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ACCESSORY WHOLESALE INC. www.awnol.com WHOLESALE SOURCE FOR FASHION BUSINESSES 1.504.736.0357 ..... email: sales@awnol.com Monday - Friday 9:30AM - 6:00PM CST - Sat 9:30AM - 4:00PM CST |
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ACCESSORY WHOLESALE INC. www.awnol.com WHOLESALE SOURCE FOR FASHION BUSINESSES 1.504.736.0357 ..... email: sales@awnol.com Monday - Friday 9:30AM - 6:00PM CST - Sat 9:30AM - 4:00PM CST |
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| Free UPS Std. Ground Shipping on Orders of $200 or More!! - Extra 5% Discount on All Orders over $500 !! |
Identifying Gemstones in Jewelry |
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| The field of
wholesale jewelry expands as customers seek the classic beauty so
prevalent in today's fashion trends. Many businesses are plunged
into unfamiliar territory as fashion jewelry broadens to include
gemstone jewelry as well as designs that include semiprecious
components. A wealth of information is available on the internet,
including entire courses on lapidary. But many retailers don't have the luxury of time to wade through the mountain of information. This gemstone page is focused on helping retailers recognize the main semiprecious stones used in classic fashion jewelry today. AWNOL specializes in satisfying your needs in the wholesale fashion jewelry trends markets. |
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Agate |
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Amethyst |
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Aventurine |
Candy Jade Here is a gorgeous new introduction into semiprecious jewelry that combines white, pink, mint, and aqua. However, if you’re rock hunting, don’t expect to find this beauty because the colors are actually dyed on white stone. Many suppliers claim the host is a lower grade of white jade, however that is questionable ... more. |
Carnelian Carnelian’s
colors range from honey to deep reddish brown.
The semiprecious stone has transparency that lets you hold it up
to a light to see patterns of banding.
The glassy looking stone has a hardness of 7 that easily
scratches a window pane that has a hardness of 5.5 ... more. |
 Cat's
eyeThere is a natural cat’s eye in semiprecious stone called chrysoberl as well as quartz cat’s eye with subdued colors. But the exciting color of cateyes in fashion jewelry is actually man-made with fiber optic glass. A line on the glass appears to move with rotation like the slit in cat’s eye. The effect is called chatoyance. How does it work?.....more. |
 CoralCoral needs no introduction with its familiar tree like growth that creates coral reefs in many parts of the world. Jewelry uses thicker stems for beads while smaller fingers are drilled for branch necklaces and bracelets. Inexpensive jewelry dyes dull grey coral to create the rich red Mediterranean color and soft pink of quality Japanese coral ... more. |
 Crystal
QuartzRock crystal, crystal quartz, and quartz crystal all refer to the icy clear semiprecious stone that contributed to jewelry for millenniums. Glass and lucite imitate crystal quartz in the chunky clear fashion look today. However, crystal quartz has a hardness of 7 that can scratch glass. Magnify crystal quartz and you occasionally see small inclusions, while glass shows occasional tiny gas bubbles ... more. |
 GoldstoneGoldstone is actually a special process of glass that dates back to the Renaissance. Tiny particles of copper or gold are suspend in colored glass to provide sparkle with every movement. Original goldstone used bronze color while today deep blue and purple are also made with suspended silver particles ... more. |
 HematiteThe steely grey color of hematite is so familiar the semiprecious name is often uses as a noun to pinpoint a shade of grey. It has a shiny luster when polished and is easily carved with a hardness that ranges from 1 to 6 ... more |
Howlite Howlite is a white semiprecious stone that is usually spidered with grey, black, or brown matrix. Beautiful fashion jewelry can be created with this stone, but because it is inexpensive and easily dyed, howlite finds itself often dyed to imitate turquoise and other more expensive gemstone ... more. |
 JasperJasper is the opaque first cousin to agate and has nearly the same wide range of looks that agate has. They are often found together and classified agate or jasper by their level of transparency. Red jasper is most commonly used in jewelry and will be treated later. Other common colors are shades of brown, grayish blue, yellow, and green. To make the matter more confusing Gemstone of the World says "all colors, mostly striped or spotted" ... more. |
 MalachiteMalachite is unique with its pattern of concentric circles alternating light and dark green. The bright show of green may appear banded in cut pieces of jewelry. While malachite can be translucent to opaque, jewelry cuts usually have a thickness that makes it always appear opaque. Malachite is a relatively soft stone, ranked 3.5 to 4 on Mohs scale ... more |
Opalite Opalite has a milky translucent color with subtle flashes of fire. There’s no mines for the opalite used in fashion jewelry because this captivating material is actually glass. A special process produces the milky white glass that simulates mild opalescence ... more |
 Red
JasperRed jasper is the most popular member of the jasper family for jewelry designs. Reddish brown color distinguishes this opaque semiprecious stone that has grainy structure ... more |
 Rose
QuartzSoft pink color makes rose quartz a gemstone with popularity that is a household name. The semiprecious stone ranges from rich pink to pale, almost clear. Costume jewelry loves this stone and often tries to imitate it with man-made materials. Rose quartz has transparency that shows cloudiness with inclusions and streaks of white when held to a light ... more |
 SoapstoneLapidary purists will laugh at soapstone included with gemstone jewelry, but the natural stone used for carving is producing striking fashionable jewelry designs today. Soapstone is 1 to 3 on the Mohs scale so you can cut it with a fingernail. While the stone can be found in green, yellow, and brown, it’s the snow white color that is popular for jewelry ... more |
 SodaliteSodalite has a dark blue color frequently mixed with white silicate. The semiprecious stone has a medium hardness of 5.5 to 6 on the Mohs scale, which is equivalent to turquoise. Sodalite jewelry is easily confused with lapis lazuli, but lapis has a metallic fleck of pyrite that is not found in sodalite ... more |
 Tiger's
eyeTiger’s eye is a popular gemstone with wide recognition. The honey to deep brown color and moving eye make it an easily recognized jewelry component. Hold this semiprecious stone up to the light and you will see no rays passing through it, unusual for a member of the quartz family ... more |
 TurquoiseIf there’s a gemstone that needs no introduction, it has to be turquoise. Different mines offer distinct beauty from the uniform blue of Sleeping Beauty, to the intricately spidered Lander Blue, and greenish color of Allure of Turquoise claims this is 15% of the world market ... more |
 UnakiteUnakite’s olive color, popular in the current fashion palette, brings it to the height of popularity in gemstone fashion jewelry. Olive and rose pink mix in this granular semiprecious stone. The |
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A Guide in Color to
Precious & Semiprecious Stones by Jarslav Bauer & Vladimir Bouska
, req. 1992
Gem & Lapidary
Materials by June Culp Zeitner, 1996
Gemstone of the
World by Walter
Shermann
Rocks, Gems, &
Minerals by Herbert S Zim & Paul R Shafer
Smithsonian
Handbooks: Gemstones by Joseph J Peters, revised 2002
Smithsonian Rock &
Gem by Ronald Lewis Boniwitz, 2005
The Allure of
Turquoise by New Mexico
Magazine, revised 2005
Turquoise Unearthed
by Joe Dan Lowry & Joe P Lowry,
2002
Understanding &
Finding Agate by Karen
Brzys, 2004 |
