Amethyst for your mind

Amethyst – the emotion balancer

What do you feel when you see the color of violet or purple? Would it increase your imagination, bring peace and combat shock and fear or balance your mind? In color psychology, purple or violet were believed to posses not only the above said characteristics but also the power to suppress hunger and balance the body’s metabolism. Besides, a gemstone of violet purple is beautiful and attractive.

Amethyst is a member of the quartz family and is composed of Silicone Oxide in form of crystallized tetrahedral 3-dimensional structure. Amethyst was used as gemstone in ancient Egyptian and was considered to have the magic power to control evils, to calm the thoughts, and to make the wearer more intelligent and powerful. Wine goblets were commonly craved from amethyst. Amethyst was used in the cardinal up to 18th century. Since the 18th century, amethyst had been valued as precious as diamond, sapphire, ruby and emerald. Amethyst is abundantly supplied from Brazil, India, South Korea, United States, Russia, and Uruguay.

The fun of Amethyst

Amethyst is one of the family members of quartz; it shared the hardness of “7” on the Mohs scale as other quartz and is suitable for a wide variety of cut in jewelry design. Color of amethyst ranged from medium to medium dart purple, reddish purple, bluish purple, light pinkish purple and transparent to translucent violet. The most valuable color of Amethyst is medium to medium dark in tone because of its scarcity, and also the purple color is traditionally considered as color of royalty that represent the rich and powerful monarchs and rulers.

Nowadays, a wide variety of amethyst jewelry is available in an affordable price. We can enjoy the beauty of amethyst and possess one, especially if you are born in February, as amethyst is the Birthstone for February. I am sure there must be some that you want to keep for yourself or as gifts to your friends or love ones. With time to build your interest and knowledge, you will find its fun to have your own collections of Gemstone.

Ear Piercing

Ear piercing

I’ve struggled for ear piercing for many years because I was worried about the abnormal scaring. I saw a girl who had attend a clinic with a large and red lump on the earlobe. I was curious about that and learnt that was the hypertrophic scar resulted from ear piercing. After several years observation to make sure my body did not easily produce hypertrophic scaring. I had my ear piercing finally and now I can wear all sorts of earrings.

Formation of a nice hole from ear piercing is a long process. It’s not just the quick punch. Our body needs time to allow the wound to heal and to leave a hole as we desired. Nowadays, people mainly use piercing gun to fire the ear piercing stud through the earlobe. The ear stud can be beautifully set with gemstones in stainless steel surgical metal in 20 gauges.

Stages

The formation of a hole or tunnel on the earlobe goes through 3 main stages.

1. The inflammatory stage
After piercing the earlobe, an open wound is induced. Inflammation and tenderness are the common consequences.

2. The growth stage

Our body produces cells and protein to heal the puncture and the edges of the hole contract around the piercing, forming a scar tissue around the post of the stud. Therefore, to have a nice hole formed, we needed to turn the studs slowly and regularly. Otherwise, the scaring tissue would contract around the post and introduced new problems. This stage takes 6 to 8 weeks.

3. The maturation or remodeling stage
Cells lining the piercing strengthen and stabilize. This stage takes months or years to complete.
After the hole nicely formed and matured. You can wear any kind of earrings.

Gemstone Storage

Gemstone is commonly in hardness level of 5 to 8 in Mohs scale. No matter how hard is the material, scratches can easily be induced if they are rubbed with other gemstones. Normally gemstones are not hundred percent pure. There are at least small amount of impurities or foreign incursion. Storage of gemstone in separate compartment is highly recommended. Plastic box with separate compartment and transparent cover is excellent for storage. But make sure to put it into a light screened cabinet. Small plastic bag with zipper is good for storage of gemstone jewelry.

Chemical should not be allowed to touch the gemstone. The reason is chemical, in particular acidic in nature, can easily react with and corrode the gemstone. This will discolor the gemstone. Therefore, do not use chemical to clear the metal part of the jewelry that contain gemstone. Besides, never expose gemstone to sunlight or heat when the gemstone is not in used. Heat and Ultra Violet of sunlight can discolor the gemstone.

