Lapis Lazuli

Lapis is a dark blue colour gemstone often with sparkles of golden pyrite inclusions. The finest lapis is considered to be of solid, deep blue colour with no calcite spots and just a sprinkling of brassy yellow pyrite. Lazurite is the main mineral of this gemstone which is in the form of a micro-crystalline structure. The main and perhaps the only deposits of lapis lazuli are the ancient mines in Afghanistan, which have been producing fine quality gemstones since the pre-historic time. Though on a smaller scale, deposits of lapiz lazuli are also found in Pakistan, Angola, Italy, Labrador, Chile, Siberia and Colorado in the United States. This gemstone has to be protected from scratches, as it is not very hard.

 



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Moonstone

Moonstone with its unique silky shimmer is a variety of feldspar. This shine is caused by the intergrowth of two different types of feldspar, with different refractive indexes. Moonstones come in a variety of colors. The body color can range from colorless to gray, brown, yellow, green, or pink. The clarity ranges from transparent to translucent.

The best moonstone has a blue sheen, perfect clarity, and a colorless body color. Fine moonstone is quite rare. It is mined in Sri Lanka and Southern India. The rainbow variety can be found in Madagascar. Moonstones are usually cut in a smooth-domed cabochon to maximize the shimmery effect. It is a birthstone for June.



                                                
                                                    

 

Opal

Opals play of colour, flashing and sparkling cannot be matched by any stone. Opal has been treasured throughout history and valued very high by all. Opal is made up of silica. Sedimentary in nature, opal has a grid alignment of silica spheres. The size of the spheres determine the wavelength and therefore the different colours. The brilliance of the colour gets enhanced by the regularity of the grid. Opal contains 6 to 10 percent water, therefore direct exposure to sunlight or heat can crack or deform opal. Opal was treasured in the Middle Ages and was called "ophthalmios" or eye stone, due to a widespread belief that it was beneficial to eyesight. Ancient opal came from the mines near Cervenica, Hungry, in what is now Eastern Slovakia.

Colours seen in opal depend on the body colour and transparency of the stone. The body colour determines the variety of opal. Opal with a black to dark grey body colour, has the most brilliant colours and is the most valuable. Fire opal, the next most costly type of opal, is transparent and is highly valued. White and milky opals tend to have more diffused colours due to the light back-ground colour. This is the most affordable type of opal. Generally, opal with red fire is the most valued because opal that shows red will also show other colours when rolled back and forth. Large flashes and broad patterns in opals are more rare and therefore more valuable than small pinpoint patterns.

Peridot

Peridot, a green stone, is a gem form of the mineral olivine. It is found only in the green colour ranging from brownish to yellow-green, olive green to a bottle green. It is the birthstone for the month of August. It's earliest recorded mining was in Egypt on an island called Zeberget. Most of the deposits today are concentrated in Arizona in the San Carlos reservation. Other important deposits are in Australia, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania, China and Sri-Lanka.