Heart of Stone Studio Blog

How To Spot A High-Quality Cabochon

Hello, my name is Judy Kiriazis at Heart of Stone Studio and I’d like to talk to you about how to buy quality gemstones for the jewelry that you design or wear. 

I’ve been trained as a jeweler and have purchased gem cabochons for both my own jewelry designs as well as for my company Heart of Stone Studio, for more than 25 years, and I want to share what I’ve learned, with you.

While buying gemstones can be an exciting and fun experience, it also has a tremendous importance when it comes to enhancing the marketability and reputation of your own jewelry designs. The size, pattern, color, and shape of the stones you select will play an important role in helping you to create your brand, or signature look, as an artist.

There's a lot of jewelry being sold out there, and it's important that your work stand out. Beautiful gemstones not only attract the eye of the buyer, they also help to convey a level of quality that enhances your design and allows you to command a higher price point for your work.

As a metalsmith, I've learned that the investment of time and effort in making a stunning piece of jewelry calls for a beautiful stone to be its centerpiece. Otherwise, why waste your time with an inferior gemstone?

So here are my insider tips on what to look for when buying quality cabs. I’ll illustrate how characteristics such as color, pattern, and cut can make one piece well worth your investment, while other pieces—often from the same mine—are only worth passing up. 

First, look at color.

The color has to be rich and vibrant, and not dull.

Here’s a common Chrysocolla cabochon on the right. It’s has a nice triangular shape, but doesn’t have much of the  characteristic Chrysocolla aqua blue color.

On the other hand, this high-quality Chrysocolla cab on the left features rich, saturated shades of blue throughout the stone. You have to keep in mind that the miner is pulling tens to hundreds of pounds of rough material out of the ground, and only a relatively small fraction of it contains these colors. This is what you want to hold out for if you want to feature Chrysocolla in your jewelry.

Next, look at pattern.

The pattern has to be pleasing and interesting.

The stone on the right has a jumbled and muddy pattern, while the stone on the left has a well-defined pattern that is pleasing to the eye and stands out as something that is interesting and will catch people's attention.

Sometimes the pattern of a stone can be enhanced or diminished by its shape—A talented cutter can make a stone a winner by choosing a shape that enhances the pattern within. However, since many wholesale dealers base their prices on weight, the cutters who work for them need to cut the most stones they can out of a slab, to minimize waste.

Finally, look at types of cuts.

If you went to a gem show, you could immediately pick out the lesser-valued stones because they are either lopsided in shape or awkwardly cut. You want to look for pleasing, symmetrical cuts.

Ovals are usually a beginner’s cut, but it actually takes quite a bit of skill to cut this stunning, elongated oval of Sonoran Sunrise Jasper on the left. On the other hand, the stone on the right is an awkward shape that will not enhance a jewelry design.

Our Heart of Stone Studio website deals with the top cutters in the country, so we have a great selection of one-of-a-kind, artistic cuts like this.

 

 

In conclusion, it’s clear that there are several main characteristics to keep in mind when shopping for gemstones to set in jewelry.

They must have excellent color and pattern, good cuts, and must also be free of structural defects. And, they should contain the best characteristics for which that species of gemstone is known.

But, if you don’t know the top characteristics of a particular type of gemstone, how would you know what to look for? How do you know you’ll be getting your money’s worth?

Well there are two ways: One approach is to attend a lot of gem shows and be willing to risk making mistakes. Sometimes you'll find great deals, and sometimes you'll get taken. But after years of looking at hundreds, even thousands of stones, you'll get a good idea of exactly what characteristics to look for in each kind of stone you buy.

Or, the other approach is to find a trustworthy dealer, someone who does the hard work of sorting through thousands of gemstones and cherry-picking the absolute best of each type for you to select from. Someone with integrity, who can tell you what to look for and be upfront about the intrinsic value of each stone. Someone who guarantees your satisfaction with what you buy.

Where can you find a dealer like that? Well, at Heart of Stone Studio, we’ve done all the work for you. Stop by our website at www.heartofstonestudio.com and see our collection of top-quality cabochons for sale.

For more information, check out our YouTube video on this subject .

Fordite

Hello, I’m Con from Heart of Stone Studio. I would like to tell you about Fordite.

Fordite is known by several different names, such as Motor Agate, Motorcity Agate, and Detroit Agate. It is not a stone or a mineral, but is multiple layers of paint that were used in painting cars.

In the 1930s, the automobile industry started having workers spraying paint on cars, using stoving enamels, which are enamels that have to be baked to dry. In the 1950s, automobile companies started using acrylic enamels that needed to be baked at 360 degrees for one hour.

These acrylic enamels were sprayed on a car when the car was on a track with skids, and then the car, track and skids were guided into ovens where the paint was baked. Over time, slag from excess paint accumulated on the tracks. Since the paint colors were often changed to accommodate different colors of cars, there were layers upon layers of different colors paint deposited in the slag.

