June Birthstones - Pearl & Alexandrite

Pearl & Alexandrite Education - June Birthstone

Birthstone: Pearl
Moh's hardness: 2 1/2 - 4 1/2
Color: White, pink, silver, cream, golden- colored, green, blue, black
Chemical Composition: Calcium carbonate,organic substances and water.

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From one of the humblest of life forms, the mollusk, comes the Pearl, a gem of unsurpassed beauty and elegance. Ancient civilizations had many stories to explain the origin of June's birthstone, such as the Greek belief was that Pearls were the hardened tears of joy that the goddess of love shook from her eyes. According to Arab legend, pearls were formed when oysters were lured from the depths of the ocean by the beautiful moon and then swallowed moonlit dewdrops, and the Ancient Chinese thought that these gems originated from the brains of dragons.

The scientific explanation for natural pearls is almost as mystifying as folklore.
When an irritant, such as a small parasite or a fish lodges in the flesh of the oyster, mussel, or clam, a protective substance called "nacre" is produced.
Over years, layer upon layer of shimmering nacre coats the intruder, creating a lustrous pearl. Natural pearls are relatively rare, so a process evolved in which a piece of shell or bead was placed inside the mollusk to stimulate the production of nacre. This results in a cultured pearl, which accounts for about 90 percent of the pearl industry.

Pearls have been a passion and even an obsession of people throughout the ages. They have been ground up and used in cosmetics and as medicine to treat heart and stomach conditions. Some cultures swear by pearls as an aphrodisiac. These gems have adorned crowns, clothing, and temples, and where said to be a favorite of Cleopatra.

June Birthstone Alternate: Alexandrite

Birthstone: Alexandrite
Moh's hardness: 8 1/2
Specific Gravity: 3.78
Color: Color changing stone from, green
to red, blue-green, to purplish-red
Chemical Composition: BeAl2o4 beryllium
aluminum oxide

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Alexandrite is one of the rarest gemstones. It is named after the Russian tsar Alexander II (1818-1881) the very first crystals having been discovered in April 1834 in the emerald mines near the Tokovaya River in the Urals.
The discovery was made on the day the future tsar came of age. Although Alexandrite is a relatively young gemstone, it certainly has a noble history.
Since it shows both red and green, the principal colors of old Imperial Russia, it inevitably became the national stone of tsarist Russia.

Beautiful Alexandrite in top quality, however, is very rare indeed and hardly ever used in modern jewelry. In antique Russian jewelry you may come across it with a little luck, since Russian master jewelers loved this stone. Tiffany's master gemologist George Frederick Kunz (1856-1932) was also fascinated by Alexandrite, and the jeweler's firm produced some beautiful series of rings and platinum ensembles at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Smaller Alexandrites were occasionally also used in Victorian jewelry from England.

The most sensational feature about this stone, however is its surprising ability to change color. Green or bluish-green in daylight, Alexandrite turns a soft shade of red, purplish-red or raspberry red in incandescent light. This unique optical characteristic makes it one of the most valuable gemstones of all, especially in fine qualities.

Alexandrite is very scarce, this is due to its chemical composition. It is basically Chrysoberyl, a mineral consisting of colorless or yellow transparent Chrysoberyl.