Thursday, September 9th, 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Articles
Fascinating Facts About Gems And Jewelry
|
September 6, 2006
Sir Walter Scott was responsible for the legend that opals bring bad luck.
Two hundred years ago, in his novel ÒAnne of Geierstein Óhe wrote that the heroine wore a magical opal that responded to all her moods. One day, she accidentally splashed holy water on the gem which caused her to disintegrate along with the opal. Queen Victoria, a lover of opals, tried to remedy the injury done by ScottÕs novel. She presented opals to her five daughters as wedding gifts and the bad luck legend eventually died out.
Tourmaline, when heated, sometimes acquires electric properties and can attract straw, ashes, and various small objects. One end of the crystal becomes negative and the other positive.
Only four substances used for jewelry are organic and not stones. They are pearl (the nacre produced by an oyster), coral (the skeleton of a marine animal), jet (a very hard coal), and amber (the fossilized resin of pine trees).
CleopatraÕs emeralds probably still exist somewhere in the world. Precious gems are usually so durable that they literally never wear out. TheyÕre just reset again and again in new forms of jewelry.
The first imitation gem was produced by the Egyptians as early as 5000 BC. It was a glazed ceramic composition called ÒFaienceÓ which was the forerunner of transparent glass. It was used to imitate gem materials such as emerald, lapis lazuli, onyx, and turquoise.
Peridot, the lovely yellowish-green gemstone, was originally found in only a few places including the island of Zerbigat in the Red Sea. But strangely enough, peridots are sometimes found in meteorites that strike the earth after traveling through outer space.
Fossil turquoise is not a mineral, but the fossilized bones and teeth of the mastodon. Over thousands of years, time and the chemistry of nature changed the color of these animal products to the same heavenly blue as turquoise.
Amazon Stones, the bright apple-green form of feldspar, did not originate near the Amazon River in South America. Most Amazon stones come from the Ural Mountains of Russia.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
