Jewelry blog from Jewelrymall.com

We asked a friend what their favorite gemstone is. Their reply was quite enlightening – I hope you will find it as interesting as we did!

Favorite Gems Can Change Over Time

As I went through life my favorite gemstones changed with time. I started liking diamonds because they were the “most expensive” and everyone knew what a diamond was. As I got older I started to like the emerald, its deep green color appealed to me since that is my favorite color. But as my tastes matured, I found myself appreciating the sapphire more and more.

Sapphires Delight

I have learned that sapphires are more than just a fancy colored rock. They can be any hue on the color spectrum, with the exception of red. In fact I had to search around on the internet for quite a while to figure out why there are no red sapphires. I determined this to be the cause: a red sapphire is a ruby. Although sapphires can range in color from clear, to white, to yellow to green, their “true” color is often referred to as a cornflower blue. When a sapphire has a nice cornflower blue color, it is free from most impurities and in it’s truest form. Now color isn’t everything to a sapphire.

Star Sapphire

Sapphires are unique in that they grow as a six-sided columnar crystal. They generally aren’t found this way, since the columns will break and the sapphire will end up looking like a pretty colored rock. But, when a crystal grows with six sides, it can be formed into a cabochon, and a true gem smith will be able to create a “star” sapphire. That is, when held in the right light the sapphire will appear to have a six-sided star radiating from its center. Finally, the sapphire takes my heart when it appeals to my financial side. The purest, most beautiful sapphires in the world are found in Montana. In the Yogo gulch area in central Montana there was a mine. They dug up perfect sapphires. The Yogo Sapphire is one of the rarest, purest gems on earth. So, in order to win the spot of my favorite gemstone, a rock has to be more than just pretty. It must be more than just valuable. It has to have unique characteristics that make it interesting in form and formation. Being worth a pretty penny doesn’t hurt either though.

Note: though there are more expense sapphires than the Yogo sapphire, it is very beautiful. Learn fun sapphire facts.