Eventually, the slag had to be removed and discarded.

At some point, workers discovered that if you slice vertically through the slag, you get bright-colored abstract designs. These could be incorporated into jewelry designs.

With that, Fordite was born. The slag actually came from a number of automobile companies, and not just the Ford Motor Company, but Fordite was a convenient name, and the name stuck.

In the late 1970s, the automobile industry developed a new way to apply paint, using an electrostatic process that magnetizes metal and has the paint adhere to the magnetized metal with virtually no paint loss.

That was the end of Fordite production, and no new material is available.

Because the Fordite slag was baked many times, the layers are very durable, but care must be taken not to bend or stress a cabochon because cracks can develop in the paint layers.

From a metaphysical standpoint, Fordite is said to help people get into the flow and the abstract patterns are said to help people generate new creative ideas.

We have a number of Fordite cabochons on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Check out our YouTube video on Fordite.

Amber

Hello, I’m Con from Heart of Stone Studio. I would like to tell you about Amber.

Amber is a fossilized tree resin. A number of different trees in prehistoric times produced resin that did not decay, the way that most resins do.

The resin underwent polymerization, with molecules combining to form networks called polymers. This made the resin hard. After several million years, the volatile oils that make resin have a characteristic smell evaporated, and oxidation and continuing polymerization created a fossilized resin with a Mohs hardness of 2 to 3.

While the resin was still fresh on the trees or had just fallen off the trees onto the forest floor, it was sticky. Various insects, spiders, other arthropods, and even lizards were either attracted to the resin and fell in,  or walked by and were caught by the stickiness. Plant parts were also blown in and stuck to the resin.

Because plant parts, insects, and other creatures were preserved extremely well by the resin, amber gives us a good idea of what some of the flora and smaller fauna was like millions of years ago.

Amber is found in many different places around the world.

In this post, I am going to talk about three different types of amber, labeled by the locations where they are found today.

The first is Baltic Amber. It is found along the southern edge of the Baltic Sea, along the coast of Poland and the Kaliningrad Peninsula of Russia. It is approximately 35 to 40 million years old.

Baltic Amber is usually a rich honey color, with variation in color going from yellowish to deep red. This amber often has inclusions in it, particularly insect inclusions and various plant parts.

It was used in jewelry since Stone Age times. Amber ornaments were found at Stone Age sites in Switzerland and France, and amber jewelry was found in Egyptian burials dating back to 3000 BC.

A more recent amber is Chiapas or Mexican amber, found in mines in the Simojovel area of Chiapas, Mexico. Chiapas amber is approximately 20 to 26 million years old.

This amber tends to be more yellow in color and somewhat more clear than Baltic Amber. Like Baltic Amber, Chiapas Amber often has inclusions of insects and plant parts.

Chiapas Amber was used by the Aztecs for jewelry, decorations, and utensils such as spoons.

A relatively new find of amber is Sumatran Amber, which comes from Indonesia. This is a younger amber, approximately 10 to 20 million years old.

It has a lot of color variation, from honey to red and black.

Unlike the other two ambers, Sumatran Amber does not tend to have insect and plant part inclusions. Instead, it often has swirls and spots of reddish colors, sometimes called leopard spots.

From a metaphysical standpoint, amber is said to transmute negative energy into positive energy, help with depression and stress, and increase prosperity.

We have a selection of amber cabochons at our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Check out our YouTube video on Amber.

Carnelian

Hello, I’m Con from Heart of Stone Studio. I would like to tell you about Carnelian.

Carnelian is a microcrystalline quartz, made up of silicon dioxide with iron oxide impurities that give it its distinct red color. It is in the chalcedony family of quartzes, with the quartz arranged in fibrous layers. This is different from the jaspers, where the quartz is arranged in sugar-like grains. The structure of the quartz in Carnelian gives some pieces a partial translucency.

The origin of the name Carnelian is not clear. Some people say that it comes from the Latin Carne, which means flesh. Others say that it comes from the Latin Corneus, which means horn. Still others suggest that it comes from the Latin Corneolus, which means cherry, because of its color.

The stone is found in a variety of places around the world. The best Carnelian comes from India, where people put brownish stones out into the sun and the heat of the sun turns the brown colors red.

Carnelian has a long history of use by people.

Its use in jewelry dates back more than four thousand years. On Crete, Carnelian was found in decorative pieces dating from the Bronze Age, and archeologists have found that this stone was worked by ancient jewelers as far back as the 4th or 5th millennium. 

In ancient Egypt Carnelian was worn by master architects, and was also worn by warriors to give them courage. It was placed in Egyptian tombs as magic armor for life after death and was worn by living people to protect themselves from falling into  hatred, anger, jealousy, and envy.

