Emerald jewelry and the properties of the stone

Emerald is considered the most precious stone of the beryl group. The color of the emerald is so delightful and mesmerizing that among the many green shades the name of one of them arose - "emerald". Emerald is a stone after which one of the many cutting methods is named.

Properties and history of the stone

Emerald is one of the varieties of beryl - beryllium and aluminum silicate Be3Al2 (SiO3) 6. Pure beryl is colorless, and only such inclusions as chromium, vanadium or iron determine the beauty of the emerald's color.

Many green stones after gemological research turn out to be not emeralds at all, but tourmalines, chrysolites or demantoids. By the way, the listed stones are admirable.

The word "emerald" comes from the Greek - "smaragd" and means - "green stone". For many peoples, green has always been the personification of life and beauty. In ancient Rome, this color was the color of the gods. Green is the color of Islam.

"Green is pleasing to the eye without getting tired." You can be convinced of this - if you look and look at an emerald, it evokes the most pleasant emotions, has a calming effect. The standard for the best emerald color is the color of the Colombian emerald. But we all perceive beauty in different ways, and even more so. Therefore, many people like emeralds from Zambia, Afghanistan, Russia, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India or from other countries.

Emeralds of excellent quality and color can be found in any deposit on our planet. Emeralds, depending on the deposit, differ not only in color, but also in physical properties. And this difference affects their price.

The color in the stone is most often distributed unevenly. Crystal glass luster. Emerald is transparent and fragile. A high degree of transparency is a sign of high quality.

Emerald, like other gemstones, contains inclusions that are not always considered defects, but sometimes they create a kind of haze in the stone. For example, Brazilian emeralds, which have a variety of inclusions, of all mined about 80% cannot be cut.

Emeralds without inclusions are very rare, and the price for them is also rare. But at the same time, when buying, you need to know that synthetic emeralds will certainly not have inclusions. However, there may be another variant, when various defects are deliberately created on synthetic emeralds. What is this for? Guess for yourself. Therefore, it is necessary to buy emeralds in a reputable company, in the honesty of which you are firmly sure, where your jewelry can pass the examination and there is a certificate for it.

It is very difficult to find pure and high quality emeralds. Most often, such an emerald will be among the Colombian. These emeralds, even with visible inclusions, are very expensive. By the way, there are about 150 deposits in Colombia, among which not all are used. The most developed are Muzo and Chivor, in which the mining of emeralds began in the days of the Incas. But today the Koscues field is operating more efficiently.

In Colombia, emeralds with the effect of a cat's eye are mined, as well as trapich emeralds. The latest emeralds have a characteristic six dark rays, which is associated with carbon impurities.

Colombian emeralds account for about 90% of the jewelry market. However, excellent stones are found in many places on our planet - in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, India, Afghanistan, Russia and many other countries. For the most part, all countries that can be considered suppliers of the highest quality emeralds have an extremely difficult political environment.

Due to its sensitivity to shock loading, a special cut was developed for the emerald - a stepped cut in which four corners are cut off. They called this cut - "emerald".

When cutting emeralds, jewelers leave the upper platform flat, giving it the shape of a polygon, and the side faces - the shape of a trapezoid or triangles. The edges are placed one below the other. This type of cut gives the stone its beauty, advantageously represents the color of the stone and at the same time protects it from damage.

In nature, it is almost impossible to find an emerald crystal, uniformly colored over its entire surface, and even devoid of cracks. Therefore, the most ideal is the crystal in which damage and color irregularities are invisible to the eye.

If there are various inclusions in the crystal, they can be the cause of the crack. Of such crystals cabochons are usually made. Whatever the type of cut, if it was made by a great master, it will enhance the beauty of the color of the stone. An emerald cutter must be a high-class master.

Therefore, if you purchased a stone and plan to fix it in a piece of jewelry, you should find such a master. After all, a faceted emerald can be damaged during setting due to the presence of internal cracks or other defects that are invisible visually. Experienced cutters try to minimize the influence of inclusions and achieve the best proportions. But, as already mentioned, for the sake of the beauty of the radiance of the emerald, the weight of the stone is lost. And it turns out not only the weight.

It is not at all easy to convey the beauty of an emerald, sometimes you have to sacrifice not only carats, but also the roughness of the surface of a faceted crystal. It turns out that the deep color of the emerald is concentrated at the edges of the crystal and on its surface, in other words, the color is unevenly distributed throughout the crystal. Therefore, if the cutter brings the crystal to its ideal shape, a loss in color, that is, beauty, may occur.

It turns out that the emerald is not a simple stone at all, but a very capricious one. And it is difficult to get it, and great dangers lie in wait for those who are engaged in the jewelry business, and it is not easy to cut it.

And this is not all the worries in order to enhance and preserve the beauty of the stone. Back in Ancient Egypt, people learned to use various vegetable oils, namely those that have a green extract, to coat emerald crystals. This was done so that the oil, penetrating into the cracks, fills them, and thereby enhances the color of the stone.

Nowadays, the experience of the ancient Egyptians is used in jewelry technology, but with modern technologies and special equipment. So almost all emeralds in jewelry contain admixtures of vegetable oils or their synthetic counterparts.

How to clean and store emerald jewelry

In no case should you wash a piece of jewelry with an emerald with aggressive agents. Peeling an emerald using ultrasonic cleaning devices is all the more contraindicated. In view of possible cracks, even invisible to the eye, high-frequency vibrations can split or even crush an emerald.

It is best to clean the product with an emerald by the jeweler with special means. Or, when buying an emerald, buy these products right away. Treat your emerald with care. Wear it when you have already applied cosmetics and perfumery. If you have an emerald ring, remove the ring before using the hand cream. Remember that these products that decorate us can also spoil the emerald.

Another caveat is how to store this delightful crystal. Emeralds are easily injured and cannot be stored together with other stones that may scratch. It is best to store your emerald jewelry in a separate velvet box.

Emerald is a beautiful and all-time favorite gemstone. The enchanting shine and deep green of the emerald can bewitch so that it will be useless to resist the desire to buy it ...