashioned as a step-cut emerald shape.

Aquamarine is a "diachronic" stone which means that it shows more than one color, depending on which way you look at it. From one view it may appear a rich blue, greenish, or greenish-blue while from another angle it may appear to be nearly colorless. Nowadays most of the aquamarine in the market owns its deep coloration from heat treatment at 400 to 450 degres of lower colored material. This coloration is stable unlike the possible coloration resulting from irradiation. Most aquamarine mined today comes from pegmatites in Brazil, but it is also found in alluvial gravels as well.

Fine aquamarines are also found in the Sakangyi area in the west of the Mogok stone tract in Burma (Myanmar). Other occurrences are in Australia, Russia, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, and India. Each locality produces a different color variation, sometimes making it possible to identify a stone?s origin from color alone. Aquamarine is brittle and sensitive to pressure. It is also sensitive to high temperature and may loose color if heated to high. Care must be so taken when making some aquamarine jewelry.

Apatite Jewelry, Rings and Necklace

Apatite Jewelry, Apatite Rings, Apatite Necklace and Apatite Earrings are famous products of Apatite gemstone in Gems Market.

Apatite has a hardness of 5 on the MOh 's scale and comes in colors ranging from yellow, blue, green, white, colorless, brown, purple, violet, gray and pink...The chemical formular is Ca5(PO4)3(F,OH,Cl)3. It has a density of 3.10-3.35 (massive varieties 2.5-2.9) Luster is vitreous. Among the countries in which apatites are found are: Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Brazil, India, Spain, Germany, Tanzania, Canada and Mexico.

Gemstones by Color

Many popular gemstones can be seen in different colors and here are some of Gemstones by color. Make a choice and let us know your thoughts.

Gemstone Online, Burmese Gems

Here are some of our popular collections of Burmese gems to buy online. See the interesting Cut Burmese Ruby Heated, Star Bluish-Violet Sapphire, Cut Spinel, Facetted Color Change Hackmanite and Cut Mogok Spessartite Garnet. For more information, please visit www.gemwow.com

Topaz

Chemical formula: Al2SiO4(F9OH)2 + Cr Hardness: 8 Cleavage: Perfect basal ( one direction). Fracture-conchoidal. Brittle. Luster: vitreous Crystal habbit: Orthorhombic. Prismatic, well formed, water worn pebbles, stimpy, very large, granular Density: 3.57-3.57 Occurs in dark yellow, light yellow, brown, pale blue, dark rose red, pink, lilac, brown, yellow brown, gray brown, green, light green, colorless Sources: Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Burma, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Utah, Australia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, China Most of the blue topaz seen in jewelry nowadays have been treated with cobalt 60, electrons or neutron atomic particles to create a blue color.

Sky blue being a lighter shade resembling a "sky blue" at noon on a clear day, Swiss blue is more intense almost neon like, while London blue has a bluish darker inkish cast. Prices of irradiated blue topaz has come down to a few dollar and cents per carat due to over production.

You can own a piece for a few to tens of dollars for a very nice piece. Precious topaz on the other hand still a rare item especially the pinkish, red, sherry and peach colors; these are orginally orange crystal containing Cr and after heating turns to a pink hue and show a Cr spectrum. Sources include Minais Gerais, Brazil and Mardan, Pakistan. Burma, Sri Lanka, China also produce topaz.

Treatable rough coming in large quantities by the hundred of kilos mostly from Sri Lanka, China, Nigeria and Brazil. Natural colors of red,pink and orange are exceeding rare.

Thermoluminescence may determine treated versus natural colors howver not enough gemological study has been reported on this subject.

Topaz is vey large sizes of over 20,000 carats have been cut and can be viewed in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and New York as well as the Smithsonian Nuseum in Washington DC. Sherry, champagne, light green and blue are desirable colors for any gem collection.

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Garnet

Garnets are found in various shades and occurs in many colors, except blue. But its dark red variety is valued as a precious stone although the mineral is quite common. Garnet crystals are 12 faced and has a vitreous luster, a white streak, and is normally transparent to translucent. Garnet has a hardness between 6.5 to 7.5 in the Mohs hardness scale.

