Jasper

Jasper is a dense, adulterated selection of silica, habitually red, yellow or brown in color. This stone breaks together with a silky surface, and is worn for decoration or as a precious stone. It can be extremely polished and is utilized for making vases, seals, and at sometimes for even snuff boxes. When the colors are in stripes or bands, it is named striped or banded type of jasper. Jaspilite is a stripy iron pattern rock that time and again has characteristic strains of jasper.

     It is even written in the Book of Revelation as the following (Refer Revelations 21:11): "It is shined with the glory of the Lord, and its radiance was reminiscent of that of a very valuable gemstone, like jasper, that is as clear as crystal."

     Jasper can materialize as a solid rock of varying tints of red due to included impurities. Patterns can crop up from the configuration development and from flow outlines in the remains or even volcanic magma ash that was drenched with silica together to form jasper, squashing bands or swirls in the rock.

Types of jasper :

Jasper can appear as an opaque rock of shades of red due to mineral impurities. Patterns can arise from the formation process and from flow patterns in the sediment or volcanic ash that was saturated with silica to form jasper, yielding bands or swirls in the rock.

Jasper may be permeated by dendritic minerals providing the appearance of vegetative growths. The jasper may have been fractured and/or distorted after formation, later rebonding into discontinuous patterns or filling with another material. Heat or environmental factors may have created surface rinds (such as varnish) or interior stresses leading to fracturing.

A brown jasper that occurs as nodules in the Libyan desert and in the Nile valley is known as Egyptian jasper or Egyptian pebble.

Picture jaspers simultaneously exhibit several of these variations (such as banding, flow patterns, dendrites or color variations) resulting in what appear to be scenes or images in a cut section. Spherical flow patterns produce a distinctive orbicular appearance. Complex mixes of impurities produce color variations. Healed fractures produce brecciated jasper. Examples of this can be seen at Llanddwyn Island. Orbicular jasper or leopard jasper is usually an opaque combination of tan, gray, black or reddish-brown circles or 'spots' of color, hence its name.

Emerald

Emeralds are a assortment of the mineral beryl that is tinted green by the presence of traces of varying amounts of chromium and from time to time vanadium. Beryl carries along the hardness of 7.5 - 8 on the 10 point Mohs test scale of material hardness. Most emeralds are exceedingly concealed with other varying minerals, so their daintiness (resistance to breakage) is termed as commonly poor. The beginning of the word "emerald" is described to be formed from a Sanskrit expression that means "green".

     Emeralds come in several tints of green and vary up to bluish green. There is an extensive variety of transparency, reliant on the contents and fractures formed in the crystal. Lucid stones with murky yet vivacious color grasp the premier prices. More or less all emeralds include abundant flaws, cracks, and inclusions, which can depressingly influence the lucidity. These are specified the name "jardin", from the French utterance for garden. The price of an emerald is purely based on the type of cut, shade, transparency, and carat. At present the preeminent emeralds arrive from the mine at MUZO in Cuba.

Famous Emeralds :

Gachala Emerald : The Gachala Emerald is an uncut 5-cm emerald crystal weighing 858 carats (172 g). The stone was found in 1967 at Vega de San Juan mine in Colombia and is named after the mining district where it was discovered. Now in the United States, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by the New York jeweler, Harry Winston.

Chalk Emerald : The Chalk Emerald is a 37.82 carat (7.564 g) Colombian emerald.It originally weighed 38.40 carats (7.68 g), but was recut and set in a ring, where it is surrounded by sixty pear-shaped diamonds (totalling 15 carats (3 g)), by Harry Winston Inc. The ring is housed in the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the United States and was donated to the museum by Mr. and Mrs. O. Roy Chalk in 1972.

Meidan-i-Noor Emerald : The Meidan-i-Noor emerald reputedly measues 5 cm in height and was discovered in 1957 in Colombia by a local mining family. Its name means "Field of Light" in Persian. The gem was brought to Europe by an un-named millionaire and kept in a private collection in Vienna until the mid 1980s. Sold for an undisclosed amount to a Manhattan jeweller, the emerald was en route to New York when it was stolen from a Japan Ocean Trust bank safe in London during a bizarre heist where six people (four men and two women who worked at the bank) were caught and charged, but seemed to be operating separately.

Malachite

Malachite is a celebrated and very well accepted semi-precious mineral. It is christened for the Greek word for "mallow", a green herb. Its stripy light and dark green designs are unique, and give it an only one of its kind decorative superiority dissimilar that of any other stone. The light and dark green stripes are so idiosyncratic that malachite maybe one of the majority of the effortlessly documented minerals by the broad-spectrum public. An admired design of ceramic ware which replicates this banding is christened after the stone malachite. It forms the banding from delicate differences in the oxidation levels of the surrounding aperture waters, but the accurate mechanism is still not healthily implicit.

Malachite is also admired in jewelry, inhabitant American Southwestern jewelry particularly. The stones inlayed in silvery construct a nice discrepancy from the customary turquoise jewelry. As an alternative of competing, the 2 green stones be apt to flattering remark each other whilst placed mutually in the similar settings. Supplementary stones such as coral, mother-of-pearl, azurite, jasper and onyx used in the characteristically handcrafted jewels also praise malachite's green colors.

Even though its enormous carvable forms are well recognized, its crystalline forms are much rarer and barely very lately becoming extensively obtainable to the standard mineral collector. One of its further distinctive habits is its fine acicular crests and tufts. At times appearing like a mat of skinny hairs or as a mat of green velvet. An additional strange habit is its stalactite habits.

Occurrence and historical uses :

Malachite often results from weathering of copper ores and is often found together with azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2), goethite, and calcite. Except for its vibrant green color, the properties of malachite are similar to those of azurite and aggregates of the two minerals occur frequently together. Malachite is more common than azurite and is typically associated with copper deposits around limestones, the source of the carbonate.

