unique handcrafted jewelryKeywords: unique handcrafted jewelry, handcrafted artisan jewelry, handmade unique gifts, unique fashion jewel
Gemstone Information
Lapis LazuliLapis Lazuli is a blue stone composed mainly of lazurite. Lazurite is a mineral occurring in deep blue crystalline form and one of several minerals that make up the lapis rock. Its durability and its aesthetic appeal provides many uses.Lapis lazuli has been mined in places such as the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. Trade in Lapis extends back to Predynastic Egyptian sites, as well as to neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania. The blue color of the Lapis stone can range from a blue demin color to a deep, vibrant blue with intrinsic flecks of golden pyrite. The most desirable rock should be lightly dusted with small flecks of golden pyrite. Patches of pyrite are a unique and important feature in identifying the stone as genuine and do not detract from its value. Too much pyrite diminishes the stones commercial value. There should be no white calcite veins and the pyrite inclusions should be small. Lapis that is inferior is often dyed to improve its color. This usually creates a very dark blue stone with a visible grey cast. Lapis is created through the process of metamorphosis in pre-exisitng rock. Changes in pressure or heat create the Lapis rock without any melting. The brilliant and intense blue color stone is most valuable and prized. This unique feature makes it a sort after commodity, and its hardness makes it ideal for use as a building material. The versatility of Lapis makes it ideal as an architectural element as well as for sculpting, jewelry, mosaic and ornamental tiling, cladding buildings, walls, floors, columns, ceilings and even for use in furnitue and paint. Lapis originated in Persia, now modern day Iran, in Lazvard. In Latin, Lapis is the name for stone. The name of the stone and its place of origin came to be associated with the blue color. The word Lapis Lazuli means stone of azure, stone of blue or blue stone. Corals
Corals are marine organisms found in warm shallow seas. They are a group of animals that produce a hard calcareous external skeleton. Some form coral reefs, and exist in colonies of many identical individuals. They can be many colors such as red, white, orange-yellow, purple, pinkish-yellow or light yellowish-red. They can be used to make jewelry, or used as embellishments in jewelry production.
Corals also sexually reproduce by spawning with corals of the same species releasing gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon. Over the course of many years the coral produces a skeleton that grows and develops determining the shape size and structure of the coral reef. They aggregate in groups to form colonies such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or coral islands in warmer seas. Although some corals grow in clear and shallow water, typically at depths shallower than (200 ft), these corals depend heavily on sunlight which helps shape and grow them. This factor contributes greatly to the development and structure of the coral, particularly in tropical and substropical waters. Pollution is an enemy of this delicate process, as it adversely affects the production of calcium carbonate needed for healthy skeletal development, contaminating the aquatic environment, the food supply and the sedentary coral bed. Corals feed on plankton using stinging cells on their tentacles, but these warm-water animals obtain most of their nutrients from algae in the water. Algae are of a brown, green or red variety, growing mostly in water, that do not have leaves, stems or roots. They are primitive cholorphyll with mostly oxygen-rich eukaryotic organisms. Other corals living in deeper, colder waters do not have the associated algae, such as the cold-water genus Lophelia (approx 1500 ft) in the Atlantic. These type of deep water corals can be found in the waters of Scotland, and the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. 
Mother of PearlMother of pearl, is a composite material produced by some mollusks. A mollusk is an invertebrate with a calcareous shell. Mother of Pearl or 'nacre' as it is is sometimes called is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Pearls and the inside layer of the pearl oyster shells and the freshwater pearl mussel shells are made of nacre.Mother-of-pearl is composed of six-sided platelets of aragonite arranged in a continuous parallel layer. Aragonite is a mineral identical to calcite with different crystallization properties. These layers are separated by sheets of organic matrix. This combination of platelets and the thin layers of elastic biopolymers makes the material strong and resilient. This strength is further enhanced by the reinforced brick type construction of the platelets, which arrests the possiblity of any cracking of the many thin layers. This overlapping structure of the nacre increases its strength and durability. Mother of pearl appears iridescent due to the thickness of the aragonite platelets; and the differing wavelengths of light, revealing a luminous reflective quality inherent in the construction and positioning of the layered material. Nacre is secreted by the epithelial cells of the mantle tissue of some species of mollusk. The nacre of certain mollusks is deposited onto the inner surface of the shell. The iridescent layer commonly known as mother of pearl smooths the interior surface of the shell. This keeps dangerous parasites and damaging debris in check by entombing them in successive layers of nacre, forming a pearl. The process is called encystation and is on-going while the mollusk is alive. Main sources of mother of pearl are the pearl oyster, freshwater pearl mussels, and the abalone. These are found in tropical seas on the Asian Continent, river waters in the United States, and various Pacific regions respectively. 
Spiny OysterSpondylus is a genus of bivalve mollusks, the only genus in the family Spondylidae. These animals are known by their common name Spondylus, but are also known as spiny oysters.The Spondylus has many species and vary in appearance and range. They are grouped in the same family as the scallops, but they like true oysters, attach themselves to rocks and other fixed surfaces without the use of fine silky filiaments called bysuss as other mollusks. The Spondylus is identified by the specific hinging of the shell which is done with a ball and socket type of hinge. This is not a common ferature of other bivalves. Spiny oysters have many eyes on the perimeter of the shell as well as a well developed nervous system. The market for Spondylus shells is considerable. It is a sought after commodity by collectors and artisans of beautiful and unique handmade jewelry, and when rendered in jewelry makes a very uniquely crafted art piece. Back to Top of Unique Handcrafted Jewelry Page
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