Keeping in tune with the series of Orange photos and palettes I have been posting recently, I wanted to write about Orange gemstones but I hardly knew about any orange gemstones excepting coral, hessonite and ofcourse zircons and dyed stones and was of the opinion that that was that; but boy I was wrong. Unlike other colors, true clear orange gemstones are not the easiest colour stones to find but it is indeed possible to find orangey natural stones and here is a list to help you do precisely that .
List of Orange color gemstones
1. Citrine -Notably Madeira Citrine is first on my list. Suffused with tones of orange, caramel and amber, this gem takes its name from the famous wines of Madeira in Africa. In the 1600’s, Portuguese ships were ordered by the king to carry stores of such wines en route to the newly created colonies of Brazil – where Citrine is still mined and maybe the miners or hte patrons associated the stones with the wine. In ancient times, citrine was said to have the power to ward off venom – both poison and poisonous evil thoughts.
2. Fire opal: Formed in the ancient volcanoes of Mexico when water seeps into silica-rich lava, (Under heat and pressure) filling seams and hollowing it, the silica forms a solid gel, trapping the remaining water within its structure to create Fire opals. As a result of this high water content it should be protected from heat and prolonged exposure to strong light, which could dry it out.
3. Carnelian – 16th-century corruption of the 14th-century word “cornelian” is orange-red form of the silica mineral stone chalcedony. Carnelian is an orangish red while Sard is more of a reddish brown stone.Used commonly to make earrings, carved carnelian, notably the floral shapes are very famous.During Roman times it was used to make signet or seal rings for imprinting a seal with wax on correspondence or other important documents as Hot wax does not stick to carnelian.
4. Hessonite: Also referred to as Cinnamon Stone, Hessonite is a more common variety of grossular- a calcium aluminium mineral. Its called Gomedh or Komedhagam and India and it is one of the Navaratna’s worn to please Rahu (the moon’s ascending node)
5. Coral: Another one of the Navaratna’s, Moonga or pavazham worn to please the planet Mars, Coral is an organic gem made of calcium carbonate (Caco3). Corals are used in Jewelry in three forms – beads, branches and cabochons (flat backed domes). Even natural coral beads are available in a variety of shapes like round, cylindrical, tear drop and as heishi. Read more about Corals here in my previous gems and jewelry post.
6. spessartine garnet: A Manganese Aluminium garnet where the sodium rich pegmatites produce a yellow orange to orange red color. Sometimes it is also referred to as the Mandarin garnet or Spessartite garnet and is found in Madagascar
7. Sunstone: This plagioclase feldspar is the official gemstone of Oregon, though it was previously known to come from Norway. there are also peach, yellow, red and green varieties of this stone. the optical illusions seen in the stone is due to copper inclusions and because of this effect it is also called as aventurine-feldspar. Orthoclase feldspar is commonly known as moonstone
8.Dravite Tourmaline:A Dravite tourmaline is generally brown but a golden yellow Dravite tourmaline gemstone from Tanzania can be found in a rich burnt orange color
Amber – though not a true orange, some amber stones have a rich orangey hue to them. they are carriers of historical eveidence trapped between the layers of resin that form these stones. More about amber in the gemstones in color ‘yellow’ post yet to come
Oh Such yummy Gemstones and I bet that it was a first that you heard of many of them. I did!!. Please write to me if you know about more gemstones in Orange color.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Add more color to your life
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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