Tushar Gems

Tourmalines are the most colourful gemstone group. They occur in all variations, green, red, blue, yellow, colourless, black and some come in two or more colours at once. There is no other gemstone group whose diversity of colour exceeds that of the tourmalines, but the colours do not occur with equal frequency and they are not all equally well known. The best known are the green tourmaline and the pink or red rubellite. By contrast, a tourmaline which is pure blue is a rare thing indeed. Mostly, the blue colour has a more or less noticeable touch of green.

The tourmaline is a unique miracle of colour. The gemstone comes in green, red, blue, yellow, but there are also colourless specimens and black ones. Often two or more colours are found in a single tourmaline crystal. Also rare and very highly esteemed are tourmalines which appear to change their colour and cat's eye tourmalines. Having said all that, green is regarded as the classical tourmaline colour. If you ask a gemstone merchant about a tourmaline, green, in most cases, is the first colour he will think of.

Ruby is the red variety of the mineral corundum, one of the hardest minerals on Earth, of which the sapphire is also a variety. Pure corundum is colourless. Slight traces of elements such as chrome, iron, titanium or vanadium are responsible for the colour. These gemstones have excellent hardness. On the Mohs scale their score of 9 is second only to that of the diamond. Only red corundum is entitled to be called ruby, all other colours being classified as sapphires. The close relationship between the ruby and the sapphire has only been known since the beginning of the 19th century. Up to that time, red garnets or spinels were also thought to be rubies. (That, indeed, is why the 'Black Ruby' and the 'Timur Ruby', two of the British Crown Jewels, were so named, when they are not actually rubies at all, but spinels.

Sapphire is often thought of as being synonymous with the color blue: you can easily picture sapphire seas. However, sapphire is beautiful beyond blue, in every color but red, red being the domain of the ruby.

The other coolers of sapphire can be just as beautiful and rare - or even rarer - than the blue, but they are usually offered at more modest prices. Yellow, orange, lavender, and other pastel shades are especially affordable.

No gemstone is more creatively striped by Nature than agate, chalcedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a wide variety of colours and textures. Each individual agate forms by filling a cavity in host rock. As a result, agate is often found as a round nodule, with concentric bands like the rings of a tree trunk. The bands sometimes look like eyes, fanciful scallops, or even a landscape with trees.

This rare gemstone is named after the Russian tsar Alexander II (1818-1881), the very first crystals having been discovered in April 1834 in the emerald mines near the Tokovaya River in the Urals. The discovery was made on the day the future tsar came of age. Although alexandrite is a relatively young gemstone, it certainly has a noble history. Since it shows both red and green, the principal colours of old Imperial Russia, it inevitably became the national stone of tsarist Russia.

Dinosaurs have been more popular than ever since their starring role in the film Jurassic Park. A more surprising result of the film's popularity has been a worldwide surge in demand for amber jewellery. Although amber's use in adornment is probably as old as mankind itself, in recent times it has had a limited market. Of course, that was before millions of people saw dinosaur DNA extracted from a mosquito trapped in amber in the film.

Millions of people learned from the film that amber, which is fossilised pine tree resin, is ancient and valuable, like an antique from history.

Its colour is as unique as it is seductive, though in fact this gemstone of all gemstones is said to protect its wearer against seduction. The amethyst is extravagance in violet. For many thousands of years, the most striking representative of the quartz family has been a jewel coveted by princes both ecclesiastical and secular. Moses described it as a symbol of the Spirit of God in the official robes of the High Priest of the Jews, and the Russian Empress Catherine the Great sent thousands of miners into the Urals to look for it. In popular belief, the amethyst offers protection against drunkenness - for the Greek words 'amethystos' mean 'not intoxicated' in translation. A more apt stone for the month of February, particularly if there is to be plenty going on in the way of carnival celebrations, could thus hardly be wished for.

Ametrine is most typically faceted in a rectangular shape with a 50/50 pairing of amethyst and citrine. Sometimes a checkerboard pattern of facets is added to the top to increase light reflection. Ametrine can also be cut to blend the two colours so that the result is a mixture of yellow, purple, and peach tones throughout the stone. Ametrine is also popular among artistic cutters and carvers, who play with the colours, creating landscapes in the stone.

Ametrine is a very durable gemstone suited to a variety of jewellery uses. Most sizes and shapes are available but the colour contrast is most pronounced in sizes of over seven carats.

Andalusite is named after Andalusia, the province of Spain where it was first discovered.
Andalusite is pleochroic, i.e. it shows different colours in different directions. When cutting most pleochroic gemstones, such as iolite and tanzanite, the trick is to minimise the pleochroism and maximise the single best colour. With andalusite the opposite applies: cutters try to orient the gem to get a pleasing mix of colours: orange-brown and a yellowish green or gold.

