Deeman Jewelry

Jade is one of the most popular gemstones and has enjoyed an extremely rich history throughout the world. While Jade is extremely popular in Europe and the Americas, it is truly one of the most popular stones in Asia steeped with deep traditions and religious associations.

One of the reasons that Jade is so popular is the many different colors that it comes in. While it’s most popular color is green, which is usually a rich and intense green with a greasy finish, Jade can actually come in a wide variety of colors including white, grey, yellow and orange. Jade actually denotes two stones, which up until 1863, were thought to be the same mineral. These mineral stones are Jadeite and Nephrite. Of the two Jadeite is the rarer stone and while it does come in many different colors, the most popular are its beautiful greens and whites. Nephrite comes in usually green and white.

Jade is mined in large masses and usually wholesaled in Asia many times at auction. These blocks are usually sold as is, without the buyer being able to peer deep inside the stone. When bidding if the buyer is lucky, he will get a high quality stone with rich colors, if not the interior of the stone will be of a poor Jade quality.

Jade is mined in a size that makes many objects possible. For instance, it has been used in the past as blades for knives or daggers and Jade has been made into statues and ornaments. Today, Jade is used for either ornamental jewelry or for small tobacco boxes or small jewelry cases.


How and Where is Jade Formed and Found?

Jade is one of the more popular and more traditional stones used for ornamental jewelry and other artwork. Jade should be noted is two distinct stones, however these stones were known to be the same up until 1863. Since then, Jade is still considered both stones to avoid confusion. The two stones that make up Jade are Jadeite, which is a silicate and has sodium and aluminum, as well as traces of pyroxene and chromium. Nephrite is the second type of Jade; it consists of calcium and magnesium.

Usually Jadeite contains chromium, which gives it is wonderful intense green color, Jadeite can come in many colors including grey, pink, and white. Nephrite usually comes in lighter greens and white alone.

Jade had many uses and was extremely popular in Far East Asia, in fact, while popular in Europe, the America’s and Africa, it does not compare to its popularity and traditions in Far East Asia that Jade reflects. Jade is a very hard stone and in some ways even tougher than steal. It was used as knifes and daggers in the past and was easily sculpted with the use of quartz or even Jade sand.

Jade is found in many regions and usually comes in large blocks. Jade is usually found in Asia, specifically China and Myanmar, as well as Russia, and South America. Jade comes in large masses and then it is cut into rather big blocks. Many times these blocks are auctioned off with only the buyer being able to see the exterior of the block. If the buyer is lucky, the interior of the stone’s block will contain rich, high quality Jade, if unlucky, it may contain lower quality, more common forms of Jade.

Coral is a wonderful material to create ornamental jewelry from. It is extremely attractive, very hard, can be polished nicely and comes in stunning colors. Many times Coral is mistaken as a gemstone or a mineral that occurs in the earth’s crust; in fact it is created from living organisms.


Coral comes in a variety of colors including white, black, orange, salmon, pale pink and red. While salmon or pale pink are perhaps the most popular colors associated with Coral, red Coral is the most rare and valuable. Red Coral is sometimes referred to as fire Coral and is many times used in Tibetan jewelry.

Coral can be cut and created into an enormous amount of shapes and sizes, for the most part; Coral is usually designed into beads or cameos. It is also left in its natural shape which is branch like. Coral in its original shape just needs a good polishing to make it ready for commercial sale.

Coral is a great material to create large jewelry pieces with. Coral even comes as Coral rag, which are big bricks that are found in prehistoric Coral reefs. These reefs are now located on land. Because Coral is made from calcium carbonate, Coral rag makes the perfect building blocks for homes and large structures. Calcium carbonate is the same material as marble and aragonite.

It should be noted that besides natural Coral, there is also artificial Coral that comes in materials such as glass, porcelain and plastic.

How and where is Coral formed and found?

Coral is an interesting material, it is not a mineral or gemstone, in fact it doesn’t come from the earth’s crust, it is created from living organisms. Coral is an extremely interesting material that is hard, can have a smooth texture when polished and comes in a variety of very attractive colors.

Coral is actually a form of calcium carbonate. You might be aware of calcium carbonate as it is the same type of material as marble or aragonite. Very small sea organisms called Coral polyps that live in the ocean in large colonies secrete these strands creating a habitat that protects them. Coral is a wonderful material that comes in many beautiful colors, most notably white, orange, black, pink or salmon which may be called angelskin and red. Red Coral is extremely beautiful and very rare. It is sometimes referred to as Fire Coral and it is used in lots of Tibetan jewelry.

