It's the letter "Z" for the Blogging A - Z Challenge

Today’s topic starts with the letter “Z”.

Today’s letter is "Z" for Zoisite.  A mineral found in metamorphic and pegmatitic rock.  It’s color can be blue to violet, green, brown, pink, yellow, gray, or colorless.  It is said to be brittle and can have white or colorless streaks. 

Yellow Zoisite

Transparent stones are made into gemstones while translucent to opaque stones are used for carvings. 

It was first described by Abraham Werner in 1805.  He named it after the naturalist Sigmund Zois who sent him samples from Saualpe in Carinthia.  Zois realized that this mineral was unknown when brought to him by a mineral dealer 1797. 

Tanzanite

Thulite

Zoisite can be found in Tanzania, Kenya, Norway Switzerland, Austria, India, Pakistan and Washington state.  There are several varieties of zoisite – Tanzanite from in Tanzania, Thulite found in Norway, and Anyolite found in Kenya. 

Ruby Zoisite

Another popular variety is Ruby Zoisite, green zoisite with opaque ruby crystals that is used for carving.

Thanks for stopping by and following along while I did the Blogging A - Z Challenge. 

I will be posting about the 8th annual Bead Soup Blog Party on Saturday, May 3.  Please be sure to come back and see what I have made with the "bead soup" that my partner sent me.

Carolyn

It's the letter "T" for the Blogging A - Z Challenge

Today’s topic starts with the letter “T”.

“T” is the letter for today and the stone is Tanzanite, a pretty blue-purple color.  It was discovered in Tanzania in 1967 and was named after the location.  It is usually as reddish brown in its rough state and is heat treated to enhance the color. 

The deep blue color stones are harder to find now.  The paler colored stones are easier to find and are faceted and used for beads. 

 

In 2002, the American Gem Trade Association chose Tanzanite as the December birthstone, the first change to the birthstone list since 1912. 

The largest cut stone is 252.2 carats and is recognized by the Guinness World Records and the largest rough cut is 16,839 carats (7.46 lbs.) discovered in 2005. 

It was estimated that two million carats of tanzanite were mined between 1967 and 1971 when the mines were nationalized by the government.  In 1990, the government divided the mines into four sectors (A, B, C, and D) and leased two sectors (A and C) to large companies and the remaining sectors were reserved for the local miners.  In 2005, the lease for sector C for was renewed for 40 million dollars. 

In 2003, legislation was introduced to prohibit the export of rough cut stones to India (where many gemstones were processed) in order to spur development of local processing businesses.  This was phased in over two years when only stones over .5 grams were affected.  That was changed in 2010 to stones over 1 gram.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to come back tomorrow to discover what the "U" stone will be.

Carolyn