Monthly Archives: March 2011

Kyanite, Wonderful Manifesting Stone

Kyanite Gemstone

Kyanite

Kyanite, whose name derives from the Greek word kuanos sometimes referred to as “kyanos”, meaning deep blue, is a typically blue silicate mineral, commonly found in aluminium-rich metamorphic pegmatites and/or sedimentary rock. Its color indeed can make it a lovely gem with a near sapphire-like blue. Usually its color is blue but also can be colorless, white, gray, green or yellow. Color is often not consistent throughout the crystal, often showing white streaks in a medium blue.

Kyanite is used primarily in refractory and ceramic products, including porcelain plumbing fixtures and dishware. It is also used in electronics, electrical insulators and abrasives. Kyanite has been used as a gemstone, though this use is limited by its anisotropism and perfect cleavage. Kyanite is one of the index minerals that are used to estimate the temperature, depth, and pressure at which a rock undergoes metamorphism.

Because kyanite is brittle in nature, it is seldom used in jewelry. Since hardness is related to the cut, kyanite is used best for earrings and pendants, which aren’t exposed to the stress a bracelet or ring could experience.

Kyanite opens and clears the body’s communication centers. For channeling or meditation purposes it works best when it is worn near the throat chakra. Kyanite never needs cleaned or charged because it is self-caring, self-sustaining. It carries a very “light” energy that attracts light beings. Wonderful manifesting stone.

Idocrase Vesuvianite

Idocrase Vesuvianite

Idocrase Vesuvianite

Idocrase is a rare gemstone, also known as Idocrase Vesuvianite. It is a green, brown, yellow, or blue silicate mineral. Vesuvianite occurs as tetragonal crystals in skarn deposits and limestones that have been subjected to contact metamorphism.

While the name idocrase is used for rare gemstone-quality specimens, the mineral is usually known by the name vesuvianite, since the first samples were found on the Mt. Vesuvius volcano.

The mineral was first identified and named by the famous German gemologist Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1795. Werner was also the first to identify chrysoberyl, and he was the mentor of Friedrich Mohs, inventor of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. The name idocrase is from the Greek and means mixed form, a reference to its crystals showing a mixture of other mineral forms.

Idocrase is not only rare, but transparent specimens that can be faceted count as very rare indeed. Most gem-quality idocrase is opaque with an appearance similar to jade. The opaque specimens have a greasy or resinous luster, while the rare transparent form has a vitreous luster.

Idocrase brings us closer to the higher realms and provides an easier link to our sense of higher self. It facilitates the seeing and the understanding of things on this earth that have no substance.

Psychologically, Vesuvianite is releases feelings of imprisonment and restraint, dissolves anger and alleviates fear and negativity. It helps to create a sense of inner security, opens the mind and stimulates inventiveness and the urge to discover, linking into creativity. Vesuvianite banishes depression and clears negative thought patterns so that the mind can function more clearly.

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Howlite Gemstone

Howlite Stone

Howlite

Howlite is an interesting mineral that is sometimes used as a gemstone, though often masquerading as a better-known and more valuable species. In fact it is fair to say that howlite is more famous for imitating other minerals than it is in its own right.

The most common form of howlite is irregular nodules, sometimes resembling cauliflower. Crystals of howlite are rare, having been found in only a couple localities worldwide. Crystals were first reported from Tick Canyon, California and later at Iona, Nova Scotia. Crystals reach a maximum size of about 1 cm. The nodules are white with fine grey or black veins in an erratic, often web-like pattern, opaque with a sub-vitreous lustre. The crystals at Iona are colorless, white or brown and are often translucent or transparent.

The mineral was discovered by and named for Henry How, a 19th century Canadian geologist. Initial deposits of howlite were found in How’s native Nova Scotia, but have since been uncovered in Southern California as well. The mineral is now generally mined for its use as an imitation stone, although some New Age practices use undyed stones for meditation.

Because howlite is fairly porous, it can be easily dyed to imitate other minerals. Due to the distinctive veining, howlite dyed a blue color makes a fairly convincing turquoise simulant. However, howlite is a much softer stone than turquoise

Howlite is also sold in its natural state, sometimes under the misleading trade names of “white turquoise” or “white buffalo turquoise”, or the derived name “white buffalo stone.”

Place a howlite stone in your pocket to absorb your own anger – or another’s anger that is directed toward you. It helps to overcome critical or selfish behaviour. It is also useful to relieves insomnia, balances calcium levels and strengthens teeth and bones.

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Hessonite Garnet

Hessonite Garnet

Hessonite Garnet

Hessonite belongs to the grossularite garnet group, which also includes the rare tsavorite garnet. While most grossularite garnet is green, hessonite typically has a orange-brown color which has earned it the nickname cinnamon stone.

The name is from the Greek h?ss?n, inferior, in allusion to its lower hardness and density than most other garnet species varieties.

