We recently and officially became part of Youtube. We've been thinking about it for a while and finally came to a unanimous decision that it would be fun to showcase our works and some of our favorite pieces via video. We invite our customers to view our first videos, clearly a work in progress, we have accepted the challenge and are enjoying the process, our goal is to provide more and more interesting and fun videos for people to watch.

So our official youtube page or rather channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JewelsQuest/featured.

Topaz, such a magestic name, also known as the precious Imperial Topaz which is usually fine apricot orange. Birthstone of the month of November, Topaz is a symbol of love and affection. A true Topaz is rarely seen in jewelry stores. What most people know as Topaz is the Quartz Citrine.

Topaz occurs in transparent yellow, yellow brown, orange, orange brown, pinkish brown as well as light red and blue. The latter has increased in popularity lately, blue topaz work best in whote gold settings and the color is a bright blue. Most of these are heat treated and hard to determine from the non treated ones.

You will come accross many gemstones bearing the name Topaz but they are misleading as they are citrine and quartz. The following are some you may have heard:

Smokey Topaz
Spanish Topaz
Rio Topaz
Occidental Topaz
Scottish Topaz
Madeira Topaz...

Overall Topaz is a versatile, hard and brilliant gemstone with a range of colors. The orange Topaz has long been associated with the November gemstone but today you may wish your Topaz in any hue you desire.

Gold was among the first metals to be mined because it commonly occurred in its native form; not combined with other elements, and because it was beautiful and imperishable, and because exquisite objects could be made from it. Artisans of ancient civilizations used gold lavishly in decorating tombs and temples, and gold objects made more than 5,000 years ago have been found in Egypt.The graves of nobles at the ancient Citadel of Mycenae near Nauplion, Greece, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, yielded a great variety of gold figurines, masks, cups, diadems, and jewelry, plus hundreds of decorated beads and buttons. These elegant works of art were created by skilled craftsmen more than 3,500 years ago.

PURE (100%) GOLD
Pure gold is too soft, and is usually mixed with other metal alloys (silver, copper, nickel and zinc) to make it stronger and more durable for jewelry.

18K GOLD / 14K GOLD
18k gold contains a higher (75%) percentage of pure gold and therefore is more valuable than 14k gold (58.3%). A marking such as ’14k’ or ’18k’ indicates the karat, and you may sometimes also see the manufacturers registered trademark or the country of origin.

YELLOW, WHITE, & ROSE GOLD
Pure gold (which is always yellow) is too soft for making jewelry. The metal alloys that are mixed with pure gold for strength can also modify the resulting color to produce different shades of yellow, white, and pink gold. White gold was originally developed to imitate platinum, and usually contains 25% nickel and zinc or palladium. Nickel is cheaper than palladium and therefore more widely White gold is also rhodium plated to make the white gold whiter.

A side note about Rhodium: It is also a precious metal yet not feasible to make solid jewelry. Believe it or not it is about ten times if not more costlier than gold but it is a great for plating white gold jewelry, it is much more whiter, chrome like and makes a piece dazzling. It can also be used on silver, preventing it from quickly tarnishing. Rhodium plating will also make diamonds look bigger and brighter, nothing sets off diamonds like rhodium plating.

VALUE
There are many other factors that determine the value of a gold jewelry piece: Weight - gold is sold by weight - grams(gr) or pennyweights(pwt), the heavier the piece, the higher the gold content, therefore it is more expensive.

Design - designer jewelry is more expensive, especially if it is a one of a kind piece.
Finish - special finishes to the metal such as matte, or sand-blasted finish add to the cost of the gold jewelry piece.

Peridot, also called precious olivine, is a gem-quality transparent green olivine. The crystals of peridot have a vitreous lustre and conchoidal fracture. Gem-quality olivine is a mineral that composes a lot of the earth's mantel, the layer below the crust. It is also common in basalts on the moon. 

Peridot has been adored since ancient times and has been valued for centuries. Peridot was greatly prized by Egyptian Kings. Some of Cleopatra's emeralds were in fact peridots.