Pierce or Clip-on earrings

Body modification is popular nowadays. Ear piercing is the commonest type of body modifications all over the world. When traced back, ear piercing has the history for over 5000 years. This had been confirmed by the mummified body in Austrian Glacier area.

In the past, wearing earrings had been considers as the status of wealth and richness. For quite a long time, people had to pierce their ear to wear earrings. Until the clip-on type earrings produced, people can wear earrings without ear pierce. Nowadays, earrings are available in two basic types, pierced and non-pierced, and from there they branch out into a wide variety of shapes and styles.

Of pierced earrings, popular styles include simple stud earrings, hoop earrings, dangle earrings and the slave earrings. Many pierced earrings attach to the ear with a wire running through the earlobe rather than a post. Non-piercing earrings include the clip-on type earrings, ear cuff, magnetic earrings, stick-on earrings and spring hoop earrings. The clip-on type earring is the most popular among other non-piercing earrings.

To me, piercing earrings are still more attractive for several reasons. First of all, there is more trendy and fashionable design. Also, it’s more secure to wear the piercing earring as the spring of the clip-on is easily loosened. The spring attachment or screw in post would make the earlobe aching for prolonged wearing.

The most important drawback for piercing earring is the risk of infection or having abnormal scaring for ear piercing.

Quartz – the Energy Balancer

Quartz is another magic gemstone. It is colorful and is in affordable price to ordinary person. Quartz is composed of Silicon Oxide in crystallized form. It is in tetrahedral 3-dimensional structure. It has been saying since the ancient time that quartz has a very unique healing power - an energy balancer. What is energy balancer?



Quartz is the only gemstone which has a very special characteristic – the pseudo-electric property. Whenever an electric potential is applied, the atoms are in a stressful condition and is being compressed. The reverse is also true. Whenever a mechanical stress is applied, an electrical potential is developed. Whenever a person is under stress, an electrical energy is released, which if not correct will be harmful to body. By having a piece of quartz nearby you, or if you have a quartz jewelry, the quartz can help balance the negative energy and make one feels comfortable and relax. Try it out! Enjoy the beauty of quartz and the unique property of it as an energy balancer.

Gemstone - Glass Beads, the Ancient Memories

Ownership of glass products shows the social status of a person in the ancient time. Only rich people or those with high social level can own glass products. You will be surprised that only a few people know the glass making technology. The technology is inherited from father to son, and very rare that one person can learn the technology from the person who has no family connection with. You can never see a skillful technician makes glass in public. By now, you can learn glass making in school book, internet and different means.

Coloration of glass is normally done in 2 stages. Pigment is mixed with glass granules before they are heated or when the glass is in molten stage. Alternative, colors are applied after the glass is formed. The color is more stable and permanent for the first method. For the second method, since the paint is applied in the final stage and the paint is normally relatively unstable and will discolor with time. However, either method can produce very colorful glass beads and jewelry products.

Have fun!

Jewelry collection - Don’t miss the charm of plastic beads

Plastic beads are in all shapes and colors. It will be a big loss if they are not included in you jewelry collections.

Why?

Plastic beads are mainly produced by 2 methods – extrusion and injection molding. By extrusion, plastic in molten state is squeezed into a die. The tube-shaped plastics rod is then cooled down and cut into the needed sizes. By injection, molten plastic is then squeezed into a mold with multiple cavities. The molten plastic is then cool down inside the mould, and then released. The advantage the injection molding over extrusion is you can have plastic beads in whatever forms you preferred. For plastic bead produced from extrusion, the shape is very restricted. The reason that plastic beads are rich in colors is mainly due to the fact that plastic beads are normally colored after the formation of beads. This means you can have plastic beads in whatever shapes and in whatever colors.

Have funs to have your collection of plastic beads and the jewelries.