Yellow Flourescence in Diamond

This picture is not some owl with reflective eyes at night...



but these are irradiated yellow diamonds that glow under a ultraviolet light... amazing isn't it? Strong yellow!

In general, a blue fluorescent diamond is often worth more than one which has a yellow fluorescence to it.

Opal mining!

Ever wondered what it is like to mine opal in Australia??

I found this series of videos on Youtube!


Sit back and enjoy...







Now you know why opals are so expensive? They are hard work to mine for!

Mother of Pearl Cameo Cufflinks

My Mother of Pearl Cameo Cufflinks are finally ready!!!!

They are set in 925 silver....




They certainly look much nicer then I have expected them to be. Tried them on a plain shirt... and the effect is amazing!

Opal Inlaid Watch

Sometimes, the things you treasure the most might not be neccessary the most expensive!

I got this opal inlaid watch from Australia in 2006.

It has been my fave since... cos I love opals and it is quite seldom that you actually find opal in jewellery for guys!

Sad thing to note is that the local distributor for Pierre Cardin in Singapore no longer brings in watches.. and thus, the warranty is somehow limited!

Black Phantom Quartz Crystals

These double terminated quartz crystals look so common...

But on closer look, one realises that the black colour is not solid and is actually caused by the inclusions in the stone!



This piece is more unique... almost a sceptre:

Aegerine

Nice stalk-like crystal habitat of Aegerine on orthoclase...

Near symmetry like a V.

Potch Opal

Ilove the colour on this piece of raw potch opal.

Potch opal refers to hydrated silicon dioxides without the play of colour.

Even without a play of colour, this raw piece of potch opal still has a beautiful greenish-blue.

Hollandite in Quartz

You arent seeing stars...

neither have these pictures been photo shopped!
These crystals are actually quartz crystals with an inclusion mineral known as hollandite.

The 6 pointed stars you see in the quartz is actually the mineral, hollandite!

Such crystals have been used in healing as they aid rational thought and helps discharge tension and negative energy on both an emotional and a physical level. It is balancing, encouraging a neutral and relaxed attitude.

New icon created!

This new icon has been created for Stunned By Stone for use on Entrecard.com , a link exchage meant for bloggers!

If you like this blog, use the above image to link to Stunned By Stone!

Recession calls for better prices?

I received this advertisement in my email recently:

Screaming big words... up to 70% discount!

Actually I find such tactics pretty unscrupulous, because diamond prices are still inevitable controlled by De Beers. De Beers has proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the Depression.

The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance.

So next time you walk past a store with signs saying huge discounts on diamonds.. do think again!

Chrysocolla

Chrysocolla: a rare beautiful blue...

These little pieces were actually given to me by a dealer in Singapore. I love the beautiful waxy lustre on the pieces

From Wikiepedia:

Chrysocolla has an attractive blue-green colour and is a minor ore of copper, having a hardness of 2.5 to 3.5. It is also used as an ornamental stone. It is typically found as glassy botryoidal or rounded masses and crusts, or vein fillings. Because of its light color, it is sometimes confused with turquoise. Commonly it occurs only as pourous crusts unsuitable for gem use, but high quality, gem grade chrysocolla can be translucent and is highly prized.

Polished Ocean Jasper

This is a fine piece of ocean jasper that I bought at such a good price, its nearly a steal!!

The colours are very intense on this piece, and there are even druses filled with quartz crystals!

Check out the druse in the pic above!

Wavellite

Wavellite gets its name from Named after William Wavell of England who discovered the mineral in a quarry in Devon, England in 1805.


Wavellite is a phosphate mineral, normally translucent green and can be found in fractures in aluminous metamorphic rock, in hydrothermal regions and in phosphate rock deposits.

I got these specimens from Kinokuniya, look at a close up picture, can you notice the circular habitat?

Morganite

This is a beautiful specimen of the mineral beryl variety morganite.

You can seen a beautiful gemmy crystal sitting in the middle of the matrix. Got this sample some years back when morganite was still pretty unheard of in Singapore.

A close up of the crystal:

Did you know that morganite is named after a financier (and gem and mineral collector) J. P. Morgan?

Jewelery in times of recession!

In times of recession like these days, it is indeed good news for jewellery collectors and hobbyists to hear of the term ‘discount jewelery’.

Voila, have your eyes started to open widely and blink?

My Jewelery Box, a shopping portal that only sales jewellery but also educates its consumers, is having a sale whereby its jewellery is going at nearly liquidation prices! There is a wide selection of goodies available! I just saw some diamond studs going at good prices, not to mention other pieces with emeralds, blue topaz, green amethysts, opals, citrines. One of the things that caught my fancy was an elegant, yet simple, silver dog tag! I saw a similar design at a show some time back, and trust me, the price tag then is more then 5 times the current price it is on sale now!

If you are feeling more adventurous, and want to try something a tad bit more exotic, do check out the section on black diamonds; the designs are unique and incorporate black diamonds, which like other fancy coloured diamonds, are deemed to make a gradual comeback on the fashion runways! The thing about black diamonds are that they instantly glam up any outfit at any event, so they are versatile enough to be worn everyday!

Whatever jewlery it is, be it jewlery rings, ear studs, cufflinks, chains , etc, there is bound to be something for you at My Jewelery box.

So check it out today!

Sapphire and Ruby Tieclip add-on

Alright, this is the answer to what the mystery object:

A sapphire and ruby tie clip add-on

In this add-on, there is a white sapphire, a blue sapphire, a green sapphire and an untreated Vietnamese ruby!

These members of the conundrum family are assembled together to resemble a popular frog cartoon character, Keroppi.

The image below shows the add-on deattached from the main tieclip body:

... and this one shows the add on on the tie clip...

Wacky ideas...

Tumbled Jasper straight from mine!

My jeweller was back from Thailand recently and he gave me this gift:

A beautiful piece of jasper straight from the mine in Thailand!

Look at its beautiful waxy lustre and earthy tones!

Think it will make good cabbing material!

Smoky Quartz Cluster

This smoky quartz cluster was one of my first few quartz clusters that I owned.

It has a nicely shaped crystals and a interesting habitat.