The most beautiful stones come from the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the peridot as a gemstone also exists in Myanmar, China, the USA, Africa and Australia. Stones from East Burma, now known as Myanmar, have a vivid light green and fine inclusions with a silky shine to them. Peridot from Arizona, where it is popularly used in native American jewelry, often has somewhat yellowish or gold-brown nuances.

Properties of Peridot
Composition
Peridot is the gem variety of the olivine group, which has the following species: Forsterite, Mg2SiO4 Fayalite, Fe2SiO4

Hardness (Mohs)
6.5 to 7

Cleavage
Imperfect to distinct in one direction (rarely seen)

Specific Gravity
3.34 + 0.17, – 0.07

Refractive Index
1.654–1.690 (±0.020)

Birefringence
0.035 to 0.038
Crystal System
Orthorhombic; usually occurs as rounded pebbles; well formed crystals are quite rare

Colors
Mainly green; sometimes yellow or brown

Pleochroism
Weak to moderate, dichroic

UV Fluorescence
Generally inert

Dispersion
0.020

Phenomena
Cat’s eye and star peridot are known, but are rare

Care
Never clean peridot ultrasonically.
Not safe in steamer.
The best way to care for peridot is to clean it with warm, soapy water. Avoid exposure to heat, acids and rapid temperature changes

Peridot is not typically enhanced

Natural pearls are rare, extremely rare and would be very expensive. Today, nearly all pearls sold are cultured, they can be cultivated in sea water or fresh water.Sea water pearls, perfectly round, cream color and lustrous, are higly prized. Mostly found in the seas of Japan. 

Consider the famous Japonese Akoya Pearl, grown inside the oyster in cold water over a period of 8 to 24 months. These when finally harvested will become a stunning strand of pearl necklace or earrings.

Less perfect in shape are the fresh water pearls, they won't have the same luster either and are farless expensive. They are on the other hand very durable and perfect choice in designing pearl jewelry. 

Sea water pearl is bead nucleated,and the bead nuclei helps as guide and forms a perfectly round pearl. Fresh water pearls is created by introducing a tiny piece of mantle tissue from a mussel,injecting it into the mollusk and returned to its natural habitat.

Characteristics of the pearl with which it is graded are: luster, surface clarity, nacre thickness,color, shape, and size. Pearls are graded against each other, for example South sea pearls are not graded against Akoya pearls.

Luster: is often spoken of when describing pearls, luster is the deep inner glow, the most important factor in evaluating a pearl's quality. Experts consider luster the heart and soul of a pearl.

Surface: refers to the abundance or absence of physical blemishes. The fewer the better, and more expensive.

Color: From silvery white to black and a rainbow of colors inbetween. Color is a personal preference. Color rarely affects the price.

Shape: simply put, the rounderand more spherical, symmetrical the pearl, the more valuable.

Size: measured by their diameter in millimeters. It can as small as one mmandaslarge as twenty mm.

Matching: You know moretimewas spent on matching the pearls when you see 2 or more pearls lookingmore uniform and aesthetically pleasing together. And this time to match pearls is reflected on the cost.

How should you care for your Pearls:
-Never toss them next to or on top of other gems in a jewelry box. Put your pearls in a jewelry pouch. 
-Wipe your pearls with soft cloth to slow the process of your pearls loosing their luster due to skin acid absorption.
-Avoid storing your pearls in a safe deposit vault, as dry air can damage them. 
-Try not to hold the pearls themselves but handle the clasp instead when putting them on and taking them off.
-Perfume, vinegar,lemon juice, ultrasonic cleaners, dish washing detergents,amonia based cleaner, toothpaste are all bad for pearls. Avoid them.

There was a time when every green gemstone was considered an Emerald. You say the word emerald and visions of intense vivid greens come to flash before our mind's eye. It is a stone that has been used to make jewelry for as long as history. From the Egyptians to the Romans to modern day, Emerald much as many other gemstones, has great value and significance. From the ancient belief that it brings fertility and eternal youth to today's notion of its great exotic nature.

