Have you ever thought about how gemstones are actually formed? I hadn’t. I’d never really given it much thought. I just oohed and ahhed over the amazing colours and gorgeous jewellery that I’d seen in magazines, boutiques and on celebrities.
Then, I got the wonderful opportunity to work with not only diamonds but amazing coloured gemstones here at Polished Diamonds. Everything I’ve learned since the day I started has really blown my mind and I enjoy every day looking and analysing the amazing diamonds and gemstones.
It takes me back to my school days of learning about the layers of the earth. And how earth’s crust is basically just plates that float on top of its mantle. Thus, creating mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes. In my mind, all of this was an age old story. The majesties of the Southern Alps and the fury of Mount Tongariro and Ruapehu were remarkable landmarks that had been around for centuries. What did they have to do with the amazing jewellery I’d just seen adorning all of the celebrities for the Oscar’s and NZ Music Awards? The answer: everything.
These same “floating plates” that have rubbed together to form mountains and volcanoes are also creating the perfect environment for gemstone formation: pressure, temperature, space and some pretty “special ingredients”. The “special ingredients” or elements that make up the earth’s crust are: Oxygen: 46.60%; Silicon: 27.72%; Aluminium: 8.13%; Iron: 5.00%; Calcium: 3.63%; Magnesium: 2.09%; Boron: 0.0010%; Beryllium: 0.00026%. When these elements are combined with temperature, pressure and a whole lot of time, it creates all sorts of gemstone species. (The rarer the element, the rarer the gem.) But that’s not all! The earth sometimes throws in extra ingredients into our recipe called trace elements to achieve colour variants or some distinctive optical phenomenon. For example, The gemstone species corundum is made up of the elements oxygen and aluminium. When you throw in a little titanium and iron, you’ll get a deep blue gem sapphire, but if chromium is added to the mix, you’ll be surprised with a red ruby. How cool is that?! Nature has created something so incredible and complex with no human involvement. I can totally understand how some rare stones are valued at millions of dollars.
This knowledge has truly given me a new appreciation for the gemstone that our team at Polished Diamonds offer to our customers. Each stone that passes my desk has been meticulously hand crafted in nature, and I am in total awe of it all. Even the small inclusions are natures fingerprints and no gemstone is the same. We think that vibrant colour from Sapphire, Ruby and Tanzanite are just as exciting as the colourless majesty of a D-Flawless diamond. We are happy to offer any gemstone to be set into our jewellery designs so speak to one of our team today about amazing coloured gemstones, birthstones and be amazed at how these marvels of nature came to be. Amazing gemstones uniquely sourced just for you.
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