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.
