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Stones:
Turquoise
Rose quartz
Tigers Eye
Jasper
Opal
Serpentine
ONYX
Sodalite
Leopardite
Turquoise
The turquoise is ancient, yet again and again it finds itself back in fashion. Its shining sky blue is one of the most popular trend colors in the world of jewelry and fashion. There is an avid collector market for turquoise, with sibling rivalry amongst the various enthusiasts who see virtue in different colors, matrix variations and mine sites. Just as no gem collection would be complete without several representatives of this species, so no jewelry collection should be without at least one piece featuring this well beloved December birthstone gem.
In many cultures of the Old and New Worlds, this gemstone has been esteemed for thousands of years as a holy stone, a bringer of good fortune or a talisman. It really does have the right to be called a 'gemstone of the peoples'. The oldest evidence for this claim was found in Egypt, where grave furnishings with turquoise inlay were discovered, dating from approximately 3000 B.C.. In South, Central and North America too, the turquoise has always occupied a very special position among gemstones. The Aztecs in Mexico, for example, used to decorate their ceremonial masks with this stone which was holy according to their beliefs. The Indians of North America, who still produce a good deal of traditional silver jewelry with turquoises today, believe that the sky-blue gemstone opens up a direct connection between the sky and the sea.
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Mystic
In modern gemstone therapy, those suffering from depression are recommended to wear a turquoise or a chain with turquoise beads. The turquoise' cheerful color is said to endow reticent personalities with more confidence. It is also often given as a gift, a stone of friendship, for the turquoise is said to be responsible for faithfulness and constancy in relationships. The color of the turquoise makes us feel happy and cheerful, for in it the light blue of the sky and the stimulating green of the sea are combined. Indeed it is such an inimitable color that we have coined a term specifically for it in our languages: turquoise. Anyone choosing a turquoise is sure to enjoy a piece of Heaven ... on Earth.
The most well known deposits are in the USA, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and China. The most beautiful turquoises, in a splendid light blue, come from deposits in the north of Iran.
Wax makes turquoise more resistant
Being relatively soft, turquoises are sensitive. As the color may pale when the stone has been worn for a long time, even high-quality stones today are treated with wax and subsequently hardened. This treatment makes the sensitive gemstone more resistant. In the trade, there are a large number of reasonably priced turquoises sealed with synthetic resin. They have a fresh color and good durability. Because of their sensitivity, turquoises are almost always subjected to treatment of one kind or another, though this may take any of a number of different forms. For this reason, turquoises which have a good natural color and are simply hardened with colorless wax or synthetic resin have a much higher value than stones whose color has been 'improved'.
Care of Turquoise
Turquoise should be protected from cosmetics, heat and bright light. It is not a gemstone to take with you when you go sunbathing. Due to this stone's properties, it is best to make turquoise rings and bracelets occasional wear items, and to protect all turquoise jewelry from heat, chemicals and shocks. So, no ultrasonic or steam cleaning, and wash only with mild, lukewarm soapy water and a soft brush, and wipe pieces with a damp cloth after wearing. As a gem material turquoise has its limitations: it is relatively fragile, porous, and susceptible to heat and/or chemical damage. Turquoise averages 18 - 20% water content and, as the gem is heated, (perhaps from an unwary jeweler's torch,) that water is progressively lost until at 400 degrees C, the structural integrity of the mineral is destroyed.
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Rose quartz
Quartz: common chameleon
If you gaze deep into a crystal ball, you will see a versatile gemstone, one of the most popular gems on earth. Beautiful quartz, the 'rock crystal' used in ancient times to make crystal balls and bowls, is today more often seen set in gold jewelry. Despite the popularity of quartz gems like amethyst, citrine, ametrine, rose quartz, onyx, agates, chrysoprase, rutilated quartz and other varieties, many people in the jewelry industry take quartz for granted because of its affordable price.
Throughout history, quartz has been the common chameleon of gemstones, standing in for more expensive gemstones ranging from diamond to jade. But the incredible variety of quartz is now beginning to be appreciated in its own right.
