The Beading Gem

Marine Biology
Part 2 of 2
Conch (pronounced konk) pearls are extremely rare. They are technically not pearls as they do not form from nacreous layers. They form very rarely in marine snails called Estrombus gigas or Queen conch - just 1 in 10,000 conchs. These creatures live in the Caribbean and are usually caught for food. The porcelain like pearls range in color from creamy white to yellow, brown and  gorgeous pinks with a distinctive wavy play of color called "flame structure". Only 1 in 100 is gemstone grade. They are also rarely round and are delicate as the colors can fade with time and exposure to sunlight.

Got $5.8 to $8.5 million spare? Then you could buy an incredibly rare blue diamond when it is up for sale at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva on May 12 and get to name it too. If it sells at the higher estimate or more, it will set a new world record for price per carat.

This blue diamond weighs 7.03 carats pared down from the original 26.58 carat rough diamond. It was found last year at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. It is the same mine which produced the mind-boggling 530 carat Great Star of Africa diamond or Cullinan I, now in the Crown Jewels of Britain.

There are very few blue diamonds (only red diamonds are rarer). A flawless blue diamond is even more exceptional. The Gemological Institute of America awarded this blue diamond the highest clarity grade they can give.

I don't know about you, but I am passing up on this collector's item. However there is apparently interest despite the current economic climate.

UPDATE : This rare blue diamond sold for more than the expected range. The unknown buyer will be paying $9.5 million - the highest price ever paid for a gem.

Related Posts
Moussaieff Red Diamond
Kazanjian Red Diamond
10 Cool Diamond Facts

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Of Tropical Lagoons
Part 2 of 2
Winters can be brutally long up here in Canada. So, many Canadians like to flee to a warmer climate at least for a short while. One favorite destination is the Caribbean. Noreen, a bead party hostess from the past, kindly sent me pictures of the jewelry she picked up in the Dominican Republic where the family went to attend her son's wedding. She bought the sterling silver mounted larimar jewelry (shown above) in a store run by two enterprising Canadian ladies. They provide transportation from the resorts to bring tourists to their shop!

As you can see, the stone is just lovely, reminding one of beautiful blue tropical lagoons. It's not surprising larimar has become wildly popular - a gemstone rush.

The color variations of larimar range from white to greenish blue to a deep blue. Larimar makes a great alternative to turquoise, if you are fortunate enough like Noreen to be able to buy some.

The stone is soft so the earrings and pendant Noreen bought are much better buys than a ring would have been. Noreen should also take care of her jewelry and keep it in the dark when she is not wearing it as larimar is photosensitive and will fade over the years.

The blue rock, a form of pectolite, is considered rare because it is only found in one place, in the coastal province of Barahona in the Dominican Republic. It was first discovered by a priest back in 1916 but it took several decades before its rediscovery by two men in 1974. One of them, Miguel Méndez, named the stone larimar, a composite formed from his daughter's name, Larissa and the Spanish word for sea, mar. The natives believed the stone come from the sea because specimens were found on the beach washed down to the sea by the Bahoruco River.

Larimar is now obtained from the outcrop that bears this gemstone at the Los Chupaderos mine. The mountainside is riddled with some 2,000 vertical shafts! The rock was volcanic in origin and formed as chimneys or tubes. You can see pictures of the mine and workers here and here. It is a hard life for the mine workers at this remote location as the work is strenuous and they only have simple tools to use. Safety standards are practically non-existent. The shafts are not shored up and with heavy rainfall, occasional cave-ins occur and have killed mine workers.

Hopefully with time, jewelry designers and the industry will press the Dominican Republic to improve working conditions at the mine. Perhaps even start funds to help the families of dead larimar workers as they have for the families of tanzanite miners in Merelani, northern Tanzania where mining conditions aren't great either.

References
Wikipedia : Larimar
Larimar Museum
Colored-Stone.com Newsletter
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Of all the fancy coloured diamonds, blood red ones are the rarest of all. Out of the few dozen known red diamonds, only 3 are over 5 carats. The largest is the trilliant cut Moussaieff Red at 5.11 carats. But close behind is the Kazanjian Red at 5.05 carats. If you're a science geek like me, that translates to about 1 gram.

This gorgeous rare gemstone has just begun the US leg of a world tour. It is currently on display at Los Angeles' Natural History Museum until February 1. The exhibition entitled Hollywood Jewel Collection is located in their Gem and Mineral Hall. The LA-based jeweler, Kazanjian Brothers Inc has loaned not only the Kazanjian Red but several celebrity pieces once owned by stars like Carole Lombard, Faye Dunaway and Madonna. Later this summer, it may be at the Smithsonian.

