Sparkling Sphalerite

Sphalerite

Sphelarite

Sphalerite (which is also known as Blende), is an important ore of zinc and can make a rather attractive cabinet specimen as well. It can have excellent luster and associates with many beautifully colored minerals making it one of the best enhancers of many fine mineral specimens.

Sphalerite is one of the very few minerals that has a total of six directions of cleavage. If all of them were to be perfectly cleaved on a single crystal it would form a rhombic dodecahedron. Identifying all six directions in a single cleaved crystal is quite difficult due to the multiple twinning and the many directions. Only the fact that there is abundant cleavage at different directions can easily be seen in most cleaved specimens.

Sphalerite is a zinc sulphide and is best known in the mineral world as the chief ore of zinc. Most sphalerite contains iron and when the iron content is high it is an opaque black. The rare gem-quality crystals have a very low iron content and considerable transparency. They are typically a yellowish to honey brown, red to orange, or green.

The two most important sources for gem-quality sphalerite are the Chivera mine in Sonora, Mexico; and the Picos de Europa, near Santander on Spain’s northern coast. Sphalerite is also found in Namibia and the Congo.

Sphalerite is considered to be a semi-precious gemstone and while limited in nature, gems of good color and size are available, however, faceted stones above 1 carat are rare. Despite being soft and somewhat fragile, Sphalerite’s brilliance, dispersion greater than diamond, deep earthy colors and vivid three dimensional inclusions, make it a unique and exquisite gemstone that is keenly sought after by gemstone collectors and connoisseurs alike

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The History Of Dog Tag

Dog Tag

Dog Tag

A dog tag is the informal name for the identification tags worn by military personnel, because of their resemblance to actual dog tags. The tag is primarily used for the identification of dead and wounded along with providing religion (to provide for calling a Catholic Priest or Jewish Rabbi for Last Rites) and essential basic medical information for the treatment of the latter, such as blood type and history of inoculations.

Dog tags are usually fabricated from a corrosion-resistant metal or alloy such as aluminum, monel or stainless-steel, although, during wartime, they have been made from whatever metals were available. In the event the member has a medical condition that requires special attention, an additional, red tag with the pertinent information is issued and worn with the dog tags.

In the US Military, wearing of the tag is required at all times by soldiers in the field. It may contain two copies of the information and be designed to break easily into two pieces. This allows half the tag to be collected for notification while the other half remains with the body when battle conditions do not allow the casualty to be immediately recovered.

At early begin, during the American Civil War of 1861-1865, some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and home address to the backs of their coats. Other soldiers stencilled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of the Army belt buckle.

Manufacturers of identification badges recognized a market and began advertising in periodicals. Their pins were usually shaped to suggest a branch of service and engraved with the soldier’s name and unit. Machine-stamped tags were also made of brass or lead with a hole and usually had (on one side) an eagle or shield and such phrases as “War for the Union” or “Liberty, Union, and Equality”. The other side had the soldier’s name and unit and sometimes a list of battles in which he had participated.

The use of dog tag continue during Franco-Prussian War, World War I and II, Vietnam War until non-military use. Dog tags have recently found their way into youth fashion by way of military chic. Originally worn as a part of a military uniform by youths wishing to present a tough or militaristic image, dog tags have since seeped out into wider fashion circles.

Furthermore, Since the late 1990s, custom dog tags have become fashionable amongst musicians (particularly rappers), and as a marketing giveaway item. Numerous companies offer customers the opportunity to create their own personalized dog tags with their own photos, logos, and text. Even high end jewelers such as Cartier and Tiffany have featured gold and silver dog tags encrusted with diamonds and other jewels.

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SPESSARTITE GARNET

Sperssartite Garnet

SPESSARTITE GARNET

Spessartite Garnet has shades of colors in red-orange, yellow- orange, bright yellow, and pure orange. With mosted valued- colors spessartite garnet are red-orange and orange colors. The color is a fiery sunny-orange to red-brown. As with the other garnets, it tends to occur in a blend with other garnet species. Gems with the highest spessartite content are a light orange. Those with almandine content are reddish, to red brown in hue.

Spessartite garnet belongs to the large and varied mineral group of garnet. Garnet comes from the Latin word “granatus”, which means grain, because many garnet deposits are small grains of red crystals in their host rock. The fiery sunny-orange stone is popular for its very good hardness and its brilliance due to its high refractive index. Until the recent discovery mines in Namibia and Mozambique, spessartite garnet was rarely seen in jewelry. Its name is derived from former occurrence in the German “Spessart” forest. Garnet is a January birthstone.

