Monthly Archives: July 2018

Uses of Kyanite

Stone kyanite and its Properties

  • July 12, 2018
  • 0 Comments

Kyanite (from the Greek “kyanos”) – blue. Another name for the stone is “disten” (from the Greek “dis sthenos”) – a double fortress. Kyanite – an exotic stone, rarely found in jewelry. In ordinary jewelry stores, you will not see it, and you can find it only from private craftsmen, minerals sellers or collectors.

Origin and chemical composition

Kyanite is an aluminum silicate and refers to rock-forming minerals. It is formed with deep metamorphism of sedimentary rocks rich in alumina, is also found in quartz veins and contact zones of pegmatites. The coloration of kyanites can vary depending on the impurities of the compounds of iron, chromium, titanium and manganese. Traditional color – blue or blue, there are also green, yellow, purple, colorless or almost black kyanites.

The hardness of the stone is very different in different directions. This mineral is found in the form of elongated lamellar crystals with perfect cleavage in one direction parallel to the elongation. Hardness 5,0 (scratching with a knife) in the direction of elongation of the plate and 7,0 (not scratched by the knife) in the perpendicular direction. This property distinguishes kyanite from other precious stones. Blue and bluish-green crystals are distinguished by higher refractive index and density.

Physicochemical properties of kyanite

  • The chemical formula is Al2O (SiO4).
  • Color – blue, sky blue to almost colorless.
  • Singonia is triclinic.
  • The hardness is 4.5-6 on the Mohs scale.
  • The density is 3.5-3.7 g / cm3.
  • Fracture – fibrous.
  • Glitter – glass.

Varieties of kyanite

Kyanites can be dark blue, purple, yellow, and green, colorless, black. There are also crystals with the effect of “cat’s eye”. There are even kyanites with pleochroism (alexandrite effect) – a change in color depending on the angle of view. The color of such stones can vary from cobalt blue and violet to green. Ornaments with kyanite look best in daylight.

Processing and use

Kyanite is used today mainly as industrial raw materials – for the production of high-strength refractory and acid-resistant materials. It is also used in the production of insulators, crucibles for casting steel, spark plugs in the automotive industry, as well as for the creation of aluminum-silicon alloys. He even received the names of the stone of the new millennium and the stone of the 21st century. Kyanite is also used in the ceramic industry for the production of sinks, baths, and tiles.

In the jewelry business, transparent stones are used. They are cabochoned, inserted into earrings, pendants or made from them beads and bracelets. Kyanite is difficult to handle because of its ability to crack easily. At the same time, after polishing, the stone acquires a noble appearance and shine. Ornaments with kyanite look great in daylight.

Long since, the blue-colored crystals have been grinded and sold to inexperienced customers in the guise of sapphires. Indeed, a jewel stone of deep blue color of high transparency and purity can easily be mistaken for sapphire. However, if you take a good look, you can notice that the kyanite is colored unevenly – with stripes.

Deposits of kyanite

The deposits of jewelry kyanites exist almost all over the world. The first place in the extraction of industrial kyanite is occupied by the USA and India. The US Congress in 1984 declared it a strategic material and this could mean, among other things, that it was used in secret industries. In the US, stones are mined in the states of Montana, Virginia, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, South and North Carolina, Georgia. There are deposits in India, Myanmar, Burma, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Australia, Brazil, Austria, Finland, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland. Kyanites of bright blue sapphire are found in the foothills of Nepal.

In Russia, deposits of celestial blue and violet kyanites are found in the Urals. Their spindle-shaped crystals are called oatmeal. Transparent beautifully painted kyanites can also be found in the Arkhangelsk region and the Kola Peninsula.

Imitation and synthetics

Jewelry transparent kyanite deep blue color of high purity can be taken for sapphire, but it is softer than sapphire, and in a crystal it cannot be confused with sapphire. Lighter, watery-blue kyanites are very similar to aquamarine, especially the shape of crystals. If it is noticeable that the color is distributed unevenly in the gem, by strips, then it certainly kyanite.

Magical properties of kyanite

Kyanit is considered a talisman of travelers. It has been known for a long time that a crystal of kyanite suspended on a human hair or silk thread always turns to the north with the same end. For this reason, travelers often took a crystal of kyanite with them, especially if they went to unexplored land.

It is believed that kyanite makes its owner more reasonable, faithful, modest, and prudent. This stone is simply necessary for people who are prone to all sorts of adventures and love affairs.

As a talisman, a kyanite helps a person concentrate on one thing, rather than throwing energy in vain, trying to do everything at once. Also kyanit helps to choose exactly the case, which will bring to its owner the greatest benefit – from material profit to achieving fame and success. Stone protects the owner from the perfidy of business partners, attracts to him the sympathy and trust of other people, helps to climb the career ladder, but only on the condition that the kyanite owner is a kind and decent person. This is the talisman of teachers, doctors, lawyers, bankers, businessmen and politicians.

Properties of Cornelian

Healing properties

Traditional healers believe that kyanite increases the general tone of the body, improves memory, facilitates the state of childhood infections, kidney and bladder diseases, relieves insomnia, removes the effects of stress.

Horoscope

Astrologers strongly recommend wearing kyanite to people born under the signs of Sagittarius and Gemini. It also suits Pisces, Cancers and Libra. This stone is contraindicated irresponsible, lazy, fraudulent people.

