Gem of the Month – Yellow Topaz

Yellow topaz is also known as the modern birthstone for November.  Although now probably overtaken by the more commonly used Citrine, Topaz is a particularly lovely gemstone which is deserving of more recognition in its “precious” form.

Photo at left from is a good example of Imperial Topaz from Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom

Gemmology Matters:   Natural Topaz is a fluro silicate with the chemical formula Al₂SiO₄(F,OH)₂ .  It is found in a variety of colors including brown, red, orange, pink, sherry, yellow as well as colourless.  Often the shades from yellow through to red are termed “Precious Topaz” with particular colour combinations described as “Imperial Topaz” – those gems denoted as Imperial and the very rare red varieties command the highest prices.  The definition of Imperial Topaz colour (reddish-orange?) can be quite complicated – see this Gemology Online thread for more discussion on this subject. 

 This example of a sherry coloured topaz crystal is from John Betts Fine Minerals (Gem Crystals catalogue) - this specimen is from Pakistan and shows the hexagonal crystal habit of topaz very clearly.

Green and blue topaz are naturally very pale, the very bright colours often found in jewellery today are the result in irradiation treatment - Sky Blue, Swiss Blue and London Blue are names used by the gem trade to refer to the depth of color.   See our Blue Topaz article for more information.   Please note that surface colour coatings are becoming more common in Topaz – starting with the multi-colour version of Mystic Topaz, but now also used to create other colours such as pink.  Gems treated in this way should be treated with care to avoid damaging the colour coating.  These types of gems should be far cheaper than naturally coloured stones so be wary when purchasing brightly coloured Topaz and ask about enhancement treatments first.

The principal sources for topaz is Brazil – also found in Sri Lanka, Russia, Australia, Africa, Mexico and Pakistan.  Topaz is an excellent gemstone for jewellery with a hardness of 8 – although it has perfect cleavage which may present some danger when setting in jewellery.  For this reason, topaz should be treated with care and protected from hard knocks.

Mythology and Lore:   While the blue variety of topaz is for those born in December, yellow topaz is the modern November birthstone.  Topaz may be given to celebrate the 4th, 19th and 23rd wedding anniversaries.

Most of the mythology for topaz relates to the yellow variety as natural blue topaz is quite rare and pale in colour.  The Egyptians believed that topaz was coloured with the golden glow of Ra – the sun god.  The importance of Ra made topaz a very powerful protective amulet for the faithful.  This link with the sun was also found in ancient Roman culture where topaz was associated Jupiter, also a God of the Sun.

Topaz was once thought to strengthen the mind, increase wisdom, and prevent mental disorders.  It was also thought to guard against sudden death.  Legend says that topaz has the power to dispel all enchantment and help improve eyesight.  The ancient Greeks used the gem to increase strength and make its wearer invisible in times of crisis.  Used in medicine in ancient time, topaz was said to cure insomnia, asthma, and hemorrhages.

 This imperial topaz photograph is from the Palagems Topaz Buying Guide which also has some excellent information on the famous Ouro Preto mine in Brazil (see link below).

Alternatives in Yellow:  The range of colour in Precious Topaz brings to mind the amber gold of fine cognac, the blush of a ripe peach and all the colours of a setting sun.   While its cheaper cousin, Citrine, is commonly used these days and is an alternative November birthstone, it is slightly softer and does not have quite the complexity of colour that is present in a particularly fine Topaz.  Sapphire is also found in yellow – while beryllium treated yellows now abound in the marketplace, a fine golden yellow sapphire of natural colour can command very high prices. 

Links of Interest:

• Bernardine Fine Art Jewelry - article on topaz
• ICGA Gem by Gem article – Topaz
• Pala Gems – Imperial Topaz Buying Guide
• Excerpt from Secrets of the Gem Trade (R.W. Wise) – Topaz, Visiting the Mine
• Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom – Topaz
• Wikipedia article on Topaz

Aussie Sapphire does not currently have any topaz in stock – we do have a small supply of good yellow sapphire (natural and basic heat only – no beryllium treatment).  None of this is currently listed but we invite you to contact us directly if you are interested.

cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire

Website Re-organisation

Just a quick note to alert our regular website visitors to a slight re-organisation of our categories.  Where our gold jewellery was once all listed together, we have split these into three new categories for Rings, Pendants and Earrings.  All of these new categories are accessible from the main Jewellery Catalogue which is a good spot to start exploring our range. 

We have some fantastic new items (some in 18k white and yellow gold) in stock now with lots more to list so we definitely recommend you take a look through these catalogues.  We have chosen some of our best blue sapphire for these pieces and we are thrilled with how they turned out. 