The specific gravity varies between 3.56 and 4.32, depending upon the chemical composition. About garnet, there are many interesting mystic stories around the world and believe garnet as good stone for healing wealth and health, relieving skin conditions, protecting against poisons. Garnet may even protect one from thieves and if placed under the pillow, garnet would protect from having bad dreams. Many garnet crystals can be seen in a rock cavity. Cut brilliant garnets are used as ring stones with large ones as pendants, often with cabochon cut and carved.

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Our Top Jade Highlight Jade

Jade is no ordinary stone. Not even an ordinary "precious" stone. It has a "certain something" that made a Chinese emperor offer fifteen cities for a jade carving he could hold in one hand; that made Montezuma smile when he heard that Cortes was interested only in gold?? This is how begins one of the most beautiful books about Jade: "Jade, Stone of Heaven" by Richard Gump.

Jade name comes from the Spanish: "Piedra de Ijada", that then passed in French as ?Le jade?, but it was known for the Chinese as "Yu". For hundreds of years the word "jade" was used to describe a typically green gemstone of the alkaline pyroxene mineral group, however, in about 1863 gemologists were able to distinguish two types of the mineral, one which if often referred to as jadeite and the other as nephrite. Nephrite usually occurs as aggregates of amphibole crystals (silicate of magnesium) it is fibrous, hard to fracture and soapy in appearance. Jadeite is made up of interlocking microcrystalline pyroxene crystals (silicate of aluminium), it is more readily broken but more brilliant while polished. Even though this distinction has been made, the word "jade" is still used freely in the market to refer to both jadeite and nephrite. So Jade is not one gemstone but two!

In China and many other Asian countries, jade is believed to bring the wearer good luck and long life. It is also a symbol of high rank and authority. Jade can be found as gemstones, usually cut en cabochon, and as carvings for pendants, amulets, pipes, table utensils, and figurines. Many scenes from Chinese folklore are carved on jade discs and include symbols for fortune, fertility and longevity. More than 2000 years ago the Chinese used nephrite, due to its incredible tough structure, to carve weapons such as daggers and clubs. Jadeite is more recent, it was discovered by Chinese on the late between the XIII and the XVIII century and was fist named ?Yunnan jade? as it was coming from north Burma through Yunnan traders.

Jade is classified in the trade as Imperial Jade, Commercial Jade or Utility Jade.

The highest quality of jadeite is called ?Imperial Jade?. Seven sub categories of Imperial Jade including the ?kingfisher jade? or ?fei-ts?ui? combine high transparency with a rich saturated emerald-green color due to chromium. Imperial quality Jade is so rare and loved than top quality pieces can be more expensive than diamonds of equivalent weight?

"Commercial Jade" has the hue of green or violet, with stripes, specks or spots of other colors. It is translucent to near opaque. The violet variety owns its color to vanadium and or chromium and is famous as "Lavender jade".

For "Utility Jade" only the texture is determinant. Here no green or violet is visible. Utility Jade is usually used in carvings as statues or utensils. Fine, smooth, clear texture is the sign of top grade utility Jade. In carvings the value is placed heavily on the quality of the workmanship.

Natural color untreated Jade is known as "A-Jade" but Jade as all the highly valued gemstones have many imitations and is also sometimes treated:

Jade is commonly bleached and is then known as "B-Jade". The color of "B-Jade" does not usually last very long and "B-Jade" is more brittle as its structure is usually damaged by acids. Jade can also be impregnated with paraffin to improve its luster, or heated to

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Spinel

The origin of the name ?spinel? is uncertain. Spinel can be found in many colors such as red, pink, blue, green, orange? fine red and blue spinels are considered among the most valuable gemstones. It is a relatively unknown stone to the general public, and this is a pity as this is one of the most beautiful gemstones available.

The point is that spinel?s rarity hasn?t motivated any major company to promote it because if the demand were to rise, the supply would not be plentiful enough to keep up with it. Therefore, spinel remains mostly a stone for the connoisseur, for those who love it for its combination of excellent durability, fine pure red color and high brilliancy.