The Kazanjian Red has had an adventurous history. It was found in the diamond fields of South Africa as an umpromising rough 35 carat stone in 1927. No one knew what it really was until it was sent to the Netherlands for cleaving and polishing. The master cutter made "windows" on the side of the stone, shone a lamp and saw a reddish glow - the first hint the gem was truly extraordinary. It took 7 months of studying, cutting and polishing to produce the final rectangular emerald cut gem. Douglas Kazanjian, the current CEO of the firm said, "They were so surprised because it showed this amazing red color. They said it was as if a drop of blood fell upon the hand of the cutter."

The gemstone was so rare no dealer then could really estimate the value nor were there any buyers willing to pay a high price. So the diamond was placed in a safe for years until the Nazis stole it in 1944. It was taken, along with other gems and art treasures to Germany and hidden in a salt mine. When the war ended, American soldiers found and reported the war loot. They understandably mistook the Kazanjian Red for a ruby, so vivid was its hue.

The gemstone was eventually returned to the family who owned it and it was subsequently sold and resold a few times. It then disappeared into a private collection for 30 years until the Kazanjian firm bought it in 2007. Douglas Kazanjian would not not reveal how much the firm paid for it nor would they speculate about the value of this stone.

Back in 1987, a 0.95 carat red diamond sold for almost a million dollars. The Kazanjian Red is five times larger and far rarer. So it's likely to be worth at least $5,000,000! You can bet security at the museum is tight!

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Related Posts
Rare Gemstone : Moussaieff Red Diamond
Of karats, carats and carrots!
Hearts and Arrows Diamonds
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Ammonites are fossils of extinct molluscs or ancient snails, millions of years old. They resemble the modern nautilus. Their spiral shape also looks like ram's horns. Ammonite comes from the name given to them by the Roman, Pliny the Elder (d.79 AD) - ammonis cornua or "horns of Ammon" after the Egyptian god Ammon/Amon/Amun whose sacred animal was the ram. A splendid and enormous (2 feet in diameter) ammonite is on display at the New York's Museum of Natural History.



It is the opal-like iridescent shelled ammonites which are prized for jewelry. Although ammonites can be found worldwide, ammolite the gemstone quality version can only be found mainly in one small spot in southern Alberta. Indeed it is the official gemstone of this Canadian province . Korite International is the Alberta based mining company that first produced ammolite. Ammolite is thus extremely rare and high grade supplies are limited. This mine currently produces over 90% of the world's supply and they estimate it will all run out in about 20 years unless another deposit is found somewhere else.

An example of Korite International jewelry is shown in the above picture (source). Below is a picture of raw ammolite. Ammolite is like the nacreous material of pearls so it is soft and delicate. Sometimes the gemstones is capped with a spinel in jewelry to protect it.



How expensive is it? Very. On her holiday to Vancouver earlier this summer, Debbie (my co-instructor, Widget's Beads) hastily put back the tiny (half the size of her pinkie nail) ammolite earrings she was eyeing because they cost $700! Still determined to possess ammolite, she purchased a cross-sectioned ammonite shell pendant (below left). Later in the summer, she came across a vendor who was selling ammolite pendants which were not in the popular reddish hues. As he was also selling them half-price, she finally got her genuine ammolite pendant for $28 (below right)!

Debbie is very smug about this because all I have of ammolite is a Korite International brochure someone picked up for me some years ago! Darn.


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Diamonds are really not that rare. Before the Second World War, the diamond industry was struggling with a crisis of oversupply and rapidly plummeting prices.

But with the formation of a diamond cartel, controlled by de Beers, diamond prices since then have been kept artificially high, even with new supply sources popping up such as Canada's in the 1990's. According to geology.com, Canada alone produced 11.2 million carats in 2003!!

However, coloured diamonds are indeed rare. These "fancies" can be a number of colours like green, blue, orange, brown and yellow. But the rarest of all is red. Just a few dozen specimens exist. The largest of them at 5.11 carats, is the Moussaieff Red which belongs to the Moussaieff Jewelers Ltd. It was found in the 1990's by a Brazilian farmer. The gemstone has been faceted using the triangular brilliant cut sometimes called the trillion or trilliant cut.

The Physics Factbook reported that red diamonds have sold for more than $3,900,000 per gram. For those of us whose bank accounts don't quite reach those heady heights, we can only drool at the picture of this gorgeous cranberry-coloured gem.

References
Wikipedia : Moussaieff Red Diamond
The Blue Mining Company : Diamond and Gold Production
Curious Notions : Rare Gemstones
Famous Diamonds : Moussaieff Red Diamond

Taaffeite and sinhalite are two gemstones with much in common. They are both rare, both found in Sri Lanka and were once mistaken for other gemstones.

