Aquamarine

Aquamarine is part of the beryl family and takes its name from the Latin: “aqua” for water and “mare” for sea. It shares, “being a beryl” with emerald and morganite as one of the eight gemstones of the beryl group. With a hardness of 7.5 to 8 on a score out of ten it is quite suitable for all types of jewellery and can be easily cleaned, using ultrasonic, steam or
warm soapy water.

Pure beryl is colourless, but thankfully for us some 500 million years ago magma forced itself though the earth’s crust into cracks in existing rock formations causing pockets of
concentrations of rare metal elements. In this case, it was beryllium and, with aluminum, we
get aquamarine, known and loved today.

The Queen is a reputed lover of aquamarine. After being given a necklace (with a huge detachable pendant) and bracelet set by Brazil and its people for her coronation she has added to her collection over the years. She complemented it by having a tiara made, and later added to it with more stones, arched metal work and detachable pieces which, when removed, could be worn as rather large brooches. Now I love aquamarines as much as the next queen, but stones of that enormous size in a tiara, REALLY? Statement jewellery!

In the rough, aquamarine can be blue, due to traces of ferrous iron, but is mainly found with a greenish tinge due to the yellows of ferric iron. This is driven off by gentle heating of the stone to give the beautiful transparent blues. Heat treating for aquamarines is not
considered in the least as being detrimental to the stone. Indeed, this enhancement is encouraged, and the purity of the blue colour and the depth of colour increase the value of the stone.

Not many stones are untreated but our Classical 10 cocktail ring (featured) is an 18.18 carat internally flawless, untreated, cushion cut aquamarine, surrounded by diamonds and set in palladium. This particular ring is one I use as part of my capsule collection for display and I have been loathe to part with it. But everything has its price………..

In the early 1980’s a technique was discovered to artificially enhance topaz to the blues of aquamarine. Prices tumbled, but now aquamarine is back and has recovere d its value.

Santa Maria aquamarine has become an industry colour standard named after the famous Santa Maria de Itabria mine near the town of Padre Paraiso in Brazil. A huge stone was mined in 1954 and named after Marta Rocha, the then Miss Brazil. Now, the best stones are coming from Minas Gerais in Brazil, but very good stones are coming to the market from Madagascar,
Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania.

If you have any jewellery questions or requirements, please get in touch via phone, website or email. I’d be very pleased to hear from you. And if you want to purchase Classical 10, I shall still be very pleased to hear from you!

StrawberryWood

0800 917 8684
P.O. Box 7491, Kettering, N16 6HU
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www.strawberrywood.co.uk

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StrawberryWood

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