September Birthstone ~ Sapphire

The traditional September birthstone is the lovely Sapphire, one of four precious stones, along with the ruby, diamond and emerald.   I hope you enjoy looking through the information I’ve compiled…I’m sure there is much you will find new and interesting!  

sapphire, Smithsonian,   08.10.09.006

•  Mystical birthstone for September is Agate
•   Ayurvedic (Indian medicine from India dating back to 1500 B.C.) birthstone is Moonstone
•  Sapphire…Greek for “blue stone" 
•  Variety of the corundum mineral family                                                                  blue sapphire, Smithsonian,   08.10.09 066

•  Blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange or greenish colored sapphires are due to trace amounts of iron, titanium, chromium, copper or magnesium… 
•  The most well known sapphire color is blue, but it can also be found ranging from gray to black.
•  The rarest natural sapphire (without any form of treatment) is the “padparadscha” (pink-orange), found in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and parts of Africa.
•  Colorless sapphires sometimes substituted for diamonds.
•  There are sapphires that appear to be a different color in different lights, such as purple under incandescent indoor light and blue outside…greenish in fluorescent light and pink in daylight.  This effect is rare, with these gems found mainly in Tanzania

  
       Yellow sapphire, Smithsonian,  08.10.09 072

• Found naturally…there are also an abundance of “man made sapphire gemstones”
• Found in a couple of locations in North America (Montana being one), eastern Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China (Shandong), Madagascar and East Africa
• A hard gemstone…9 on the Mohs scale
•  There is also the “star sapphire”…either in blue or red, which has a six pointed star shape in the stone.  The natural star effect may be from mineral rutile.
• There are several methods to enhance the appearance of a sapphire…heat treatment (1700 to 1800 Celsius for a few hours)is one way…unheated sapphires are rather rare and the cost will reflect this.  Sapphires can also be heated to very high temperatures and have impurities added to enhance the appearance of the stone.
• By law, enhancements must be disclosed when they greatly effects the value of the stone
•  Likewise sapphires untreated with usually have a certification stating this as the value will be much higher.
•  Sapphire is given as a gift for the 5th, 23rd and 45th wedding anniversaries while a star sapphire is given on the 65th wedding anniversary.
• It is also one of the birthstones for Pisces, Taurus, Virgo and Sagittarius 

• Amazingly, because of the hardness of the sapphire (the diamond is the only gem harder) it has been used as “sapphires are used in some non-ornamental applications, including infrared optical components, such as in scientific instruments; high-durability windows; wristwatch crystals and movement bearings; and very thin electronic wafers, which are used as the insulating substrates in very special-purpose solid –state electronics, most of which are integrated circuits)”.   http//en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire 

 

NOTE:  I’ve decided for articles that are informational, such as birthstone of the month… I will do the majority of it in point form…not great writing style I know…but… I’ve been doing blog posts since 2008 and my experience is the most popular posts, are the ones with the least words, interspersed with photos.  For the most part people don’t want to read something overly long! 

I know people glance at the photos and if their attention is peaked they will then take the time to read what is written.  I understand we are all busy…having said that I often find the most interesting information, which I don’t want to leave out, hence the long, wordy articles!!!

I can't do the blog format on baytoday.ca due to how the site is set up...check out the post on baytoday.ca and you will see what I mean.  I’ve been told it is “in the works”…so for now I’ll plug along in this manner.

These earrings were made back in 2007 for a customer who brought me her own sapphires from Sri Lanka!  My photo does not do the gems justice!!!

 

Cheers

Note:  Special thank you to Orbital Joe, I’ve used many of his photos for blog post over the years!  He has always been generous with allowing me access to his amazing photos.  Check out his Flickr photos

Information Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire

http://www.gemselect.com/gem-info/sapphire/sapphire-info.php

http://www.bernardine.com/gemstones/sapphire.htm