Aquamarine bracelets

Recently I bought a few bracelets made from aquamarine beads from a shop in Chinatown. The beads
are shinny and attractive to look at. I can just be happy admiring the stones and holding them in my palms.

 

Aquamarine takes its name from the Latin words “aqua” (water) and “marina” (of the sea).  It is from the beryl family (which included emeralds and morganite.  It ranges from a blue-green colour to a pale blue. It is an Astrological birthstone for Scorpio.

 

In geology, beryl is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be₃Al₂(SiO₃)₆. The hexagonal crystals of beryl may be very small or range to several meters in size. Terminated crystals are relatively rare. Pure beryl is colourless, but it is frequently tinted by impurities; possible colours are green, blue, yellow, red, and white. Clear green aquamarine is hard to find and I really love to acquire a bracelets of green aquamarine, not dark green stone like emerald (too expensive to buy).

 

The clear, almost colourless blue are also the most sought after and valuable of the aquamarine stones. These clear stones are often cut and mounted into jewelry like rings and pendants. The aquamarine in my bracelets is bluish in colour and translucent rather than transparent. That could be the reason why it was made into beads. For clear aquamarine, it is sure to be very costly to make into bracelets, considering the number of beads used in the bracelets.

 

Gem quality aquamarine

A rough aquamarine

A magnificent ring

Because its name was derived from the sea, it was often gifted to, and worn by, sailors, who believed it would help them traverse the deep waters safely.  Roman soldiers would also wear it in battle, as they believed it would make them invincible and bring them victory.
Aquamarine stones are found in many places, such as Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Madagascar.  The most valuable aquamarine stones come from Brazil.
According to ancient folklore, in addition to the beliefs already mentioned, aquamarine was also thought to assist in the treatment of yawning, belching, and in curing ailments to the stomach, liver, throat, jaws, and even toothaches.

Because its name is a connection to water and the sea, it was also used in rituals to either bring rain, or, for malevolent purposes, to help cause drought to your enemies.
Although aquamarine is thought to have great healing power, I collect this stone is because I like its hue and the price is still affordable at this point in time.

 

Pinkish Kunzite

Recently I spotted a pair of bracelets made from beads of Kunzite. The kunzite beads are of a light pinkish hue and they even display the cat-eye effect due to the thread-like inclusions that run across them. When the shop owner told me their price, it was far below market value and I bought them as my collection of semi-precious stones.

Kunzite is a pink variety of coloured gemstone of spodumene with the color coming from minor to trace amounts of manganese. Some (but not all) kunzite used for gemstones has been heated to enhance its color. Many kunzites fade when exposed to sunlight.

It has been said that kunzite stones are stones of lovers. If you are in love with someone, give your love one some kunzite stones/bracelets.

Kunzite was discovered in 1902, and was named after George Frederick Kunz, Tiffany & Co's chief jeweler at the time, and a noted mineralogist. It has been found in Brazil, USA, Canada, CIS, Mexico, Sweden, Western Australia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The kunzite beads display cat-eye effect

Some kunzite jewelry items are lovely, no wonder these pinkish gemstones receive much attention these days.

Rough kunzite rich in pink hue

Kunzite pendant

Kunzite ring

Another kunzite rough

My kunzite collection

Amber

Recently I find items made from amber as interesting artefacts for investment due to its scarcity. Prices of amber bracelets and carvings are appreciating rapidly as people are attracted to the beauty this ancient material formed from tree resin tens of thousands of years ago.

Amber is formed from tree resin millions of years ago. Amber has been appreciated for its colour and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewellery.

It was reported that hundreds of prehistoric insects and other creatures have been discovered in a large haul of amber excavated from a coalmine in western India. An international team of fossil hunters recovered 150kg of the dirty brown resin from Cambay Shale in Gujarat province, making it one of the largest amber collections on record. The tiny animals became entombed in the fossilised tree resin some 52m years ago, before the Indian subcontinent crunched into Asia to produce the Himalayan mountain range.

Jewelry items made from amber

Good amber bracelets are sold for hundreds of dollars per gram. Some rare species can cost thousands of dollars per gram. The clear and transparent beads of amber have a diversity in colour, from yellow, blue to red. Some of the beads come with insects, leaves and many other debris trapped inside the amber as it was formed million of years ago.

 

It is interesting to note that as the resin dripped from the tree, it trapped whatever living things that were on its path down the tree trunk. Usually insects like ants and mosquitoes became the victims and fell prey to this sticky substance. This resin later hardened to a yellow translucent material that preserved these little creatures it trapped for hundreds of thousands of years. If you are a scientist, you can get very good specimens of insects that lived during prehistoric times for your studies into life during that period. But be reminded that these specimens are going to cost you a lot of money as these specimens are precious.

 

The clear transparent amber bracelet is ideal jewelry item to wear on one's wrist as it is light and attractive. If the amber carries some insects, it reminds one of things of prehistoric times. Sometimes one can imagine these little insects were struggling to get themselves out of this mass of sticky stuff.

 

This particular amber (above picture) recorded what took place thousands of years ago. As one insect was trapped in the resin dripped from a tree, another insect came along and began sucking the body content of the trapped insect. However, this predator insect was itself trapped again by similar resin that dripped from the same tree. It seems that these things of nature happened thousands of years ago are not uncommon today.

A very good bracelet of ancient amber

A mosquito inside the amber

As I learned more and more about this unique substance formed during prehistoric times, I got even more fascinated with things made from amber. I hope one day I do find some good specimens so that I can study them and enjoyed these remarkable things of nature.

Colourful tourmaline

Lately I got fascinated with this colourful gemstone, the many colours of tourmaline really amazed me.

Tourmaline is a crystalline boron silicate mineral containing elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gemstone comes in a wide variety of colours.

Tourmaline has a variety of colours. Usually, iron-rich tourmalines are black to bluish-black to deep brown, while magnesium-rich varieties are brown to yellow, and lithium-rich tourmalines are almost any colour: blue, green, red, yellow, pink, etc. Rarely, it is colorless. Bi-colored and multicoloured crystals are common, reflecting variations of fluid chemistry during crystallization. Crystals may be green at one end and pink at the other, or green on the outside and pink inside; this type is called watermelon tourmaline.

Tourmaline stones of different colours are usually cut into beads and made into bracelets. It is trendy to put on a bracelet of tourmaline beads on one's wrist.

 

Some bracelets are made from tourmaline of a particular colour, green or pink. In this case it is quite special as the beads have to be cut from different stones of similar quality to enhance the quality of the bracelets. When the stones are clear and the beads are larger, the bracelets will be more expensive. The price of tourmaline has increased a lot recently due to a greater demand for this stones in China. A very nice green tourmaline bracelet used to sell for 400 dollars a few years ago now costs thousands of dollars. Clear green tourmaline beads are really lovely, looks like jade but more transparent and harder.

A green tourmaline bracelet

This gem quality tourmaline is very expensive

 

This water-melon tourmaline is of a very high quality. It is hence cut into a faceted gem. An ideal gift for your loved one.

Gemstone quality tourmaline

Some rough tourmaline is also very attractive in its raw and native form. No wonder there are so many collectors who specialize n collecting roughs.

Rough tourmaline

A remarkable raw tourmaline

 Ladies are especially attracted to pink tourmaline. Beads of the pink stones are cut into necklaces and they look good on ladies' necks. But necklaces of fine quality are by no means cheap.

A pink tourmaline necklace is equally lovely

Blue tourmaline, a rare piece

The more I look at this amazing stone, the more I want to collect some for my own enjoyment.