Large quantities of malachite have been mined in the Urals. It is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Zambia; Tsumeb, Namibia; Ural mountains, Russia; Mexico; Broken Hill, New South Wales; England; Lyon; and in the Southwestern United States especially in Arkansas and Arizona. In Israel, malachite is extensively mined at Timna, often called King Solomon's Mines. Archeological evidence indicates that the mineral has been mined and smelted at the site for over 3,000 years. Most of Timna's current production is also smelted, but the finest pieces are worked into silver jewelry.

Ruby

Ruby

Which color would you impulsively correlate with love and exuberance, obsession and influence? It's evident, isn't it? It is obviously red. Red is the color of feel affection for. It radiates tenderness and a brawny sagacity of vivacity. And red is also the color of the ruby, the king of the precious stones. In the captivating world of precious stones, the ruby is the acknowledged ruler. For thousands of years, the ruby has been measured one of the most expensive precious stones on Earth. It has the whole thing an expensive stone should encompass: glorious color, exceptional hardness and outstanding brilliancy. In accumulation to that, it is an enormously exceptional precious stone, particularly in its greater qualities.

Ruby is the red diversity of the mineral corundum, one of the sturdiest minerals on globe, of which the sapphire is furthermore a variety. Pure corundum is colorless. Slender traces of rudiments such as chrome, iron, titanium or vanadium are dependable for the color. These precious stones have brilliant hardness. On the Mohs scale their score of 9 is 2nd when compared to that of the diamond. Only red corundum is permitted to be christened ruby, all other colors being classified as sapphires. The close association edged by the ruby and the sapphire has only been acknowledged since the commencement of the 19th century. Up to that instance, red garnets or spinels were also deliberated to be rubies.

Ruby, this outstanding red assortment from the multi-colored corundum family, contains of aluminum oxide and chrome as well as very superior traces of supplementary elements - depending on which put down it was from. In really fine colors and superior transparency, however, this precious stone occurs merely very infrequently in the world's mines. Somewhat ironically, it is essentially the coloring element chrome which is answerable for this insufficiency. True adequate, millions of years ago, when the gemstones were being created deep inside the core of the Earth, chrome was the constituent which gave the ruby its magnificent color. But at the similar instance it was also accountable for causing a massive amount of fissures and cracks contained by the crystals. Thus only very little ruby crystals were provided the best conditions in which they could cultivate undisturbed to sizeable sizes and crystallize to form faultless precious stones. For this cause, rubies of more tha n 3 carats in volume are very atypical. So it is no marvel that rubies with scarcely any additions are so expensive that in good colors and superior sizes they accomplish top prices at marts, surpassing even those rewarded for diamonds in the similar category.

Historical and cultural references :

According to Rebbenu Bachya, and the New International Version, the word odem means "ruby" in the verse Exodus 28:17 (referring to a stone on the Hoshen), and was the stone representing the tribe of Reuben. Modern Hebrew has taken this meaning. However, odem actually means earth, and is cognate with Adam; in the Middle East, the earth it refers to is certainly reddish, but the Septuagint translates the term as sard (which also means red), which is also the name of a common, somewhat opaque, gem. Scholars think the stone intended is probably a sard, as does the King James Version, scholars think that if not a sard it may possibly be the related gem carnelian; it is thought possible that sard and odem here just mean the colour of the stone, and red jasper would therefore also be a possibility.

Ruby is the most commonly named precious stone in English translations of the Bible; an example being Proverbs 31: "A virtuous wife is more precious than rubies.". The underlying masoretic text doesn't necessarily refer to rubies, however. Not only are there issues such as that mentioned with odem, but in the case of Proverbs 31, the masoretic text merely states jewels, and the Septuagint makes Proverbs 31 refer to precious stones (estin lithon ); some English versions of the bible believe that pearls is a better translation here. An early recorded note of the transport and trading of rubies arises in the literature on the North Silk Road of China, where in about 100 BC rubies were carried along this ancient trackway moving westward from China.

The famous lighted "Red Stars" mounted above Kremlin spires, thought to be giant rubies mined in Siberia, are colored glass.

Ruby is the birthstone associated with July and of the zodiac sign Leo.

Ruby is associated with the sun in Vedic astrology.

Ruby is associated with a 40th wedding anniversary.

Rubies have always been held in high esteem in Asian countries. They were used to ornament armor, scabbards, and harnesses of noblemen in India and China. Rubies were laid beneath the foundation of buildings to secure good fortune to the structure.

Bloodstone

Bloodstone, which commonly is known as the green jasper spotted with vibrant red spots of iron oxide, was cherished in ancient times and dished up for a stretched time as the birthstone for March. This eye-catching chalcedony quartz is also identified as heliotrope for the reason that in ancient times genteel stones was portrayed as reflecting the sun. In fact the manifestation of the gem brought in to minds of the ancients of the red setting sun, emulated in the ocean.

     Medieval ancient Christians often utilized this stone to whittle scenes of the crucifixion and martyrs, for this reason it was also termed commonly as the martyr's stone. In accordance to the legend about the starting point or the basis of bloodstone, it was 1st formed when plummets of Christ's blood fell and blemished some jasper at the foot of the cross. A gorgeous case in point of carved bloodstone with the emblem of the German Emperor Rudolf II can be witnessed at the Louvre in Paris.

     Even in the present day, finely pulverized bloodstone is utilized as a medication and aphrodisiac in India. Perhaps that gives details why it is now rather complicated to spot fine specimens of bloodstone on the market place. Bloodstone is extracted in India, Australia, and the United States.