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digglehead

7 years ago -

Here's my birth stone
http://gemkids.gia.edu/gem/opal

Crystal opal! do you know what it means?

7 years ago

LouTheLuver Pretty! Mine's a Sapphire

7 years ago

digglehead The Romans gave opal its name – opalus, meaning “precious stone.Opal flashes colors as you turn the stone or move around it. This phenomenon is called play-of-color. An opal might show a single color, two or three colors, or all the colors of the rainbow! The best play-of-color is the brightest; if it also has all the rainbow colors, then it is very rare and valuable. Opals are known by their background colors and are called black, white, gray, or fire opals.Opal shows a flashing display of different colors on a white, black, or gray background. Fire opals are usually orangy red. 75 HISTORY The famous Roman scholar Pliny described opal colors as deep and rich as the colors used by painters.Nessie is a two-meter (6.6-foot) pre-historic reptile called a pliosaur. Nessie’s bones turned into opal over millions of years.
Cody Opal, courtesy of The National Opal Collection.Next one,Tourmaline is famous for its dazzling colors. There are rich reds, pastel pinks, peach colors, strong greens, bright yellows, and deep blues. Some have more than one color, like watermelon, which is pink in the middle and green around the outside. People confused tourmaline with other gems, like emeralds and rubies, until the 1800s. That’s when scientists recognized tourmaline as a unique mineral.Tourmaline comes in many colors: blue, green, orange, pink, purple, red, yellow, brown, black, and even colorless!The first recorded tourmaline was a green crystal discovered in 1554 by a Spanish explorer who thought it was emerald.Some tourmalines display the cat’s-eye phenomenon. This cat’s-eye gem is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. - Photo courtesy Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution Tourmaline comes from toramalli, which means “mixed gems” in Sinhala, one of the languages of Sri Lanka. Shri Lanka. Sapphire. Sapphire is corundum, the same type of mineral as ruby, except that it is not red. Sapphire is famous for its blue color, but it also comes in many other colors, such as orange and pink. They are called fancy sapphires. There are also color change sapphires which change color under different lighting. Some sapphires even show a phenomenon called asterism. A star appears on the face of the stone. Sapphire’s name is from a Greek word meaning “blue.”Sapphire is often thought of as a blue gem, but it comes in all colors except red. Red would be a ruby.England’s Prince William gave Kate Middleton a blue sapphire engagement ring. It belonged to his mother, the very famous and beloved Princess Diana.This is the Star of Asia, one of the world's largest blue star sapphires. It weighs 330 carats, a little smaller than a golf ball. The star phenomenon is called asterism. http://gemkids.gia.edu/images/MF_-_Sapphire_Hero_101675_70094_450x450.png http://gemkids.gia.edu/images/MF_-_Opal_Hero_145495_1355958439432_450x450.png 😊

7 years ago