Purple to violet amethyst and yellow to orange citrine are jewelry staples that continue to increase in popularity. Ametrine combines the appeal of both amethyst and citrine, purple and yellow in one gemstone. Different colors and types of chalcedony, from agate to chrysoprase, have grown in popularity with the growing appreciation for carved gemstones and artistic cutting and carving. And unusual specialities like drusy quartz, with its surface covered by tiny sparking crystals, and rutilated quartz, which has a landscape of shining gold needles inside it, are adding variety and nature's artistry to unusual one-of-a-kind jewelry.
The pale pink color of quartz, which can range from transparent to translucent, is known as rose quartz. The color is a very pale and delicate powder pink. Transparent rose quartz is very rare, and usually so pale that it does not show very much color at all except in large sizes. Translucent rose quartz is much more readily available, being used for beads, cabochons, carvings, and architectural purposes.
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Tigers Eye
Tiger's eye quartz contains brown iron which produces its golden yellow color. ... Crocidolite, (blue asbestos,) alters to quartz, but while retaining its fibrous structure. This material is frequently stained by iron, giving it a golden brown color. Cabochon cut stones of this variety show the chatoyancy (small ray of light on the surface) that resembles the feline eye of a tiger. Unstained pieces, retaining their original blue color, are called Hawks Eye. There are also pieces with both colors. The most important deposit is in South Africa, though tiger's eye is also found in Western Australia, Burma (Myanmar), India and California.
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Jasper
  Jasper is an ornamental rock composed mostly of chalcedony, microcrystalline quartz, in association with other minerals, which give it colorful band and patterns. Jasper is an opaque, solid or patterned variety of cryptocrystalline quartz which consists of very tiny quartz crystals colored by various mineral impurities. The names of various jaspers can come from their color: bloodstone, green, lemon; from their pattern: orbicular, poppy, leopardskin, landscape, Picasso; or from a place name: Morrisonite, Mookite.
Jewelry use of jaspers goes back into the early history of civilization. Various forms of this material are also frequently made into decorative objects, such as ashtrays or bookends. Jaspers are found all over the world, with certain colors or patterns unique to particular locales. Most bloodstone comes from India, all Mookaite from Australia. Jasper was a favorite gem in the ancient world; its name can be traced back in Hebrew, Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Latin. Jasper is often named according to its pattern: landscape jasper, the most popular, offers a small panorama in stone. Ribbon Jasper, Picture Jasper and Orbicular Jasper are the names of other varieties. Jasper is found in many countries. It is sometimes used to create bowls and other objects and to adorn buildings, such as the Saint Wenceslas Chapel in Prague.
Care of Jasper
All types take an excellent polish, are trouble free to care for, and hardy enough for all jewelry uses. These stones are usually cabbed, sometimes carved, and seldom faceted
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Opal
All of Nature’s splendor seems to be reflected in the manifold opulence of fine Opals: fire and lightning, all the colors of the rainbow and the soft shine of far seas. Australia is the classical country of origin. Almost ninety-five per cent of all fine opals come from the dry and remote outback deserts. The remaining five per cent are mined in Mexico, and in Brazil’s north, also in the US states of Idaho and Nevada, but recently the stones have also been found in Ethiopia and in the West African country of Mali.
Numerous legends and tales surround this colorful gemstone, which can be traced back in its origins to a time long before our memory, to the ancient dream time of the Australian aborigines. It is reported in their legends that the creator came down to Earth on a rainbow, in order to bring the message of peace to all the humans. And at the very spot, where his foot touched the ground, the stones became alive and started sparkling in all the colors of the rainbow. That was the birth of the Opals. In 1849 the first Opal blocks were accidentally found on an Australian cattle station called Tarravilla. The first Opal prospectors started in 1890 at White Cliff mining the Opal rocks. And even today the eyes of Opal lovers light up when somebody mentions places like White Cliffs, Lightning Ridge, Andamooka or Coober Peddy: for these are the legendary sites of the Australian Opal fields. The most famous one is probably Lightning Ridge, the place where mainly the coveted Black Opal is found. Andamooka, where Crystal Opal and Light Opal are brought to the light of day, can boast to be the place where the probably largest Opal was found, with a weight of 6, 843 kilograms, the “Andamooka Desert Flame”. Coober Peddy, by the way, is a word from Aborigine language meaning „white man in a hole“.