Spinel is the near perfect wedding of ruby and diamond qualities! Spinel is so close to ruby that for years it was mistaken as ruby and its common misnomer was ?Balas Ruby?. Actually, the 2 most famous rubies:
The ?Black Prince Ruby?, the ?Timur Ruby?, both from the British Crown Jewels, are actually red spinels! The finest quality red spinel comes from Mogok in Burma (Myanmar) with a deep red color that matches the color of most rubies.

Another source of Burmese top quality spinel has been discovered in Nanyazeik (or "Namya" in the Kachin people's language). These rare but exceptional spinels can reach a hot pink color as saturated and fluorescent as candy. Spinels are also found in Vietnam, Sri Lanka or Russia but without reaching the Burmese color qualities. Spinel (MgAl2O4) belongs to the cubic system. It is found as a metamorphic mineral as marble, and also as a primary mineral in basic rocks, because in such magmas, the absence of alkalis prevents the formation of feldspars and any aluminum oxide present will form corundum or combine with magnesia to form spinel.

This explains why spinel and ruby are often found together. In terms of quality, top stones combine eye-clean clarity with an intense color, without any secondary brown tones. But such stones are damn rare. One reason is that, unlike ruby, there are no known treatments to improve spinel color or clarity, so the stones in the market are usually just polished and cut! You can just dream to get the small quantity of fine gems that the mines produce.

Regarding current prices in the market, spinel is very under valued compared to ruby, an equivalent fine quality is around 10% of the price of ruby, but top spinels may be 100 times more rare! Fine spinels are real investment stones.

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HISTORY OF CHANTHABURI – PART 3

After this, Burma lent its hand to the Chanthaburi gem scene, with a new source of ruby from Mong Hsu. This new source, one of the largest deposits of ruby in recent history, produced Burmese ruby with one problem, most of the red crystals had a bluish core which would make the cut stones look purplish. Once again, the Chanthaburi burners came to the rescue. With a new technique to heat the blue core out of the stone, which would leave some silk in its place, the “new and improved” Mong Hsu rubies were a hit, quickly dominating the market.
Rubies and Sapphires from Madagascar began to appear in large quantities on the market in the 1990’s. These gemstones, combined with Thai heat treatment again proved to be a winning combination.

In 2001, Chanthaburi began producing large amounts of the lovely padparadscha sapphire. Markets such as Japan when wild for the stone, and dealers began to ask where the stones were coming from. After much discussion, the Chanthaburi dealers admitted that the stones were being beryllium treated. This caused a shockwave throughout the international gemstone trade as many said that this beryllium treatment was a type of diffusion and not simply a form of heat treatment.

Chanthaburi has over time weathered many storms, and has repeatedly come out on top, still retaining its place as a center of the international gemstone scene. Thought the weekend gemstone market is currently slower than it has been in the past, anyone can still go and sit down at a dealers table and see a wide variety of stones from around the world.

HISTORY OF CHANTHABURI – PART 2

In the 1950’s with the closure of the Mogok mines by the Burmese government, Chanthaburi’s stature grew even greater as massive supply shortages developed. The mines within Thailand and around the city of Chanthaburi quickly stepped up to meet market demand, with control over a large portion of production and increasingly developed heat treatment techniques, Chanthaburi increased its standing in the international gem industry

In the late 1960’s, Chanthaburi began to look outward for sources of gemstones. The first major source on which Chanthaburi set its sights were the Sapphire mines of Australia. Australian blue sapphires are darker in color than their Asian counterparts; however, due to new heat treatment techniques developed in the furnaces of the burners in Chanthaburi, who were able to “burn out” the rutile silk in the stones, the Thais were able to produce an attractive blue sapphire.

In the 1970’s, Chanthaburi made an even bigger name for itself with the heat treatment of the Sri Lankan geuda sapphire. Geuda sapphires, which due to their high rutile silk content are a milky, diesel color had previously had no place in the marketplace. However, once the Chanthaburi burners began to experiment, they developed a heating technique to turn these worthless stones into gem quality material. This development left the world in wonder as dealers tried to determine all this new blue sapphire material was coming from.