The World's Most Useful Gem & Jewelry Monthly Newsletter
Written by Carolyn Doyle for customers of The Dorado Company and other visitors to the
azgem.com website who subscribe.
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To enquire about gems or jewelry...
Usable Gems... and a little opinion.
Iolite Is The
Look-Alike Gem
Iolite is a beautiful gem... that look like sapphire
or tanzanite, according to many.
Iolite, have you heard of it? The name is pronounced
eye-o-lite, or as our madagascar-gems-com partner in Madagascar would say it...
e-yo-leete.
Iolite is the gem variety of a mineral named cordetite.
All of these "ite" names, while pleasing to the scientific community,
can be really tedious. I much prefer the more romantic gem names, such as
emerald, sapphire, and topaz.
But I digress, so back to the subject...
Iolite is the official name, so we will use it here. The
name comes from the Greek word "ios" which supposedly means "violet."
This beautiful gem is also known as water sapphire.
Not a bad name, but neither is it unique, since it borrows the sapphire
name.
Blue-violet is the color of this gem. As I mentioned
earlier, sapphire and tanzanite also occur in this same color. One of the
favorable characteristics of iolite is that it is more affordable.
Iolite has other interesting characteristics
as well. The Vikings used it as a polarizing filter to see through the haze at
sea.
Iolite is a relatively hard gem, so it is very suitable for use in jewelry to be
worn often.
Chemically, it is a magnesium-alumino silicate, with
(usually) some ferrous iron (Fe2+) and ferric iron
(Fe3+) present. This gets us dangerously close to a
discussion of the oxidation state of elements and their
influence on colors... but we will not go there today.
Iolite is becoming more popular in manufactured jewelry. This
is primarily due to the popularity of the much more expensive
and similar colored gem, tanzanite.
Iolite continues to be
very affordable from gem dealers (especially this one).
Reasons for this continued affordability can be attributed
to its presence in commercial mining quantities on several
continents.
Iolite is found in Madagascar, Namibia, Tanzania, Brazil, Sri
Lanka, Burma, Australia, and Canada.
All-in-all, this is a very desirable gem.
Click on the box...
and have Google start putting money in your bank account!
A Google search for the keyword phrase iolite gems returns a number of
internet listings and ads with additional information and photos.
Gem Industry News...
Supporting The
Troops
Here's a great opportunity to say "We appreciate
you"
I received an email from the publisher of my ColoredStone
Magazine today. They're offering to partner with citizens in
supporting our troops... specifically by offering dramatically
reduced subscription rates to the troops.
We can participate by paying for subscriptions. We pay $10
per subscription... and a member of the military gets the
magazine for a year.
The Las Vegas Jewelry and gem shows will begin at the end of
May and extend into early June. Let me know if you plan to
attend.
Jewelry
Dealers
Mother's
Day is coming. This is another great sales opportunity. There are
many husbands in your circle that have no ideas on what to give. Help
them out.
We should also be focusing on
building inventory. And, we must continue servicing our customers, recruiting new customers, and generally growing our respective businesses.
The AZGem Gems Newsletter is now distributed
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name.
Mother's
Day is coming. This is another great sales opportunity. There are
many husbands in your circle that have no ideas on what to give. Help
them out.
