Featured Gemstones

What is a gemstone?

A gemstone is a stone used for personal adornment that is beautiful, durable, and stable. Beauty is based on color, luster, transparency, or cutting and shaping with lapidary techniques. Durability is the resistance to damage and is dependent on hardness and tenacity. Tenacity is the resistance to bending and breaking, while hardness measures the resistance to scratching. Stability refers to the gem's ability to retain color in spite of heat, light, or chemical changes.

What is a semi-precious stone?

The two terms precious and semi-precious are not widely used these days. The designation began in part because diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald were taxed at a higher rate than other gemstones. Many people think semi-precious indicates a gem of lesser value and hardness, which is not true, and the main reason why the term semi-precious is no longer widely used.

Tourmaline on Quartz from San Diego County CA in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Arizona Tiger Eye is a type serpentine. Known for is brilliant chatoyancy and translucent amber color. Chatoyancy is the sheen or optical reflection in tiger eye. The high reflectivity of the stone when polished makes it difficult to photograph. It is a soft stone and care must be taken when shaping and polishing. It is really a stunning stone and difficult not to fall in love with once you’ve seen it or worked with it.

Bertrandite or Tiffany Stone is composed of many minerals, that vary from sample to sample. It is rare, because it comes from an area in the west desert of Utah where beryllium is mined and is crushed during the mining process. The name bertrandite is misleading as it is not the major mineral in the stone. The name tiffany stone came from the patterns in the stone resembling tiffany glass. It is an opalized stone that forms in nodules, composed mostly of opalized fluorite with other minerals such as quartz, chalcedony, dolomite, rhodonite, manganese oxides, bertrandite, beryl, opal, and others. Most commonly patterned in purple, blue, white and black it is an unusual and beautiful gemstone.

Eudialyte is a somewhat rare mineral, which is well known for its distinctive colors including magenta, pink, blue, yellow and brown. Eudialyte is actually made up of several minerals; Sodium, Calcium, Cerium, Iron, Manganese, Zirconium, Silicon, Hydrogen and Chlorine. Eudialyte is usually found embedded in the host rock surrounded by other minerals. Most of the Eudialyte on the market today comes from the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Eudialyte’s rare beauty and distinctive colors have made it popular among mineral collectors.

Graveyard Point Plume Agate comes from the Owyhee mountain area, on the Idaho Oregon border. It is named for the beautiful plume like patterns within the agate. The colors range from a creamy white to yellow, pinks, reds, and different shades of blue. Iron pyrite can add a nice sparkle to this stone. Inclusions of other minerals, create fascinating scenes to fuel the imagination. The image on the right the pendant is back lit to show the translucence of the agate.

Imperial Jasper comes from Guadalajara, Mexico. One of the fine jaspers on the market, this collectible material is porcelain hard and comes in many varieties. This jasper forms in nodules and usually has a chalky white exterior. Typically it come in shades of pink, red and green.