Gemstones and Semi-Precious Jewellery

Overview

Both semi-precious and precious stones are part of the gemstones category. A gemstone is that part of a mineral which in a refined form is used in the creation of jewellery. ‘Semi-precious stone’ is a term which is used commercially as a marketing tool for selling precious stones.

Semi-precious stones are extensively used in fashion and custom jewellery making. In order to understand semi-precious jewelry it is essential to understand precious stones as the term semi-precious stones is used in relation to precious stones. Diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires are Precious stones and all other stones are semi-precious stones. Let’s have a look at these to gain a better understanding of the different types of semi-precious stones available in the market.

Amethyst

Amethyst is of a vibrant purple color. It belongs to the quartz group of minerals and receives its color from aluminum and iron impurities.

Citrine

Citrine comes from a family of quartz gemstones. The word ‘Citrine’ is derived from a French word and means lemon. It is of a golden color.

Turquoise

Turquoise is of a bluish-green color and is derived from the word ‘Turkish’; Turkey being the country which brought the mineral to Iran from Europe.

Blue Topaz

The Egyptians were the first to discover this stone 2000 years ago. It is made of hydroxyl and fluorine and is an aluminum silicate. In its purest form it is colorless.

Peridot

This stone is found in only one color-vibrant green. It falls under the olivine group of stones which is part of the forsterite-fayalite mineral series.

Jade

Jade covers a wide range of gemstones. Nephrite and Jadeite are the only two pure jade stones.

Garnet

The six common types of Garnets are- Spessartie, Grossularite, Almandine, Pyrope, andradite and Uvarovite. Some mixtures of garnets are pyrope and almandite.

Tourmaline

What makes it rare is the fact that Tourmaline has an exclusive spectrum of colors. The word tourmaline means ‘stone of mixed colors’.

Moonstone

Moonstone is a mixture of plagioclase, albite and sheet mica. It is an opaque and transparent obligoclase and has an effervescent glow that makes it unique.

Malachite

Malachite is a copper carbonate and has a distinct green veining. It is not a very hard stone and is found close to deposits of copper ore. Malachite is most popularly extracted from Russian Mountain mines.

Jasper

The word Jasper means ‘Spotted Stone’. It is made of certain foreign materials that provide it its streak, appearance and color and make up for 20% of the stone.  

Rose Quarts

Rose Quarts has a unique soft pink color. It is considered to have its derivatives from small amounts of titanium impurities. The impurities tend to deepen the color and add a certain cloudiness to it.

Tanzanite

Tanzanite is known for its success across the globe and has been in demand in Tanzania since 1967. The color spectrum of Tanzanite ranges across three colors, green, purple and blue.

Opal

These elusive stones are worn universally. They are derived from Mexico, Brazil, United States and Australia. Each of these can be distinguished from any other gemstone.

Pearls

Pearls are created by bivalve mollusks; usually mussels and oysters. The difference of color depends on the type of oyster or mussel and also varies with the change of water.

Onyx

The Onyx that is popularly used is created by dying it to derive the jet black color that people are accustomed to. It naturally occurs in groups of black and white. It is a cryptocrystalline type of quartz and is chalcedony, the black form.

Aquamarine

It belongs to the same family as emerald or beryl and is very well known for the wide array of different shades of blue.

Conclusion

With all the variety of jewellery available in the market, it is very important to understand the difference between precious and semi-precious jewelry. Be it fashion jewellery, custom jewellery or precious and semi-precious jewellery, indulging in any kind of sale or purchase should be avoided without a basic understanding and working knowledge of these.