Star Ruby

Star rubies are amongst the rarest and most coveted gems in the world. Even more so in comparison to star sapphires, since the chromium that colors them pink and red limits the sizes they can grow to. Each star ruby is so unique in appearance, that matching pairs (much less a set) is nearly impossible.

Special features that appear in gems like a star are known as phenomena. These effects include asterism, chatoyancy, iridescence, adularescence, aventurescence, labradorescence, and play-of-color. Rubies mainly show asterism, and rarely chatoyancy and it is possible for them to show other phenomena, but this happens only rarely.

The most well-known source of star rubies is Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) due to how the silk forms in a very organized, and tightly knit fashion. Not all rubies display silk like this, or at all, though it is very common.

No two stars are the same, with the stars being as unique as the growth characteristics of the ruby. Sometimes stars are fainter, stronger, or off-centered. The individual arms can be uneven, of different lengths, missing, etc. The way the star moves along the surface of each ruby is unique too. Some move around very smoothly, some do not move much, jump around, disappear entirely from certain angles, and more. Each star really has its own personality in appearance and movement, and makes matching pairs extremely difficult.

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Saint Helen’s Ash is a product from a volcano located in southwestern Washington state. It’s the most active volcano in the Cascade Range. A mountain range that extends from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to northern California.

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, after a dormant period of over 125 years, erupted violently sending over three-quarters of a cubic mile of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. This represented the first major eruption of a volcano in the contiguous United States since the eruption of California’s Mount Lassen in 1914

Shortly after the May 18th eruption of Mount St. Helens it was obvious that in eastern Washington vast amounts of volcanic ash had accumulated. This ash appeared to represent a new potentially valuable nonmetallic mineral resource, and within a few days individuals and mineral-oriented companies began investigating possible uses for the newly fallen ash.

Approximately 540 million tons of ash from Mount Saint Helens fell across an area larger than 22,000 square miles. All this during the 9 hours of vigorous eruptive activity on May 18, 1980.

The ash from this volcano was made into a glass material ( Mt. St. Helen’s Ash ) from which this gem stone was faceted. This man made material that I use comes in greenish and blueish colors.

Click this Link to see a round version

For more info please see this page

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