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Tanzanite
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As its name suggests, tanzanite is a product of Tanzania, where it was discovered in 1967, a blink of the eye in terms of geological time, and recent even by human-history standards. The gem's time to market was also speedy—by 1968, Tiffany & Co....
As its name suggests, tanzanite is a product of Tanzania, where it was discovered in 1967, a blink of the eye in terms of geological time, and recent even by human-history standards. The gem's time to market was also speedy—by 1968, Tiffany & Co. had turned tanzanite into a must-have gemstone.
A vanadium-laced variety of zoisite, tanzanite sparkles purple-blue like a sapphire, although it is usually heat-treated to achieve this effect and remove any whispers of green. Tanzanite is also what's known as a pleochroic mineral, which means it exhibits different colors depending on the angle from which it's viewed.
But the charms of tanzanite do not stop there. In fact, tanzanite boasts three different types of pleochroism. Some stones seem to vacillate from dark blue to yellow-green to red-purple. Others appear light blue, lavender, or colorless. And then there are the dull, brownish stones that turn light blue, green, or purple when polished, depending on how they are viewed. These stones also happen to be the ones that produced the best sapphire-blues when heat-treated, while incandescent lights make any of them appear more purple.
One of several birthstones for people born in the month of December—turquoise and zircon are the others—tanzanite is often faceted by jewelers into mixed- or step-cut gems for rings. Because the stones so closely resemble sapphires, these showpieces are often ringed with diamonds.
Continue readingAs its name suggests, tanzanite is a product of Tanzania, where it was discovered in 1967, a blink of the eye in terms of geological time, and recent even by human-history standards. The gem's time to market was also speedy—by 1968, Tiffany & Co. had turned tanzanite into a must-have gemstone.
A vanadium-laced variety of zoisite, tanzanite sparkles purple-blue like a sapphire, although it is usually heat-treated to achieve this effect and remove any whispers of green. Tanzanite is also what's known as a pleochroic mineral, which means it exhibits different colors depending on the angle from which it's viewed.
But the charms of tanzanite do not stop there. In fact, tanzanite boasts three different types of pleochroism. Some stones seem to vacillate from dark blue to yellow-green to red-purple. Others appear light blue, lavender, or colorless. And then there are the dull, brownish stones that turn light blue, green, or purple when polished, depending on how they are viewed. These stones also happen to be the ones that produced the best sapphire-blues when heat-treated, while incandescent lights make any of them appear more purple.
One of several birthstones for people born in the month of December—turquoise and zircon are the others—tanzanite is often faceted by jewelers into mixed- or step-cut gems for rings. Because the stones so closely resemble sapphires, these showpieces are often ringed with diamonds.
As its name suggests, tanzanite is a product of Tanzania, where it was discovered in 1967, a blink of the eye in terms of geological time, and recent even by human-history standards. The gem's time to market was also speedy—by 1968, Tiffany & Co. had turned tanzanite into a must-have gemstone.
A vanadium-laced variety of zoisite, tanzanite sparkles purple-blue like a sapphire, although it is usually heat-treated to achieve this effect and remove any whispers of green. Tanzanite is also what's known as a pleochroic mineral, which means it exhibits different colors depending on the angle from which it's viewed.
But the charms of tanzanite do not stop there. In fact, tanzanite boasts three different types of pleochroism. Some stones seem to vacillate from dark blue to yellow-green to red-purple. Others appear light blue, lavender, or colorless. And then there are the dull, brownish stones that turn light blue, green, or purple when polished, depending on how they are viewed. These stones also happen to be the ones that produced the best sapphire-blues when heat-treated, while incandescent lights make any of them appear more purple.
One of several birthstones for people born in the month of December—turquoise and zircon are the others—tanzanite is often faceted by jewelers into mixed- or step-cut gems for rings. Because the stones so closely resemble sapphires, these showpieces are often ringed with diamonds.
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