History

It is known that kyanites brought from India to Russia and Europe in the 16th century. In 1575 in Moscow was compiled “A descriptive book, how to lead young people to the nobility and the whole price,” and in part it describes “all kinds of land different goods, they are brought to Russia by the Germans and other lands people trading.” Later the book was supplemented with new information, including the description of kyanites: “A stone is a bous, siz, blue, and you do not buy a bass for the yawn.” Baus was brought from India, and it was assumed that in the course of trading he could be given out for a yakhont, that is, for a sapphire.

The name kyanite owes its name to a beautiful sky-blue color. In Germany, kyanite was formerly called a plank stone, because it forms elongated long-columned crystals, similar in structure to wood.

Crystal Quartz Pyramid

Pyramids are used for charging Crystals, meditation, massage and Healing Reiki. We supply highly polished powerful gemstone pyramids which are a must for healer. A crystal pyramid can be used to draw of Negative Energy and Generate Positive Energy.

Crystal Quartz

Quartz is Many-Sided and Everywhere

  • July 12, 2018
  • 0 Comments

There are many quartzes everywhere! In the mountains – this cement, fastening granites. In the deserts – this is all known sand. In the interior – this is the bedding of sandstone and quartzite. And even in the human body contains quartz! True, in the one-kilogram bodybuilding quartz there is only one gram, but who knows what the future evolution will lead to?

Physico-chemical properties of quartz

Crystals of quartz are oblong hexahedrons resembling sharpened pencils. Often grow friends. Small crystals of individual varieties of quartz can form massive brushes.

  • Singonia is trigonal.
  • The hardness is 7 on the Mohs scale.
  • The density is 2.6 g per cm3.
  • A break is a shell.

Pure quartz is silicon dioxide SiO2. In gemology, colorless and defect-free quartz crystals are called rock crystal and are considered an independent precious stone.

Impurities in quartz crystals are extremely numerous and diverse. Each of them changes the optical properties of quartz in its own way.

Kinds of quartz

Organic inclusions make quartz purple and turn it into an amethyst. But the ancient Greek legend warned: this Dionysus poured wine into a stone…

Iron is a common admixture in an array of crystallized silicon oxide. Trivalent iron causes quartz crystals to turn yellow. Gemologists call this stone a citrine. Quartz looks incredibly attractive, the admixtures in which are mixed in a miracle cocktail, giving the stone features and amethyst, and citrine at the same time. Ametrin – the name of this unusual “hybrid” – is quite expensive compared to other quartz relatives.

But not always only impurities form the appearance of a quartz crystal. Morion is black and opaque because of the increased energy potential of atoms located at the nodes of the crystal lattice. The greens of praziolite appear only because of a change in the light transmission of citrine and amethyst, provoked by an increase in the speed and amplitude of the Brownian motion of the molecules.

The listed varieties of quartz refer to the crystalline forms of the mineral. In nature, there are a lot of so-called cryptocrystalline rocks of the quartz group. All of them include quartz in the form of a base and a considerable number of complex additives – often cloven, scaly, and suspended.

Aventurine sparkles with myriads of sparkles of mica, iron or copper ore scattered over the quartz massif. Chrysoprase is fogged by alkaline nickel gel cells. Carnelian warms the red-brown glow of a solid solution of hematite in silicon oxide. The endless variety of agates and chalcedons is the best illustration of the compatibility of quartz and the most diverse mineral fillers.

Stone quartz – one of the first materials mastered by man

The oldest beads, collected from small quartz pebbles, number more than seven thousand years of age. However, the tools, carved from heterogeneous quartz, are five times older. Does this mean that humanity has abandoned quartz instruments in favor of Metaphysical jewelry?

Not at all! Thin cleavages of obsidian, almost entirely of quartz, are still used as scalpels – because it is difficult to sharpen steel to nanometer thickness of the cutting edge of obsidian.

Piezoelectric properties of quartz allow you to set and control the operation of high-frequency devices – including communication equipment and computers. Dielectric parameters of crushed quartz allow creating powerful and compact power stations.

Quartz and the glass industry can do without quartz. The products of which happen to be used to simulate precious quartz rocks…

Quartz forged!..

… But not always maliciously. Venetian glaziers created a beautiful blue glass and, inspired by the poetics of minerals, called it sapphirine. Meanwhile, sapphirin in mineralogy is magnesium aluminosilicate, and gemmologists call sapphirin one of the varieties of chalcedony.

What did the unscrupulous sellers take advantage of! The cut pieces of certified Venetian crystal are completed with printouts from mineralogical reference books or gemological bulletins – and sell inexpensive glass as a precious gem.

Pleased rare (in jewelery quality) pink quartz forged by staining conventional smoky quartzcompounds of iron and manganese. Dyes penetrate shallowly and not very evenly, so imitation sells cheaply (natural pink quartz of roads) and without guarantees. Rapid oxidation of metals quickly deprives the forgery of attraction and makes it get hot.

The healing and magical properties of quartz

Speaking about the healing and magical properties of quartz, one must understand that the practical qualities of ordinary wild stone (translucent, grayish, smoky-whitish) coincide in some ways, and in some ways differ from the possibilities of noble quartz.

Any quartz has a depressing effect on the microflora (rock crystal is the most effective). But if purple quartz (amethyst) helps to combat intoxication, then green (praziolite) acts more like a psychotherapist.

Do not forget that the surplus of silicon oxide in food, water and especially in the air – is harmful. Therefore, experiments with water infusion on quartz pebbles should not be fanatical. The amateur fission of quartz is performed only in a respirator!

Each of the signs of the Zodiac can pick up several colored quartz according to the recommendations of astrologers and their own attitude. There are no categorical prohibitions!