Conversation Fun

Tidbits About Gemstones

Did you know that if you stuck a hot pin in a piece of amber it would smell like pine? Also, amber is not mined. Amber is the sap that has harden from trees millions of years ago. Amber has been around since the dinosaurs. This is why there are several different colors of amber: yellow, honey and green. The bubbles in the amber are air pockets that were created when it was in its hardening process. People studying amber have extracted the air from the gemstone to see what the air was like millions of years ago. Fossilized bugs have also been found inside the amber. These pieces are very expensive.

Several years ago my husband and I went to a pearl farm in Tennessee. Below is a few interesting facts about a pearl.

Do you know the way to tell if a pearl is real?


First of all I advise everyone to make sure that the pearl is clean before you do this test. Rub the pearl on your teeth if it has a smooth feel to it most likely it is fake. If it has a gritty feel to it then it is a real pearl.

A cultured pearl is one that has been formed with human intervention on a pearl farm. A natural pearl is one that forms without any human intervention. Sometimes you will hear of a blister pearl, this is a half-sphere formed flush against the shell of the pearl oyster.
Pearls are created by a hard object irritating the mollusk inside the shell. Many pearl farmers will place a piece of polished mussel shell inside to cause this irritation. Natural pearls can be created by just a grain of sand or another piece of pearl entering the oyster shell.
Mother of Pearl is the rainbow part of inside of the shell.