Pantone has shifted its color of the year from Green to pink but it will always remain one of my favourite colors. In school I wore a green pinafore daily for 14 years (kg -12th) so I hated the color and would buy no other clothes in green, but after a few years, I started missing it and now I cant do without green in my wardrobe, especially green colored stones in jewelry.
Green is a gender neutral color, if you get the shade right. It flatters most skin tones and gives a calming and soothing feeling. As its the color of nature, there are so many different gemstones in green, so I would be writing about green gemstones in two parts starting with the well known ones.
List of Green color Gemstones
1.Emerald – “Nothing Greens Greener than emeralds”. Derived from the word “Esmeraude, emeraude or smaragdus (meaning green)” Emerald allures Gods, kings and common folk alike with its class, beauty and radiance. Shah Jahan inscribed sacred texts in emerals and wore them as talismans. The Incas had an emerald goddess, mummies from ancient Egypt were found with huge emerald necklaces and emeralds are regarded as the gemstone for goddess venus. Emerald tends to have inclusions and sometimes surface breaking fissures and they are oiled to improve their clarity. This member of the Beryl family can be opaque, semi opaque or transparent with the transparent ones being extremely valuable. Read more about how emeralds are set in jewellery such as gold rings here.
2. Jade -Treasured by the Chinese, Mayans, Toltecs as a royal gemstone, Jade is believed to protect people from harm and was believed to protect the body after death. That is maybe the reason why it is found in many ancient tombstones.The ancient jade of China is nephrite jade whereas today, Jadeite Jade is considered to be real jade as its rarer. Jade is the March birthstone. Read my detailed post on Jades here
3. Peridot – The clear, fresh lime green colors is what makes Peridot very attractive. This gem form of the mineral olivine, is often treasured as Goddess Peele’s tears in Hawaii. Romans referred to it as the “evening emerald” because of its light green color which didn’t become dark by night and hence could be mined in the evenings. Gemologists suggest peridot to improve the function of the adrenal glands, and to reduce emotional strain. Peridot is the birthstone for August.
4. Serpentine – The serpentine groups found in serpentinite rocks is composed of various minerals with main members being Antigorite, lizardite and Chrysotile
5.Diopside- Gemstone quality diopside can be found as the black star diopside and the chrome diopside which is green due to trace amounts of chromium. The natural Vivid green chrome diopside is mined in a remote location in Eastern Siberia known as Inagli in the state of Sakha.
6.Green Zircon: Derived from the Persian word – Zargun which means gold color, Natural zircons are one of the heaviest gemstones available and are different from the man made cubic zirconia. They are present in many colors, including green
My mother brought it to my attention, that it was not clear that I was talking about various gemstones in a typical post in this series, rather than varieties of the same one. so I would like to make it clear, I am grouping gemstones by color and not by chemical formula. For example Emerald, golden beryl and chrysoberyl belong to the same beryl family, but I am discussing golden beryl and chrysoberyl under yellow gemstones and emerald under green. Stones like Sapphire or Topaz come in various colors and the lists are by color so you might find the same gemstone in more than one post but with regard to a particular color. I hope this helps.
List of 7-16 green gemstones here at Gemstones in Green – part 2
Find previous articles on colored gemstones here.
Do check out my Resources tab – gemstone info section for information on various gemstones and precious metals.
Note -Images for visualization only, the green stones in picture are glass
sources: Wikipedia.org, Add more color to your life
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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