Ruby is the Birthstone of July, a bright “Pigeon’s blood red” to an almost “Pyrope Garnet red” (deep red) it is a symbol of both love and Power.
The Pigeon’s blood red variety, (yes, that’s what it’s called) from Burma, is the most prized kind, shown in the first picture, a good setting, don’t you think? Two Doves above a Pigeon blood red Ruby.
Hardness:9
The Five Precious Gems, Diamond, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl are like five Nations.
Diamond a country of great Wealth and honor,
Emerald a lush, green, though Imperial Nation,
Ruby a powerful and strong Empire,
Sapphire a place of shining love and Righteousness,
and Pearl, a gentle country of silks and satins, peace and meditation.
Gems are all around us, even in the Bible! Two passages are shown here, one is when the breastplate of the High Priest of Israel is being described, Exodus 28:15-30, and when the Disciple John is having a vision, describing the New Jerusalem; Revelation 21:18-21.
Have you ever wondered how your Gemstone gets it’s color? There are three main ways Gemstones get their color; being Idiochromatic, Allochromatic, and Pleochroic.
Idiochromatic is a Gem whose coloring element is vital for the making of the Gem. Confusing? I’ll put it this way; lets say we’re making corn bread, the finished bread is yellow, right? Why? because the corn is the “element” that colors it yellow! take out the corn, and it is no longer corn bread! That makes the corn a vital element, also making the corn bread “Idiochromatic”. The same with Peridot, (which is Idiochromatic) Iron colors it green, but without Iron it would no longer be Peridot!
Allochromatic is a Gem whose coloring element is not vital for the making of the Gem. Let’s say we’re making a birthday cake, the finished cake is plain white, but what if we add red food coloring? We now have a red birthday cake! Take out the coloring and you still have a birthday cake! The same with Corundum, chromium and iron make it a red Ruby, but without the coloring it is still Corundum! (Though a clear piece of Corundum) That makes both Corundum and the “birthday cake” Allochromatic.
Pleochroic is a Gem that gets it’s coloring from white light splitting into it’s prisms, in other words, different colors when viewed from different directions; Opal is Pleochroic because when the Atoms inside grow, they arrange themselves in different patterns; therefore splitting the light into rainbow colors.
Peridot is the birthstone of August, a very light green, Peridot (pronounced per-i-dough) is my favorite Gemstone, (though it is usually meant as a woman’s stone) because of it’s beautiful light green color as well as it is my Birthstone. It used to be known as Topaz, which is an entirely different Gemstone. The reason Peridot was called this is because Peridot was usually mined by the ancients on the island of Zabargad in the red sea, then known as the island of Topazos. thus the confusion.
The Peridot in the picture I got for my 11th Birthday the day before yesterday. (along with three books on Gems so I should have much more information) 🙂 .
Because of Peridot I would like to go to Hawaii; I’ve heard that there is Peridot Sand there, (though not large enough to be of Gemstone quality) that is not surprising beause l think Olivine (Peridots “speicies” Iike Sapphire is Corundum) is of voIcanic origin.
Almost all Gems are colored because of metals inside them; Turquiose is blue because of the copper, Peridot is green because of the Iron, E.T.C. (man, l need to type a whole nother blog on the colors and chemicaIs of Gems!)
Hardness: 6.5
Blades of Belaq Knives 