Aquamarine
From lightest
sky-blue to the deep blue of the sea – aquamarines show all these shades of an
exceptionally beautiful range of usually light blues. It is a truly fascinating
stone. Women all over the world covet it because of its fine blue colour, which
suits almost any complexion or eye-colour to perfection, and creative gemstone
artists get their inspiration for new cuts more often from aquamarines than
from other stones.
Its light blue arises feelings such as sympathy, trust,
harmony or friendship. These are good feelings, which involve a partner or
companion, and prove their vale in long-lasting relationships. Aquamarine blue
is a divine and eternal colour, since it is, after all, the colour of the
skies. Aquamarine blue, however, is also the colour of water with its
life-giving properties. And in fact aquamarine seems to have managed to embody
the light blue of the seas. This is not surprising, for according to legend it
has its origin in the treasure chest of the legendary mermaids, and has for
ages been reputed to be a lucky stone for sailors. Its name has been derived
from the Latin terms "aqua” meaning water, and "mare” or sea.
Allegedly its powers develop best if the stone is immersed in sun-drenched
water. However, it seems a wiser course to carry it, because according to
ancient traditions, carrying an aquamarine is supposed to guarantee a happy
marriage and to make its owner happy and rich at that – the ideal gemstone, not
only for lovers and married couples.
Gemstone with many excellent characteristics
Aquamarine is one of our most popular and famous gemstones
and is characterised by many excellent features. It is almost as popular as the
classical stones Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. It is related to Emerald,
which just like Aquamarine belongs to the gemstone family of
Beryls. However, the colour is more evenly distributed throughout the
stone in Aquamarines compared to Emeralds. More frequent in occurrence than its
famous green brother, Aquamarine is usually almost free of inclusions. It
possesses a good hardness (7 _ to 7 _ on the Mohs’ scale), and a breathtaking
brilliance. Its good hardness makes it quite robust and protects it generally
from getting scratched. Iron is the substance responsible for the colour in
Aquamarine, and the shades of blue displayed range from almost colourless pale
blue through to bright sea blue. The more intense the colour of an Aquamarine,
the higher its value. Some Aquamarines show a slightly greenish hue – that is
also considered typical. But a really pure and clear blue is still cherished as
typical Aquamarine colour, as it best brings out the immaculate transparency
and high brilliance of this gemstone.
Santa Maria makes the hearts bet faster
The light blue of this fine Beryl finds more and more
friends. The different shades of Aquamarine are distinguished by their own
promising names: "Santa Maria” is the name for the rare, intensely deep
blue Aquamarines found in the Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Brazil, and they
are bound to cause excitement among gemstone lovers in general. Similar colours
are found in some of the sparse Aquamarine gemstone mines in Africa, especially
in Mozambique. In order to better distinguish them, these Aquamarines are
denoted as "Santa Maria Africana”. Not quite as deeply blue are
"Espirito Santo” Aquamarines from the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.
Another beautiful colour has in fact been named in honour of a Brazilian beauty
queen from 1954, and has become famous as "Martha Rocha”.
The names of the colours already point out the importance
of Brazil as the main country where Aquamarines are found. Most of the rough
crystals on the world market come from the gemstone mines of this huge South
American country. From time to time, then, large Aquamarine crystals of
immaculate transparency and splendid colour are found here, a rare occurrence
indeed where these gemstones are concerned. Now and then even sensationally
large crystals are found, such as, e.g., in 1910 at Maraimba/ Minas Gerais,
where a 110.5 kg crystal was mined. Or there is the "Dom Pedro” weighing
26 kg, which was cut in 1992 by Idar-Oberstein gemstone artist Bernd
Munsteiner, thus achieving the title of largest ever cut Aquamarine.
Nevertheless, Aquamarines are also found in other countries, such as, for
example, Nigeria, Madagascar, Mozambique, Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Favourite stone of modern designers
There is hardly another gemstone, which is equally often
used for modern jewellery design in such versatile variety. Clear and
transparent in classical steps cut, or as modern fancy cut: Aquamarine is
always fascinating and beautiful. Even uncut or with many inclusions, which
designers often opt to include on purpose when developing their cuts, the stone
is ideal for realising imaginative creations. Designers have named it their
favourite stone. Again and again they surprise everybody with new and modern
cuts, which they seem to prefer to craft in Aquamarine. These creative designer
cuts have no doubt contributed to its high popularity. Aquamarine’s light
colour makes it easy to discern inclusions within. Therefore Aquamarines should
be as transparent as possible. But sometimes the design of the cuts adds
special attractiveness to a stone by including these imperfections to create
special effects. Aquamarine’s light colour allows for a special creative
freedom for designers to bring out the character and brilliance of a stone by
integrating fine fissures and traces, rounded shapes as well as edges. Thus
each Aquamarine becomes a unique original, which no woman will be able to
resist.