I think bi-color gemstones are absolutely gorgeous. Here are three of them - I'll save fluorite for later. It does come in two colours but more importantly, it can come in several colours in a single piece.

Two are particularly costly but luckily for us beaders, there are many imitation glass beads. I hope that some of you will be inspired by these gemstones to incorporate two-tone beads into your designs.

Padparadscha

Gemstone.org : Ametrine

For tutorials check out my Jewelry Making Tips

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Tanzanite is the most famous species of zoisite and extraordinary because it is a recent discovery (1967) and there is only one source of it. As the name suggests, this gemstone is only found in Tanzania and nowhere else. Here is a short video clip on the tanzanite mine.

The deep blue varieties rival sapphires and indeed large tanzanite gemstones are more affordable than large sapphires. Other colour variations include the violet-blues and even lavenders which I most often see in the mall jewelry stores. An intense blue stone will be valued the highest.

There is much hype that supplies of tanzanite could run out but there is actually lots of it. So the term "rare" in this case means it's only found in one spot not because it is limited in quantity. One never knows, another source may be found in the future! Regardless, it is a beautiful gemstone and should be bought for that quality.

References
Wikipedia " Tanzanite
Gemstone Organisation : Tanzanite
Judith Crowe (2006).The Jeweler's Directory of Gemstones: A Complete Guide to Appraising and Using Precious Stones From Cut and Color to Shape and Settings
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The newly opened (November 2006) permanent exhibit hall called the Lester and Sue Smith Gem Vault of Houston's Museum of Natural Science complements the Cullen Hall of Gems and Mineral - a world-renowned collection of some of the finest gems and jewelry.

The collection boasts a magnificient 1,869-carat natural emerald crystal, the largest and most spectacular ever recovered in North America, the world's finest aquamarine, a gem first mined in 1938 and the world's finest Tsavorite garnet (144 carat) which is green, a rare colour for garnets - some consider the Tsavorite garnet finer than emeralds. And the impossibly large 2765 carat Boulder Opal.

Other jewelry highlights include stunning emerald, platinum and diamond tiara shown in the picture and a magnificent blue star sapphire. More about star gemstones in a future post.

If ever I was lucky enough to go to Houston, I know where I am headed!

References:
Houston Museum of Natural Science : http://www.hmns.org

Image from Press Release :
http://www.hmns.org/files/marketing/SmithGemVault.pdf

Boulder Opal : http://www.mindat.org/min-8000.html

Internationl Coloured Gem Association's article on Tsavorite garnets:
http://www.gemstone.org/gem-by-gem/english/tsavorite.html

Tiger eye or tiger's eye gemstones are popular. The distinct bands of iron oxide staining on a black stone gives it the unique look of a cat's eye, an effect called chatoyancy. A number of gemstones are chatoyant including true cat's eye which is a green-coloured chrysoberyl.

If the yellow-brown colour of tiger eye does not work for you, there is an attractive variant available called red tiger eye. The red colour is achieved through heat treatment (most gemstones on the market are heat treated including rubies and sapphires) which oxidises the iron, turning its colour to a reddish hue. I also have a less common yellow-bluish variant.

Tiger iron is an interesting gemstone from Australia which is a composite of three different gemstones - tiger eye, red jasper and black hematite. But the rarest type of tiger eye is the marra mamba also from Australia which contains several colours - reds, blues, yellows and greens! The Outback Mining website shows you some recent finds of this collector's item.

The Silverhawk Designer Gemstones website shows you drop dead gorgeous photos of finished marra mamba pieces that are absolutely to die for!

References
R.V. Dietrich. Gemrocks : Ornamental and Curio stones.

Pink Emeralds are the gemstone industry's Official Gemstone for Valentine's day 2007. Pink? If you thought all emeralds are green, you are right!! A pink emerald (or pink beryl) is actually morganite which is in the beryl family of gemstones as are green emeralds and aquamarine. Beryl itself is colourless but when it contains small amounts of chromium and vanadium, it becomes green (emerald) but if the impurity is manganese, then the colour is pink (morganite).

Natural pink emeralds are scarce. They are classified as rare gems - they are 25,000 times rarer than green emeralds, 40,000 times rarer than rubies and sapphires and 120,000 times rarer than diamonds which are really not rare at all. And what makes these beautiful stones such an investment is that there are apparently no working mines still producing them.

The Pink Emerald Company, the exclusive and largest retailer of pink emeralds just announced that a one of a kind "World's Largest Heart Shaped Pink Emerald" (169 carats) is for sale for $2,600,000 USD. It is about the size of a baby's fist. This beauty was found and mined in Minas Gerais, Brazil and was cut and faceted a master gemstone carver in Idar Oberstein in Germany, the leading gem cutting center of Europe. The ultimate Valentine's gift indeed for one lucky woman.

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