Use of Emerald in Fashion Jewelry

Emerald is one of the most popular semi-precious gemstones used in the making of fashion jewlery. Historically, emeralds have been mined in ancient Egypt, Austria, and northern Pakistan. Some varieties of emerald are also found in Columbia, Zambia, South Africa, India, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and Russia. Emeralds are used in a wide range of jewelry, ranging from relatively inexpensive fashion jewelry, to fine jewlery costs hundreds of dollars. All emerald must of course, be green, although the shades of green may vary from yellowish green to bluish green. The finest quality emerald used to make expensive jewelry has a deep verdant green color with a high degree of transparency. Clearly, the use of this fine quality emerald in fashion jewelry is not cost effective. However, a deep green emerald, with a good facet cut is a perfect focal bead for a silver pendant. The silver pendant in the adjacent picture is a good example of a good facet cut emerald and an intricate 925 silver setting work in harmony to create the perfect piece of fashion jewelry.

Chemically, emeralds are a form of beryllium aluminum silicate. The green color of the emerald is a function of impurities such as chromium and lesser amounts of vanadium. The hardness of most emeralds range from 7 to 9. Despite this relatively high hardness values, inclusions in most emeralds increase their susceptibility to fracture, causing emeralds to be classified as brittle. An emerald signifies love, friendship and loyalty, and is a birthstone for May.

Tiger Eye in Fashion Jewelry

Tiger eye is an attractive gemstone that is commonly used in fashion jewlery such as sterling silver pendants, silver earrings, and silver bracelets. Tiger eye is usually yellowish brown or reddish brown, and when polished, has a silky texture. Tiger eye is a member of the quartz group, where some fraction of the quartz has been replaced by a form of asbestos. The stones are sometimes gently heat-treated in order to change their color to a reddish shade. Artificial tiger eye is sometimes created from fiber optic glass. Tiger eye is relatively inexpensive and a typical stone for fashion jewelry costs about US$2. Typical tiger eye has a hardness of around 7 and a specific gravity of about 2.67.

Tiger eye is now widely used in fashion jewelry because of it color, appearance, and texture. Of course, the relatively low cost of the stone plays an important role in this application! This silver pendant is a perfect example of the application of tiger eye in creating beautiful and inexpensive fashion jewlery. The focal bead is a beautiful specimen of tiger eye. The setting is 925 silver and the uniqueness of the pendant lies in its asymmetric design.

Silver Jewelry

Silver was discovered at least 6,000 years ago, and since then, has always been considered to be a valuable metal. Silver has a very wide range of applications – ranging from industrial uses such as photographic film, to currencies in some countries. However, silver remains extremely popular as fashion jewlery. The beauty, luster, and the ease with which it can be fashioned into superb jewlery are just some of the reasons for the every-growing popularity of silver in the world of jewlery design. Silver was first discovered in Turkey before 4,000 BC. Thereafter, silver was mined and refined in China, and South America. The largest producers of silver today are in North and South America.

Silver today is used to make a wide range of jewlery, including silver pendants. When used as a pendant, 925 silver is used to create an artistic setting that houses a gemstone. In the sterling silver pendant shown to the right, a large size blue topaz stone is mounted in a superbly crafted sterling silver setting. The simplicity of the silver setting is perfectly complimented by the brilliant blue topaz stone.

Silver today is highly polished so that it reflects light and looks beautiful in fashion jewlery. One drawback of silver however, is that even minor impurities cause silver to tarnish when exposed to the atmosphere. While this is may be a drawback for certain kinds of fashion jewlery, some artisans use this property to create silver jewlery will an antique finish. The 925 silver pendant to the left is typical example of antiqued silver jewlery.

Turquoise Jewlery

I was looking at some turquoise pendants recently, and got into finding out more about turquoise. Did you know the best quality turquoise comes from Iran??? In the United States, turquoise is found in the Southwest in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Chemically, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum, turquoise is formed by the percolation of meteoric or groundwater through aluminous rock in the presence of copper. For this reason, it is often associated with copper deposits as a secondary mineral, most often in copper deposits in arid, semiarid, or desert environments. Typically turquoise mineralization is restricted to a relatively shallow depth of less than 20 m, although it does occur along deeper fracture zones where secondary solutions have greater penetration or the depth to the water table is greater.

Natural turquoise is generally quite soft and porous. Because of its low density, hardness, and porosity, most turquoise must be stabilized before it can be used in jewlery. The turquoise is infused with a transparent synthetic resin. This is called “stabilized turquoise” and can be cut and polished to be used in jewelry. Over 95% of turquoise in today’s jewelry market is stabilized turquoise. Only a very small fraction of natural turquoise (less than 5%) of the turquoise on the market today is untreated turquoise. Turquoise with adequate hardness and density so as not to require epoxy treatment, is hard to come by and is quite expensive.

It is also important to note that Ebay and some other sites are replete with fake turquoise. Howlite, a form of calcite, and sometimes called white turquoise is used to manufacture fake turquoise. Howlite is infused with an epoxy resin and blue dye to mimic turquoise. The product is sometimes called “laboratory turquoise” or “created turquoise”, or even “stabilized turquoise” by some unscrupulous sellers! Beware!!