The Jewellery Vault

Jewels and gemstones everything that sparkles in the jewellery vault isn't gold

The jewellery vault is a web site providing information about Jewellery, gems and gemstones. Most people when buying jewellery or gems think only of the obvious gemstones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. While there is nothing wrong with that it does limit the buying power of the consumer. There is more than 40 popular gemstone varieties and even more that are very rare or of rare gem quality or are highly valued by collectors. The aim of this site is to provide the consumer with information on jewels and gemstones.

The gemstone is a mineral with a fixed chemical composition. It has a naturally formed crystalline and the atoms are arranged in a regular symmetry pattern. Crystalline minerals are made up of a number of flat surfaces called faces. The way that light either passes through, is absorbed or bounced back from the stone is what gives the gemstone its colour.

Gemstones come in a wonderful variety of colours, multi colours and shades. The colour of the stone is one of the most obvious and important visual features of a gemstone and one that is used to help determine the value of the gem. It is also one of many optical properties that make up the composition of the gemstone all of which depend on light.

White light is made up of spectral colours (all the colours of the rainbow) when the light strikes a gemstone some of the spectral colours are absorbed some pass through and some bounce back giving each gem a unique colour fingerprint. Some gems are also coloured by impurities or traces of chemical elements that are not part of their own chemical composition such as rubies. These are known as allochramatic gems. Single colour gems such as peridot essentially have a chemical element that are part of their own composition and are known as idiochromatic gems. While gems that appear to be a different colour when viewed from a different angle such as tanzanite are known as pleochroic gems.

Another important factor for jewellery standard gemstones is the lustre of the stone this is caused by light reflecting of the surface of the stone. This all depends on the surface polish and usually the harder the gemstone the greater the intensity of the lustre. Gemstones such as diamonds are known as adamantine. Almost all faceted gems have a glassy lustre “a vitreous lustre”. There are other types of lustre. Organic gemstones may show a waxy, pearly or resinous lustre.

The hardness of a gemstone is measured using the Mohs scale, each gemstone is measured on a scale of one to ten, ten is the hardest and one the softest. Diamonds are rated as a ten the hardest of all gemstones, this makes the diamond perfect for the making of jewellery. While talc has a hardness of one, impractical for the use in jewellery. The harder the gemstone the better will be the use in jewellery. This doesn't mean that gemstones that are softer are no use as jewellery, this is far from the truth. There is bautiful jewellery made from opals and amber and even apatite that is perfectly good robust jewellery, It just needs to be treated with a little more care. 

Before gemstones are used as jewellery they are usually cut along the flat surfaces of the stone this is known as a facet. The cut of the stone has a major impact on the gemstone. It effects the way that the gemstone reflects the light and also the depth of the colour. There are a number of different styles of cuts brilliant cut, step cut, mixed cut and fancy cut. Gemstones like opal and turquoise are usually polished rather than cut.

People throughout the ages have worn jewellery and collected and valued gemstones. There are myths and curses associated with some gemstones and even the mining of these stones. In Burma all gemstones belonged to the monarch it was believed that anyone who stole gems from the mine would be cursed. This may have been spread around to help prevent theft of the uncut gemstones, or maybe not.

Crystals and gems are thought to have healing properties and to promote the health and well-being of the body. The gemstone amethyst believed to prevent drunkenness is a typical example of this belief. Garnet will help heal arthritis, pearl sciatica, the list goes on and on. For every illness there is jewels or gemstone that is believed to be cured by that stone. While crystal balls have been used to see into the future since Roman times. Some gemstones are believed to have mythical powers linking the gemstone to the sun or the moon, Alexanderite is believed to promote good luck and also love and friendship, personally i can see where luck love and friendship could need some luck so maybe that is a good link for a single gemstone. However it must be pointed out that there has never been any scientific proof that gemstones have any power other than the ability to look beautiful when set and worn as jewellery. There are gems for days of the week , the seasons of the year and best known of all there are birthstones for each month of the year, each month is represented by a gemstone. This custom was started in Poland in the 18^th Century and has become widespread throughout the world. The signs of the zodiac and the planets all have their own gemstone, Virgo is represented by citrine and Capricorn is cats eye. Spinel and kunzite is linked to the planet Pluto while the gemstones ruby and topaz is linked to the sun. Each of the twelve apostles are also linked to a gemstone.

Most jewellery uses a number of gems with various cuts and facets to show of the jewels to their best. Hard gemstones such as diamonds are sometimes used as surrounds for softer gems such as fire opals. Not only does this protect the softer gem but also enhances the look of the jewellery helping to add fire and lustre. Each coloured gemstone or jewel is attractive or personal to individuals, while some people like myself like all jewels with no particular favourites. What i do like is to see beautiful coloured gemstones and jewellery worn and appreciated. I don't really care if the person who is wearing the jewellery knows the exact nature or chemical composition of the gemstones or jewels they are wearing, but i do think that people should be aware that there are many more precious gemstones out there than many they think and should try them, you may be pleasantly surprised at the vast array of coloured gemstones and jewellery available. .