The history of gemstone beads

Legal Law

Natural semi-precious stones is what most jewelry artisans use today. Gemstones are more expensive and less abundant than semi-precious stones. Common semi-precious stones are agate, jade, quartz, jasper, and turquoise. You can find more expensive varieties of semi-precious stones in emeralds, rubies, amethysts, and citrines.

Have you ever wondered how semi-precious stones are formed? Everything is hand made. The quality and cost of semi-precious stones are primarily determined by where they are made. India produces some of the most affordable gemstones. Gemstone beads from India are very colorful and beautiful, but their shapes and sizes are less consistent than the more expensive gemstones made in China.

Gemstones treated with oil, dye, heat, or injected with wax enhance the appearance of a lower quality gemstone. Treated stones are less valuable than untreated stones. A synthetic stone is still different from a treated gemstone.

You will find many synthetic stones made in jewelry in large quantities and sold in common retail chains. Synthetic gemstone beads are not really stones. I’ve seen bags of synthetic gemstone beads sold at places like Hobby Lobby and Wal-mart. Many of our name brand retailers sell jewelry made from synthetic gemstone beads.

It is rare for a beaded jewelry craftsman to use synthetic beads. We mainly use precious and semi-precious stones for jewelry projects. Synthetic gemstones are generally considered inferior to untreated semi-precious natural stones.

Common forms of accounts in general are:

round

tube

Cube

oval

release

barrel

bicone

corner

Dad

rice

melon

wafer or disk

Keishi

chip

Chick

donut

heishi

button

lentil

washing machine

Gemstone beads come in a variety of shapes and styles including:

Quartz

Agate

Obsidian

Cornelian

Citrine

Labradorite

Fluorite

Amethyst

Amazonite

Lapis

Malachite

Aquamarine

Sodalite

Onyx

Sardonyx

Azurite

Jasper

Gold stone

Rhodonite

Aventurine

Unakita

Garnet

Turquoise

Howlite

Broncita

much, much, more

You can find them in sizes from 4mm to 12mm and up. There are also puff pastry tokens and coins in the semi-precious gemstone family.

With the variety that is available to bead jewelry artisans today, creativity is skyrocketing and the market for beading jewelry made from semi-precious stones is exploding as well.

Aventurine is one of my favorites of the semi-precious gemstones. It is a green form of Quartz. Cuts include ovals, washers, chips, rectangles, and more. It is also sometimes called “new jade”. Aventurine is also interesting because it sometimes has inclusions that are due to the green fuchsite mica that creates a beautiful speck that is different from genuine jadeite.

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