Hobbies And Interests
Citrine and Tourmaline
Natural yellow citrine is a rare gemstone. Citrine is a form of quartz, which is colorless in its pure state. The yellow color in citrine is caused by iron. It is the birthstone for the month of November. Tourmaline is a borosilicate mineral that can be any color, but beautiful tourmalines are also yellow. Excellent specimens are found in Malawi. Interestingly, they also give off a good smell when they're being cut -- at least the ones in Malawi do. This is because the owner of the gemstone mine boils the crystals in lemon water first to clean them.
Topaz and Zircon
Many people used to think that all topaz was yellow and all yellow jewels were topaz. Topaz is an aluminum silicate that contains as much as 20 percent fluorine and water. Its physical and optical characteristics are influenced by the amount of fluorine and water the crystal has, and richness in fluorine makes topaz yellow. Golden topaz is most abundant in Ouro Preto, Brazil. It's also the birthstone of the month of November, and in ancient days it was dedicated to the god Jupiter. Zircon comes from the Arabic word "zirgoon," which means vermilion or golden-colored. Zircon is a fairly hard mineral but can be very brittle, and can show signs of wear and tear. Some jewelers wrap each stone in individual paper so they can't knock against each other and chip.
Chrysoberyl
Chrysoberyl is a beryllium aluminum oxide, and only diamond and corundum are harder. The stone is about 8.5 on the Mohs scale. The name is Greek for golden-colored berry. The best stone is a pale yellow green from Brazil, and some chrysoberyl stones contain inclusions that give it a glowing cat's eye effect. The band of light seems to move when the stone moves. The yellow color is caused by small amounts of iron or chromium.
Scapolite
Scapolite is also a prized yellow gemstone. It occurs in granites, gabbros and limestones and is often found as a large and beautiful crystal. It's most abundant in Brazil.