Gemstones are found all over the world, you may be surprised to know that many gemstones can be found local to you. A great example is quartz. Quartz is the most abundant mineral found on Earth, and many versions of quartz are used in jewelry, such as chalcedony, rose quartz, citrine, amethyst and smoky quartz.
Gemstones fall into two basic categories, precious and semi precious.
Precious Gems
Precious gems are usually cut, faceted and polished before being placed in jewelry settings. Precious stones are graded for their rarity, clarity and lack of flaws within the stone. Precious gems include emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds, such as the blue diamond to the left. An ideal precious gem is as close to flawless as possible with transparency and rich color or reflective properties.
Semi precious gems
Semi precious gems are stones that are more prolific, and less expensive, but still make lovely jewelry. Citrine, tourmaline, garnet, amethyst, turquoise and tiger eye are a few examples. Our artisans can cut, facet and mount a wide variety of both precious and semi precious stones.