Here is just one example: – this 18k yellow gold ring features a 0.59 carat sapphire with 0.5 carats of diamond – four round diamonds squaring the sapphire with smaller accent diamonds channel set along the split shank.

This would make a fantastic gift for someone special – it looks fantastic !

We have more items to list and hope to do this over the next week.  More cut black spinel and a great new batch of sapphire cutting to sort through including some unheated sapphire.  Lots more to do so better get back to the grindstone – stay tuned here for more announcements.

cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire

New England Sapphire

Have just loaded up a new article we have written about Sapphire and Ruby in NSW, Australia with particular reference to New England sapphire.  The article contains a number of photos so take a look.  We welcome your feedback so feel free to leave a comment.

cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire

Halloween Greetings

Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates this traditional holiday.  Although this holiday is not widely celebrated in Australia, for those who are about to go “trick or treating”, have fun!

Of course, black is the colour of choice for Halloween so we suggest you browse our great range of black spinel jewellery.  Dont worry if you missed out on buying something for this year, Black is always in fashion so get in early for next year.

The prices are no trick – so treat yourself !

 

Since Glen Innes is known as Celtic Country, I thought it might be of interest to point out that Halloween actually derives from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.   Many of the modern traditions and symbols for Halloween date back to this “fire festival” of the Celts.

Samhain Eve is one of the main festivals of the Celtic calendar, and is thought to fall on or around the 31st of October representing the beginning of winter and the final harvest.   Celtic mythology holds that on this date, the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred.  It is still the custom in some areas to place food out for the spirits or to set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast, and to tell tales of the ancestors on that night.

Traditionally, Samhain was time to take stock of the herds and grain supplies, and decide which animals would need to be slaughtered in order for the people and livestock to survive the winter.  Bonfires were an important part of the festival - with the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family would then light its hearth fire from the common flame, symbolically binding the community together.

For those who would like to learn more about Halloween, we recommend the following links of interest:

• Wikipedia article on Halloween
• Mything Links article on Samhain 

Cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire - the most comprehensive source of faceted Black Spinel Gemstones.

New Sapphire Rough Available

Have been pretty busy lately working a new patch of the mine and have been producing some very nice rough.  Have managed to find a little time to list just a small selection of this including a couple of very special pieces that we have had put away for a while now.

We can now safely say we have something to suit everyone with affordable pieces costing less than $100 per piece up to some very large pieces which suit the investor or collector.  The largest piece of sapphire rough we have listed currently is a whopping 47.5 carat blue which is impressive in every way – we dont mind window shoppers so make sure you take a look at this rare beauty.

We have also just received back our latest batch of cutting – some excellent cut sapphires here in a range of sizes, shapes and colours including some very nice parti-coloured sapphire (greens, bicolor and yellow).  We were able to cut about a third of this batch fully natural – ie. untreated in any way so if you are looking for unheated sapphire, we hope to have something suitable for you.

Just a quick photo here to whet your appetite (click to see full size): this is just a batch of mixed size rounds tipped out on our grading table.  About 660 carats here and plenty of sorting into sizes and grading for colour to be done but at a rough glance, we can see some great partis and yellows with the majority of the parcel being our typical Reddestone blues. 

 cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire

Some New Auctions

Just a quick note to let you know about our latest auctions.  Regulars will know that from time to time, we run “no reserve” auctions on Ebay as a promotion for our sapphires.  This is a great chance to get some fantastic quality facet rough – the market will decide the price but there is always the chance of getting a real bargain.

Check out our latest batch of auctions now!

Cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire

Gem of the Month: Tourmaline

The theme for October birthstones is colour and lots of it!  We have already covered Opal with its “play of colour” in a previous article.  This time, we look at the alternative birthstone for October: tourmaline – the Rainbow Stone.  (Photo from ICGA article)

Gemmology Matters:  Tourmaline is truly a fascinating gemstone.  Tourmaline is a very complex group of minerals but may be described as a complex aluminium borosilicate where colour is caused by presence or absence of various metal ions (Fe, Mn, Cr, V, Ti and Cu) in the crystal structure.  Hardness is 7 to 7.5 on the Moh Scale making it suitable for most jewellery applications.  Commonly found as prismatic crystals (trigonal-hexagonal), often with vertical striations along the prism faces.

While it can have fantastic colour, strong dichroism and sometimes unstable crystal structure means that tourmaline can be quite challenging for the gem cutter.  Cutting orientation is very important so that the faceted gem displays the best colour possible.  Where the colour is too dark looking through the crystal (referred to as “closed C-axis”), they may be cut in elongated shapes (where the A-B axis shows better colour).   Some types can be unstable during the cutting process – if not handled carefully, the stone can crack badly while being faceted.

