FEBRUARY BIRTHSTONE: AMETHYST

Amethyst is a type of quartz and is suitable for everyday wear. Available in a wide range of purples from the palest pastel lavender to the deepest seductive purple they are available in many sizes.

COLOUR: Pale lilac to deep purple.

GEMSTONE FAMILY: Quartz.

MOHS HARDNESS: 7

LOCATION: Mainly in Russia, Brazil and African countries such as Namibia and Zambia.

A BRIEF HISTORY: With its association with the god Bacchus amethyst has long been associated with drink and is believed to help prevent drunkenness.

FAMOUS GEMSTONES: Known as the purple sapphire, the amethyst below was looted during the Indian mutiny in 1855. Everyone who owned it since has suffered disaster and misfortune. When Edward Heron-Allen, owner of the stone from 1890, discovered its sinister history, he declared it 'cursed and stained with blood' and locked it in a bank vault with instructions that it not be opened until 33 years after his death. Heron-Allen's daughter donated the stone to the Museum with a letter he wrote warning anyone against handling it. (Source: The Natural History Museum).

CRYSTAL DICTIONARY: Amethyst is believed to calm the emotions, create clarity of thought and assist in attaining wisdom.

IMPORTANT: Be careful heating an amethyst - high temperatures can cause an irreversible change in the stone and can cause the colour to fade or change.

 www.catherinebuddjewellery.co.uk

JANUARY BIRTHSTONE | GARNET

Garnet is not a single mineral, but a group that consists of a range of closely related minerals. They all have certain properties in common; namely they all have a cubic crystal form with a hardness of between 6.5 - 7.5 on the MOHS scale. 

Commonly thought of as rusty-red, the Garnet comes in many different varieties and colours - red, pink, yellow, orange, brown, green.



Different varieties of Garnet

Clockwise from top right: Hessonite: yellowish orange to orange-brown variety of Grossular garnet, sometimes called the 'cinnamon stone'. Demantoid: green variety of Andradite garnet, regularly used by Faberge in some of his designs. Rhodolite: rose-red to purple form of the Pyrope garnet.

For more information visit: www.catherinebuddjewellery.co.uk

DECEMBER BIRTHSTONE: TANZANITE

Tanzanite is a rich blue-violet stone, discovered in the 1960's in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.

A member of the Zoisite family of gemstones, this beautiful blue-violet stone is mined only in Tanzania and is often mistaken for a sapphire. Tanzanite is strongly 'pleochroic', which means this gemstone displays different colours - red, violet, blue, grey - when viewed from different angles. The blues appear more evident when subjected to fluorescent light and the violet hues can be seen readily when viewed under incandescent illumination.

With a hardness rating of 6.5 tanzanite is somewhat soft and fragile - most are set in earrings or pendants and care should be taken with tanzanite rings.

In its natural form, tanzanite is typically a brown colour, however most blue tanzanites for sale today owe their colour to heat treatment, which is what reveals its attractive pleochroic blues and violets. Simply richer in colour, heat-treated tanzanite is considered to be the same quality as non heat-treated tanzanite's, and as a rule, the larger the tanzanite, the deeper the colour.

Probably the most noteworthy tanzanite gemstone is the "Queen of Kilimanjaro", which is set into a white gold tiara along with 803 garnets and 913 diamonds. It is thought to be one of the world's largest faceted tanzanite gemstones, and weighs 242 carats.

www.catherinebuddjewellery.co.uk

NOVEMBER BIRTHSTONE: TOPAZ

TOPAZ is the birthstone for November and is believed to come from the Sanskrit word meaning 'fire'. Topaz occurs in a wide range of colours including red, orange, peach, pink, gold, yellow, brown and clear.

It is typically found in huge and flawless crystals, which can be faceted into giant gemstones which can weigh thousands of carats. Some of the largest gemstone pieces ever cut were of Topaz.

Topaz is a hard and durable gemstone, suitable for all jewellery, however, it does have perfect cleavage which can make it prone to chipping or forming flaws if banged hard. 

Details of the Topaz Gemstones shown above (Clockwise from top left):

GOLDEN TOPAZ: Golden brown to yellow in colour and is often confused with the less valuable citrine.

PINK TOPAZ : Pink or red topaz gets its colour from the presence of chromium - the same element that makes rubies red.

RUTILATED WHITE TOPAZ: Topaz with yellow needle-like inclusions of the mineral Limonite. It should be noted that these inclusions within Topaz are rare.

TOPAZ AND BIXBYITE: Topaz growing with Bixbyite - a rare mineral formed of isometric crystals, which give the appearance of highly modified cubes.

BLUE TOPAZ: Blue Topaz does occur in nature, but is rare and almost always light in colour. Most if not all blue Topaz used in jewellery has been irradiated and heat treated to artificially create the blue colour.

IMPERIAL TOPAZ : The highly prized “imperial topaz” - an intense golden to reddish-orange colour found primarily in Brazil.

For more information: www.catherinebuddjewellery.co.uk