Loose Gems
Designing your own jewellery was never this easy. At Destiny Diamonds our inviting selection of stones and prices offers everyone the opportunity to indulge.
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Diamonds:
Black Diamond
Black Diamonds are exactly the same as White Diamonds they are made of carbon and have a hardness of 10 on the MOHS scale. Black Diamonds are found throughout the world where diamonds are mined.
White Diamond
White diamonds are produced by mines all over the world in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. A white diamond is considered to be totally colorless. One thing that will remain is that white diamonds are classic. The simple beauty of a white diamond is magnificent.
Blue Diamond
The Blue Diamond is one of the rarest, and the most desirable of the colored diamonds. Natural diamonds of this color are rare and highly priced, such as the Hope diamond.
Pink Diamond
The pink diamonds comes in shades ranging from a pastel rose, such as the Pink Orchid to intense purple-reds of the Moussaieff Red, and the price is determined by the intensity of the color.
Brown Diamond
Many people describe brown or brownish diamonds as "champagne" diamonds, presumably because it sounds more exotic, expensive and desirable. Certainly brown is not a "high preference" colour, i.e. it is not high on most people's list of favourite colours. Nevertheless fancy brown diamonds are very rare, and can be very attractive. Most fancy brown diamonds are natural rather than enhanced.
Orange Diamond
Pure orange is a mixture of the primary colors red and yellow, the natural fancy orange diamonds range from orange red diamond to yellow orange diamonds. Red, orange, pink, purple and yellow are the secondary hues found in natural fancy orange diamonds.
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Precious & Semi Precious:
Sapphire
Sapphire is one of the two gem varieties of the species corundum. Although blue is the best known hue, the gem occurs in virtually every spectral hue excepting red; red corundum is ruby. Sapphire may also be colorless, and it also occurs in the non-spectral shades gray and black. Significant sapphire deposits are found in Eastern Australia, Southeast Asia, and Sri Lanka. Sapphire and rubies are often found together in the same area.
Ruby
A Ruby is a pink to blood-red gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). The common red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red.
Emerald
Emeralds are a variety of the mineral beryl, colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Most emeralds are highly included, so their brittleness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor. The word "emerald" comes from Latin smaragdus, via Greek smaragdos, its original source being a Semitic word izmargad or the Sanskrit word, marakata, meaning "emerald" or "green".
Opal
Opal is a mineraloid gel which is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, and basalt.
Aquamarine
Aquamarine is a gemstone-quality transparent variety of beryl, having a delicate blue or turquoise color, suggestive of the tint of seawater. It is closely related to the gem emerald. Colors vary and yellow beryl (heliodor), rose pink beryl (morganite), and white beryl (goshenite) are known.
Spinel
The spinels are an important group of oxide minerals with similar crystalline structures. This group consists of more than 20 minerals, including valuable ores such as chromite, a source of chromium; magnetite, a source of iron; and franklinite, a source of manganese and zinc. The representative member, spinel, produces gem-quality stones. In particular, spinel-rubies are red spinels that resemble rubies and are used as gemstones.
Peridot
Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one color, basically an olive green. The intensity and tint of the green however depends on how much iron is contained in the crystal structure, so the color of individual peridot gems can vary from yellow-green through olive green to brownish green.
Rhodolite
Rhodolite is a varietal name for rose-pink to red mineral pyrope, a species in the garnet group. It is found in Cowee Valley, Macon County, North Carolina. The name is derived from the Greek for "rose-like", in common with many pink mineral types (e.g. rhodochrosite, rhodonite), but rhodolite itself is not officially recognised as a mineralogical term. This colouration, and the commonly inclusion-free nature of garnet from this locality, has led to rhodolite being used as a semi-precious gemstone. Chemically, rhodolite is an iron-magnesium-aluminium silicate, part of the pyrope-almandine solid-solution series.
Garnet
Garnet is a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. Garnets are most often seen in red, but are available in a wide variety of colors spanning the entire spectrum. The name "garnet" comes from the Latin granatus ("grain"), possibly a reference to the Punica granatum ("pomegranate"), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals.
Zircon
The crystal structure of zircon is tetragonal crystal system. The natural color of zircon varies between colorless, yellow-golden, red, brown, and green. Colorless specimens that show gem quality are a popular substitute for diamond; these specimens are also known as "Matura diamond". The name either derives from the Arabic word zarqun, meaning vermilion, or from the Persian zargun, meaning golden-colored.
Topaz
Pure topaz is transparent but is usually tinted by impurities; typical topaz is wine or straw-yellow. They may be made white, gray, green, blue, pink or reddish-yellow and transparent or translucent.
Tourmaline
Tourmaline is a crystal silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline gem stones come in a wide variety of colors. The name comes from the Sinhalese word "turamali" or "toramalli", which applied to different gemstones found in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
Quartz
Pure Quartz is colorless or white; colored varieties include rose quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, milky quartz, and others. Quartz goes by an array of different names. The most important distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline (individual crystals visible to the unaided eye) and the microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline varieties (aggregates of crystals visible only under high magnification).
Amethyst
Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz often used as an ornamental stone in jewelry. The name comes from the Ancient Greek a- ("not") and methustos ("intoxicated"), a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness; the ancient Greeks and Romans wore amethyst and made drinking vessels of it in the belief that it would prevent intoxication.