Monkley Designs Jewelry

Semi-precious Stones (M - Z)

Facts, history and attributes

moonstone - Long-favored for use in jewelry, moonstone was a wildly popular element in the Art Nouveau design movement of the early 20th century and is arguably the most preferred form of feldspar. A 6.0 on the Mohs scale, moonstone gets its pretty shimmer from a separation of minerals during formation, not from beams of moonlight, as the ancients believed. It is often a soft, dove gray or brownish color, but it also ranges from milky white with a blue sheen (called blue or rainbow moonstone) to pale orange or peach, green, yellow, or reddish. An un-enhanced stone, moonstone is not treated with heat, radiation, or coatings, either to enhance its color or to protect its surface, so reasonable care should be taken with your moonstone jewelry to prevent scratches. The most desirable and highest qualities of moonstone are produced in Sri Lanka, but the stone is also found in India, Madagascar, Brazil, Burma, Tanzania, the European Alps, Mexico, and the US, in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Moonstone is the mythical and modern birthstone for June, and folk lore has it the stone invokes tender passions when placed beneath the tongues of lovers during the full moon...though I'm not at all certain it's the stone that does the trick! Moonstone is considered a sacred stone in India, where it is believed to bring good fortune, and is still carried as a talisman in many parts of the world.

Malaysia jade - This vibrantly colored stone is actually dyed quartz. The quartz is translucent to semi-translucent, well-polished, and permanently dyed.

mountain jade - This dyed stone is actually dolomite marble from Asia.

muscovite - Once called "Muscovy Glass," after the Muscovy province of Russia, muscovite was used in Old Russia as window glass, due to its transparency. It is related to aventurine and contains mica. Various impurities give the different varieties of muscovite color, including white, silver, yellow, green, violet, red, and browns. Despite it's low Mohs rating (2 - 2.5), sheets of muscovite are quite durable and are often found in sand that has undergone so much erosion most other minerals would have been destroyed, and before synthetic materials were developed to replace them, sheets made of the mineral were used as the windows in kitchen oven doors. Muscovite is considered a stone of humanity, enabling one to accept the flaws of others and to maintain an open heart.

new jade - This opaque to translucent light green stone is actually bowenite; a variety of antigorite belonging to the serpentine group. Discovered by geologist George Bowen in 1822, it is popular among many practitioners of Kundalini yoga, and is approximately a 3.5 on the Mohs scale, making it a reasonably soft stone. While it is mostly found in muted sea foam green, it can also be found in its natural state in a gorgeous citrus color similar to peridot, and soft blues and yellows. Serpentine is also found in several other varieties and colors and is believed to open a pathway for the Kundalini to travel and to clear clouded chakra. Like real jade, new jade is also ascribed the powers of luck and spiritual atonement, and it is one of the stones believed to have been used in the breastplate of the High Priest.

obsidian - With a silicon content of at least 70%, obsidian is a naturally-occurring glass produced by rapidly cooling lava. It is not considered a true mineral, due to its lack of crystalline structure, but obsidian has a Mohs hardness of 5 - 5.5 and is often used for ornamental purposes, as well as in cardiac surgery; blades crafted from obsidian have a much sharper edge than those of surgical steel and result in less tissue trauma. While most people think black when they think of obsidian, it is also found in a wide range of colors, including smoky gray/brown or dark green, or may contain small bubbles of air which give it a sheen of gold, green, purple, "rainbow", silver or red. Some obsidian contains white inclusions resembling snowflakes, and naturally rounded pebbles called "Apache Tears" often have "windows" through which one can look into a bright light and see what looks like a tiny tear suspended inside. Native American legend has it each tiny "drop" was shed by an Apache woman to mourn warriors driven over a cliff near Superior, Arizona, by the US cavalry during the late 1800's. Where each tear struck the ground, it was turned to stone, and natural Apache Tear nuggets are given now as a token of good luck.

