Kiki, who’s been around for 25 years, was one of the first designers to pioneer combining bold semi-precious coloured gemstones like citrine and peridot with diamonds to create show-stopping fine jewellery.
Her gem of a shop (literally) near London’s Sloane Street has always been a mecca for lovers of the statement bauble – and now her designs are just a click away.
“Emerald is the birthstone for May and is known for being the 20th and 35th wedding anniversary stone. Many believe wearing emerald brings you wisdom and growth. This is commonly given as a gift for an anniversary or as a symbol of love and fidelity.
At one point in time emeralds were prescribed for eye diseases because the beautiful color of green was thought to be quite soothing to the eyes. In fact early stone cutters kept emeralds at their working tables to look at as a way of giving their eyes a break.
The ancient Egyptians mined emeralds in the eastern region. In more recent times North Carolina is where the new source of quality emeralds can be found. You can find more emeralds in other areas of America, Colombia, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Nigeria, and Russia.
Egyptians engraved emeralds with the symbols of spring foliage to represent eternal youth and buried the stones with the dead. The ancient Romans thought emeralds were associated with fertility and rebirth.
Types of Garnet
ALMANDINE Fe3Al2(SiO4)3 reddish brown to brown
ANDRADITE Ca3Fe2(SiO4)3 brown, black or green
GROSSULAR Ca3Al2(SiO4)3 colorless, orange or green
PYROPE Mg3Al2(SiO4)3 dark red to ruby red
SPESSARTINE Mn3Al2(SiO4)3 orange, pink or brown
UVAROVITE Ca3Cr2(SiO4)3 green
Common Garnet varieties:
Aquamarine is a fascinatingly beautiful gemstone. Women the world over love it for its fine blue shades which can complement almost any skin or eye colour, and creative gemstone designers are inspired by it as they are by hardly any other gem, which enables them to create new artistic cuts again and again.
Its light blue arouses feelings of sympathy, trust, harmony and friendship. Good feelings. Feelings which are based on mutuality and which prove their worth in lasting relationships. The blue of aquamarine is a divine, eternal colour, because it is the colour of the sky. However, aquamarine blue is also the colour of water with its life-giving force. And aquamarine really does seem to have captured the lucid blue of the oceans. No wonder, when you consider that according to the saga it originated in the treasure chest of fabulous mermaids, and has, since ancient times, been regarded as the sailors’ lucky stone. Its name is derived from the Latin ‘aqua’ (water) and ‘mare’ (sea). It is said that its strengths are developed to their best advantage when it is placed in water which is bathed in sunlight. However, it is surely better still to wear aquamarine, since according to the old traditions this promises a happy marriage and is said to bring the woman who wears it joy and wealth into the bargain. An ideal gem, not only for loving and married couples.
A gemstone with many good qualities
Aquamarine is one of our most popular and best-known gemstones, and distinguishes itself by many good qualities. It is almost as popular as the classics: ruby, sapphire and emerald. In fact it is related to the emerald, both belonging to the beryl family. The colour of aquamarine, however, is usually more even than that of the emerald. Much more often than its famous green cousin, aquamarine is almost entirely free of inclusions. Aquamarine has good hardness (7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale) and a wonderful shine. That hardness makes it very tough and protects it to a large extent from scratches.
Phase 1 includes detailed requirements to import and export non-Burmese rubies and jadeite into and out of the United States, the Jewelers Vigilance Alliance said in a statement. No jadeite and rubies of Myanmar origin can be imported into the United States. This importation ban encompasses all Burmese origin jadeite and rubies, notwithstanding “substantial transformation” in Thailand or elsewhere.
A 30-day grace period has been established whereby importers and exporters that may not meet all mandatory requirements can still import and export non-Burmese goods until Oct. 26, JVC said.
Customs has issued new Harmonized Tariff System codes for use for all non-Burmese rubies and jadeite and jewelry containing these gemstones imported into the U.S. Shipments of rubies and jadeite from non-Burmese sources must use these codes when entering the U.S. In addition, importers are required to:
Some gems – like pearls, amber, coral, and ivory – are organic. This means they come from plants or animals. But most gems are minerals: natural, inorganic materials with specific chemical compositions. Most have a characteristic structure, too. You probably already know the names of some minerals commonly found in jewelry stores: topaz, sapphire, emerald, and ruby, for example. Synthetic gems have become increasingly popular like this titanium bracelet, which are exact replicas of the real gem with the strength of titanium.
Three traits of all gems
A substance isn’t automatically considered a gem just because it’s used in jewelry or just because it falls in the mineral category. Items like bones, seeds, and hair have all been used in jewelry, but that doesn’t place them in the same category as rubies, pearls, and amber. You will some time find gems in tungsten carbide rings as well.
To be a gem, a substance must share three important traits with all other gems: beauty, rarity, and durability. Each trait, however, represents a range, so all gems can possess different levels of all three traits.
Beauty
Throughout the centuries, humans have cherished the color of gleam of finished gems. Mineral crystals brought up from the dark depths of the earth, organic gems created by life processes – all gems worthy of the name share the virtue of beauty.
