Bloodstone Bloodstone is a dark green, opaque chalcedony with red spots. Chalcedony belongs to the quartz mineral group. Other well-known gemstones in the quartz family include, Agate, Amethyst, Rock Crystal, Smoky Quartz, Rose Quartz, Citrine and Carnelian. Bloodstone is also known as Heliotrope, the name Heliotrope is derived from the Greek words "Sun Turner". [...]
Aquamarine Aquamarine derives its name from the Latin words "Aqua" meaning water and "Marinus" meaning of the sea. This beautiful gemstone resembles seawater, with colours ranging from light to dark blue and often including shades of blue-green. With dark blue been the most desirable colour. The agent responsible for colouration is iron. Aquamarine is [...]
Agate The name Agate is derived from the River Achates in Sicily, which is now called the Dirillo River. Agate is a variety of chalcedony, which belongs to the Quartz mineral group. Other well-known gemstones in the Quartz family include, Amethyst, Rock Crystal, Smoky Quartz, Rose Quartz, Citrine, Carnelian and Bloodstone. Agate is a [...]
Turquoise Turquoise gemstone gets its name from the French word "pierre turquoise" which means Turkish stone. This name came about from the trade route that was taken by the Venetian merchants who brought the gemstone to France. This is despite the fact that the stone originated in Persia (modern-day Iran ). The gemstone is [...]
Garnet Garnet derives its name from the Latin word "granatus" which means seed or grain. This is because of the rounded crystals of the gemstone and their similarity to the red kernels of the pomegranate fruit. It also takes its name from the 14th-century English word "gernet" which means dark red. Garnet is the [...]
Pearl The name Pearl is believed to be from the Latin word "Perna" which means a type of shell. It is produced in bivalve mollusks, mostly of the oyster family ( Ostreidae ). It starts as an irritant in the mollusk. To cope with this irritant the mollusk will continuously coat the foreign object [...]
Sapphire Sapphire gets its name from the Greek word "Sapphirus" which means blue and is a member of the corundum family along with Ruby. It comes in a variety of colours including blue, pink, orange, yellow, green, purple, black, and colourless. Historically only the blue variety was called Sapphire. With the green variety being [...]
Ruby Ruby is a member of the corundum family of gemstones. There are two gemstones in the corundum family, Ruby and Sapphire. Low-quality corundum gemstones are typically used as cutting and polishing agents. The best known of these would be emery paper, which is mostly fine-grain corundum with the addition of magnetite, hematite, and [...]
Emerald The gemstone Emerald belongs to the beryl group and is the most precious variety of beryl. The other varieties of beryl are Aquamarine, Morganite, Red and Green beryl, Heliodor, Maxixe, and Goshenite. The stone derives its colour from the element chrome, while green beryl is coloured by vanadium. The colouring agent chrome is [...]
Amethyst Amethyst is a member of the Quartz family and it ranges in colour from pale lilac to deep purple. It gets its colour from Iron and other trace elements such as manganese. The paler shades of the stone are often called "Rose de France". Siberian Amethyst is a deeper shade of purple and [...]
