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#jewelleryfacts365 151/365 Gem fact

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads. Like all glass and some other types of naturally occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture. It was also polished to create early mirrors. Modern archaeologists have developed a relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating, to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts.


Ancient Egyptian Mirror 

Gold foil, silver, glass, alabaster, obsidian, porphyritic diorite
Dynasty 18, reign of Thutmose lll
ca. 1479-1425 B.C.
From the tomb of the three minor wives of Thutmose lll in the
Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud, Thebes

This funerary ogject belonged to one of three foreign (Semitic) wives of Thutmose lll, Maruta, Manhata, and Manuwai. Maruta may, in fact, be the hieroglyphic version of the familiar Hebrew name Marta. The mirror was discovered, together with vessels and other objects, in a rock-cut cave situated high up in the desert mountain cliffs of the Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud in western Thebes.

The face with cow's ears on this mirror is an emblem of Hathor, the goddess of beauty.

NYC

Jewellery masterpiece

Farah Khan yellow gold hand cuff with iolites, tsavorite garnets, white and brown diamonds

#naturesgems

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Fluorite
Illinois, USA

#jewelleryfacts365 150/365 Gem fact

Obsidian is a natural glass that is formed during volcanic eruptions, as a result of quickly cooled lava, which is the parent material.

Raw obsidian

Jewellery masterpiece

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

#jewelleryfacts365 149/365

Egypt and Mesopotamia were the first two ancient civilizations that started organized production of jewelry.

Ancient Mesopotamia Jewellery

Beautiful nature

Monday, June 27, 2016

Rhododendron flower

#jewelleryfacts365 148/365 Gem fact

Garnet sand is a good abrasive, and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting. Mixed with very high pressure water, garnet is used to cut steel.


Ladybug pendant with garnet and black onyx
(sterling silver and copper)

#naturesgems

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Chrysacola druzy and Malachite

#jewelleryfacts365 147/365 Gem fact

The pink color of tourmalines from many fields is the result of prolonged natural irradiation. Some tourmaline gems, especially pink to red colored stones, are altered by heat treatment to improve their color. Irradiation is almost impossible to detect in tourmalines, and does not, currently, impact the value. Heat treatment is also used to enhance tourmaline. Heavily-included tourmalines, such as rubellite and Brazilian paraiba, are sometimes clarity-enhanced. A clarity-enhanced tourmaline (especially paraiba) is worth much less than a non-treated gem. (source)


Sterling silver gold plated  pendant with pink tourmaline

Bead Day

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Karen Crabb
Encrusted Crustacean
Edmonds, WA

#jewelleryfact365 146/365 Gem fact

Rarely, gem-quality tanzanite will heat to a green primary hue, most always accompanied by a blue or violet secondary hue. These green tanzanite have some meaningful value in the collector market, but are seldom of interest to commercial buyers.(source)


Jewellery I made for myself

Friday, June 24, 2016

Some jewellery pieces I make with no intention to ever sell them. The reasons are different. In this case the stone is too hard to come across. Well, it is a labradorite cab, you would say, there are tons of them out there. The difference is that this one is actually from Labrador, the area that gave the name to the stone. They find labradorite in many other places now, mostly you see them coming from Madagascar. It is unique for me, anyway. I really enjoy wearing it. 


#jewelleryfacts365 145/365 Gem fact

Scientifically called "blue zoisite, Tanzanite was renamed as tanzanite by Tiffany and Co., who wanted to capitalize on the rarity and single location of the gem, and thought that "blue zoisite" (which might be pronounced like "blue suicide") wouldn't sell well. (source)

Tanzanite Merelani

Jewellery masterpieces

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Paul Flato. Diamond and gold flower necklace, 1938

#jewelleryfacts365 144/365 Copper jewellery fact

Copper jewellery started appearing about 7000 years ago. The Museum of Ancient History in Lower Austria found a female jeweller's grave, dispelling the long-held assumption that in ancient times, jewellers were always male. (source)

Roman copper wire ring

#naturesgems

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

CAVANSITE Wagholi, Pune District, Maharashtra, India

#jewelleryfacts365 143/365 Gem fact

Tourmaline was sometimes called the "Ceylonese [Sri Lankan] Magnet" because it could attract and then repel hot ashes due to its pyroelectric properties. (source)

Sterling silver necklace with a pink tourmaline and cubic zirconia stones

Jewellery masterpieces

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Rohit Bal for jewellery brand Kirtilals

#jewelleryfacts365 142/365 Gem fact

Turquoise, the "fallen sky stone" hidden in Mother Earth, has been valued by cultures for its beauty and reputed spiritual and life-giving qualities for over 7000 years.

Cocktail ring with turquoise

Beautiful nature

Monday, June 20, 2016

While my son was jumping on the trampoline in our backyard, I noticed a raccoon on our neighbour's shed roof. Then it came to our backyard, climed up the pool using its filter system and drank the rain water collected on the pool cover. It happened fast, but I managed to film it for a few seconds. 


