Smart Gems

When it comes to Tanzanite jewelry, then stsjewels.com is definitely the site to visit. Packed with an extensive collection of color gemstones, STS Jewels Inc. has indeed become one of the largest names in the jewelry industry.

When you visit the site, you will surely see just how extremely talented and skilled its product development team is, when it comes to the designing, the manufacturing, and the distribution of gemstones and jewelry. The website itself is very easy to navigate, with quick links conveniently situated at the right portion of the page. Browse through these quick links to get a clearer picture of what STS Jewels Inc. is all about.

To know more about the foundation of this strong company, click on the About Us tab, and have a look into their tasty history. Clicking on the Press Releases tab will give you the latest of such that STS Jewels Inc. has brought forth. Click on the Show Case and Tradeshows tabs, to view the wide array of gemstones and jewelry they offer! Plus, the site has a Jewelopedia, which acts as an encyclopedia that provides you just about all the information you need to know about their jewels! With the help of these quick links, you will surely find what you are looking for in the site very easily!

There’s no more fascinating subject in history than the doomed French Queen Marie Antoinette. Much maligned by history (she never said “Let them eat cake,” in response to the people’s need for bread), she was an unwilling part of the one of the greatest revolutions in history. And met an untimely end at the guillotine in 1793. While she loved jewelry, and possessed many magnificent jewels, she often preferred simple muslin gowns and very little jewelry. Many of the portraits of her by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun show her dressed just like that.

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There are millions of minerals that exist on the earth, but few of them are prized as gems and used for adornment. Many of them aren’t in colors that are usually highly prized for jewelry. Or they’re not able to be cut and polished to be made wearable as jewelry.

Often it’s a matter of changing taste and times. In Imperial Russia and in the Victorian era, the mineral malachite and other opaque minerals were highly valued as gemstones jewelry. It is often a by-product of copper mining, and is distinguished by a brilliant green color, with dark concentric circles of color swirling through it. It’s not as highly valued because it’s easily available and not as expensive as an emerald or ruby. But there is an entire room devoted to malachite in the Russian museum, the Hermitage, as testament to its desirability among the most privileged class of people.

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The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, brownish-yellow pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat 116-facet stone that measured 1 x 1³/8 inches; a recutting retained the same length and width, but reduced the depth to better proportions, making it more brilliant. The diamond has been featured in several Hollywood films, including a Tarzan episode from 1952 titled Tarzan’s Savage Fury, and in leading exhibitions in the United States and Canada.

The necklace was designed by Baumgold Brothers, Inc, and consists of a yellow gold chain with 66 round brilliant-cut diamonds, fringed with ten drop motifs, each set with two marquise-cut diamonds, a pear-shaped diamond, and a small round brilliant-cut diamond (the total weight of the 106 diamonds is about 45 carats). The configuration of these stones makes them look like small angels! The necklace was donated by Leonard and Victoria Wilkinson in 1977 to the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

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What specifically are gems and gemstones? We know some of the most common ones – emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. But what exactly are they, how are they made and why we do we prize them so highly?

The International Gem Society defines a gem as “a mineral that has been chosen for its beauty and durability, then cut and polished for human adornment.”

Most gems are minerals. Others, like pearls or amber, are created from living organisms. Usually gems are of a color that mirrors other natural elements we consider beautiful or valuable. Emeralds mirror the lush green of plant life, sapphires are the color of the sky and rubies are a rich blood-red. There are variations in color in all of these gems, of course, and in diamonds, but those are the colors most normally associated with them. Diamonds can come in colors as well, with pink and canary diamonds being highly prized variants.

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One of the most spectacular all-diamond pieces of jewelry in the Smithsonian Insitution is the Napoleon necklace. Thought to have originally been owned by Catherine the Great of Russia, it was presented by the Emperor Napoleon of France to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria on the birth of their son in 1811. The silver and gold set necklace contains172 diamonds weighing 275 carats - 28 oval and cushion-cut diamonds, dangling 19 briolette-cut oval and pear shaped diamonds and accented by small, round diamonds and diamond set motifs in a silver and gold setting. The diamonds are cut in “old mine” style, the precursor to the modern brilliant cut, and have a high degree of fire (flashes of color as the stone moves in light), but less brilliance due to less light refraction through the top of the stone.

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Gems come in every color of the spectrum. While sapphires, rubies and emeralds are what come to mind first when one thinks of a colored gem, there are so many other beautiful colored gemstones to consider. Even among gems normally associated with one color, there are gradations and variations to them. A sapphire, for example, comes in many different hues of blue, depending on where it’s from. But sapphires can also come in pink, yellow and green.

The most highly prized colored gems are in the very deepest, richest hues of the color. While sapphires can range from pale blue to near-black, the most valuable are a rich, deep blue. The same holds true for rubies. While they too can range in color from pale to very dark and murky, the most highly-valued color is what’s called pigeon’s blood, a deep blood-red ruby that is mined in what was once known as Burma.

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Overstock.com is one of the best emerging sites for buy-and-sell services in the internet. With thousands of visitors per day, Overstock.com is truly an ideal site for handling your buy and sell business activities online. 

Overstock.com has the latest buy-and-sell collection on jewelries, such as gold chains, entertainment items, health and wellness gadgets, clothing and gift-for-keeps items for sale. While jewelry buying is a lot riskier online, there are a few trusted online retailers in the buy-and-sell area that offer the best protection against any type of fraud.  

At Overstock.com, you can click on the jewelry link right above the site between clothing and watches area to get to the area of the site where you will be able to see a vast collection of gold chains sold at very reasonable prices ranging from $30.00 to $600. Gold chains available in the Jewelry section come from online reliable sellers that are bound to terms and conditions applicable for the site’s buy-and-sell terms of use.

None of the online internet selling sites has that vast collection of gold chains online other than Overstock.com, which means that you can usually find anything you want or need to match that pendant you have had sitting in a drawer since what seems like the beginning of time. Since Overstock.com is an emerging leader in online buying and selling activities, it has set rules among member-sellers regarding ethics online and how they can keep each and every user of Overstock.com protected against possible fraud by adhering to these rules.

All-in-all, overstock offers a huge selection of goods, and as the items are obviously overstocks from other retailers, the price saving scan be huge.  This means that you have a really good chance of buying exactly what you are looking for without having to go through lots of sites or visit lots of stores to find what you want - saving you both time and money.

When did diamonds first become recognized as precious stones and used for jewelry? The earliest reference to them has been found in a Sanskrit document dated around 300 BCE. They were associated with the gods and were used to decorate religious icons and statues. In India, only kings, the highest caste, were allowed to own them.

Although diamonds were traded east and west of India, they were still prized in their natural crystal state, or polished to increase the shine and luster of them. The first guild of diamond cutters was established in 1375, and it was then that the practice of cutting the stones and faceting them was developed.

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The world’s largest cut topaz, called the American Topaz, resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. A 172-faceted topaz weighing 22,892.50 carats (5785 kg), it’s the largest cut yellow topaz in the world, and one of the largest faceted gems of any kind in the world. Originating from Minais Gerais, Brazil, it was cut over a period of two years. It was purchased by the Rockhound Hobbyists of America and presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1988.

As stunning as this cut topaz is, another display at the Smithsonian is equally dazzling and awe-inspiring. That’s a sherry-colored topaz “spray” from the Thomas Range in Utah. This color of topaz can be found in Mexico and Utah, but when it’s exposed to sunlight, will become clear.

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