On 27 July 1993 the opal, a stone famous throughout the world for its brilliant, fiery colors, was proclaimed as Australia’s national gemstone. The Australian aborigines believed that the colors of the opal were created when a rainbow touched the earth, and, known as the fire of the desert, the opal is indeed a symbol […]
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Individuals born in October get to choose between two birthstones—tourmaline and opal. Each gem then unveils nearly limitless possibilities, as each one comes in a rainbow of shades and color combinations. In fact, both of October’s birthstones came to earth through a journey involving rainbows, according to legend. Between tourmaline (whose color depends on trace
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This outreach mission was able to serve 148 medical patients and 15 dental patients. Fely’s Jewelry and Pawnshop – Tubod Branch, established on year 2005, marks its 13th year of operation in the Municipality of Tubod, Lanao del Norte. The annual celebration of the branch anniversary have not failed the Fely’s Jewelry and Pawnshop to
A Brief History of Gold Who discovered gold? A child finds a shiny rock in a creek, thousands of years ago, and the human race is introduced to gold for the first time. Gold was first discovered as shining, yellow nuggets. “Gold is where you find it,” so the saying goes, and gold was first
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Minerals form under various conditions in the earth. Most gemstones form in the Earth’s crust; the top layer of the Earth, with a depth of 3 to 25 miles. Only two gemstone varieties – diamond and peridot – form in the Earth’s mantle, which represents 80% of the Earth’s volume. The mantle consists mostly of molten rock called magma with a solid
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People often email us photos of gemstones and ask us for help in identifying their stones. We try to be helpful, but even the best gemologist in the world cannot properly identify a gemstone from a photograph. Indeed, even a detailed visual inspection of the actual gemstone is rarely sufficient for gemstone identification. Jeweler’s Loupe
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The Mohs scale of mineral hardness was created by the German mineralogist, Friedrich Mohs in 1822 to measure the relative hardness or scratch resistance of various minerals. He based it on ten readily available minerals. Since it is an ordinal scale, two minerals must be compared in order to decide which is harder. Almost everyone buying gemstones
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