In Antiquity, as well as in the Middle Ages people believed that the cosmos is reflected in gemstones. Garnet is assigned to the planets Mars, Mercury and Pluto. The esoteric movement revived the ancient belief and the gem industry made it another marketing tool to promote certain gems.

The healing powers of gems remain a controversial issue, but are mentioned for centuries by healers, shamans and medicine men. Whether it’s a fact or a placebo effect doesn’t matter, if it helps. The safest approach is to wear the gemstone in skin contact to the troubled part of the body. Garnet is said to be of help for arthritis, varicose veins and backache.

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Sodalite

Sodalite Gemstone

Sodalite

Sodalite is a rich royal blue mineral widely enjoyed as an ornamental gemstone. 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.

The mineral sodalite is named for its sodium content. As a gemstone, sodalite is usually a deep blue, often with a violet tint, and frequently contains white veins of calcite. Well known in the gemstone world for its rich royal 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 used as facing or inlay in decorative objects.

Sodalite was first discovered in Greenland in 1806. It did not become important as an ornamental stone until 1891 when large deposits of fine material were discovered in the province of Ontario in Canada.

Sodalite brings inner peace. Keep sodalite in your pockets and in every room of your house, so its peaceful properties will flow all around you. Sodalite is the stone of athletics, as it stimulates endurance. It is said sodalite will harmonize the inner being or the conscious and subconscious mind. Sodalite promotes peace and harmony. Sodalite is extra lucky for writers.

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Smithsonite

Smithsonite Gemstone

Smithsonite

Smithsonite is one of two zinc-containing minerals discovered by the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson in 1803. James Smithson was an English scientist, often referred to as the best chemist and mineralogist of his year. He was an active member of many scientific organizations that benefited society and advanced scientific research. James published at least 27 papers with topics in chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. In 1802 James Smithson proved that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, not zinc oxides.

The luster of smithsonite sets it apart from other minerals: it has a silky to pearly luster giving natural specimens a certain play of light across its surface that resembles the fine luster of melted wax glowing under a candle flame. It is easy to wax poetically when discussing smithsonite’s unique luster. It is really unusual and captivating and collectors can easily get hooked.

Smithsonite in addition to wonderful luster also has a varied color assortment. The apple green to blue-green color is probably smithsonite’s most well known color, but it is its purple to lavender color that is probably its most sought after hue. There also exists attractive yellow, white, tan, brown, blue, orange, peach, colorless, pink and red smithsonite specimens and all of them are a credit to this mineral.

Smithsonite is good in harmonizes and aligns heart, throat, and brow chakra for smoother communications, leadership, perceptiveness and depth in relationships, and expansion into new areas.

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The “Serpent”of Serpentine

Serpentine Beads

Serpentine

Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals. Minerals in this group are formed by serpentinization, a hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth’s mantle.

Serpentine is the name used for several different aggregate structures which are usually green, yellowish green, or brownish green in color. The finer serpentine is cut as cabochons for gemstones, or carved into decorative objects. Though serpentine is sometimes confused with jade, serpentine is usually spotted or veined.

The serpentine group includes as many as 20 different members. All the serpentines are a basic magnesium silicate, with many containing iron as well. Other elements may also be present in small quantities, including chromium, nickel and cobalt.

Serpentine varieties are found in many places in the world, including Afghanistan, Burma, China, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, UK, Greece, Italy and Norway.

Serpentine gets its name from the word ‘serpent’ because it resembles the skin of a snake. It is sometimes called New Jade and occurs in a variety of colors including red, green, brown-red, brown-yellow and white. It has been used since ancient times to guard against disease and sorcery. Moreover, Serpentine makes an exceptional meditation stone. It helps you to find inner peace. Serpentine was carried in ancient Assyria to request the gods and goddesses to provide double blessings. Nursing women used it to regulate their milk supply.

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The Dark Green Seraphinite

Seraphinite Beads

Seraphinite

Seraphinite is a trade name for a particular form of clinochlore, a member of the Chlorite group. The chlorites are a group of phyllosilicate minerals. The name comes from the Greek word for green, chloros, since most chlorites are green, though they also occur in white, yellow, red, lavender, or black. The most common chlorite varieties are clinoclore, pennantite, and chamosite. There are only two gem-quality minerals in the chlorite group, both types of clinochlore: Seraphinite and Kammererite.

Seraphinite is having dark green in color and it enhanced by a silvery and feathery shimmer caused by mica inclusions. Seraphinite was named for the seraphim, the highest order of angels, because of the feather-like appearance of the chatoyant fibers in the stone.

