August 24th, 2008 at 3:53am |
The collective name garnet embraces a large mineral group whose members each have their own individual names corresponding to their appearance. This family provides a good example of the fact that though the structure of a mineral determines its external form (garnets crystallize throughout in the cubic system), it is the chemical composition which is [...]
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August 14th, 2008 at 3:33pm |
As a token of gratitude for the assistance in arms and the victory won near Najera (i 367), he gave the precious stone to the Black Prince. After the Prince’s death the coveted gem was inherited by the tragic Richard II, and doubtless fell into Bolingbroke’s possession when he ascended the throne as Henry IV: [...]
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June 7th, 2008 at 12:11am |
These attractive and original necklaces are made from oven-baked clay beads, painted with bright enamel paint and threaded or linked with jeweler’s wire. The beads can be left plain, interspersed with bought beads for contrast, or made in a variety of shapes and sizes to create individual and unusual jewelry.
The red choker
Make 26 clay beads [...]
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May 23rd, 2008 at 3:45am |
The necklace with beads
The necklace has a circumference of 40cm (1511n) and will fit around an average-sized neck.
If nickel silver wire is unobtainable you can substitute tinned- copper, galvanized iron wire, silver-plated copper wire or mild steel. Try to find wire that is not too difficult to handle and of a colour suited to that [...]
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March 24th, 2008 at 12:51am |
Gold is a beautiful metal to work with. It has a special quality and really comes alive as it is bent, stretched and moulded into shape. Golds above 14 carat are both malleable and resiliant, and the quality of colour makes them unsurpassable.
Pure gold, like pure silver, is generally too soft to use for any [...]
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February 28th, 2008 at 10:41am |
Spinel
The most famous spinel is the large red stone in the British Imperial Crown, usually referred to as the Black Prince’s ruby. In the past red spinels were known as `balas rubies‘, probably because they came from Balasica in India, the area known nowadays as Badakshan. As a result of living under this misnomer for [...]
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February 21st, 2008 at 9:22pm |
Most people think of garnets as red, but in fact only two of the six species of garnet are red; one is orange and three are green. That people do tend to think of garnet as a rich red stone is not surprising, however, since it was the red garnets from Bohemia that were used [...]
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February 20th, 2008 at 11:45pm |
CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:
Formula: a complex borosilicate of aluminium
Refractive index: 1.63
Specific gravity: 3.05
Hardness: 7
Another stone which has suffered from being described as semi-precious is the tourmaline, which can be among themost beautiful of all gemstones. It is widely distributed, and its chief sources are Brazil, the USSR and the USA.
The crystals of tourmaline are unmistakable, [...]
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February 20th, 2008 at 3:05am |
Sodalite
This is one of the constituents of lapis lazuli and at its best it exhibits the same rich blue colour and can easily be mistaken for it. It is not as hard as lapis, however, and the blue is often interspersed with white areas. A large deposit of fine material was found in Canada in [...]
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