Agate
Agate is a form of chalcedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a remarkable variety of colors and textures. |
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Moss opal is a milky white opal with unique inclusions of green hornblende in moss-like patterns. |
Amethyst is the most precious gemstone within the quartz group. Amethyst ranges in color from pale lilac to deep reddish purple. |
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Mystic Quartz is the product of a new high tech enhancement process applied to colorless quartz. |
Ametrine is a form of quartz which occurs in bands of yellow and purple, a combination of the colors of amethyst and citrine. |
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Colorful Mystic Topaz is the product of a high tech enhancement process that is stable and permanent. |
Almandine Garnet, the most common garnet, is dark brownish or purplish red. Garnet is very popular for its excellent hardness and brilliance. |
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Onyx is the black form of chalcedony, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz. |
Amazonite is a gemstone variety of green microcline, a feldspar mineral. It is named after the Amazon river in Brazil. Surprisingly, no deposits of it have been found there. |
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More than any other gem, each opal is unique. No other stone has as rich and varied a folklore. Opals are also the most delicate gems commonly worn and require special care to insure their longevity. |
Andalusite is a strongly pleiochroic gem, which means that is has different colors when viewed from different directions. |
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Orthoclase is a transparent yellow feldspar resembling citrine quartz or yellow beryl, found primarily in Madagascar. |
Andesine-Labradorite
Supplies of andesine-labradorite are quite recent, with the mineral found in a range of colors, including red, yellow, champagne and green. |
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Paraiba tourmaline is a rare copper-bearing gem with an exceptional neon blue or blue-green color. First found in Brazil in 1989, similar material has since been found in Nigeria and Mozambique. |
Apatite, a stone seldom found in jewelry stores, is beloved by collectors for its many different colors and forms. Only with the recent availability of the neon blue-green variety from Madagascar has its jewelry use increased. |
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Peridot belongs to the forsterite-fayalite mineral series which is part of the olivine group. It is an idiochromatic gem, meaning its color comes from the basic chemical composition of the mineral itself, not from minor impurities. |
Aventurine
Aventurine is a type of green quartz often used for carvings and cabochons. |
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Prehnite
Prehnite, a form of calcium aluminum silicate, has a vitreous mother-of-pearl luster. Affordably priced for its size, with a Mohs hardness of 6 to 6.5, Prehnite makes distinctive and interesting jewelry. |
A new high tech enhancement process applied to colorless topaz has created a new variety we call "Azotic Topaz," named after the company that invented the process. |
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Pyrope Garnet is the most famous of the red garnets. Its dark, blood red color often resembles the color of ruby. |
Aquamarine is best known for its breathtaking range of blue colors and belongs to the same family as emerald (beryl). Aquamarine is colored by trace amounts of iron. |
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Quartz is one of the most common minerals on earth and is well known in the gems world in its many forms including amethyst, citrine, and ametrine. |
Beryl is one of the most important gem minerals. The most famous beryl is emerald, but other beryl varieties include aquamarine, heliodor and morganite. |
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Rhodolite Garnet is the name applied to a mixture of pyrope and almandite. Rhodolite tends to be lighter in color than most other kinds of red garnet. |
Chatoyancy, the cat's eye effect, is a reflection of light by parallel fibers, needles, or channels, which resemble the slit eye of a cat. |
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The unique soft pink color of rose quartz is thought to derive from tiny traces of titanium impurities. Rose quartz crystals tend to be cloudy which deepens the color; transparent crystals are rare. |
Cat's Eye Tourmaline
Tourmaline with tiny parallel inclusions sometimes display a strong cat's eye effect when polished. |
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Ruby is the red variety of corundum, the 2nd hardest substance on the Mohs scale, with a rating of 9. It is this combination of hardness and the rich color and silky shine that make fine rubies so valuable. |
Chalcedony is the fine-grained variety of the silica mineral quartz. It has a waxy luster and appears in a great variety of colors. |
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Ruby-Zoisite is the natural combination of ruby and zoisite crystals in a single specimen. Often used for carvings. |
Chrome Diopside is colored by chromium and displays a rich forest green that has similarities to tsavorite garnet and chrome tourmaline. |
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Rutile Quartz
Rutile Quartz is clear or smoky quartz with inclusions of rutile crystals. |
Chrome Tourmaline
Chrome is a distinct variety of tourmaline called chrome dravite, found in East Africa. Chrome tourmaline owes its vivid hue to trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. |
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Sapphire, with its excellent hardness, second only to diamond, is one of the 4 precious gemstones. |
