The Birth of Birthstones

The jewelry traditions to link a birth date to a particular stone and to accept the gem's ability to influence the wearer's life have historical support dated back to thousands of years ago. The idea of Gem Power was first cultivated in ancient India and Babylonia, where these ancient peoples ascribed many magical powers to gemstones, as a means of attunement to life forces and spiritual cleansing. Over the last 3500 years, both Jewish and Christian theologians have interpreted the significance of the 12 gems.




The current birthstone list was however quite new when compared to its profound history. The current list was established in Kansas City, Missouri of USA in 1912 when the National Association of Jewelers met to rework and revise the list that had been in use since the 1400's. The list of 1912 was one that had evolved over centuries and carried the influence of many eras and cultures. However, this revision has drawn much fire from gemstone purists who felt that the list was giving ways to commercialism. For instances, the list only carried six of the stones from the older list, and the moving of Ruby from being December's stone to July's and the addition of tourmaline as an October alternate were considered scandalous.




George Frederick Kunz, one of the great gemologists of in gemstone study, had blamed the commercial motives, but despite the objections, today's modern birthstone list is the list in use most around the world.





Birthstone List
January: Garnet
February: Amethyst
March: Aquamarine
April: Diamond
May: Emerald
June: Pearl
July: Ruby
August: Peridot
September: Sapphire
October: Opal
November: Citrine
December: Turquoise

The First Attraction by Fashion Jewelry

Why do women get so fascinated by Fashion Jewelry?



The first attraction is the inspiration by shades of color of Gemstones. Fascination number one: Color spectrum is so mesmerizing and astonishing which goes beyond the imagination. Wonderful colors spanning from the rich hues of rubies, emeralds and sapphires to the milky color flashes of opulent opal. From Tanzanite's blue, Amethyst’s violet and to mystical allure of Onyx. The sparkle of color is as sophisticated as the people that wear them.




Gem beauty for Fashion Jewelry is the predominant factor for the purchases in today's world. It may be hard for us to imagine that over thousands of years ago, people get the gemstones solely for a matter of life, a necessity of daily life rather than ornament of any kind.


The power of Gemstones is not just as skin deep as just color. The ancients attributed mystical powers to each stone, and believed that many of them could cure specific ailments. Even today many gemstones are used in all sorts of healing methods.






Besides healing purposes, the idea that Gemstones contain special powers is further developed to a tradition that certain gemstones are associated with times of the year as well as associated the time of year of a person’s birth with certain characteristics, and thus giving rise to the prevail of Birthstones, and fashion jewelry which is using birthstones as the design theme is very popular and well received over the world.

Fashion Jewelry is word of Gemstones

Fashion Jewelry is generally referring to jewelry with less expensive in value and less expensive semi-precious stones. People are getting confused with the word “Gemstone”. What is the definition of Gemstone? What is the role of Gemstones in Fashion Jewelry?

Up till now, out of 3000 minerals found around the world, there are over 230 minerals being categorized as Gemstones. There are four criteria of getting into Gemstone Family, which are the vivid color, scarce in supply, with hardness over 7 in Moh’s scale as well as with high refraction rate.

Gemstones
1) Precious Gemstone:
Diamond, Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby etc. These precious gemstones are with high value due to their high demand and low supply.

Diamond is a mineral composed essentially of carbon that crystallizes in the cubic or isometric, and is therefore singly refractive. Diamond is by fair the hardest of all known natural substances on the 10 point Mohs scale.

Sapphire and Ruby refer to gem varieties of the mineral corundum hardness of 7.5 - 8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness. When it is filled with high chromium, and thus appear in red color, the gem would be called Ruby. It is called Sapphire however when it is with trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium which can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or greenish color.

Emeralds are a variety of the mineral beryl with green color by the trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Emerald has a hardness of 7.5 - 8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness.

2) Semi-precious Gemstone:
The most common 20 examples of Semi-Precious Stones include Amethyst, Citrine, Garnet, Opal, Spinel, Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Topaz etc. Each of the Semi-Precious Stones has its own characteristics and features, we could cover them in the later articles.

With over 230 Gemstones currently in use in Fashion Jewelry, designers are employing their aesthetic powers to bring about some excellent jewelry creations in the most unprecedented manners, thanks to the advanced technologies.

Fashion Jewelry, you are the magic...

Fashion Jewelry is an indispensable element in shaping one's personality and beauty in the 21st century.

In this materialistic modern world where you would almost find everything to dress you up, but you are a bit lost in these monstrous waves of costume styles and cosmetic makeup sets. In this kind of scenario, however, a piece of fashion jewelry will do a magic to you and put you at ease to stand out immediately from the original peacocks.

Fashion Jewelry is in vogue. Women are never getting tired of beautiful jewelry to please about. Especially for jewelry with colorful gemstones and fashionable styles, it is the quick way of catching people's eyes with no failure.

When compared with the glittering of Diamond, colorful gemstones have more fine qualities and dispositions to boast about. Just like the world is full of beautiful colors, colorful gemstones are there to depict the picturesque beauty around us. The combination of gold in various shades, the chemistry of color gold with vivid colors of gemstones, are adding unlimited fun to us, and multiplies the dramatic effect of creativity.


Jewelry colors our lives, thank to the rise of Renaissance in 16th century where people in Europe were pursing the liberation from Dark Age. Renaissance was the golden age where creativity blossomed in the forms of literature, sculpture, architecture, arts, fashion and jewelry. Jewelry designs became to shine through the centuries, however, it was restricted to the minority rich people, especially the royal families in Europe, since jewelry was handmade with precious metal and precious gemstones.

Nowadays, with advanced technology in synthetic gemstone industry, and great improvements in faceting and jewelry setting, the production cost of Fashion Jewelry has dramatically cut down, so that we are able to enjoy the fabulous Fashion Jewelry at very low prices.