... fade if exposed to direct sunlight. It has natural termination points.Some peices are like wands, wide, slender and transparent. Others are quite opaque. Celestite is found around Lake Erie, California, ...
Himalayan salt is rock salt or halite from a mine in the Punjab Region of Pakistan, which rises from the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is mined in the Khewra Salt Mine, located in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab Region, Pakistan. The foothills of the Salt Range are located 300 km from the...
Morganite is a pink, peach or purple/pink variety of Beryl, a beryllium aluminum silicate mineral with hardness of 7.5 to 8. Its crystal system is hexagonal (trigonal).Its color is caused by manganese. Morganite was mined first in Madagascar in 1902. It was named after the financier and mineral collector J.P....
Sunstone is also called aventurine feldspar (a variety of oligoclase). This gemstone varies from golden to orange to red-brown, and can be transparent or translucent. Sunstone is metallic-looking due to sparkling red, orange or green crystalline inclusions (these are hematite or goethite crystals). Sunstone has a beautiful glittering sunlight effect as...
Facets are flat faces on geometric shapes. The organization of naturally occurring facets was key to early developments in crystallography, since they reflect the underlying symmetry of the crystal structure. Gemstones commonly have facets cut into them in order to improve their appearance. Of the many hundreds of facet arrangements that...
While most varieties of transparent quartz are valued most when they lack inclusions, some varieties are valued chiefly because of inclusions! The most popular of these is known as rutilated quartz. Rutilated quartz is transparent rock crystal with golden needles of rutile arrayed in patterns inside. Every pattern is different...
Gypsum is found in nature in mineral and rock form. As a mineral, it can form very pretty, and sometimes extremely large, crystals. As a rock, gypsum is a sedimentary rock, typically found in thick beds or layers. It forms in lagoons where ocean waters high in calcium and sulfate...
Geodes, a term derived from a Greek word meaning earth-shaped, are irregular, roughly spherical bodies. They can be oblong or shaped like invertebrate fossils. Some are hollow and lined with most beautiful and unusual layers and clusters of various mineral crystals, but others are completely filled by inward-growing crystals. Hollow geodes,...
Named from the French name for lemon,"citron," many citrines have a juicy lemon color. Citrine includes yellow to gold to orange brown shades of transparent quartz. Sunny and affordable, citrine can brighten almost any jewelry style, blending especially well with the yellow gleam of polished gold. In ancient times, citrine...
Kyanite, whose name derives from the Greek, kyanos, meaning blue, is a typically blue silicate mineral, commonly found in aluminium-rich metamorphic pegmatites and/or sedimentary rock. Kyanite is a diagnostic mineral of the Blueschist Facies of metamorphic rocks. Kyanite is a member of the aluminosilicate series, which includes the polymorph andalusite and...
Moonstone shows an almost magical play of light as its characteristic feature. It owes its name to this mysterious gleaming which appears different whenever the stone changes its position in movement. Experts call this the “adularescence”, and in earlier times the phases of waxing and waning moon were though to...
The name "topaz" is derived from the Greek topazos, "to seek," which was the name of an island in the Red Sea that was difficult to find and from which a yellow stone (now believed to be a yellowish olivine ) was mined in ancient times. In...
Ancient and yet always at the height of current fashion: that is Turquoise for you. Its brilliant sky-blue belongs to the all-time favourite trend colours in the world of fashion and jewellery.In many cultures of the Old and New World this gemstone has for thousands of years been appreciated as...
Peridot is an ancient and yet currently very popular gemstone. It is so old that it can be found even in Egyptian jewellery from the early second millennium BC. The stones used in those days came from an occurrence on a little volcanic island in the Red Sea, about 70...
Amethyst is the purple variety of quartz and is one of the most popular gems. If it were not for its widespread availability, Amethyst would be very expensive. Amethyst is a widely used gem. Open Smile Amethyst Geode SphereClick to view this item The name "amethyst" comes from the Greek word "amethustos"...
Tiger Eye is a durable quartz composite. It begins as the fibrous blue mineral called crocidolite, which is comprised of iron & sodium. Most of us known crocidolite as asbestos. The transformation begins when quartz becomes imbedded between the fibers of crocidolite. This process will result in one of two...
Hematite is the most powerful gemstone to use for grounding. It can help you clear away confusion and orient you toward practical action in the real world. It brings the energy of higher consciousness down through the chakras to your root, and helps you transform that energy into physical reality. Hematite bracelets are...
Dinosaurs have been more popular than ever since their starring role in the movie Jurassic Park. A more surprising result of the movie's popularity has been a worldwide surge in demand for amber jewelry. Although amber's use in adornment is probably as old as mankind, in recent history it has...
Rhodochrosite (whose name means rose-colored from the Greek rhodon -"rose" and chroma - "color") is a very attractive mineral with an absolutely one-of-a-kind, beautiful color. High Quality Natural Rhodochrosite Teardrop Pendant in Silver July BirthstoneClick to view this item Although it can be an ore of manganese, it is its ornamental and...
Ametrine is especially inexpensive when you consider that it comes from only one mine in the world. Amethyst and citrine colors found in the same crystal of quartz. These bicolor yellow and purple quartz gemstones are called ametrine. Ametrine is most typically faceted in a rectangular shape with a 50/50 pairing...
A tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra) is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, three of which meet at each vertex. A regular tetrahedron is one in which the four triangles are regular, or "equilateral," and is one of the Platonic solids. Tetrahedron