At Jewels Quest, we carry a few pieces of Emerald jewelry and often disclose much about it to our customers who desire to buy an Emerald. It is a beautiful stone and knowing and understanding fully the features of this gemstone before you buy it  leaves customers better equipped to make their decision before buying it.

Let's begin with the 4 c's of Emerald, these are the same as diamonds, cut, clarity, color and carat weight. The difference is the importance of the order. In diamonds, you'd be more concerned with the clarity grade while with emeralds we look at color which is the most important aspect to consider with emeralds, while the carat weight will be the least important.

Tip#1: The darker the color, the more valuable: It would have to be a dark blue green while still brilliant and translucent, simply dark green opaque stones isn't enough to be considred valuable, these can be quite cheaper in fact. 
Tip#2: Inclusions in the emerald are what cause the beautiful green color: Remember that point, and don't be surprised at how highly included these precious stones are. It is also the reason why the emerald rough must be cut away so much. This weight loss is the main reason of their high cost.
Tip#2: Symmetrical and uniform facets providing maximum color and brilliance are an Emerald's ideal cut: If the cut is too shallow, light will be lost at the bottom of the stone and the emerald will not have maximum brilliance. If the cut is too deep, the light will escape out of the sides and the emerald will appear dark.


Caution when cleaning your Emerald jewelry: Clean your emerald with a soft, dry cloth. Oil is used during the stone treatment, therfore you should never clean an emerald with an ultrasonic cleaner because this oil could be removed or damaged. In addition, do not clean emerald in hot soapy water since it too can remove this oil. Avoid sudden temperature changes as emeralds lose their color when strongly heated. 

The word diamond comes from the Greek "adamas" meaning invicible, a perfect description for a gem which is the hardest mineral known to man. 10 on the Moh scale. So what is the Moh scale anyway you ask. Moh's scale of mineral hardness quantifies the scratch resistance of minerals by comparing the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer one. The Moh's scale was created in 1812 by Friedrich Mohs, a German  minerologist. On the scale in position 7 is the quartz, 8 is Topaz, 9 is Corundum (Ruby is a variety of corundum) and 10 is the supreme diamond, the hardest natural occurring material. A natural allotrope of carbon. The crystal bond structure of diamonds give the stone its hardness.

Have you ever wondered what goes into cutting a rough diamond? There are several steps are called marking, cleaving, sawing, girdling, and faceting. The most popular style of cut is the brilliant cut, a round stone with 58 facets. A single cut is a simple form of cutting a round diamond with only 18 facets. Any style of diamond cutting other than the round brilliant or single cuts is called a fancy cut, or fancy shape; important fancy cuts include the marquise, emerald, oval, baguette, heart shape, pear shape, kite, triangle, and trilliant. The term melee is used to describe smaller brilliant-cut diamonds as well as all small diamonds that are used in embellishing mountings for larger gems.

for more on diamonds visit our diamond page.

Aquamarine (from latin: water and sea) is the March birthstone, it was adopted by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912. it is also the 19th marriage anniversary gemstone. You can find nearly colorless pale blue to a blue-teal Aquamarine, the deep blue will be the most prized. Aquamarine will often be heat treated to high temperatures to change its blue green hue to a pure blue. Although Aquamarine is mined in many countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Madagascar; the most valuable ones come from Brazil.

Details of gemstone:
Origin: mineral beryl
Hardness: 7-8
Color: Iron is the substance which gives aquamarine its color, a color which ranges from an almost indiscernible pale blue to a strong sea-blue.


Belief and tradition:
Sailors used to carry Aquamarine or wear Aquamarine pendants believing it would give them courage, bravery. In Thailand culture it is believed that Aquamarine jewels can ward off sea sickness and prevent the wearer from drowning. Today Aquamarine is considered a cleansing gemstone that clears and the mind and thoughts.