More on "Green Amethyst", or Prasiolite
In my last post, I shared a photo of this piece that I made for my mother. My dear friend Swati, commented to the effect that I was teaching her something new in regards to "green amethyst", and I realized I better get my butt in gear and do some research so I'm not sharing false information!! So this post is a little about this green stone :) I am not a specialist - just explaining as best I understand. I welcome anyone to add more or correct me!
The first thing to know is that it is a variety of quartz - just like amethyst, citrine, and rose quartz are all different types of quartz. Some quartz has a specific iron compound that when heated turns green. Without that compound, heated quartz will usually turn a yellow or brown color. I believe that even though it is called green *amethyst* it didn't have to be amethyst (purple/lavender) first; it could have been heat treated from a clear quartz. From what I read, most prasiolite that is sold on the market has been heat treated by man rather than found naturally green. There are instances of naturally heated green quartz -- due to some geological event heating up the appropriate quartz, but this is much less common in the gemstone field.
And that's about it for my knowledge!
Now the more scientific people may smack me on the head for my simple interpretation...
Whatever it is, it's pretty don't you think?
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Inspired by Iza Malczyk's tutorials
About me...
- Shay Stone
- Simply put, I'm a wire and gem jewelry freak! I like to string, twist, weave, wrap, form, and decorate with gems, wire and other earthy beauties. If you want to know more please click on the "About" tab at the top of the page. To contact me, check my blogger profile (click below) ... Thanks!
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4 comments:
Oh thank you Shay! I wonder why is this called Amethyst? Any idea? I wonder what makes one quartz an Amethyst, and the other a Citrine...and why is the green one an Amethyst...is there a specific molecular arrangement that dictates this? Now you've made me very curious, and I should go find out more. :-)))
I'll leave that research up to you! LOL..
That pendant is absolutely STUNNING!! You do amazing work!!!
Thanks so much Shannon! -- though I don't take much credit for this one. If you check out my last post you'll see that I was following a tutorial by a a very wonderful wire worker! She came up with a great design!
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