From the light blue of the sky to the deep blue of the sea, aquamarines shine over an extraordinarily beautiful range of mainly light blue colours. 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.

Colour appeals to our feelings directly. It makes us happy and cheerful, livens us up or calms us down, and has a magical or liberating effect. And where is colour more lastingly and more beautifully captured than in a gemstone? In the fascinating world of precious stones, emeralds glow in the fieriest green imaginable. Aquamarines sparkle in a whole range of blues - from the light blue of the sky to the deep blue of the sea. And the charming pink of morganite puts a spell on women the whole world over. Yet how many people are aware of the fact that these gems, different as they are, belong to a single family? Aquamarine, emerald and morganite are all beryls - just like golden beryl, yellowish-green heliodor, colourless goshenite and the rare red beryl. Whether blue, green, yellow, colourless or pink, their chemical and physical properties essentially correspond; it is only in their colours that they differ from one another so much.

Bloodstone, green jasper dotted with bright red spots of iron oxide, was treasured in ancient times and served for a long time as the birthstone for March. This attractive chalcedony quartz is also known as heliotrope because in ancient times polished stones were described as reflecting the sun: perhaps the appearance of the gem reminded the ancients of the red setting sun, mirrored in the ocean.

Chrome diopside certainly won't win any contests for the most beautiful name. To most people, it sounds more like a car polish than a gemstone. But don't be misled by that! Chrome diopside has a beautiful rich green colour and an amazingly low price. In fact it is the most affordable gemstone in a pure rich green.

Like the eye of a sleek feline predator, the chrysoberyl cat's eye winks at the astonished observer - a real miracle of Nature! That's why only this attractive gemstone has the right to the short, fitting name of "cat's eye". This gem is really something special with its narrow, bright band of light on a shimmering golden background, which seems to glide magically across the surface when the stone is moved.(For your information: cat's eye effects can also occur in other gemstones, but these always have to be referred to more precisely by adding the name of the gemstone concerned: e.g. quartz cat's eye.

Corals are a decorative material with a very special fascination - the perfect embodiment of Man's longing for summer, sun and far-off oceans. As to the origin of the name, the etymologists are not, however, of one opinion. Some say that it comes from the Greek 'korallion', which denotes the hard, calcareous skeleton of the coral animals, or from 'kura-halos', for 'mermaid', as the fine branches of the coral sometimes look like small figures. Others think it more likely that the word is derived from the Hebrew 'goral', (a small stone used in the drawing of lots), for coral branches used to be used in oracles in Palestine, Asia Minor and around the Mediterranean.

The demantoid is one of the most brilliant gemstones that exist, yet until recently it was little known except among collectors and gemstone lovers. Strictly speaking it is a green garnet, or rather the star of the green garnets. Not without reason does it bear a name which means 'diamond-like'. The name comes from the Dutch and makes reference to the outstanding quality of this gem, its incomparable brilliance and fire. Some gemstone lovers claim that a demantoid will continue to glow even in the shade.

When Leif Eriksson and the other legendary Viking explorers ventured far out into the Atlantic Ocean, away from any coastline that could help them determine their position, they had a secret gem weapon: iolite. The Viking mariners used thin pieces of it as the world's first polarizing filter. Looking through an iolite lens, they were able to determine the exact position of the sun, and navigate their way safely to the New World and back.

Jasper is an ornamental rock composed mostly of chalcedony, microcrystalline quartz, in association with other minerals, which give it colourful bands and patterns. Jasper was a favourite gem in the ancient world; its name can be traced back in Hebrew, Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Latin.

Millions of years ago, deep in the bowels of our Earth, gemstones were created in innumerable variations. We are familiar with most of them, and indeed we have been so in most cases for thousands of years. Yet every now and again a previously unknown variant of a gem comes to light. One of these 'young' gemstones is kunzite, with its delicate pink hues, a gem which is seen more and more often nowadays, making an attractive eye-catcher in jewellery. Yes, kunzite has only been known for a little more than a hundred years, and yet it is now going through something like a second renaissance.

the first mandarin garnets appeared in the gemstone trade a little over ten years ago. Specialists and gemstone lovers all agreed: the magnificent coolers and high brilliance of these orange-red treasures are unique.

The moonstone is characterised by an enchanting play of light. Indeed it owes its name to that mysterious shimmer which always looks different when the stone is moved and is known in the trade as 'adularescence'. In earlier times, people believed they could recognise in it the crescent and waning phases of the moon.

