Jewelry ~ Gemstone

Terms and Definitions

  Bernardine Designer Art Jewelry

 

Jewelry and Gemstone Glossary of Terms

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Index of Terms


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Mabe Pearl

Mabe pearls are dome-shaped on one side and flattened on the other. They grow attached to the inside shells of oysters. Mabe pearlBecause the pearl grows against the inside shell, instead of blister pearlin the mollusk's body, these type pearls are set into rings, earrings and pendants using prongs or bezels to conceal their relatively flat backs. Mabe pearls are cultured in the pearl fields of Japan, Indonesia, French Polynesia and Australia.

 

Malachite

Malachite, a hydrous carbonate of copper, is a popular opaque stone with bands of green malachite caband black. Many beautiful specimens of malachite contain other minerals, suchmalachite-azurite as azurite, cuprite, or chrysocolla. Malachite can be found in Zaire, USSR, Germany, France, Chile, Australia, Arizona and New Mexico/USA. It is a relatively soft stone with a hardness of 4 on the Mohs scale.

 

Matte Finish

Jewelry which has a non-reflective metal surface is referred to as having a matte finish as opposed to jewelry that is highly polished. The surface will appear frosted, uniformly scratched or brushed and is created using various techniques including a chemical processes, sand blasting, tumble polishing or created by hand using abrasives.

 

Metallic

The quality used to describe a gem with a luster similar to metal. Hematite, pyrite, stibnite, silver topaz and Gibeon Meteorites are some gems which display a metallic luster.

 

Mohs Scale

 

The Mohs Scale of Hardness measures a substance's hardness or how resistant it is to being scratched. The scale ranges from 1 to 10. For example, a diamond (hardness = 10) will scratch garnet (hardness = 6.5-7.5), but not the other way around, so a diamond is harder than garnet. See hardness for scale of stones.

 

Mokume-Gane

This is a metalsmithing technique originated by the Japanese which produces an effect that resembles a wood grain. Many layers of copper, gold,and or silver are bonded together in alternating layers. After bonding the

 


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