The group of fine Opals includes quite a number of wonderful gemstones, which share one characteristic: they shine and sparkle in a continually changing play of colors full of fantasy, which experts describe as “opalising”. Depending on the kind, place of occurrence, and color of the main body, we differentiate Dark or Black Opal, White or Light Opal, Milk or Crystal Opal, Boulder Opal, Opal Matrix, Yowah Nuts from Queensland – the so-called “picture stones“, and also Mexican and Fire Opal. Opal variations are practically unlimited. They all show in their own special way that unique play of colors – except for Fire Opal, which due to its transparency, however, is nevertheless also considered a Fine Opal specimen. If Opals are lacking the typical play of colors, they are simply named “Common Opal”.
Up to the first half of the 19th century, Opals were relatively rare. But then their career boomed suddenly and made them one of the most popular gemstones, and the start of this development brought them to the gemstone cutters of the gemstone centre of Idar-Oberstein. In the era of Art Deco the Opals experienced their flourishing, with contemporary gemstone artists preferring them to all other stones because of their subdued charm, which in turn was excellently suited to be combined with enamel, another very popular material of those days.
Opals are not very hard: they only achieve 5.5 to 6 on the Mohs’ scale. Therefore they appreciate a protective setting. In earlier days Opal’s sensitive surface was often oiled, but today also sealing them with colorless artificial resin has become quite popular.
Variety Names:
Black opal, precious opal with black body color. Also used for black potch covered with thin layer of crystal opal that lets the black under layer show through.
Semiblack, or gray opal, precious opal with dark body color.
Light opal is in between semi-black and white.
White opal, precious opal with white or very light body color.
Opals and emotions
For ages people have believed in the healing power of Opal. It is reported to be able to solve depressions and to help its wearer find the true and real love. Opals are supposed to further enhance the positive characteristics for people born under the zodiac sign of Cancer. Black Opal is recommended to those born under Scorpio, and Boulder Opal is the lucky stone for Aries.
The fantastic color play of Opal reflects changing emotions and moods of people. Fire and water, the sparkling images of Boulder Opal, the vivid light flashes of Black Opal or the soft shine of Milk Opal – striking contrasts characterize the colorful world of this fascinating gemstone. Maybe this is the reason why it depends on our daily mood which Opal we prefer. Opals are like human emotions: you always experience them different and anew.
Opal love to be worn on the skin
Due to the differing percentage of water, Opals may easily become brittle. They always contain water – usually between 2 and 6 per cent, but sometimes even more. Thus, if stored too dry or exposed to heat over a longer period of time, Opals will show fissures and the play of color will become paler. Therefore, Opal jewelry should be worn as often as possible, for then the gemstone will receive the needed humidity from the air and from the skin of its wearer.
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Serpentine
Serpentine is a group of common rock-forming hydrous magnesium iron phyllosilicate ((Mg, Fe)3Si2O5(OH)4) minerals; it may contain minor amounts of other elements including chromium, manganese, cobalt and nickel. In mineralogy and gemology, serpentine may refer to any of 20 varieties belonging to the serpentine group. Owing to admixture, these varieties are not always easy to individualize, and distinctions are not usually made. There are three important mineral polymorphs of serpentine: antigorite, chrysotile and lizardite.
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ONYX
HistoryOnyx is originally an Assyrian word meaning ring, and so could refer to anything used for making rings. Onyx can also be used to mean the color black, especially "jet" black.
