Learn about sunstone's durability and how to care for your sunstone jewelry.

Spinel is a good candidate for the title of “History’s Most Underappreciated Gem.” Some ancient mines that supplied gems for royal courts from Rome to China produced spinel, but it was usually confused with better-known stones like ruby and sapphire.

The Black Prince’s Ruby. The Timur Ruby. For centuries, spinel, the great imposter, masqueraded as ruby in Europe’s crown jewels

The spinel used in jewelry is a small part of a group of minerals that share the same crystal structure. Not all of them form transparent crystals suitable for jewelry use, however. Spinel offers a range of hues, from orange to intense “stoplight” red, vibrant pink, and all shades of purple, blue, and violet through bluish green.

Learn about the factors that make sunstone so desirable.

In the early 1800s sunstone was a little-known, rare, and costly gemstone. It wasn’t until finds in Norway, Siberia, and other parts of the world that sunstone became somewhat more widely recognized, more available, and less expensive.

Not all feldspars that bear the name “sunstone” are from the same side of the feldspar family—both the orthoclase and the plagioclase species boast a sunstone feldspar variety. The name sunstone refers to the gem’s appearance rather than to its chemical makeup.

This silicate of aluminum, iron, and magnesium has two distinctive features—a beautiful, violetish blue through slightly violetish blue hue derived from iron and a striking, eye-visible pleochroism.

Iolite has a long history of use as an adornment and possibly as a navigation tool.

Modern gemologists use the word “jade” as a generic term for both nephrite and jadeite. These minerals have been linked throughout history.

Learn about the factors that make lapis lazuli so desirable.

了解锆石如此受欢迎的原因。

Zircon occurs in an array of colors. Its wide and varied palette of yellow, green, red, reddish brown, and blue hues makes it a favorite among collectors as well as informed consumers.

Learn about Zircon's durability and how to care for your Zircon jewelry.

Learn about the factors that make rose quartz so desirable.

Rose quartz jewelry was known to be crafted by the Assyrians around 800-600 BC. The Assyrians, along with the Romans, might have been the first to use this stone.

Rose quartz is one of the many quartz varieties used as a gem material. It gets its name from its delicate pink color, which ranges from very light (almost white) to medium-dark.

According to Hindu mythology, moonstone is made of solidified moonbeams.

Learn about ametrine's durability and how to care for your ametrine jewelry.

Transparent, bicolored quartz with the colors of both amethyst and citrine in the same gem is called ametrine or amethyst-citrine.