The hessonite garnet is also one of the popular gems in the Indian market and is popularly known as the gomedha or gomed. The hessonite garnet gemstone is one of the Navagraha stones (stones that represent the nine planets that have a cosmic influence on all earthlings).

Hessonite garnet ranges in color from honey-yellow to orange-brown to brown-red. One of the distinguishing characteristics of hessonite is a “treacly” quality — when viewed under magnification one can see undulating, contorted areas of lesser transparency. These subtle inclusions are a useful key in distinguishing hessonite from other gemstones of similar colors, such as citrine, topaz and orange zircon.

Hessonite garnets are mostly used in rings and the natural rough garnets are cut to form round and oval shapes in most cases. Some multi garnets can also be cut and faceted into rectangles or squares and even hexagons. Garnet beads are also used to make necklaces and strings in jewelry. The various facets allow for the garnet to be cut in various ways and therefore you can select from various shapes like round, oval, square, rectangle and even hexagon.

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Hemimorphite Beads

Hemimorphite Gemstone

Hemimorphite

Hemimorphite, is a sorosilicate mineral which has been mined from days of old from the upper parts of zinc and lead ores, chiefly associated with smithsonite. James Smithson was not only a important scientist, he was also a shrewd investor who amassed a fortune during his lifetime. Though he had never visited the United States, his will stipulated that his wealth should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” In 1846 the Smithsonian Institution was founded with Smithson’s fortune.

Hemimorphite is an important ore of zinc, since the mineral contains over 50% zinc. Gem-quality hemimorphite is usually blue or green, and bears some similarities to chrysocolla, smithsonite and turquoise. In an aggregate form, hemimorphite often displays bands of blue and white, or is mixed with a dark matrix.

is a zinc-containing mineral that was once known as calamine. In 1803 the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson discovered that there were two different minerals under the heading of calamine, a zinc carbonate and a zinc silicate, which often closely resembled each other.

The zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in honor of Smithson, while the zinc silicate was named hemimorphite. The name calamine is no longer in use in mineralogy; now it is used only for the pink mixture known as “calamine lotion,” which contains zinc oxide and iron oxide.

Hemimorphite is linked to self expression and communication. Linked primarily to the throat chakra, but also opens the inner flute to the heart and crown increasing the connection between all three. Therefore it stimulates an openness, and willingness to share who we really are. It promotes peace and understanding in the self, because of the openness it generates within.

Healers use this stone to relieve PMS, achieve balance during hormonal-related headaches and other maladies, weight loss, ulcer conditions.


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Hambergite Gemstone

Hambergite

Hambergite

Hambergite is one of the lesser-known gemstones. It is usually nearly colorless, with the vitreous luster of glass when cut. It is quite a hard material, with a hardness of 7.5 on the Mohs scale, so it takes a very good polish.

Hambergite is named after the Swedish Mineralogist, Axel Hamburg. It forms in flattened prismatic orthorhombic crystals with vitreous to dull luster. It is a brittle mineral with perfect cleavage in one direction and conchoidal to uneven fracture. Hamberg taught crystallography and mineralogy at Stockholm University and then became professor of geography at Upsala University. From 1913 to 1927 he was president of the International Iceberg Commission.

Hambergite was originally discovered in southern Norway but that material was not clean enough to be considered gem material. The most important current source is probably in Anjanabanoana, Madagascar. Recently, some nice material has also been unearthed in Molo, Myanmar, but most of the crystals are small.

Hambergite has the lowest known density of any gem with such a high birefringence (.072). These unique properties make it easy to identify. Stones have little fire any may resemble quartz but with the high birefringence, hambergite is nearly impossible to misidentify. Gem quality hambergite can be found in Kashmir (India), as well as in Madagascar.

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Grossularite Garnet

Grossularite Garnet

Grossularite Garnet

Grossular or grossularite is a calcium-aluminium mineral species of the garnet group. The name grossular is derived from the botanical name for the gooseberry, grossularia, in reference to the green garnet of this composition that is found in Siberia. Other shades include cinnamon brown (cinnamon stone variety), red, and yellow.

Six common varieties of garnet are recognized based on their chemical composition. They are pyrope, almandine, spessartite, grossularite, uvarovite and andradite. There are also some mixed members, such as rhodolite garnet, which is a mixture of pyrope and almandite by composition.

The grossular group includes the light to medium green grossularite; the cinnamon-colored hessonite; the colorless leuco garnet; a dense opaque green garnet called hydrogrossular; and the rare and valuable deep green tsavorite garnet, colored by chromium.

Deposits of grossularite are found in a number of locations, including Quebec in Canada; Vermont in the USA; Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and Mali in Africa; as well as in Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Most of the green grossularite we have seen recently comes from Kenya, while the hessonite comes from Madagascar. Tsavorite garnet is still found in only one geographic location in the world, in the border area of Kenya and Tanzania.

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