Lavender Lust – Tanzanite
“One, who wears gems possesses wealth.” – Sam Veda quotes
Tanzanite, a zoisite mineral crystal, is a young and precious gemstone. Rarity as an added plus on its price tag, tanzanite is already, a much demanded and intriguing gem, since its discovery in 1967.
As the name suggests, this beautifully rich blue, blue to purple-blue, transparent variety, is found in Tanzania. However, a new green variety is recently found. It actually appears a lovely yellowish-green to gray-green to a bluish-green. This type of gemstone is found in Kenya too.
Tanzanite, a gem material is really scarce till today. However, it has reached to fame in a short while as an object of desire worldwide. This fact will keep tanzanite’s value up always as demanded, as interest continues to grow. Moreover, the actual trade secret also, lies in enhancement or transformation of color. Heat treatment is the reason for tanzanite’s dramatic, soft velvety sparkle.
Tanzanite is a relatively hard stone with 8.5 Mohs’ scale. It is brittle and can chip easily. Therefore, cutters have to take special care while shaping such pretty charms, providing with different faceted cuts and designs. The main motto is to give a perfect sparkling brilliance, much retained carat weight, and protect it from excessive damage (to set in a very protective setting).
For everyday wear, tanzanite trinkets are modestly prepared. Be it tanzanite rings, earrings or pendants, cuts are very important as far as, its light reflection is taken as priority. Tanzanite earrings have been a rage amongst women always.
There are various preferable faceted cuts to choose from. A tough gemstone looks exquisite with polished and perfect cuts suiting your budget. The trendiest cuts for this stone are as below:
· Round Cut
· Princess Cut
· Emerald Cut
· Oval Cut
· Heart Cut
· Pear Cut
· Cushion Cut
Remarkable pleochroic property comes useful in its color, enhanced after treated. When rough tanzanite crystals are seen from different angles, they show three different colors. If the stone doesn’t show adequate intensity in color, they are heat treated. Heated at special furnaces at temperatures of 900-1250F, initiates that marvelous, soft gleam inside the stone.
If crystals are large and bigger than, they are required to be stimulated at higher temperatures. Therefore, those common looking, brown to yellow-honey looking crystals turn into those mesmerizing and tantalizing inky-blue tanzanite gemstones. In addition, the ones which are already inky blue turn into those magnificent intense blue.
As discussed above, tanzanite’s pricing is mainly set with its intensity of color. Because of such a highly coveted status of tanzanite, human mimicry of this desired gemstone has resulted in presence of imitations and fraudulent.
Apart from these, a tanzanite is commonly mistaken with amethyst, iolite, sapphire, spinel, or synthetic corundum. Therefore buying any gemstone, it is suggested to have a gemstone lab tested or bought from a reputable retailer with a written guarantee or receipt.
There are many convincing glass imitations and doublets to fool people. It’s like glass tops are given a tanzanite top or crown or two colorless synthetic sapphires are stuck together with lavender-colored glue.
I am an obsessive gems and jewelry person. Nothing to be scared about! Working for an online gemstone jewelry portal has made me one as I get updated about recent fashion twits around the world. If you want to tickle your jewelry knowledge for more updates and information about latest ‘explorations and discoveries’ in gemstone designs and launches, you can go through my featured articles.
By Jennifer Citrine
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