In jewellery design as in fashion, colours look crisper against a background of black, and black and white always looks right. In fine jewellery, the black backdrop is often supplied by onyx, a black chalcedony quartz with a fine texture. Some onyx also displays white bands or ribbons against a black background. If the layers are even, this type of onyx can be carved into cameos.

These cupriferous tourmalines from the Mina ad Batalha in the Federal Brazilian State of Paribas are small, rare and precious. Their spirited turquoise to green colors are such as are not found in any other gemstone in the world. The exclusiveness of this legendary find makes these rare gemstones real treasures.

Pearls are organic gems, created when an oyster covers a foreign object with beautiful layers of nacre. Long ago, pearls were important financial assets, comparable in price to real estate, as thousands of oysters had to be searched for just one pearl. They were rare because they were created only by chance.

Today pearls are cultured by Man. Shell beads are placed inside an oyster and the oyster is returned to the water. When the pearls are later harvested, the oyster has covered the bead with layers of nacre. Most cultured pearls are produced in Japan. In the warmer waters of the South Pacific, larger oysters produce South Sea cultured pearls and Tahitian black cultured pearls, which are larger in size. Freshwater pearls are cultured in mussels, mostly in China.

quartz has been the common chameleon of gemstones, standing in for more expensive gemstones ranging from diamond to jade. But the incredible variety of quartz is now beginning to be appreciated in its own right.

Purple to violet amethyst and yellow to orange citrine are jewellery staples that continue to increase in popularity. Ametrine combines the appeal of both amethyst and citrine, purple and yellow in one gemstone. Different colours and types of chalcedony, from agate to chrysoprase, have grown in popularity with the growing appreciation for carved gemstones and artistic cutting and carving. And unusual specialities like drusy quartz, with its surface covered by tiny sparking crystals, and rutilated quartz, which has a landscape of shining gold needles inside it, are adding variety and nature's artistry to unusual one-of-a-kind jewellery.

The rubellite is a particularly beautiful gemstone from the colourful family of the tourmalines. Its colour shines in the most beautiful nuances from red to shocking pink. Tourmalines are closely related gemstones which have been created by Nature in many different colors. In the trade, as a rule, it is not the case that each individual variety has its own name. Instead, the name tourmaline is used and the colour simply added, hence red, green, blue or yellow tourmaline. The exception, however, proves the rule. This also applies to the tourmaline and, in particular, to red and pink specimens.

Spinel is the great impostor of gemstone history: many famous rubies in crown jewels around the world are actually spinels. The most famous is the Black Prince's ruby, a magnificent 170-carat red spinel that now adorns the Imperial State Crown of England in the British Crown Jewels after a long history: Henry V even wore it on his battle helmet! The Timur ruby, a 361-carat red spinel now owned by Queen Elizabeth, has the names of some of the Mughal emperors who previously owned it engraved on its face: an undeniable pedigree!

Tanzanite is an extraordinary gemstone. It occurs in only one place worldwide. Its blue, surrounded by a fine hint of purple, is a wonderful colour. Thanks to its unusual aura and the help of the New York jeweller's Tiffany, it has rapidly become one of the most coveted gemstones in the world.

It is a fluorine aluminium silicate and comes in yellow, yellow-brown, honey-yellow, flax, brown, green, blue, light blue, red and pink ... and sometimes it has no colour at all.

The shining green tsavorite is a young gemstone with a very long geological history. Its home is the East-African bushland along the border between Kenya and Tanzania. The few mines lie in a uniquely beautiful landscape of arid grassland with bare, dry hills. It's dangerous country, the habitat of snakes, and now and then a lion patrols, on the lookout for prey. There, near the world-famous Tsavo National Park, that history began.

The turquoise is ancient, yet again and again it finds itself back in fashion. Its shining sky blue is one of the most popular trend colures in the world of jewellery and fashion.

The tourmaline is a real miracle of colour. It not only comes in green, red, blue, yellow, colourless and black, but also as a multi-coloured or colour-changing gemstone or as a cat's eye. There are, furthermore, innumerable mixtures of colour, in all nuances and depths, and some very unusual tones too. However, until recently, there were no pure yellows in the rich colour range of the 'gemstone of the rainbow', as this stone is also known. Most of the yellow tourmalines found thus far had a slight tinge of brown. But the tourmaline not only has many different colours; it is also good for a surprise now and then, as for example at the beginning of the 1990s, when some fantastic blue-green to turquoise tourmalines suddenly arrived on the market from a find in Paraiba, Brazil.

Hindu poets tell of the Kalpa Tree, the ultimate gift to the gods, a glowing tree covered in gemstone fruit with leaves of zircon. Zircon has long played a supporting role to more well-known gemstones, often stepping in as an understudy when they were unavailable.