Interesting Information on Jewelry and Gemstones

Everyone loves beautiful gemstone jewelry. Hopefully this guide will give you some interesting and colorful information on whys and whens about jewelry.

Jewellery (jewelry in American English) is literally any piece of fine material used to adorn oneself.

• Although in earlier times jewelry was created for more practical uses, such as wealth storage and pinning clothes together, in recent times it has been used almost exclusively for decoration.
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• The first pieces of jewelry were made from natural materials, such as bone and animal teeth, shell, wood and carved stone.
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• Jewelry was often made for people of high importance to show their status and, in many cases, they were buried with it.

Jewelry is made out of almost every material known and has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more types of jewelry.

While high-quality and artistic pieces are made with gemstones and precious metals, less costly costume jewellery is made from less-valuable materials and is mass-produced.

In geology, petrification is the process by which organic material is converted into stone or a similar substance.

It is approximately synonymous with fossilization. Petrified wood is the most well known result of this process.
 
Gemstone pebbles are made by tumbling rough rock with abrasive grit, in a rotating drum.

A gemstone is a mineral, rock (such in the case of lapis lazuli), or petrified material that when cut or faceted and polished is collectible or can be used in jewelry.

Others are organic ...such as amber, which is fossilised tree resin, and jet, a form of coal...

Some gemstones which may be generally considered precious or beautiful are too soft or too fragile to be used in jewelry ...Example, single-crystal rhodochrosite... but are exhibited in museums and are sought by collectors...For their pure beauty.

A gemstone is prized especially for great beauty or perfection so appearance is almost always the most important attribute of gemstones.

• Characteristics that make a stone beautiful or desirable are colour
•  Unusual optical phenomena within the stone
• Interesting inclusion such as a fossil...rarity
• Sometimes the form of the natural crystal
• Diamond is prized highly as a gemstone since it is the hardest naturally occurring substance known
• Diamond is able to reflect light with fire and sparkle when faceted
• Diamonds are far from rare with millions of carats mined each year

Common gemstones were classified into precious stones and semi-precious stones

•  Five types of gemstones were considered precious:
• Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Amethyst

 Current usage by gemologists, all gems are considered precious, although four of the original are usually... But not always...The most valuable?

Rare gemstones, generally meant to include those gemstones which occur so infrequently in gem quality that they are scarcely known except to connoisseurs.

Factors influencing the esteem in which gems are held:

1. Attractiveness
2. Durability
3. Rarity
4. Fashion
5. Size

Over 130 species of minerals that have been cut into gems

...With 50 species in common use...

These include:

Agate
Alexandrite and other varieties of chrysoberyl
Amethyst
Aquamarine and other varieties of beryl
Chrysocolla
Chrysoprase
Diamond
Emerald
Feldspar (moonstone)
Garnet
Hematite
Jade - jadeite and nephrite
Jasper
Kunzite
Lapis lazuli
Malachite
Obsidian
Olivine (Peridot)
Opal (Girasol)
Pyrite
Quartz and its varieties:

*Such as tiger's-eye, citrine, agate, and amethyst
Ruby
Sapphire
Spinel
Sugilite
Tanzanite and other varieties of zoisite
Topaz
Turquoise
Tourmaline
Zircon

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