Garnet,
Hessonite Garnet and Tsavourite
Garnets
with hardness 7.5,
come as red in the almandine pyrope varieties. In
the same family is the Hessonite
Garnet which is more yellowish orange in colour.
The green garnet is better known as Tsavourite,
which is not found in Sri
Lanka but available in our stock
imported from India. |
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Quartz,
Citrine, Amethyst and Onyx
Quartz
with hardness 7, occurs in various colours which
include Smoky Quartz, White Quartz and Rose Quartz.
The mauve is known as Amethyst.
Yellow or golden colour is known as Citrine
and the opaque black and green known as Black
Onyx and Green
Onyx. |
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Aquamarine
Beryl
with hardness 7.5 occurs as Aquamarine
in various shades of pale blue to sea green. Emerald
is a type of beryl imported from India
and South
Africa available in
our stock. |
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Topaz
Topaz with hardness 8, forms in clear
to light blue and Blue Topaz are a favourite in slightly inexpensive gem stones. |
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Tourmaline
Tourmaline
with hardness 7 is a very common variety but the Green Tourmaline is rare and expensive. |
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Sinhalite
Sinhalite a stone mined only in Sri
Lanka. It’s a yellowish brown in
colour and very rare.
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Alexandrite
and Cat’s Eye
Both of the Chrysoberyl family with hardness 8.5.
Cat’s Eye’s
are also cut similar to Star Sapphires to bring out
the Cat’s Eye effect. Ideal specimens are the honey
brown body colour with the ray of milky white colour.
Alexandrite
is when the gem occurs in clear condition with traces
of chromium in the crystalline formation, it has the
characteristics of being green in daylight and reddish
in artificial light. If this phenomenon brings forth
a 100% change of colour, the stone becomes priceless.
Otherwise prices change according to the degree of the
change in colour.
If there is no colour change it is known simply
as a Chrysoberyl. They occur from pale yellow,
pale green to brown. |
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Zircon
Zircon
with hardness 7.5, of good quality occurs in shades
of green to red. The fine green variety is rare and
more expensive
It must be mentioned that Zircon is a natural stone
while Zirconia
is a synthetic colourless stone used to imitate the
diamond. |
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Moonstone
Moonstones
usually occur as a milky white stone with hardness
6. The best specimens of Blue Moonstones, which are clear Moonstones
with a blue sheen are very rare and are found only
in Sri Lanka.
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Peridot
Peridot is a pale green stone with hardness
6.5. Not found in Sri Lanka but available in our stock. |
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