A fascinating property of some types of tourmaline has led to it being used for scientific and industrial purposes.  The piezoelectricity effect occurs when an electrical charge is induced by applying pressure to a tourmaline crystal in the direction of the vertical crystal axis – this can be used in pressure measuring equipment and other scientific applications.  A similar effect called pyroelectricity occurs when the crystal is heated yielding a positive charge at one end of the crystal and a negative charge at the other.

Tourmalines are mined everywhere in the world with important commercial deposits located in Brazil and parts of Africa.  Other notable locations include Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the USA.   The price range for gem quality Tourmaline varies almost as much as its colour with some rare and sought after varieties bringing extremely high prices.  The recently discovered Paraiba source in Brazil with its intense neon blue coloured stones produces gems that are particularly sought after.

These photos show a small selection of mixed colour tourmaline from Nigeria.  Dont have much of this material left now so keep your eye on our online shop for the last few bits.

Mythology and Lore:  Tourmaline is known as the “Rainbow Stone” from an ancient Egyptian legend: on the long way from the Earth’s heart up towards the sun, Tourmaline travelled along a rainbow, collecting all the colours of the rainbow on its journey.  The name derives from the Sinhalese (Ceylon) word “tura mali” meaning stone of mixed colours.  

The Empress Dowager Tz’u Hsi, the last Empress of China, was a great collector of pink tourmaline and rubellite.  She imported tons of tourmaline from Southern California in the early twentieth century, creating a gem rush in San Diego during the period.   She loved pink tourmaline so much that she was laid to rest on a pillow carved from this gemstone. 

Tourmaline is the birthstone for the month of October and is associated with the zodiac sign of Libra.  Legend says tourmaline inspires artistic expression, enhances intuition, increase self-confidence and amplify one’s psychic energies.  Tourmaline may be used to neutralize negative energies, dispel fear and grief, and to aid in concentration and communication.

Alternatives in Multicolour:  Tourmaline is unique for its range of colours and gems where more than one colour is displayed.  While tourmaline may be found in many colours which are also represented by other gems, it is the bi- and multi-coloured varieties which are difficult to find elsewhere in the gem world.  Sapphires may show this bi-colour character (called “parti” in Australia) but generally the colours tend toward the blue-green-yellow and do not display the sharp boundaries of significantly different colours seen in some tourmaline.

 Links of Interest: 

• Previous Blog article on Watermelon Tourmaline
• ICGA Gem by Gem article on Tourmaline
• Bernardine Fine Art Jewelry article on Tourmaline
• Wikipedia article on Tourmaline
• Pala Gems - Tourmaline Buyers Guide

Hope you enjoyed this article on Tourmaline – truly worthy of a book but we’ll leave that job to someone else.  We still have some nice pieces of tourmaline rough in stock as well as some nice cut gems in a variety of colours (including nice emerald greens and intense pinks).  Please enquire at any time about these. 

Cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire

New Black Spinel in stock

We have just received back the latest batch of black spinel cutting.  A great range of sizes and shapes to choose from.  We will spend the next couple of days cataloguing and listing so please check our website soon for lots of new items.

For those of you who have not yet discovered this great gem – see our previous “Gem of the Month” on Black Spinel – the premier black gemstone.

cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire.

Back On Deck

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are back at work and madly catching up.  We have a good number of parcels to go out tomorrow and should have replied to most enquiries.  If we somehow missed you in the backlog of emails, please send a reminder and we will attend to your query as soon as possible.

Andrew will be getting back to the mine tomorrow and we should have some nice sapphire for you very soon.  Please keep an eye on the website for new additions to the catalogues – we hope to get some new items on starting Wednesday.

cheers for now from Andrew and Leah (Aussie Sapphire)

Taking a Break

Just letting everyone know that we will be taking a short break in early October.  We will be away from the office from the 30th September and will be returning 9th October.

As usual, we will be checking our email daily while we are away but will not be able to despatch parcels or answer questions which need close inspection of the item.  Please feel free to contact us during this time – we may not answer with quite our usual speed but should be able to answer you within 24 hours.

We will be spending a week or so at the beach with the kids and plan to do lots of relaxing so we can come back to work fully recharged. 

See the image at left for a satellite view of our favourite holiday spot from Google Earth – about 29°24′S and 153°21′E if you want to check it out yourself.  We will be staying at Iluka just on the bay (centre of image – you can see Yamba in the lower right hand corner).

Last mail day is Friday – we suggest buying this week if you have your eye on anything so we can get it delivered promptly.  Remember, we have a Free Shipping promotion running at the moment for orders over $100 AU (excludes some heavier items) – see our last post for more details.

 cheers for now from Aussie Sapphire