Gemstone |
Description |
| amazonite |
Amazonite is an iridescent stone that ranges in color from green to blue-green. Most Amazonite is opaque, but rare crystals are transparent. |
| amber |
Amber is translucent fossilized tree resin (from conifers), a natural hydrocarbon that comes in many colors, including yellow, reddish, whitish, black, and blue. |
| amethyst |
Amethyst is a form of the mineral quartz, and is a relatively common gemstone. Amethyst is usually purple, but can range in color from pale lavender to a very deep, reddish purple to a milky color to green. Deeper-colored amethysts are more highly valued. |
| aquamarine |
Aquamarine is a transparent, light blue or sea-green stone that is porous. Today, blue aquamarines are more highly valued, but this was not true in the past, when sea-green stones were prized. |
| blue-topaz |
Topaz is a very hard gemstone that ranges in color from brown, to yellow to blue to pink. Pink topaz is usually created by irradiating common yellow topaz. Other colors are often created by heat-treating and/or irradiating topaz. Imperial topaz is golden orange-yellow topaz; it is the most valuable topaz |
| carnelian |
Carnelian (also called cornelian and carneole) is a reddish form of chalcedony (a type of quartz). This translucent stone has a waxy luster. |
| cats-eye |
Cat's eye is a yellow to green-yellow to gray-green stone with a bright, pupil-like slit that seems to move slightly as the stone is moved. |
| chalcedony |
Chalcedony is a family of minerals that are often milky to gray to bluish in color. Chalcedony includes agate, carnelian (waxy red), chalcedony (blue), chrysoprase (green), onyx (black and white), bloodstone, sard (brownish-red), jasper (hornstone), seftonite, and others. |
| citrine |
Citrine is a rare, yellow type of quartz, a semi-precious stone that ranges in color from pale yellow to orange to golden brown. |
| coral |
Coral is an animal that grows in colonies in the ocean. Coral ranges in color from pale pink (called angelskin coral) to orange to red to white to black. The most valued colors are deep red (called noble coral) and pink. |
| crystal |
Crystal is high-quality glass containing at least 10% lead oxide. Lead added to the melt produces very clear glass resembling rock crystal. Crystal is colored by adding various metallic oxides to the melt. |
| diamond |
Diamonds are precious, lustrous gemstones made of highly-compressed carbon. Diamonds are one of the hardest materials known. Colors of diamonds range from colorless, yellow, orange, brown, to almost black. Rarer colors are red, blue, green, and purple; these colors (called fancies) are quite valuable. Canary diamonds have a deep yellow color. |
| florite |
A soft mineral (calcium fluoride) that is fluorescent in ultraviolet light; chief source of fluorine. White or colorless, blue, blue-green, yellow, brownish-yellow, or red. |
| garnet |
Garnets are any of a group of semi-precious silicate stones that range in color from red to green (garnets occur in all colors but blue). Red garnet is the birthstone for January. |
| iolite |
Iolite also known as water sapphire and lynx sapphire, is a transparent, violet-blue, light blue, or yellow-gray mineral. |
| jade |
Jade is a semi-precious stone that ranges in color from green to white to lilac to brown to almost black. Translucent jade is more highly valued than opaque jade. |
| kyanite |
Kyanite is a deep sapphire blue, green, gray, or white gemstone. The color is not always uniform; it can be blotchy or in streaks. The cystals are crystals are transparent to translucent. |
| labradorite |
Labradorite is a fairly abundant grayish mineral that has brilliant flashes of color (usually green, blue or red) after it is polished.. The crystals are transparent to translucent. There is a darker variety of labradorite (called "black moonstone") which has bluish inclusions. |
| moonstone |
Moonstone is a semi-translucent stone. It is usually whitish-blue, but can be colorless, yellow, orange, gray, or even reddish. |
| onyx |
Onyx is a semi-precious stone that is black and white, generally arranged in layers. Onyx is a species of chalcedony. |
| opalite |
A human-made opalized glass resin that is fused with metal to create an opalescent effect. |
| pearl |
Cultured pearls come in a wide range of colors. They should be relatively free of skin blemishes. The more perfectly round the shape the better. Pearl is the birthstone for the month of June. It is also the accepted anniversary gemstone for the third and 30th years of marriage. |
| peridot |
Peridot is a yellow-green semi-precious stone with an oily luster; peridot is a transparent, green form of olivine. Peridot exhibits double refraction; when you look through the stone, things appear double. |
| rock crystal |
Rock crystal is a transparent, crystalline mineral. Rock crystal is the purest form of quartz and a semi-precious stone. |
| quartz |
Quartz is a crystalline mineral that come in many forms, including amethyst, aventurine, citrin, opal, rock crystal, tiger's eye, rose quartz,and many others. |
| rose-quartz |
Rose quartz is a form of quartz that ranges in color from pink to deep red. |
| topaz |
Topaz is a very hard gemstone that ranges in color from brown, to yellow to blue to pink. Pink topaz is usually created by irradiating common yellow topaz. Other colors are often created by heat-treating and/or irradiating topaz. |
| tourmaline |
Tourmaline is a gemstone that comes in many, many different colors; it also appears to have different colors depending on the angle at which it is seen. Tourmaline has the greatest color range of any gemstone - the lighter colors are more valuable than the darker colors. It ranges in color from pink to green to red to purple to blue-green to colorless to black. |
| turquoise |
Turquoise is a non-translucent, porous semi-precious stone. Turquoise ranges in color from robin's egg blue to green. Over the years, oil from your skin is absorbed by the stone and it will change color slightly. |
| white-topaz |
Topaz is a very hard gemstone that ranges in color from brown, to yellow to blue to pink. Pink topaz is usually created by irradiating common yellow topaz. Other colors are often created by heat-treating and/or irradiating topaz. |
