Whois & Analysis for gemselect.com

A gemstone (also called a gem, fine gem, jewel, precious stone or semi-precious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments.

However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli) or organic materials that are not minerals (such as amber, jet, and pearl) are also used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well.

Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value.

Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone.

Apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms.

A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter; a diamond worker is a diamantaire.

Sapphire is a gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide.

It is typically blue in color, but natural "fancy" sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, and green colors; "parti sapphires" show two or more colors.

The only color which sapphire cannot be is red - as red colored corundum is called ruby, another corundum variety.

This variety in color is due to trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, copper, or magnesium.

A birthstone is a gemstone that represents a person's month of birth.

Birthstones are often worn as jewelry and as pendants.

The ruby-topaz hummingbird (Chrysolampis mosquitus), commonly referred to simply as the ruby topaz, is a small bird that breeds in the Lesser Antilles and tropical northern South America from Colombia, Venezuela and the Guyanas, south to central Brazil and northern Bolivia; also from Colombia into southern Panama.

It is the only member of the genus Chrysolampis.

It is a seasonal migrant, although its movements are not well understood.

Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.

Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale.

Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor.

Emerald is a cyclosilicate.