peridot - Peridot is a green gemstone that is as popular for jewelry today as it was in the past. It has been found in ruins of ancient Egypt and Greece and was often called the evening emerald by ancient Romans, who noticed that its green color shone even more vividly in lamplight, making it resemble deep green emeralds. Most ancient peridot probably came from the Red Sea island of St. Johns, which produced highly prized dark-green peridot. Peridot is a gemstone variety of the mineral olivine. It forms during volcanic eruptions and its color ranges from yellowish green to dark lime-green. Brownish versions are found, but are not as desirable. Where is peridot found? The Red Sea island of St. Johns was an important source of peridot in earlier times. It was rediscovered about a century ago and still produces small quantities of the gemstone. Peridot Mesa, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, is an important source of peridot. It is mined by Native Americans. Although not mined commercially, peridot can also be found at several different locations in New Mexico. Burma exported a great deal of peridot until political upheavals stopped distribution. Mines in Pakistan and China yield large amounts of peridot.

quartz - The single most abundant mineral on earth, quartz comprises roughly 12% of the earth's crust and occurs in a wide variety of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

rhyolite - An igneous rock extremely similar to granite, rhyolite is an volcanic rock expelled from a volcano as magma and left to cool in the open air. It is generally the result of a violent eruption and consists of quartz, feldspar, mica, and whatever other minerals may have been present at the time of the eruption. Because of its high silicon content, rhyolite often has a smooth, glass like sheen, though if it is ejected in a particularly violent explosion, the increased amount of air trapped inside the magma results in the formation of pumice, another variety of the stone. Rhyolite has a hardness of 6 and is found in shades of white, gray, green, pink/red, purple, yellow ad brown. It may be banded or contain swirling layers of different color and texture, or crystals of quartz, feldspar, mica or hornblende. Green rhyolite is often referred to somewhat erroneously as rain forest "jasper". A rock born of fire, rhyolite is a good gift stone for actors, artists, and designers and is considered a stone of creativity, progress, and truth.

rose quartz - While the way to a man's heart is believed to be through his stomach, the way to win the heart of a woman was once believed to be by giving her a piece of rose quartz. Since ancient times, the pretty, delicately-colored stone has been believed to be a stone of love and compassion, famous for increasing fertility. I'm not so sure of its usefulness in that regard, but it is a beautiful, soothing stone, and one I love to work with. A macrocrystalline mineral, rose quartz is found in solid masses in the volcanic rock pegmatite, and prior to the discovery of small, well-formed crystals in Brazil was not believed to exist in that form. In fact, the crystals discovered in 1959 were denounced at first as fake. Today, Minas Gerais remains the sole source of such rose quartz crystals in the world. A 7.0 on the Mohs scale, rose quartz gets its delicate pink color from titanium and is also found in Madagascar, India, Scotland, Spain, Germany and the USA, including Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New York, and the southern Black Hills of South Dakota, where some specimens exhibit asterism similar to that found in some sapphires. Rose quartz is believed to encourage artistic creativity, heighten feelings of belonging in a relationship, and attract love to the wearer.

turquoise - Making its way to Europe as a trade item from Turkey during the Crusades, turquoise gets its name from the French and means Turkish. Its bright color is the result of copper, and it rates from 5 - 6 on the Mohs scale. It is easily damaged from hard contact, so extra care should be taken with your turquoise jewelry. Best known for its bright sky blues and blue-green hues, turquoise is also found in yellow and bright green, when iron or chromium are also present. Since its discovery by the Egyptians in 6000 BC, turquoise has held a place of honor among gemstones. In Persia, it was thought to bring riches, ward away unnatural death, and protect the wearer from the "evil eye." The ancient Aztecs believed it was a holy stone and used it in ceremonial masks. And the American Indians believe turquoise established a link between sky and lake, bringing needed rain. Even today, it is often used to represent the planet earth and believed to be a healing/grounding stone and useful for protecting property and warding against accident. Turquoise is also one of the most rare opaque minerals on earth used in jewelry, so as you might imagine, not much of it is allowed to go to waste. As a result, there is a grading system for turquoise it behooves the buyer to be aware of.