Onyx was very popular with the ancient Greeks and Romans. The name comes from the Greek word 'onyx', which means nail or claw. The story is that one day the frisky Cupid cut the divine fingernails of Venus with an arrowhead while she was sleeping. He left the clippings scattered on the sand and the fates turned them into stone so that no part of the heavenly body would ever perish. True, black isn't normally the color one associates with fingernails. (Did Venus wear Vamp, perhaps?) But in Greek times, almost all the colors of chalcedony from fingernail white to dark brown and black were called onyx. Later, the Romans narrowed the term to refer to black and dark brown colors only.
Black Onyx with bands of colors.
Black onyx shines especially well when used as a backdrop for color play. Its fine texture also makes it ideal for carving, making it a favored material for today's lapidaries. Onyx was often used as the perfect foil for carved rock crystal or the 'drop dead red' of rubies in art deco designs. It is also popular in marcasite jewelry. So if you would like to add a little black magic to your Alpaca Silver jewelry design, why not consider onyx?
Astrological Relations
The onyx is the stone for the western zodiac sign, Leo, and the Chinese zodiac sign of the Ox. It can be many different colors, but the ones with the reddish brown color is the preferred type. White Onyx is known as sardonyx. Sardonyx was highly valued in Rome, especially for seals, because it was said never to stick to the wax. The Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio was known for wearing it a good deal. Onyx is said to banish grief, bring fortune to its possessor, bring recognition of personal strengths and increase regeneration, intuition and instincts. It is also thought to decrease sexual desire and help to change bad habits.
Precautions
Onyx should not be cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner or cleaned with abrasive or ammonia based cleaner as using such types can cause discoloration of the stone.
Sodalite
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Sodalite is a rich royal blue mineral widely enjoyed as an ornamental stone. Although massive Sodalite samples are opaque, crystals are usually transparent to translucent. Sodalite is a member of the Sodalite group and together with hauyne, nosean and lazurite is a common constituent of lapis lazuli.
HISTORY
Discovered in 1806 in Greenland, Sodalite did not become important as an ornamental stone until 1891 when vast deposits of fine material were discovered in Ontario, Canada. It has since been named Princess Blue after Princess Patricia who, upon visiting Ontario some time after its discovery, chose Sodalite as interior decoration for Marlborough House in England.
PropertiesA light, relatively hard yet fragile mineral, Sodalite is named after its sodium content; in mineralogy it may be classed as a feldspathoid. Well known for its blue color, Sodalite may also be grey, yellow, green, or pink and is often mottled with white veins or patches. The more uniformly blue material is used in jewelry, where it is fashioned into cabochons and beads. Lesser material is more often seen as facing or inlay in various applications.
Although very similar to lazurite and lapis lazuli, Sodalite is never quite comparable, being a royal blue rather than ultramarine. Sodalite also rarely contains pyrite, a common inclusion in lapis. It is further distinguished from similar minerals by its white (rather than blue) streak. Sodalite's six directions of poor cleavage may be seen as incipient cracks running through the stone.
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Leopardite
DESCRIPTION: Leopardite is a widely recognized rock name that was introduced into the geological literature in the mid 1800s. Various descriptions of this rock in the literature can be summarized as follows: off-white, fine-grained aplite (or alaskite), with sporadic quartz phenocrysts, that is characterized by dark gray to black or brownish, roughly rod-shaped zones pigmented by hydroxides of manganese (plus or minus iron). Unfortunately, however, subsequent use of this name and of the descriptive term leopard rock has led to a nomenclature nightmare.
In the past, both of these designations were once used fairly consistently: Leopardite, although extended to include rocks other than those like the type material, was usually applied to rocks that roughly resemble leopards' coats -- i.e., spotted rocks with dark spots surrounded by a lighter colored matrix. Leopard rock was usually used as a descriptive designation for spotted rocks with the opposite color relationships -- i.e., rocks with light colored spots surrounded by a darker matrix. Today, however, both designations are frequently applied to either color relationship and, in some cases, both names have been applied to the same individual rocks; and, this use of the terms occurs in both the geological literature and in the world of the lapidary marketplace.
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