If June is your birth month and want jewelry that traditionally represents your special month, choose among pearls, moonstone, or Alexandrite-- or all three!
The Lustrous Pearl
Pearls form when a grain of sand or other small irritant enters mollusks such as oysters, clams, or mussels. They react by coating the sand or tiny rock with the inside of their shells. Their shape and value depends on where they form. If it gets past the shell and into the organism's tissue, the result will be round or pear-shaped. If it forms within the surface of the shell, they form irregular shapes and have little worth.
They rarely form naturally, but they are more commonly created—or cultured in oyster farms. Japan is the source of most cultured pearls, and it takes years. “Farmers” insert tiny fragments of mussel or other shell into the flesh of two or three-year-old oysters. They’re then fed and “pampered for seven to nine years before harvest.
White pearls are by far the most common, but black (often found in Tahiti), cream, blue, lavender, pink, and green also exist. The pearl’s color depends upon the shellfish and environment in which it forms. Their values are also variable. Natural pearls, the rarest, are the most expensive. Cultured pearls, also formed in salt water, are less expensive, and freshwater pearls cost the least.
The pearl’s hardness on the mineral scale is only 3 and excessive dryness, humidity, and acidity.
Moonstone with its Silvery Play of Color
This mineral belongs to the feldspar mineral family. Only feldspar that contains aluminum, silicon, and oxygen mixed with potassium and sodium morph into stones of gem quality. Moonstones can be white, yellow, orange, gray, or colorless depending on their balance of these elements.
It received its name because of its reflective shimmery quality—known as adularescence -- seems similar to that of the moon itself. When moved about, the effect is that of moonbeams. Other feldspars, such as plagioclase and oligoclase, produce less common moonstones.
Easily scratched with hardness of 6, it is mined in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, Sri Lankan moonstone yields stones of the highest quality. It is usually shaped in a Cabochon—or rounded and polished form—as opposed to being faceted.
Moonstone, deemed a sacred stone, is thought by some to bring good luck. According to Indian lore, a benevolent spirit lives within the stone, and in ancient Roman times, many believed that an image of the Goddess of the Moon, Diana, emanated from within.
Rare Alexandrite Changes Colors
Alexandrite, a gemstone much rarer than diamond and a member of the chrysoberyl family, received its name from Russian Czar, Alexander II because it was discovered in the Ural Mountains on his birthday—not even in June but in April of 1818 — before his ascendance while he was still a prince—in 1839.
Its unique color-play quality seems to shift from greens to reds to mauves to browns. Alexandrite’s value drops with the presence of brown, but the most valuable ones show the most dramatic color changes. With hardness on the mineral scale of 8.5, it is the miniscule traces of chromium that cause the color shifts. The character of the light determines the color that appears: natural light brings out the greens whereas in incandescent (indoor) light, the red will become prominent.
Alexandrite, according to relatively recent Russian lore, brings good fortune to anyone who possesses this beautiful gem.
Jill Arnel - I am a published freelance writer who's written extensively on the subject of dogs, including a book entitled The West Highland White ...