#jewelleryfacts365 141/365 Gem fact

Since amethyst, by definition, is the violet to purple shade of quartz, there is really no such thing as green amethyst. The term "green amethyst" makes as much sense as "red emerald" or "yellow ruby". Green quartz is sometimes incorrectly called green amethyst, which is an actual misnomer and not an acceptable name for the material, the proper terminology being Prasiolite. It is a rare stone in nature; artificially produced Prasiolite is heat treated amethyst. It is actually against Federal Trade Commission Guidelines to call prasiolite "green amethyst." Other names for green quartz are vermarine, greened amethyst, or lime citrine. (source)

Ocean life pendant with amethyst

#naturesgems

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Rhodochrosite, Tetrahedrite, Quartz

#jewelleryfacts365 140/365 Gold fact

Known for its beautiful color, not everyone knows that white gold doesn't exist in nature. It is an alloy of yellow gold and a mixture of nickel, palladium, rhodium, and other metals, which turns the bright yellow gold to very pale yellow shade that we call "white" gold. Most white gold pieces of jewellery are white because they are rhodium plated.

Bead Day

Saturday, June 18, 2016

The fruits
Hiroko Yokoi

#jewelleryfacts365 139/365 Roman jewellery fact

Some of the sons of wealthy Romans also wore small gold rings carved with a phallus for good luck.

Finger ring with a phallus in relief.
Roman

Sold #ooak silver maple leaf with BC jade

Friday, June 17, 2016

#jewelleryfacts365 138/365 Gem fact

Peridot is the only gemstone found in meteorites.

Pallasite Meteorite Slice: This is a photo of a thin slice cut from the Esquel pallasite meteorite that fell near Chubut, Argentina. This meteorite was found by a farmer working his field, and when unearthed, it weighed about 1500 pounds. It consists of yellowish green olivine crystals, some of which are gem-quality peridot, in a matrix of meteoritic iron. This composition suggests that it was once part of a planet or other large body of our solar system that had a metallic core and a rocky mantle. The pallasite material comes from a portion of that body near the core-mantle boundary. 


The stresses placed on a meteorite during its formation, its travel through space, entry into Earth's atmosphere, and impact with Earth's surface all have a chance of fracturing the olivine crystals. Because of these fractures, it can be difficult to find pieces of extraterrestrial olivine that are large enough to facet - but many faceted stones have been produced! Photograph by Doug Bowman

Jewellery masterpieces

Thursday, June 16, 2016

#jewelleryfacts365 137/365

Beadwork in Europe has a history dating back to a time when shells and animal bones were used as beads in necklaces.

Upper Paleolithic Circa 30,000 B.C necklace composed of carved shells and animal bones.

#naturesgems

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Epidote, 9.8 cm, from Knappenwand, Untersulzbachtal, Salzburg, Austria. Watzl Minerals specimen and photo.

#jewelleryfacts365 136/365 Copper fact

Turning to more modern times, the first observation of copper's role in the immune system was published in 1867 when it was reported that, during the cholera epidemics in Paris of 1832, 1849 and 1852, copper workers were immune to the disease. (source)

The Kennecott Utah Copper Mine, also known as the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, is the largest and richest copper mine in history with over 100 years of open pit mining; it has produced more copper than any other mine in history.

Jewellery masterpieces

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

#jewelleryfacts365 135/365 Ruby fact

The most expensive ruby sold was a ‘pigeon’s blood red’ 8.62-carat cushion-cut ruby. Impressively, the ruby was an unheated Burmese stone that sold for $3,637,480 ($425,000 per carat). The gemstone was eventually purchased by Laurence Graff at Christie's, and set in a Bulgari rectangular-shaped diamond bombé mounted ring (2006, Geneva). 

Photo courtesy of Christie's.

Deer lake park, May, 2016

It was a long weekend and we needed to come with an idea where we could go. The Deer Lake park has a historical village. A great place to take the kids, right? So that was where we went to.

This barn is for an old tram: 


And here is the tram itself:


Beautiful, isn't it?


This is an old church:


And a school:


I aimed my camera at this awesome man and he smiled for me. I took his picture and thanked him :)


I love this school room!


Just an old house where the kids sat at the table. Looks like my gramma's house as I remember it from my childhood.


A workshop:


A piece of the street:


A barber's shop (too bad there was no "barber" there!


I just liked these vases:


There was one really big house with awesome rooms in it to look at:


I would not mind this piece of furniture!


Lovely vintage room:


Another room I would mind to have in our house!


This is the house with all the rooms above:


Somebody has a fun job making all the little houses and trains!


This music machine is in the room with the vintage carousel. It works, of course!


This carousel is 104 y.o. I regret not taking a video of it. The horses are all different and many of them are encrusted with the glass gems.


I got to ride it too!


Then we went to the Deer lake. Water lilies were lovely!


...and so many of them!


I think this is a gallery of some kind... we did not get close to read what it was:


This is another gallery. We tried to go in, but it was closed:


Then we drove around and found the paddle boats for rent. Can you believe how close this house is to the water?


This is how far you can go:


Here they are:


We got out first and I took a picture of these ducklings while we were waiting for the kids:


The day was not over, so we stopped at a school with a great playground:




Then we stopped at another playground that was even more awesome! I took a picture of the roses while the kids were playing:


I wish I could join them, this looks like a lot of fun!


The little one liked this carousel (and did not like the one at the Deer Lake park):




 
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