AQUAMARINE
Aquamarine is a color that is a light bluish tint of green that is in-between cyan and green on the color wheel. It is named after the mineral aquamarine, a gemstone mainly found in granite rocks. The first recorded use of aquamarine as a color name in English was in 1598.Aquamarine’s name comes from the Latin for seawater and it was said to calm waves and keep sailors safe at sea. March’s birthstone was also thought to enhance the happiness of marriages. The best gems combine high clarity with limpid transparency and blue to slightly greenish blue hues. Like many beryls, aquamarine forms large crystals suitable for sizable fashioned gems and carvings
As a consumer, you will regularly encounter in the marketplace gems that have been treated to change their appearance. A topic that often comes up is whether a particular gemstone is or isn’t treated. In a sense, humans alter all gem materials after they are found in the earth in order to prepare them for use in jewelry. Natural gem crystals are transformed from their rough crystallographic form into the shapes, outlines, and degrees of polish in the gemstones that we appreciate and wear in jewelry. These steps are and have always been the routine procedures used for manufacturing gemstones. Beyond traditional cutting and polishing, however, gems can often be treated in ways meant to alter their color or clarity. In addition to enhancing their appearance, the process may also improve (or in some cases diminish) the gem’s durability. Because these treatments are not always apparent to the unpracticed eye, and are sometimes difficult to distinguish even by experts, it is necessary and legally required for anyone selling a gem (including consumer to consumer trade) to disclose the treatment procedure it may have received.
Non-disclosure of this treatment could cause a person to believe that a particular gemstone was of higher quality naturally and therefore be more valuable than it actually is. An added challenge is that treatments can be permanent, long lasting, or short-lived under normal jewelry use. Treated gems may require special care by their owner. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has established a set of consumer guidelines outlining the need for treatment disclosures and special care requirements, and countries around the world either adhere to similar guidelines, or have regulations of their own. Additionally there are several professional organizations such as the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), or the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), or The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), that have formulated specific guidelines that their members are required to follow regarding the disclosure of treatments in gem materials. The following glossary includes terms that are often used in the gem treatment nomenclature, and that you may encounter when shopping for gemstones. Finally, treatments for gemstones are constantly being changed and refined, and the detection of these new treated gems is an important part of ongoing gemological research.
The following guide will give a short description of the treatment process, some gems for which the process is used, how easy or difficult the treatment is to detect for a trained gemologist, how often the treated gem might be encountered in the jewelry trade, and how durable the material is to normal handling procedures. Any special care instructions for these treated gems are also provided.
synthetic
A synthetic gem material is one that is made in a laboratory, but which shares virtually all chemical, optical, and physical characteristics of its natural mineral counterpart, though in some cases, namely synthetic turquoise and synthetic opal, additional compounds can be present.
Synthetic gem crystals have been manufactured since the late 1800s, and their production is often marked by a need for them in industrial applications outside of the jewelry industry. The first success was in producing synthetic ruby of faceting quality. Synthetic crystals are used in communications and laser technology, microelectronics, and abrasives. Because synthetics for jewelry applications can be “made to order” [i.e. consistent color and crystal shape] given the right ingredients, time, and the facilities to grow them, they are likely to be much less rare than natural gems of equal size, clarity, and saturation of color. Because of this, and because it is possible to confuse them with gems that are naturally occurring, there are strict guidelines regarding how they are marketed and sold.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission requires that any gem material produced in a laboratory be described in a way that leaves no doubt that it was not produced naturally. It is considered to be a deceptive practice if a synthetic gem material’s origin is not clearly disclosed throughout the distribution channel at the time of sale, from the manufacturer to the consumer. There are also a number of industry organizations such as the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), and the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) that have formulated specific guidelines for their members regarding the disclosure of synthetic gems at the time of sale. In the last decade fewer new kinds of man-made gem materials have been marketed. This suggests that the repertoire of synthetic gem materials is close to reaching its limit in terms of the creation of new materials, but it is not limited in production which is still very significant. During the last century, researchers have developed a number of different ways to create these synthetic gem materials in the laboratory. Most of these methods fall into two major categories – melt or solution.
In melt processes, the chemical composition of melt is the same as the composition of the resulting crystal. In solution processes, the solution or melt has a different chemical composition than that of the resulting crystal. Constituents are dissolved in the solution or melt at high temperature, and the crystal forms initially on a seed crystal as the melt temperature is lowered. Some of the main synthetic processes include:
