Gemstones
~ semi precious stones sought after by jewelers

Gemstones are gifts from nature. They are minerals, or organic matters that are cut and polished and made into gemstone jewelry, and other decorative items to be worn or displayed. The value of a gem stone depends on its rarity, beauty and durability.

Precious Stones / Semi-precious Stones

All gem stones are precious stones. In order to differentiate them, precious stones other than emerald, ruby and sapphire are usually referred to as semi precious stones.

Right from the beginning, these three precious stones; emerald, ruby and sapphire, rule the gemstone market.

Likewise, on this jewelry-making-instructions website, we will also refer to emeralds, rubies, and sapphires as precious stones and all other varieties of gems as semi precious stones.

Precious Stones :

Note: Diamonds are also classified under precious stones.

Diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires are usually highly priced. For this reason, jewelers will not drill holes onto them to be used as beads to be stringed.

As such, these 3 precious stones are usually set against precious metal; namely gold or silver. Likewise smaller size precious stones are set into precious metal.

* Diamond

* Emerald

* Ruby

* Sapphire

Semi Precious Stones :

* Agate

* Alexandrite

* Amber

* Amethyst

* Ametrine

* Andalusite

* Aquamarine

* Aventurine

* Beryls

* Bloodstone

* Carnelian

* Chrome Diopside

* Chrysoberyl

* Citrine

* Coral

* Fluorite

Jewelry Making Tips: Gemstones are usually sold in strands. It is very tempting to unstrung these and store them like loose gemstones in jewelry boxes. Do leave them on the strands. As gem stones are of unequal sizes, they are placed individually on the string in such a way as to cause them to look like they are of uniform sizes. At the same time, when left on the strands, you will find it very easy to transfer a whole row of these stones onto your stringing wire at one time.

* Garnets

--- Demantoid Garnet

--- Mandarin Garnet

--- Tsavorite Garnet

* Goldstone

* Hematite

* Howlite

* Iolite

* Jade

* Jasper

* Kunzite

* Labradorite

* Lapis Lazuli

* Malachite

* Moonstone

* Morganite

* Mother-of-Pearl

* Onyx

* Opal

--- Fire Opal

Jewelry Making Tips: Heavier and bigger gemstones have plastic tubing placed in-between each stone as spacers. Do not remove these plastic tubing as they are placed there to keep each gem from knocking against each other and from being scratched and chipped.

* Pearl

--- Freshwater Pearl

--- Cultured Pearl

--- Black Pearl

* Peridot

* Pyrite

* Quartz

--- Rose Quartz

--- Smoky Quartz

--- Tourmalinated Quartz

* Rhodochrosite

* Rock Crystal

* Rodonite

* Sodalite

* Spinel

* Tanzanite

* Tiger Eye

* Topaz

* Tourmaline

--- Blue Tourmaline

--- Green Tourmaline

--- Paraiba Tourmaline

--- Rubellite Tourmaline

--- Yellow Tourmaline

--- Multicolored Tourmaline

* Turquoise

* Zircon

The above list of semi-precious stones is not exhaustive and as time allow, I will be adding more gemstones names onto this list.

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