But because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it isn’t always easy to categorize what’s beautiful and what isn’t. One accepted definition of beauty holds that it’s a combination of qualities that delight the senses or appeal to the mind. In other words, a thing of beauty might not cause everybody to react the same way, but it will cause everybody to react – it will have visual appeal.
Of all the precious gemstones, diamonds have for years, been typically considered to be the most precious and valued of all the precious gemstones. Diamonds usually range in colors from yellow to bluish white and be found from very small to very large. Other precious stone used for jewelry include rubies, emeralds, and sapphires as well as the less expensive stones, chrysoberyl, topaz, and zircon. Among gemstones considered to be semiprecious stones, the most common gemstones used for jewelry include, amethyst, garnet, opal, aquamarine, jade , turquoise, agate, onyx, lapis lazuli, and malachite.
Gemstones that originate from animals or organic instead of mineral, and are considered to be organic stones, include amber, which is a fossil of tree resin, as well as pearls and corals. To be considered a gemstone, the stone must be one of the 2,000 identified naturally occurring minerals that are valued for their rarity, beauty, and durability. Out of these 2,000 identified minerals, only around 100 of them are actually used as gemstones, and a few 16 of them have achieved a notability of importance. These minerals, though one may supply more than one gemstone, include beryl, chrysoberyl, corundum, diamond, feldspar, garnet, jade, lazurite, olivine, opal, quartz, spinel, topaz, tourmaline, turquoise, and zircon. As an example, the mineral Beryl supplies the gemstones emerald and aquamarine, and corundum supplies ruby and sapphire gemstones. Before being used for jewelry, all of these minerals will have to first be cut and polished in order for them to be usable.
In an ad that ran in the Washington Post, Tiffany and Co. gave the U.S. Congress kudos for passing legislation that would ban the importation of all gemstones from Myanmar (formerly Burma) into the United States, including those that were processed in a third-party country.
Federal lawmakers had already passed legislation in 2003 that embargoed gemstones from Myanmar as a response to human rights violations by the government’s ruling military junta, which profits from state-run gem auctions. But the new legislation closes a U.S. Customs loophole that allowed the Burmese stones into this country if they were processed somewhere other than Myanmar, such as Thailand, which is known for cutting gemstones and using them to manufacture jewelry.
An estimated 90 percent of the world’s rubies originate in Myanmar and are known in the trade as “blood rubies.”
Tiffany and Co., in accordance with its corporate standards and practices, stopped the purchase of all rubies mined in Myanmar in 2003, and has continued its moratorium on Burmese rubies since then, despite the loophole.
Besides their obvious magic and beauty, gems have a vast heritage of healing power. All cultures, religions and times valued gems to prevent illness, misfortune, and to positively influence the spirit of the wearer. From the shamans of American Indians to the astrologers of Hindu cultures, from the headmen of the Celts to the ghost men of the Aborigines, they all have used stones to cure, heal and protect. Formerly a secret that was passed on from generation to generation, this knowledge has now become a worldwide movement which, across languages and cultures, is dedicated to the re-enforcement of our spiritual self-consciousness. I frequently get asked: “How could a gemstone possibly heal a sickness?” It is not the sickness that gets healed, but the host. Those who dismiss the old wisdom of healers either think science can (or should) explain all there is, or they have never been really sick (despite, or especially because of modern medicine). To start with, a gemstone influences the light pattern of your body and the energy of your aura. Depending on your constellation, your karma or your walk of life a color might be too dominant or underrepresented in you and thus disturb your inner balance. Keeping the colors of your aura in a state of equilibrium is important for your ability to keep off negative thoughts and add positively to your karma. Though we have yet to understand the connection between color and the human brain, quantum physics has come up with a first notion of how colors may influence us on a atomic level.
Here are the basics, as far as we understand them today: Matter is not as solid as it appears to us. In fact, matter can also be understood as energy stored in form of particles. All energy reveals itself in different wave forms such as heat, light or radiation. Color too is a wave form. A gemstone may thus be seen as stored energy (matter) of a certain wave length. Human emotions and physical processes are based on energy and information, which also is transferred in wave forms. Hence, colors may have a direct physical influence on the human mind and body.
Sapphires are beautiful gemstones that come in many colors, but are most famous for their blue color. Sapphires come in cognac, colorless, green, orange, peach, pink, purple, violet, white, and yellow (a red sapphire would be called a ruby).On the Mohs scale of hardness, sapphire ranks a 9, highest after diamonds. It is a very durable gemstone and perfect for everyday accessories, such as rings or bracelets.Sapphires are found in Kashmir, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Tanzania, Madagascar, Australia and Montana.
It has been a common practice to heat-treat sapphires. Heat-treating sapphires helps improve clarity and color. The process is permanent and stable.
Blue sapphire is September’s birthstone and is recommended for the 5th, 23rd and 45th wedding anniversaries.
Care
Sapphire jewelry can be cleaned with soapy water or a commercial solvent and brush. Mechanical cleaners are safe, except for heavily included gems.
Always store your sapphire rings, sapphire earrings, necklaces and other sapphire jewelry in a fabric-lined box to keep it safe from other pieces of jewelry. Never wear your jewelry when doing rough work or working with harsh chemicals.
With these tips, your beautiful sapphires, blue or not, should last you for many years.