Coral can be found all over the world, however for the most part, the Coral that is used for ornamental jewelry usually comes from Italy, specifically Sicily and off the coasts of Sardinia. Coral is also found off of Australia, near Japan and even as far north as Norway. However, the finest qualities are usually located in the warmer waters.

Coral is created by polyps that secrete Coral only a few millimeters in thickness, usually it can take a few years for Coral to grow into large enough pieces for jewelry. Jewelry is usually fashioned into beads, cameos and other types of shapes. It is also used for jewelry in its natural shape which is branch like. Usually it is first polished. There are artificial Coral which is created by glass, plastic and porcelain; however, you can tell the real Coral by dropping a drop of acid on it, real Coral with effervesce.

Emeralds are fascinating gemstones. They have the most beautiful, most intense and most radiant green that can possibly be imagined: emerald green. Inclusions are tolerated. In top quality, fine emeralds are even more valuable than diamonds.


The name emerald comes from the Greek 'smaragdos' via the Old French 'esmeralde', and really just means 'green gemstone'. Innumerable fantastic stories have grown up around this magnificent gem. The Incas and Aztecs of South America, where the best emeralds are still found today, regarded the emerald as a holy gemstone. However, probably the oldest known finds were once made near the Red Sea in Egypt. Having said that, these gemstone mines, already exploited by Egyptian pharaohs between 3000 and 1500 B.C. and later referred to as 'Cleopatra's Mines', had already been exhausted by the time they were rediscovered in the early 19th century.

Written many centuries ago, the Vedas, the holy scriptures of the Indians, say of the precious green gems and their healing properties: 'Emeralds promise good luck ...'; and 'The emerald enhances the well-being ...'. So it was no wonder that the treasure chests of Indian maharajas and maharanis contained wonderful emeralds. One of the world's largest is the so-called 'Mogul Emerald'. It dates from 1695, weighs 217.80 carats, and is some 10cm tall. One side of it is inscribed with prayer texts, and engraved on the other there are magnificent floral ornaments. This legendary emerald was auctioned by Christie's of London to an unidentified buyer for 2.2m US Dollars on September 28th 2001.

Emeralds have been held in high esteem since ancient times. For that reason, some of the most famous emeralds are to be seen in museums and collections. The New York Museum of Natural History, for example, has an exhibit in which a cup made of pure emerald which belonged to the Emperor Jehangir is shown next to the 'Patricia', one of the largest Colombian emerald crystals, which weighs 632 carats. The collection of the Bank of Bogota includes five valuable emerald crystals with weights of between 220 and 1796 carats, and splendid emeralds also form part of the Iranian National Treasury, adorning, for example, the diadem of the former Empress Farah. The Turkish sultans also loved emeralds. In Istanbul's Topkapi Palace there are exhibits with items of jewellery, writing-implements and daggers, each lavishly adorned with emeralds and other gems.

In earlier times, some people believed that the firmament was an enormous blue sapphire in which the Earth was embedded. Could there be a more apt image to describe the beauty of an immaculate sapphire? And yet this gem comes not in one but in all the blue shades of that firmament, from the deep blue of the evening sky to the shining mid-blue of a lovely summer's day which casts its spell over us. However, this magnificent gemstone also comes in many other colours: not only in the transparent greyish-blue of a distant horizon but also in the gloriously colourful play of light in a sunset – in yellow, pink, orange and purple. Sapphires really are gems of the sky, although they are found in the hard ground of our 'blue planet'.

Blue is the main colour of the sapphire. Blue is also the favourite colour of some 50 per cent of all people, men and women alike. We associate this colour, strongly linked to the sapphire as it is, with feelings of sympathy and harmony, friendship and loyalty: feelings which belong to qualities that prove their worth in the long term – feelings in which it is not so much effervescent passion that is to the fore, but rather composure, mutual understanding and indestructible trust. Thus the blue of the sapphire has become a colour which fits in with everything that is constant and reliable. That is one of the reasons why women in many countries wish for a sapphire ring on their engagement. The sapphire symbolises loyalty, but at the same time it gives expression to people's love and longing. Perhaps the most famous example of this blue is to be found in music, in George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". And the blue of the sapphire even appears where nothing at all counts except clear-sightedness and concentrated mental effort. The first computer which succeeded in defeating a world chess champion bore the remarkable name 'Deep Blue'.