Gemstone Meanings

Gemstone (also called gem, jewel, precious stone or semiprecious stone) is a general term for natural gemstones and manufactured stones.

Synthetic Gemstones are man-made crystals, non-crystalline solid or aggregates, which may be with chemical, optical and physical characteristics of its natural mineral counterpart.

Assembled Gemstones are made of two or more pieces of materials by artificial splicing that give the impression of gems. The components may be natural or man-made materials.

Imitation Stones are gemstones or other materials used to imitate the look and color of a kind of stone, but possess neither their chemical nor physical characteristics.

• Synthetic
  Turquoise Beads
• Assembled Synthetic
  Charoite and Pyrite Beads
• Imitation
  Larimar Beads

Enhancement and Treatment

Except for cutting and polishing, gemstones are often treated to enhance the color, luster, clarity, optical characteristics, durability or usability of the stone. Color treatment of our gems is divided into Dyed, Dyed & Heated and Electroplated.

Dyed: Infiltrating color-causing substances (such as colored oils, dyes, etc.) into gemstone by chemical methods to improve or change the color of gemstones. Dyed Jade is commonly treated in this manner.

Dyed & Heated: To improve or change the color of gemstones by heating and dying process, such as most Red Agate, Black Agate and Red Tiger Eye are dyed and heat-treated.

Electroplated: The surface of gemstone is covered with a thin film by plating to change its color or luster, such as Electroplated Quartz Crystal, Electroplated Lava Rock.

Gemstone Nomenclature

Gemstone Names are divided into classic name and trade name.

The Classic Name of Gems is a mineralogical, petrological, material and traditional gemological name of gem varieties. Most gemstone names are based on the mineral, such as Garnet, Turquoise, Lapis lazuli, Malachites, etc.

The Trade Name of Gems is another name widely used and generally recognized in gemstone trade, for example Larimar is the trade name for a rare blue variety of silicate mineral pectolite.

Different Title Requirements of
Gemstone Products

Five main criteria for gemstone product titles:

1. If it is a natural gemstone with natural color, its title must contain the word ”Natural”.
2. If it is a natural gemstone with treated color, its title must contain the word ”Natural” and ”Dyed” or ”Dyed & Heated” or ”Electroplated”.
3. If it is a synthetic gemstone, its title must contain the word ”Synthetic”.
4. If it is a assembled gemstone, its title must contain the word ”Assembled”.
5. If it is a imitation gemstone, its title must contain the name of the original material and imitation stone.

Tips: if you want to purchase a natural gemstone with natural color, you can click attribute of “Natural” and “Undyed”.

Bead Size

Natural gemstones or semi precious stones come from mineral. Due to the naturality, the stones may have tiny flaws. Meanwhile, cutting or polishing can also make each piece of gemstone vary in size, especially when they are made of different batches. But please note that the error for each bead will not be less than 0.2mm of the described size, and no more than 0.75mm of the described size. For example, the round beads with a described size of 8mm, the actual size in a strand may be range of 7.8mm~ 8.75mm, some maybe 8mm and some maybe 8.2mm or 8.5mm. In fact, 8.5mm beads are not much different from 8mm when look by eyes.

Beads Quantity on Each Strand

As the error range of beads size, the quantity may have few errors in the same length beads strands, error range of 1~3 beads.

for Example: 3 strand of 15 inch 6mm Natural Yellow Jade beads , beads quantity is 59pcs, 60pcs, 61 pcs, 62pcs

Customer Questions

Q: For natural color gemstones of the same grade, why some products our customers receive have a little difference in its color from the products picture?

A: This difference in color is based on the atomic structure of the stone. Every gemstone has its own unique chemical and atomic structure, even the same named gemstone can occur in many different colors, especially in different lots.

Q: For natural dyed gemstones, why some products our customers receive has a little difference in its color from the products picture?

A: Because these beads are made in small batches, the dyed color could be slightly different from one batch to another. And the main reason is that the density, color and texture characteristic of a natural stone will lead to different coloring effects, some are darker, some are lighter. But a big color difference is not allowed. We will try our best to supply gemstone products which are consistent with the pictures.