Egyptians set it in collars and necklaces with onyx and lapis lazuli, and Romans set it in gold for earrings or finger rings.

Because it is a hard stone with a Mohs hardness of 7, it can be carved with images or symbols.  Wax will not stick to Carnelian, so it was used for seals and signets in ancient times. Many Roman seals, and the stones in many Roman signet rings, are Carnelian.

Some say that Carnelian has a number of metaphysical properties. It is said to activate the first, second and third chakras, giving the wearer life force, sexual and creative energy. It is promoted as being good for people who want to make things happen. It can help people take the leap to a new path and helps overcome the fear of taking action.

Carnelian is said to be a good stone to wear for those who are afraid of public speaking, because it is supposed to give self-confidence and strengthens the voice. For this reason, it is a good stone to wear for people who are making theatrical presentations.

In a business context, Carnelian is said to support leadership, courage, and enterprise, and anchors people into the present reality. It is said to aid in decision making, and defines and strengthens a person’s identity.

We have a number of Carnelian cabochons on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Check out our YouTube video on Carnelian.

Pietersite

Hello, I'm Con from Heart of Stone Studio. I would like to tell you about Pietersite.

In 1962, a miner named Sid Pieters  found a large stone near a farm in Outjo in north-central Namibia. The stone was covered with limestone and quite heavy, so he took it back to Windhoek, the largest city in Namibia, where he cut it open. Inside he found something that he had never seen before. He described his find in the mineral records of Britain in 1964, and named the mineral “Pietersite.” 

Namibian Pietersite is found inside river cobbles or large stones buried in the sand. No one knows where the mineral actually comes from, but it has been mined by digging down into river sand, sometimes more than 2 meters (6 feet) below the surface, to excavate the cobbles.

One of the amazing features of Pietersite is its chatoyance, which means that it changes colors and brightness when you change your angle of viewing. Dull browns can become bright yellows, reds, or blues, sometimes looking like an abstract painting with bands and swirls of different colors.

This chatoyance is a result of the mineral structure of Pietersite. It is brecciated, which means that there are broken fragments of other minerals jumbled up and folded inside a matrix of some kind of material, in this case quartz. Think of a lot of chocolate chips inside a matrix of dough, and you will have the concept of brecciated.

This brecciated structure can contain the minerals crocidolite, dolomite, barite, and pyrite as microcrystalline fibers and inclusions in the Namibian Pietersite.

It is a relatively hard mineral, with a Mohs hardness of 6.5-7.0.

Other than the source in Namibia, Pietersite has also been found in China, and Chinese Pietersite has been on the market since 1997. However, the Chinese Pietersite is different from the Namibian, in that it contains more hematite and has more reds and blues than the Namibian one.

In either location, Pietersite is quite scarce. The Namibian mining operation is said to cover just 10 acres, and the Chinese mine is rumored to have been shut down.  As a result, Pietersite prices continue to skyrocket as the demand often exceeds the supply.

From a metaphysical standpoint, Pietersite is said to have a lot of properties.  It is said to encourage clarity of thought and intuition. It is also said to stimulate the third eye, leading to an awareness of the future, and it is said that its use in meditation can sometimes lead to blissful enlightenment.  Some metaphysical theoreticians call Pietersite the “Tempest Stone,” because like a storm, it is said to bring cleansing energy to create change.

We have a number of Pietersite cabochons on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Check out our YouTube video on Pietersite.

Bumblebee Jasper

Hello, I’m Con from Heart of Stone Studio. I would like to tell you about Bumblebee Jasper.

First, Bumblebee Jasper is not a Jasper, which is a form of chalcedony and microgranular quartz.

Instead, Bumblebee Jasper is actually a fibrous calcite with some other minerals mixed in. The yellows and oranges are caused by a mineral called realgar, which is composed of arsenic and sulfide. The blacks are caused by pyrite.

Even though arsenic is present in small amounts in cabochons, Bumblebee Jasper should be handled cautiously using safe handling methods, particularly if it is being cut or worked.

It is a relatively soft stone, with a Mohs hardness of around 5.

The stone is found on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Papandayan in West Java, Indonesia.

From a metaphysical standpoint, Bumblebee Jasper is said to provide boosts of energy and improve concentration.

We have a number of Bumblebee Jasper cabochons on our website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Check out our YouTube video about Bumblebee Jasper.

Copper Cabochons

Let me tell you about copper. Copper is both an element and a mineral. It is an essential trace element in all plants and animals, serving as a factor in various enzyme systems. It is essential to the normal functioning of muscles, the nervous system, and the immune system.

It conducts electricity extremely well, and is used extensively for electrical wires.  Copper is used to make alloys such as brass, which is mixture of copper and zinc, and bronze, which is a mixture of copper, tin, and zinc.

