Tag Archives: ivory

Organic Gemstone

Organic Gemstone

Organic Gemstone

Organic gems are a group of gem stones whose creation is associated with living organisms which are formed from once living material changed over time into a stone.

Organic gemstone jewelry was popular with the Victorians in the 19th century. Shells were carved to make cameos, delicate seed pearls were used to make elegant parrures or sets of jewelry consisting of pendant earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. Coral was also fashioned into parrures or coral beads with red and pale pink being the most popular colors.

Some stones which we refer as ‘Gemstones’ were once living organisms or were formed by living organisms. In other words, Organic gemstones are gems that are derived from animals, plants or other organisms while they are living or after they die and the usually do not have cleavage as do rock gemstones.

There are several types of Organic Gemstones used to make Gemstone Jewelry. The gems in this category are pearl, amber, coral, ivory, ammolite, shell and jet.However, the most popular among these stones is Pearl. Red Coral is also a popular choice of many.

Types of Organic Gemstones

Amber

Amber is the fossilized resin of a tree. The color of Amber varies from transparent to semitransparent and generally from light yellow to dark brown, but can be orange, red, whitish, greenish-brown, blue, or violet. This stone resembles and is named after ambergris, a sweet smelling secretion of the sperm whale once used in perfume making. Amber has a hardness of 2-2.5 Mohs scale. Amber was the much preferred jewelry of Victorian era. This gemstone is considered as a good luck stone.

Jet

Jet is a shiny black stone and is formed from the remains of wood in a similar process by which coal is made. Jet is also called lignite. This stone has a hardness of 2.5-4 Mohs scale. This stone became extremely popular as mourning jewelry after Queen Victoria wore it on the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861. This stone is considered as a gem for spiritual enlightenment.

Ammolite

Ammolite is the fossilized remains of ancient sea anemones. Ammolite is similar to the opal in appearance and often has a cracked or mottled surface. This cracking can give the stone the look of ‘dragon scales’ or a stained glass window.

Pearl

Pearl is considered the king of all organic gems and is formed inside the shells of oysters and mussels. Pearl has a hardness of 2.5-4.5 in the Mohs scale. Natural pearls come in various shapes: round, pear, drop, egg, and others. They also come in various colors, such as white, cream, light rose, cream rose, black, gray, bronze, blue, dark blue, blue green, red, purple, yellow, and violet. Pearl Jewelry is considered as the Symbol of Beauty and Elegance and was part of the royal jewelry.

Ivory

Usually the elephant’s tusk is referred to Ivory but these days’ teeth of hippopotamus, walrus, wild boar and some other mammals also serve as ivory. Ivory jewelry was popular during the Victorian period. Since many animals that have ivory tusk were killed to get their tusk the import and sale of ivory is strictly banned in many countries of the world.

Coral

Coral is the skeletal remains of marine animals. Coral has a hardness of 2.6 to 2.7 in the Mohs scale and is found in semi translucent to opaque and occurs in white, pink, orange, red, blue, violet, golden, and black. Coral is used to make figurines, cameos, carvings and beads

Everything is beautiful…

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The Precious Ivory

Elk Ivory

Ivory

Ivory is one of the most well known materials that are used in high quality precious jewelry. It should be noted that Ivory is not a gemstone or a mineral from rock, it is an organic mineral created by certain mammals with specific types of characteristics.

Basically, Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing.

Elephant ivory has been the most important source, but ivory from many species including the hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal has been used.

Ivory usually comes in two colors, white and whitish yellow, many people usually call it off white. The whiter the Ivory, usually the higher the price, usually Ivory can turn a tinge of yellow if it is an older piece, but for the most part, it is extremely exquisite and beautiful.

Humans have carved ornamental ivory since prehistoric times. An Ivory figurine of the Pharaoh Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, is a notable masterpiece in the art of ivory carving.

The quality of Ivory is very malleable in contrast to gemstones that are usually rigid surfaced. The size of Ivory depends upon the size of the animal.

Ivory has been banned since 1989 to save the mammals that were literally killed to obtain their beautiful tusks. Factual information is there that in 40 years, 97% of the 300,000 elephants found in certain African countries were butchered to obtain the Ivory, and this practice would make the species extinct. After the ban, Ivory has become rare as now only after the natural death of the animal, ivory can be obtained, so today there are plastic substitutes of Ivory available in the market that look equally exquisite and beautiful like the original material.

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