Faceted chrysoberyl is a beautiful gem which is not as well known as it deserves. Apart from the very good hardness (8.5 on the Mohs scale), it has excellent luster. |
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Smoky Quartz
Smoky quartz is fast becoming a designer favorite for its earthy tone and tribal look. |
Named from the French word for lemon, citrine is yellow to gold to orange-brown shades of transparent quartz. |
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The most valuable spessartite garnets display a bright, orange red. The best specimens come from Namibia. |
Color Change Garnet
Color-change Garnet is a mix of spessartite and pyrope garnet. This garnet presents a color change from brownish in daylight to a rose pink in incandescent light. |
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Sphene is a brilliant yellowish-green, green or brown gemstone of high luster, unique color shades and, with brilliant cut, an intensive fire. |
Diamond, the hardest known natural material, is a transparent crystal of tetrahedrally bonded carbon atoms. Diamond is famed not only for its exceptional hardness, but also for its high refractive index and dispersion. |
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Due to its excellent hardness and clarity spinel is an excellent gemstone for all types of jewelery. Spinel is never treated in any way. |
Emerald is the most precious stone in the beryl group. The wonderful green color of emerald is unparalleled in the gem world. |
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Spodumene is a relatively new mineral to science, with gem varieties discovered only in the last 120 years. Spodumene occurs in white, gray, pink, lilac and green. |
Fire Opal is an unusual variety of opal from Mexico, with colors ranging from yellow to orange and orange-red. Like the familiar opal, fire opal is hydrated silicon dioxide but many fire opals are clear enough for facets. |
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Star Moonstone
Moonstone is a combination of orthoclase and albite arranged in layers which cause the lovely sheen. Star moonstone exhibits a stunning cat's eye or four-rayed star effect. |
Fluorite is a mineral with a veritable bouquet of brilliant colors that range from purple, blue, green, yellow, colorless, brown, pink, black to reddish orange. |
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Star Rose Quartz
Rose quartz displaying asterism or the star effect is rare. The unique soft pink color of rose quartz is thought to derive from tiny traces of titanium impurities. |
Garnet is a popular and affordable gemstone available in a number of varieties and colors. Red garnet is the best known, but the most valuable garnets, tsavorite and demantoid, are green. |
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Star Ruby
Star Ruby is a ruby which displays asterism, a six-rayed star that shimmers over the surface of the stone when it is moved. |
Hiddenite is a form of spodumene containing chromium. The green color varies from a yellowish to a bluish green and can even approach the beauty of an emerald green. |
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Star Sapphire is a sapphire which contains unusual tiny needle-like inclusions. Aligned needles that intersect each other at varying angles produce a phenomenon called asterism. |
The most sought after of all natural topaz is called Imperial Topaz. Its rich golden color with reddish and orange overtones is generally not enhanced by any kind of treatment. |
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Tanzanite is a variety of zoisite. Colors range from blue to purple to green. The highly coveted color is the deep blue which shows a purple hue shimmering around it. |
Pleochroism is very pronounced in iolite and is seen as three different color shades in the same stone: violet blue, yellow gray and a light blue. |
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Tiger's Eye
Tiger's Eye is a type of opaque macrocrystalline quartz with a fibrous structure. It typically displays chatoyant stripes, because structural fibers are crooked or bent. |
Jadeite is found in most colors from pure white thru pink, brown, red, orange, violet, blue, and black, to an range of greens. |
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Topaz is an important gem due to its hardness and high refractive index. Topaz comes in many colors but the blue topaz is especially popular. |
Jasper is usually considered a chalcedony, but scientists put it in a group by itself because of its grainy structure. |
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One of the most versatile of gems, tourmaline is found in every color. It can show every tone from pastel to dark, and can appear in various colors in the same stone. |
Kunzite is the pale pink-violet to light violet species of the mineral spodumene. Kunzite is named as a tribute to George F. Kunz, the American mineralogist who first described the gem in 1902. |
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The green species of garnet was discovered in 1967 by British geologist Cambell R. Bridges in the bush along the frontier between Kenya and Tanzania. |
Kyanite is a layered crystal with a luster that is vitreous to almost pearly, and is usually found in a sapphire-like blue. |
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Turquoise
Turquoise, the blue cousin to lapis lazuli, has been known and valued for thousands of years. The early mines in Sinai, Egypt, were already worked out in 2000 B.C. |
Lapis lazuli has been used for thousands of years for jewelry and ornamental objects. The unique deep blue color has never lost its attraction. |
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Zircon has great brilliance and intensive fire, due to its high refractive index and strong dispersion. |
Moonstone is a unique stone that reflects light in a distinctive shimmering phenomenon known as adularescence. |
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