Gemstones: real or fake? AKA: Know what you are buying….PART 2

Hi.  Thank you so much for coming back to visit!  It’s good to see you!  

Before we talk about fake stones, I wanted to briefly mention misnomers.  If a stone has a topological word before the name of the gemstone it is not what it is represented to be. Here are some examples:  An Oriental emerald is a green sapphire.  An American ruby is a garnet.  Australian jade is quartz that's been treated.  

Also important to note:  there are many beautiful “stones” out there that are composites of genuine stone and imitation stone.  An excellent example of this is jewelry made with opals.  It is often made with composites.  There are several types of composites.  One of several is to make the base of imitation or lesser quality stone and then place a layer of genuine stone over on top.  

There are many many more points on this topic.  If you would like more info I highly recommend doing more research.  If you want more info here, please leave a message and I will write about it.

Now…Fake Stones!  A pet peeve…

A while ago, I bought a stone that were utterly gorgeous.  I like to add anecdotes to my jewelry descriptions (silverpennyartisans.etsy.com).  In the course of looking for info on the particular stone, I found there was no such stone.  I am no stuck with very expense glass because I cannot sell it for what I paid for it because I, in good conscience, cannot sell it as anything but glass.  I want to make sure you, the consumer, is aware of this new trend.

Here is a list of some fakes/scams flooding out of Hong Kong (found online and in stores), posted on Facebook by Jamey Swisher, a gemologist. ( http://thatcrystalsite.ning.com)   I see these stones all over.  They are beautiful.  I just believe you should be price conscience when you by a piece of jewelry featuring one of these stones.

Dragon agate or dragon vein agate, some is quench cracked, bleached, and dyed agate some is quench cracked, and dyed glass.

Succor Creek Jasper, some is low grade jasper scraps, others are polymer materials, some is low grade stabilized cherry creek jasper

Druzy tiger's eye jasper or tiger's eye jasper, very low grade iron stained kyanite or low

grade serpentine in quartz

Picasso Jasper, most is low grade stabilized cherry creek jasper, some is composite or polymer materials

Kambama Jasper, some is the real deal a stromatolite, others are simply resin/polymer composites

Leopard skin jasper, not even close. Most is low grade agate or onyx or travertine that have been dyed, some are again, polymer composite type

Turquoise & pyrite matrix, dyed, composite material, created by taking low grade scraps of whatever material can be gotten, artificial and/or natural, then adding dye,  resin/polymers/epoxy and then compressing into blocks, then slabbed and cabbed.

All kinds of Jade carvings, everything from dyed serpentine, to composites, to polymer/resin, to dyed lepidolite

Flame Jasper, everything from dyed and stabilized low grade chert to resin/polymer

Cherry Quartz, everything from quench cracked and dyed quartz to entirely resin/polymer creations, to quench cracked and dyed glass creations

Fluorite with pyrite/Amethyst with Pyrite/Fluorite & amethyst with Pyrite, everything from amethyst & fluorite chips mixed with pyrite looking stuff in a composite to colored slag glass and metal shavings in a resin/polymer composite.

Sea Sediment Jasper, again, everything from complete resin/polymer dyed creations, to dyed composite materials, to low grade jaspers stabilized and dyed, majority is dyed polymer/resin creations

Agates. mainly low grade dyed agates, but some are, again, dyed resin/polymer creations

Druzy Geode agate cabs, some are simply geode pieces stabilized and dyed two or more colors, others are solid geode insides with resin/polymer pieces and are composite dyed materials

Fire Druzy Agates, more composite or just low grade geode type pieces quenched and dyed

Crazy Lace Agate, everything from dyed composites to dyed resin/polymer to dyed low grade agate or rhyolite or travertine

Dyed Variscite, almost all of it is dyed resin/polymer creations, some are dyed composites, others are low grade impregnated and dyed jaspers or rarely low grade impregnated and dyed variscite

Rhodocrosite, dyed and stabilized travertine

Opalite, just a type of man-made glass

Snowflake obsidian, actually a very low grade cheap Dalmatian jasper

Lapis Lazuli, mainly dyed man-made composite materials

Rainbow stone, man-made dyed composite or polymer/resin creations

Opal Cat's eye from Sri Lanka, just man-made fiber optic glass

All kinds of colored turquoise with and without metal and magnesite, almost all is simply dyed man-made composite materials with NO turquoise in it, some, very little, is actually low grade dyed reconstituted turquoise compressed with resin and metal to make the man-made composite materials

Ruby in Zoisite, nothing but serpentine mixture

Larimar, just dyed resin/polymer in most cases, dyed aventurine quartz in others

Have a great night. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.