|
1.Why is so much glass at the shows?
2.What’s the difference between glass and crystal?
3.I see a lot of colored pearls, but are they natural?
4.What types of pearls are there?
5.If I buy a strand of pearls, do they require special stringing material?
6.What are some of the natural stones out there that I can expect to find at the various Shows?
Make a Comment about the public gem & mineral shows
1.Why is so much glass at the shows?
Glass is not a mineral, but is comprised of minerals. Plus, it’s pretty, and often less expensive than natural stones. And some artisans make it extraordinary through cutting, heating, and other processes.
2.What’s the difference between glass and crystal?
Crystal is generally higher quality; all crystal is glass.
3.I see a lot of colored pearls, but are they natural?
Yes, you'll see mostly natural pearls, although they’ve been cultured, then colored later (so unnatural in that sense). You can find great bargains on pearls. Most of you know this, but pearls are created by irritations that form inside a mollusk. The mollusk then secretes nacre, and over time, a pearl is created.
Return to FAQs | Comments
4.What types of pearls are there?
There are natural pearls that aren’t cultured. These pearls came about through Mother Nature. Cultured pearls. Humankind has intervened and helped Mother Nature create pearls of all different shapes and sizes. Many are astonishingly inexpensive; from $1 per strand, and many strands are less than $10. In 2007, at the Starr Pass Show (wholesale-buyer only), Arizona Bead Dog saw some cultured coin pearls for $600 per strand; so not always inexpensive.
● Tahitian pearls. The envy of pearl-lovers, these pearls are often, but not always, characterized by their nice size and lustrous colors, which includes a luminous black. Very expensive.
● Shell pearls. Natural ground shell coating over some other material, usually plastic. Should be inexpensive, but some are higher-priced.
● Glass pearls. Glass beads coated with natural ground shell. These have a completely different look and feel than shell pearls. Coated-glass pearls are usually more expensive than shell pearls.
● Freshwater pearls. Characterized by their elongated, flattened, irregular shape, and smaller size.
5.If I buy a strand of pearls, do they require special stringing material?
Most of the inexpensive pearls can be strung on the various coated beading wires. For more expensive pearls, you need to find someone who strings on silk, although some people still prefer coated wire.
6.What are some of the natural stones out there that I can expect to find at the various Shows?
Here’s a starting list in alphabetical order, with a short description of the color and other attributes of the stones. If Arizona Bead Dog has a photo, it follows the description. Please feel free to add your facts, trivia, and experience with these stones:
Agate: A type of chalcedony with banded colors or clouding; often dyed.
Amber: fossilized plant resins, so not technically a stone. Comes in a variety of colors: cream, honey, golden to an almost orangy-yellow, green, dark brown. Many plastic fakes abound. Ask the seller.
Amethyst: Violet-hued quartz. Note in photo: top are amethyst nuggest, amethyst rondels, stacked amethyst, flourite beads, lepidolite, flourite discs, and tanzanite ovals.
Ametrine: A beautiful combination of violet quartz on one part of the stone and citrine on the other.
Aventurine: A variety of quartz or feldspar, usually green with interior flecks or mottling; often dyed other colors.
Carnelian: orangy-red to mottled brown chalcedony; often opaque and looks glassy.
Chalcedony: a milky white to grayish quartz; often dyed.
Citrine: A pale yellow quartz, often clear, but not always.
Coral: the calcareous substance skeletons of marine creatures and the rocklike substance formed by these creatures. The traditional pinkish, reddish, and white coral comes from Corallium. Much of the coral available now is dyed due to overharvesting of Corallium.
Emerald: A type of beryl, the best ones possess a deep clarity of color with a resoant, almost forest or stoplight green; but less expensive and larger ones are opaque, and the green less intense.
Jade: Either jadeite or nephrite, often pale green to white, but dyed other colors.
Jasper: An opaque, reddish-, brownish-, or yellowish-hued quartz; a green chalcedony.
Jet: Dense coal.
Kyanite: A generally naturally blue mineral from teal-like to navy; it has a translucent quality. Note in photo: kyanite is on the top, then a low-grade aquamarine, followed by pale-colored glass.
Onyx: A type of chalcedony that has bands of earthy colors in rust, white, green.
Opal: Hydrated quartz; iridescent (white, black, Boulder); much of the inlaid opals in inexpensive jewelry is now synthetic. Ask the vendor if you’re not sure.
Peridot: A light green colored form of olivine. Pronounced peri-dot (like polka dot) OR peri-doe (like cookie dough).
Quartz: A mineral, silicon dioxide, that comes in a variety of colors; found everywhere (transparent called “rock crystal;” pink, rose quartz; purple, amethyst; brown, smoky quartz; yellow, citrine)
Ruby: A deep red corundum (compare Sapphire); like emeralds, the best possess a rich color clarity and deep hues. Also like emeralds, lesser grades are nonetheless sold, sometimes color-enhanced, and range in opacity and color. Note in photo below: top strand is faceted garnet & iolite; middle strand is ruby, iolite, and tanzanite ovals; bottom strand are rubies.
Sapphire: All other colors of corundum except red; most often associated with a deep midnight blue, but comes in many other colors, like rust, pink, clear, yellow, light blue, violet, moss, claret, lichen.
Sunstone: Aventurine; often dyed deep purple, but usually in a coppery type that runs the gamut from opaque to less opaque to more translucent.
Topaz: The name applied to many clear stones, but mostly associated with the colors blue, yellow, brown, and pink. A pale-yellow quartz is often referred to as topaz (compare citrine, which is a pale yellow quartz)
Tourmaline: A crystalline silicate that comes in a rainbow of colors, except purple (to date), from deep blue-black, forest green, olive green, lime green, teal, soft cadet blue, lemon, pink, ruby, gray, clear, and combinations in-between (like green-pink [watermelon tourmaline], or pink-blue, gray-teal, etc.).
Turquoise: A chalky combination of aluminum and copper. Most turquoise needs to be stabilized. These days, turquoise dust is valuable and is reconstituted (the word often used is reconstructed), which is not unlike mixing flour dough with water and putting it in a mold. But, there are also lots of fakes, too. Be careful when you buy “turquoise,” and understand that price alone won’t guarantee authenticity. Keep exhibitor information close at hand for future reference (either to recommend for kudos, or to report to the particular Show organizers).
Zircon: a brown to clear mineral; when heated, it becomes brilliant blue-white. (Zircon is a beautiful natural mineral in its own right and is NOT a cubic zirconia. Arizona Bead Dog has seen wonderful faceted zircon with an underlying pink fire in sunlight).
|
