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Noble Objects of Stone |
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ObjectiveHumans are inclined to incorporate in hierarchical structures. The chief can take the cream of the crop, because there is nobody left to compete for it. The nobility can take gems because of their special color and brilliance - there are plenty of them, but just not enough to spread them out over the heads of ordinary people - unless you synthesize them of course. Subjective
The diamond is cut brilliant, for a maximum of brilliance. On top you see the table : an octagon giving you a nice view into the stone. Each plane visible through the table is constituted by the pavillion, the back of the diamond. The bluish coloration is caused by the prismatic dispersion of white light, just like in a rainbow. This coloring effect in an else colorless gem, is the 'fire' of the diamond.
This are very strange specimens, which we laid on a calcite crystal for the fun of it. In fact we have little disks here, with a faceted rim, as if it were two tables in front of each other with a common crown. Diamond is made up of pure carbon, with a special arrangement on the atomic level, and formed deep into the earth under huge pressure and high temperature. When you let it under normal conditions at the surface of the earth, you get graphite (if you have plenty of time for waiting of course).
Everybody knows that diamond is the hardest mineral in the world (Adamas, the indestructible or untamable). Corundum or Aluminum Oxide (not a romantic name at all) is very hard as well, and can be found in every color (just like diamond actually). Sapphire, the blue variety, contains some iron and titanium as impurities - by which it becomes blue. Rubies contain some chromium and are fluorescent : shorter wavelengths excite electrons which fall back in a lower red frequency band, as if a little lamp is shining inside the stone.
An other gem found in all colors of the rainbow is Tourmaline. Sometimes different colors are seen in one and the same crystal. The 'Empress' of Chine, Tzu Hsi (the last after all) loved Tourmaline very much, and bought large quantities of it in California... (we will talk about that later). The little cracks are a natural aspect of the crystal, and are visible with the naked eye here in the picture.
Garnet here has a deep reddish color (you have others too), a little bit on the brown side because so little light is coming through. Contains many beautiful inclusions, not visible here. Costs a little less, in some cases...
Cordierite is not very hard, but usually beautifully blue, and shows clearly what you might understand about pleochroism : when you look at the stone from one side it is clear blue, and when you turn it over some ninety degrees, it becomes ordinary gray...
Peridote - the gem variety of olivine - has been set in a golden case. The crystals are easily found everywhere, but generally are very small. Big ones are rare, beautiful and expensive.
Most Topazes are colorless, but when you put them in a radioactive beam for a while, they become nicely bluish. Real natural gems, with a synthetic touch.
Not all gems are transparent. Some of them are translucent, as if it is misty in it (little bit mysterious). Here we have moonstones in cabochon cut (halve spheres with a flat underside). Sometimes, depending on the incidence of light, a blue shine is visible.
Also blue (bluish green) is Turquoise, and it is completely opaque. Imitated frequently, so, remain on your guard. Most of the time the mineral is 'ameliorated' with special techniques (Zachary treated... and things like that).
An other opaque stone is Jasper, cut in every thinkable shape, just like the leaf up here.
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A. Syberg, Belgium
Copyright © 2005 A. Syberg
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