Gorgeous pale green crystals made it among my most precious purchases at the Tucson Gem Show 2011. Combining them in a graduated array with large cluster pearls, I uttered a spontaneous “WOW” from my bench on completing the piece. The last two pale green crystals I had were worked into attractive drop-chain dangle earrings.
Unknown
The creative process ends with the completion of an ensemble. Then comes the bookkeeping, starting with documenting the piece descriptively using the names of materials from which it was made. Problem Number One: What are those pale green crystals?
It is not like me not to know exactly what gemstones I have. The pale green crystals had no identifying label, which means I must have known what they were when I bought them. ‘I’ll know what they are later by looking,’ I said to myself at the time. Well, it’s later and looking tells me nothing about what they are. Uh oh. My memory must be on stand-by again.
The “P” clue
I did recall the terse conversation with the Indian guy at the Show from whom I bought the pretty crystals. I recall asking him what they were, when he responded something unintelligible but beginning with ‘p.’ Okay, it is now time to query my mental gemstone database for pale green stones with the letter P.
Ah, it must be prehnite. I know prehnite. I didn’t label the strand of crystals because I knew they would be recognizable as the prehnite with which I was already familiar. Okay, they’re prehnite.
But wait! The color was right, but the opacity was wrong. Prehnite is opaque. My crystals were clear.
The “clear” clue
Back to the drawing board of gemstone identity. I’ve got a pale green cut gemstone, and it’s as clear as water. Up goes an Internet search for pale green gems with water clear clarity. Aah ha! The color is a match. The clarity is a match. I’ve got zultanite. Zultanite! Boy, did I get a bargain from that Indian guy!
As you know, zultanite is found in only one place on earth: Turkey. I wondered what made the Indian guy: #1) have a Turkish gemstone; and #2) sell zultanite to me for much less than I know that precious gem must cost. It was then that I learned that zultanite changes color with changes in lighting.
The “color-change” clue
It was then that I ran around the house looking for the three lighting conditions under which zultanite changes color.
Broad daylight constituted the standard condition for pale green zultanite, which is what I had in spades on that cloudless, sunny afternoon. Finding bright incandescent lighting turned out to be problematical, as the begrudging ban on such bulbs makes them hard to find, especially in an environmentally retrofitted abode.
I looked everywhere for the lighting that might change my gemstones from pale green to champagne beige. Those pale green crystals remained pale green crystals no matter where I went! Neither did they turn a pale rosey color as zultanite does in low illumination. All in my household wondered what was up with the candlelight!
“Come on, be zultanite, dag nabbit. Change color, you jolly green gemstone, you!” Demanding that gemstones be something they aren’t left me no choice but to fess up that precious zultanite was not the stone in my gorgeous ensemble.
The “pale green” clue
Back to square one in the gemstone investigation. Determinedly, I went back to the Internet and searched on the pale green color. Again. It was the one thing that remained stubbornly constant about that stone.
Jewelry designs with a clear pale green stone showed up as green amethyst, also known as prasiolite. Aah ha! More bells start going off in my brain, which is now working a bit more than part time.
The vendor at the Gem Show had muttered in his sub-continent Indian accent, “prasiolite, prasiolite,” a name with which I was unfamiliar. He then said in plain English, “same as green amethyst” with which I was familiar! Knowing amethyst is why I left the strand unlabeled, certain that I would surely remember the stone as amethyst that ‘turned green with envy’ for not being a pretty impassioned purple!
Lessons learned
So, GSI Lorraine (Gem Stone Investigator me) solved the gemstone mystery. I will never again leave another gemstone unlabeled, its identity to memory, or assign an idiotic analogy for an alternative name! Those pretty prasiolite crystals taught me much.
Someone besides me will have that gorgeous green amethyst ensemble forever, but I will forever have the knowledge to know what it is by looking. I think.
Readers: Be sure to tune into the Prasiolite Green Amethyst Slideshow, coming soon, which will expose the conditions for the color change that never occurs in pretty pale green prasiolite gems!
Sources: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2294453/prehnite_precious_gemstone_or_marketing.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9018333/prehnite_the_granny_smith_apple_green.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/124399/prehnite_slideshow.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9025311/prasiolite_green_amethyst.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9021493/zultanite_the_color_change_diaspore.html
