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Peridot Jewellery Principles

By John S Stewart


To give a piece of Peridot Jewellery containing a birthstone gem will bring luck and protection. Such examples could be Peridot Earrings, Peridot Pendants or Peridot Earrings. Monthly birthstones symbolize the birth month of the Gregorian calendar.

If you're not an expert, buying Peridot Jewellery can be a unusually daunting task. To help you out, I have put together this little guide, which will hopefully help you make the right choice for your needs. When buying your Peridot or Peridot Jewellery you should first consider the combination of the Peridot colour, clarity, weight and cut. As with any gems, there are trade-offs that have to be made, and once you select the type and quality of Peridot, it usually comes down to only choosing a variety of Peridot that you find attractive and that meets your budget.

Introduction

I truly believe that all Peridot and items of Peridot Jewellery are purchased from suppliers under the condition that they were sourced under ethical conditions.

Peridot is one of the most beautiful of all the green gems, you will find a colour that is the epitome of green grass. Curiously, the name may have originally used Topaz Peridot, located on the island of Topazos (Zabargad) in the Red Sea.

History, Legend and Lore

In early beliefs peridot was a gift from Mother Nature to celebrate the annual creation of a new world. National leaders who publicly wore Peridot were in former times thought to be gentile, reasonable and balanced.

In antiquity and the Middle Ages it was believed that the cosmos was made up of sparkling gemstones, and that Peridot was the planet Saturn. The esoteric movement revived the ancient belief in this and the stone industry therefore used it as another marketing tool to promote certain gems.

The green stone, first called Topaz, to which name remained until the 18th century, when the English began to describe the gemstone peridot. Today, the gem variety of forsterite olivine and the group still bears that name.

Like other gems, Peridot was believed to give significant powers to the wearer. Marbodei mentioned in De Lapidibus that Peridot would relieve the terrors of the night: "If it were to be used as a protection from the wiles of evil spirits, the stone had to be pierced and strung on the hair of an ass and then attached to the left arm." In the Middle Ages, the belief persisted that Peridot would dissolve enchantments and commit evil spirits to flight.

Although no records survive, significant work regarding this gemstone must have taken place during the 11th and 12th centuries. Christian crusaders are known to have returned home with large Peridots as part of their loot. Fine gems from these plondered mines remain today in a number of European sanctuaries including the Treasury of the Three Magi in Cologne and the Vatican. The precious stone and jewellery collection in the Tower of London also contains large peridot gems.

In the early 1900s new Peridot crystals began to appear in European mineral collections and elegant faceted stones were once again offered for sale by eminent jewelers. The Red Sea Mining Company abandoned its operation with the outbreak of World War II, and since that time the Peridot deposit has been worked only sporadically. For the past 20 years, it has been abandoned.

Mineralogists know that large Peridot crystals initially formed in failing cracks, some of them 25 meters deep, which penetrated the principal country rock, peridotite. Poorly attached to crack walls, the crystals may have been loosened by seismic activity or weathering, after which they tumbled to the bottom of the fissures where miners found them mixed in the rubble of crushed rock. While crystal faces are generally clear and bright, they often show fresh fractures, lending credence to the assumption that seismic shift damaged them.

Peridot are several places around the world, but the large rock crystals are unique to Zabargad. The crystals are usually flat and a table. Double terminated examples are extremely rare. The name Peridot is used to describe the chain of forsterite fayalite olivine series.

What is Peridot

Summarising the Properties of Peridot

Composition: Peridot is a gem olivine group, which has the following species: forsterite-fayalite-Mg2SiO4 Fe2SiO4

Hardness (Mohs): 6.5 to 7

Division: Various imperfect in one direction (rarely seen).

Specific Gravity: 3.34 + 0.17,-0.07

Refractive Index: 1654-1690 ( 0.020)

Birefringence: 0035-0038

Optical Character two axes (positive or negative, the rate is usually near the center of the alpha beta and gamma).

Crystal System: Orthorhombic; usually occurs as rounded pebbles; well formed crystals are relatively rare.

colour: Mostly green, yellow or brown.

Pleochroism: Weak to moderate, dichroic.

UV Fluorescence: Generally inert.

