Blue
sapphires pink sapphire
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sapphire jewelry, star sapphire
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Sapphires are beautiful
precious stones with a wide color spectrum
from the blue of a
fresh cornflower to the very deep mysterious intense deep ocean. They
also come with other colors
such as pink sapphire, yellow, white and
other colors. A pink sapphire could be a very good
alternative to a
pink diamond since they
look very similar and the price is much lower than
diamonds.
Myanmar - Burma was one of the
major sources of high quality stones in the past but now
other producers are taking over in particular Madagascar
with the help of companies from Thailand who usually
used Myanmar - Burma stones but because of the political
situation in Myanmar no one is investing anything
anymore into new production facilities for mining and the
supply dries up slowly.
They are
next to diamond in hardness and
therefore resistant to wear.
Australia is the largest producer of
blue and golden stones.
The largest
stone known was a 950 carats gem from
Myanmar - Burma. The largest in Australia was
886 carats from Queensland in 1934.
There are star sapphires and star
rubies found which contain fine
fiber crystals giving the star effect
when cut as a cabochon.
- A star sapphire
is something
special, mined at the Mogok area in Myanmar but the real
dealing is going on
at
Chanthaburi Thailand.
Actually it is a common problem with all this precious
stones, they are found somewhere, when they are moved out of
the production
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country not much value is
raised. After the stones left the country lets say for
Thailand, India, Europe or Israel the prices made a jump
upwards and people in those countries make the real profit
by cutting and polishing them. |
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A sapphire ring with
diamonds |
Star sapphires
have a touch
of legends and three of the most
prominent gemstones are emerald, ruby and
blue sapphire jewelry.
It
has been a common belief that this blue stone bring magic,
charm and good luck to anyone who gets a hold of them.
Pictures of a stone go with blue flower, blue water and
blue sky.
They depicts blue color somehow, since the
gemstone is effectively corundum, yellow, violet, purple,
pink and orange colors are also within the spectrum.
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sale at
Chanthaburi Thailand |
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the beauty of this
precious stone, if the cut is excellent and maybe a
few diamonds added it become the perfect blue piece
of jewelry. They come
in many colors almost like orchids, depending on the
quantity of impurities such as titanium,
chromium, iron and other, all can change the color
of the mineral into colors such as green, pink,
orange, yellow and various shades of blue plus black
and grey, more.
in blue became very
popular during the middles ages, they were the rings
of the clergy. Their strange belief was this
precious stone is representing heaven and jewelry is
still going strong until today.
Since we live in a
modern world synthetic stones (and not only blue). Because of the
advancement in the production of synthetic stones
today they are available for very low prizes
relative to the natural gems,
more. |
Ruby Emerald Diamonds Bracelet with
Gold
Some of the photos on this page are from jordanrich1 |
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Ruby diamond
sapphire ring
Two star sapphire |
Means be careful when
purchasing any precious stones since there
are all kind of fake stones out there, some
are heat treated, often done with
rubies, others are
synthetic and others are injected with chemicals,
this is often used with
jade items to give them a translucent
green color.
Sapphires were already mentioned in
the Bible and some old Greek texts
and some people in India
are wearing a
a blue sapphire to protect them from evil spirits.
A
pink sapphire
is often used instead of a pink
diamond, they practically look the
same and it is not possible to see a
difference without technical tools.
This similarities lifted the demand
for pink sapphire and the prices
also moved up. There are some
similarities to the market and
demand for yellow, also they are
usually more saturated than yellow
diamonds they look very similar. In
any case it needs to be careful |
Sapphire Jewelry
A
pink sapphire |
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Yellow sapphire and
pink sapphire
Blue sapphire |
because heat treatment is often
used. The
pink hue comes from
aluminum
oxide and some
chromium in the
crystals. Some inferior pink
stones get heat treatment for a
better deeper pink color.
Most
pink gems came from
Myanmar or Burma and Sri Lanka
until some decades ago, today this
has changed, the main producer now
is Madagascar and Brazil. Big
deposits have been
found in the early 90 ties of the
last century.
Myanmar lost
a big piece of the market in recent years since there
is no investment into the mines. The
mines still work
in the same way as always done since
ancient times.
The
mines at
Mogok
in upper Myanmar are slowly
depleting. |
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Star of India
blue sapphire, star sapphire and star rubies
give a special touch to any jewelry.
Pink Sapphire Ring |
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Madagascar sapphires mining
or childhood underground,
in the mines of
Madagascar thousands of
children dig after
Sapphires, some of the
workers are not even six
years old. The boy in the right
picture is 14 years old,
he works in a sapphire mine
at Manombo in Madagascar
every day since 2 years now.
He sleeps outdoor and from
six clock in the morning
until early evening he pulls
bags after bag up the deep
hole his uncle digged,
twelve hours a day.
For lunch he eat yams or
cassava, but not every day,
others have nothing to eat
at all. On ropes, the mine
children move down the hole
to dig the sand, bring up
the sand and gravel from
which the sapphires are
sifted.
At Madagascar two-thirds
of the population live below
the poverty line. The
large Sapphire deposits in
the south of Africa's Island
state attracts kids and
others to try to get a bit
from the "cake".
According to an official
study
in 2006, about 19,000
children worked in the mines
in this region. In
Madagascar, officially,
young people are allowed to
work only if they are 15
years old, but no one cares.
Some some kids in the mine
are even only six years old.
Informal estimates put the
amount circulating in the
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Sapphire mining in
Madagascar |
Children in a
Madagascar Sapphire
mine |
Madagascar Sapphire
mine sifting gear |
Madagascar Sapphire
mine working the
gravel |
Children worker in a
Madagascar Sapphire
mine |
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precious-stone market each day
at more than $1.4 million: a
staggering sum in a country that
had a gross domestic product in
1998 of $234 per person.
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blue sapphires,
star sapphire,
earrings,
rings,
pink
sapphire,
sapphire jewelry,
white,
yellows,
beads,
color,
yellow,
sapphire. |
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