Seraphinite is considered to be a semi-precious gemstone and while its availability is limited, good size, clean, natural stones are available. A single source gem, The mineral clinochlore was first identified in 1851 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It has since been discovered in a number of other locales in the USA, including New York, Arizona, and New Jersey. Clinochlore can also be found in other countries, including Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, and Italy.

This stone is used to establish connections to the angelic realm. It carries these vibrations: Greater awareness of the Divine Feminine. Restoration of health and balance. Connects the physical with the angelic realm and Encourages living from the heart.

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Scapolite

Scapolite Gemstone

Scapolite

Scapolite is silicate of aluminium with calcium and sodium where potassium or fluorine may be present. Scapolite was first discovered in 1913 in the Mogok Stone Tract in upper Burma. It comes in an interesting variety of colors, including white, colorless, greenish, gray, yellow, brown, reddish and pink. There is also a lavender scapolite that is produced by heat treatment. The other colors are typically untreated. The most common color for gemstones is a bright honey-yellow.

A cat’s-eye effect can be seen in some pink and purple stones. Scapolite may easily be confused with amblygonite, chrysoberyl, and golden beryl.

A scapolite is cut into cabochon when parallel needle like inclusions is found within it so that it can generate cat’s eye effect otherwise it is cut in facetted cut stone. The best scapolite come form Kenya, Madagascar, Brazil and Tanzania.

Scapolite, is coming from Greek for “rod” or “shaft,” is commonly found in stubby to long prismatic crystals, that become the name. Scapolite is found in a number of locations in the world, including Canada, the USA, Norway, Italy and Mexico. Gemstone sources are found in Brazil, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Canada and Burma.

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Ruby In Zoisite

Ruby Zoisite

Ruby Zoisite

Zoisite is type of mineral, it was first discovered by the mineral dealer Simon Prešern, who discovered it in the Saualpe mountains of Austria in 1805. He brought a sample to the Slovene mineralogist Sigmund Zois (1747-1819), who recognized it as a previously unknown mineral. It was first named Saualpite, after its location, then named Zoisite in honor of Baron Zois.

There are in fact three gemstone members of the zoisite species: tanzanite, thulite and anyolite. Tanzanite, still found only in its first location in Tanzania, is very well-known, but thulite and anyolite are not. Thulite is an opaque, massive manganese-rich variety of zoisite that is pink in color.

Anyolite was first discovered near Longido in Tanzania in 1954. Though considered a variety of zoisite, strictly speaking it is a metamorphic rock composed of intergrown green zoisite, black hornblende and ruby. Sometimes it is called Ruby-Zoisite, since its chief attraction is the interesting contrast of green zoisite and red ruby. The name Anyolite apparently comes from the Masai anyoli, meaning “green.”

While it was was not fine ruby, this material eventually found its uses in carvings, ornamental objects and cabochons. The combination of the green zoisite with its black streaks of hornblende, and the rich red and pink ruby is unique and attractive. It is one of the most colorful ornamental stones found in the world and the abundance of the material makes it very affordable, even in larger sizes. Ruby-zoisite rocks are difficult to fashion because of marked differences of hardness of their chief constituents.

Ruby-zoisite carvings are very popular, and the material is particularly well-suited for figures like turtles. Large cabochons make attractive pendants and recently we have seen some nicely polished faceted pieces that are very attractive.

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Rubellite Tourmaline

Rubellite

Rubellite

The rubellite is a particularly beautiful gemstone from the colourful family of the tourmalines. Tourmalines are all related gemstones where the different colored stones are named by adding the color to the term. Red colored tourmalines are basically called red tourmalines. Pink tourmalines, green tourmalines and Paraiba tourmalines are all very popular forms. However there is an exception here where not all red tourmalines are called rubellites. Rubellite comes from the Latin name ‘rubellus’ that means reddish and rubellites are not just red or shocking pink tourmalines. There is a criterion to be followed and met for a red tourmaline to be called a rubellite tourmaline.

Basically, gemstones tend to change color based on the light source. However this does not exist in the case of true rubellites. This means that the rubellite tends to shine as intensely in artificial light as it does in daylight. In the case of red or pink tourmaline, the stone tends to display a tinge of brown in the presence of artificial light. Rubellites are found in abundance in Brazil, Mozambique, Nigeria, Madagascar and Pakistan. There is also a rubellite mine in the USA. Today rubellite tourmaline is one of the most popular gemstones available and fits well with almost any jewelry.

Rubellites are quite rare and have only become popular in the last few centuries. Some of the Russian Crown Jewels from the 17th century, once thought to be rubies, are actually fine examples of rubellite gemstones.

Rubellites are believed to strengthen love and devotion as well as inspire creativity. Rubellite gemstones are also thought to help reduce stress, tension and anxiety.

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