by Yzzy Quarker

Created on: September 04, 2008   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

Semi-precious stones are minerals that have had the good sense to mingle with local impurities making a case for the whole being better than the parts. These mixtures of minerals and impurities present us with countless semi-precious stones. Once the earth has done her job of growing the stones humans get involved with the unearthed treasures turning them into stunning faceted gemstones, gemstone beads, and cabochons, to be used by jewelers using techniques including lost wax casting, precious metal clay, wire-wrapping, and stringing.

Other than the way the stone appeals to you esthetically an important consideration is the hardness of the stone. A Mohs hardness scale is the standard reference guide used by the industry, with diamond (10) being the hardest and talc (1) being the softest. This is important information to determine how to use a specific stone. For instance an artisan jewelry maker would shy away from making a bracelet using apatite (5) because it is a brittle stone that cracks easily so may not withstand the wear and tear a bracelet presents.

Many of the most well-known semi-precious stones are quartz-based making them a 7 on the scale and nice for jewelry. Amethyst, citrine, chrysoprase, onyx, carnelian, bloodstone, blue lace agate, and all the jaspers belong to the quartz (7) family. There are clear, rose, and smoky quartz whose names tell you their colors. Then there are quartz with growths within their crystals dendritic with moisture and iron or manganese trapped inside itself to form tree looking stains, rutilated with streaks of metal running through it, and tourmilated with streaks of black or green tourmaline crystals growing through it, to name a few.

Moonstone (6) is part of the Feldspar family, noted for its flashes of blue, green, purple, and gold it makes nice jewelry. Most commonly white it also can be peach. A lesser known relative is labradorite (6), which all the expected flash in a pale gray to deep charcoal gray stone. Being a little softer than quartz they might do better in necklaces, earrings or rings in protective settings.

A great semi-precious stone for jewelry is tourmaline (7.5). The color spectrum offered by this stone is remarkable, and brings serious richness and satisfying depth to the gemstone world. Neon Paraiba blue, vibrant pink, deep greens, and honey gold are splendid to start with then add bi-colored (half pink, half green), tri-colored (green and pink divided by a strip of white),

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