Its name comes from the Greek kyprios, from the island of Cyprus, where copper was mined from pre-historic times. Today, copper is mined in various places, but the biggest copper mining areas are in Chile, Japan, Peru, Australia, Russia, and the United States. In the United States, major mining areas are in Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, and Michigan.

It has a Mohs hardness of 2.5 to 3.

Today, most copper is extracted by chemical processes from copper ore which contains only a small percentage of copper and a large percentage of silicate or oxide minerals that have no commercial value.

The term “Native Copper” is used for pure copper that is not combined with other elements or minerals. It is reddish or orange in color, and can turn a greenish color when it is weathered. 

Native copper has been mined in Upper Michigan and in other places such as Arizona. The native copper deposits in Michigan are some of the largest deposits of native copper in the world.

Cabochons are typically made from native copper nuggets, cut and polished into different shapes.

Some people wear copper jewelry because they believe that it provides them with health benefits, such as helping with arthritis pain and joint stiffness by releasing the flow of blocked energy.

From a metaphysical standpoint, copper is said increase energy and mental focus, and to amplify thoughts in communicating with others.

We have a number of native copper cabochons on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Colla Wood

Colla Wood is a rare blend of petrified wood and minerals that have infused the wood over time. These minerals are associated with copper deposits, and include chrysocolla, malachite, and azurite. In fact, the name Colla Wood comes from the chrysocolla that is found in this fossilized wood.

Colla Wood was found in 2012 in central Turkey near the town of Zile, by people who were prospecting for gold.

As the fossilized wood fractured, water containing copper-related minerals flowed through the fractures, leaving deposits with their distinctive colors. Some of the minerals are azurite with its deep blue color. Other minerals are malachite, with its deep green color. Still other minerals are chrysocolla, with its light blue coloration. Some of the surfaces are opalized, leaving a chatoyance that changes colors and brightness as your perspective changes.

From a metaphysical standpoint, Colla Wood is said to combine the properties of petrified wood with the properties of the other minerals that it contains. Petrified wood is said to have a  grounding or calming effect. Azurite is said to promote mental clarity and enhance psychic powers. Malachite is said to promote abundance and prosperity. Chrysocolla is said to remove negativity and erase anxiety and fear. For those who are interested in the metaphysical properties of stones, jewelry made from these stones would be terrific for business people who are facing challenges in their work.

We have a number of cabochons of Colla Wood on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Chrysoprase

Chrysoprase is a green stone that is a form of chalcedony, containing small quantities of nickel. It is known as a cryptocrystalline mineral, because the crystals that compose the stone are so fine that they cannot be seen under normal magnification. Other cryptocrystalline stones include Onyx, Agate, and Carnelian.

The green color of chrysoprase is similar to the green of emeralds, but in emeralds the green comes from the inclusion of chromium, rather than the nickel of chrysoprase.

The stone has a Mohs hardness of 6 to 7. It is sometimes translucent, so that light shines through it.

The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians used the stone to make seals and ornamental jewelry as far back as 400 BC . It is said that Alexander the Great had a girdle that contained a lucky chrysoprase stone that helped him win battles. One time he was bathing in the Euphrates River when snake bit off the chrysoprase stone and dropped it in the river. After that, Alexander didn't win any more battles.

Because of its sensuous color of green, chrysoprase was often used in Art Nouveau jewelry. Now it can be used as a cabochon in jewelry settings. You are

In historical times the stone was mined only in Poland, but more recently new sources have turned up in Australia, Germany, Russia, Arizona, and California.

Chrysoprase is one of the birthstones for the month of May.

From a metaphysical standpoint, chrysoprase is said to activate both the heart and solar plexus chakras, helping to promote emotional balance. It is also said to help increase the chances of financial success.

We have a number of chrysoprase cabochons on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.

Butterfly Jasper

Butterfly Jasper is a stone that is mined in Mexico. It is called butterfly or sometimes butterfly wing because the patterning of the stone resembles that of butterfly wings.

It is a brecciated jasper, which means that as it was forming it broke up into a series of fragments which then healed together producing an abstract pattern.

Like other jaspers, Butterfly Jasper is a microcrystalline form of quartz, with the Mohs hardness of 6.

The colors in the stone vary considerably. Some stones have predominantly blues and browns, others have browns and yellows, and some stones include red.

From a metaphysical standpoint, jaspers are said to promote stability, comfort, strength, and security.

Butterfly jaspers are said to have an additional element in a metaphysical sense. Like the butterflies that they are named after, butterfly jaspers are said to make the soul feel free and light, and are said to let the imagination soar to new heights.

We have a number of Butterfly Jasper cabochons on our Heart of Stone Studio website, www.heartofstonestudio.com.