Dispersion: 0.020 Phenomena: Cat's eye and star peridot are known, but are rare.

Manipulation: ultrasound - not safe, never clean peridot by ultrasound. Steamer - safe. The better way to take care of peridot is to cleaned with warm soapy water. Avoid exposure to heat, acids, and rapid changes in temperature.

Improvements: Peridot is usually not improved.

Synthetic Available: No

Buying Your Peridot Jewellery

When purchasing Peridot there are several factors you need to consider - these are the 4 C's - Colour, Clarity, Carat Weight and Cut.

Colour

Peridot is ideochromatic, being coloured by the ferrous iron that is intrinsic to its composition. The perfect colour is a full grass-green, but some Peridot is yellowish green, greenish yellow or brown. The best colours of peridot generally contain about 10-15% of iron.

Forsterite-fayalite series is peridot mineral, which is part of the group of olivine. This is one of the "idiochromatic" gems, meaning its colour comes from the basic chemical composition of the mineral itself, not by small impurities, and then only found in shades of green. Why, in fact, Peridot is one of the few gemstones are found in only one colour.

* Hue refers to the base colour of peridot. * Saturation (also called the colour purity and intensity) is the extent to which the tone is masked by other colours. * Tone is the amount of colour in Peridot ranges from ultra light to extremely dark.

Clarity

Most Peridot stone is not particularly expensive, eye clean clarity is the norm. Burmese gems are often marked by small inclusions of platelets, which may give some stones look sleepy. The strong birefringence (0.036) Peridot can also make them look a little stone sleep. This is more pronounced in large stones (10 cts. and more.).

The clarity, as with all other gemstones, is officially classified as ranging from the best VVS (very, very, slightly included), to VS (very, slightly included), SI-S2 (slightly included), and down to I1,I2,13 (included).

Cut

Only the imagination limits of cuts and shapes applied to peridot, cuts all outstanding fantasy collapsed beads are seen. Once again, because it is hugely expensive, the publishers can focus on the beauty of more than the weight of the store. This means that a good cut, proportions and symmetry are expected. Stay away from the deformation of the gems cutting native, unless they are cheap enough to cut at respectable proportions.

Prices

Peridot ranges in price from about 50-80/ct for well-cut gems in the 1-2 ct in size bracket, up to 400-450 per ct for gems of superior colours.

Stone Size

Peridot is common in sizes ranging from melee to faceted stones of 10 cts or more. Fine faceted stones of greater than 300 carats are known, but relatively rare.

Sources

Gem Peridot has been found in a handful of places around the world. In large sizes (10 cts plus), Pyaung Gaung in Burma's Mogok Stone Tract is most prominent. Faceted gems of hundreds of carats are known from this deposit. In the 1990s, a new deposit from Pakistans Suppatt area was discovered, and this material is every bit the equal of that from Burma.

In the US, the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation supplies suitable material, but this rarely cuts gems above 10 cts. Peridot is also mined in China, Brazil, Australia and Norway, among other places. The historic deposit of Zabargad has not produced at all in decades.

Improvements

Peridot is usually not improved.

Imitations

Peridot has never been synthesized, but a number of imitations exist, including natural stones such as tourmaline, and simulated imitations such as glass. Green glass is the most popular copy and can be easily separated by its single refraction.

Cleaning Peridot

As with most jewellery, it is rarely necessary to have your jewellery "professionally" cleaned unless they were allowed to become very dirty and / or scratched or damaged. If cleaned regularly enough, so simply by cleaning with hot, soapy water lightly with a very soft toothbrush, all the fire and brilliance original stones remain or be brought back to life. Just be careful.

My last word ..,

No matter where you buy your Peridot Rings and other Jewellery from peridot, it is obviously preferable to use reliable suppliers, be it Internet or high street based.

I strongly suggest you buy Peridot Jewellery with great attention. Expect to pay more for larger sizes of gems, and remember, at the end of the day, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." In order to choose the stones you want, not what you are led to believe! What peridot colour, size or shape you choose, be sure to use and enjoy!




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1 comments:

watsoon said...

thanks for this usefull article, waiting for this article like this again.
peridot rings

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