Natural turquoise is untreated, rare, and very expensive, making up less than 3% of all turquoise on the market worldwide. Most stone of this grade carries the name of the home mine and is distinctive to the vein(s) of that particular mine; Carico Lake Turquoise is one such example, although some named turquoise may also be stabilized. Stabilized turquoise is softer turquoise which has been injected with clear resin during a process using heat and high pressure, to make lower quality stone harder and more durable. The colors are natural and permanent, and stabilized turquoise may also be polished. Treated turquoise is similar to stabilized turquoise, but the resins injected also contain dye. This color is permanent but not the natural color of the stone, and may look artificial. The price for treated turquoise should be lower than that of natural or stabilized turquoise. A great many beads and jewelry items on the market today are stabilized or treated turquoise, as this allows for more affordable items. Stabilized turquoise is the lowest grade of turquoise Dragonfly will knowingly utilize.

Reconstituted turquoise is comprised mostly of very soft "chalk" turquoise and "scrap" which have been ground into powder, then mixed with blue dye and plastic and molded into blocks or cakes which are subsequently cut into desired shapes or bead forms. A great many heishi beads are of block turquoise. In our opinion, reconstituted or "block" turquoise is little more than simulated or imitation "stone", and should not be sold as the real thing, though a great many dealers will do so. If you will buy reconstituted turquoise, please at least do so when the quality is adequately reflected in the price. Imitation turquoise is comprised of turquoise lookalikes such as glass, plastic, clay, or dyed howlite. A great deal of stone represented in the marketplace today as turquoise is actually dyed howlite.

In addition to the five official grades of turquoise listed above, there are other treated forms of the stone on the market today. These include Enhanced turquoise: turquoise which has been impregnated with quality via man-made process, will take a high polish, and is hard to distinguish from natural turquoise, which may also contain quartz. Wax-treated or sealed turquoise. Much of the turquoise coming from China has been wax-sealed to deepen and stabilize the color. The treatment affects only the surface of the stone and is not permanent. Sealed turquoise has been surface sealed with an epoxy or resin to protect the stone from color change due to dust, chemicals, and skin oils from seeping into the surface of the stone. It is long-lasting, but not permanent, and some color change is inevitable.

For more on turquoise, please see the American Turquoise Mines yahoo group, a consortium of American turquoise miners and artists dedicated to educating the gem-buying public about turquoise and the turquoise group of stones.

green apple turquoise - while strictly speaking, green apple (aka apple-green) turquoise should be turquoise, which gets its bright yellow-green color from the addition of iron or chromium, it may also be mislabeled faustite, a member of the turquoise group. Faustite gains its green color from zinc. Both minerals have a matrix ranging from black to gray or grayish-white. Faustite rates a 5.5 on the Mohs scale while the true turquoise is rated 5 - 6 on the scale. Like blue turquoise, either mineral may be treated. For untreated green apple turquoise, look for "Orval Jack" from Nevada's Blue Ridge Mine; its namesake did not approve of treated stone, and his survivors maintain his rigid standards of production. Other forms of green apple include Carico Lake Turquoise, which resembles Orval Jack in color and appearance, and the darker Stennich Turquoise. All are mined in Nevada.

sacred buffalo turquoise - Discovered in the Dry Creek Mine on the Shoshone Indian Reservation near Battle Mountain, Nevada, in 1993, Sacred Buffalo turquoise is rare and fairly new to the jewelry scene. Sometimes called white turquoise, the stone is not white at all and varies in color, due to a lack of heavy metals in its composition. The vein ranges from whitish gray to black. Not to be confused with "white buffalo," which is actually the white stone howlite and not turquoise at all, the only known streak of Sacred Buffalo turquoise in the entire world is that located in the Dry Creek Mine, where it is mined by the Shoshone peoples and sent to Navajo Indians in Arizona and New Mexico to be made into jewelry.

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