Amethyst
WHAT IS AN AMETHYST?
The most popular of all crystals, Amethyst most definitely dazzles with its vivid purple color and its strong spiritual meaning.The word Amethyst, which derives from the Greek word améthystos quite literally means ‘not intoxicated’. No wonder this is the ultimate healing gemstone! Their value depends however not on what it can do for the wearer's spirituality, but on their color. The deeper the purple color the higher the value. It is a stone that comes from the Quartz family with a hardness of 7 on Mohs scale, making it a durable gemstone to wear everyday.
AMETHYST PROPERTIES
The birthstone for Pisces and February birthstone, Amethyst is the ultimate spiritual gemstone. Known as the stone of peace it helps one to stay calm and grounded and is the perfect stone to improve your intellectual thought, as it is also reported to be known in Ayurvedic medicine, to open a person’s third eye, which is considered a source of power and wisdom. It also improves concentration so it is helpful to wear or be close to an Amethyst when working on intense projects.
WHERE DO AMETHYSTS COME FROM?
Amethysts can be found in several places across the world, but most of them are mined in Brazil and Uruguay and some deposits can be found in India, Madagascar as well as Canadam France, Sri Lanka, Tanzania among others. Our Amethysts come from all around the world, mostly from India and Madagascar but also from Brazil.
ONE OF A KIND
The purple color of the Amethyst varies in intensity and we can find it with a light purple color often referred to as lavender amethyst as well. The value of these is not as high as the ones that have strong purple tones. In order to improve the color and marketability of natural amethyst heat treatment is the most common technique used. What it does is it makes a dark amethyst a little lighter and removes any unwanted brownish inclusions so it is more attractive for the buyer and nicer looking. Heat treatments also render the stone a little, so amethysts that have been heat treated are best to avoid long sunny days at the beach, as direct sunlight exposure for a long period of time can make the color fade. In general almost all faceted amethysts are eye-clean meaning that they do not have any inclusions. If rare occasion inclusions can happen, in that case these are used as beads or cabochons.
Almost all faceted amethyst is eye clean; that is, no inclusions can be seen with the naked eye. Material with eye-visible inclusions is usually cut into beads or cabochons.
ALL THE MANY SHAPES
Lucky for us, the deposits of natural Amethyst are plentiful so we can be as creative as possible when it comes to this gemstone. You can get the Amethyst in different kinds of cuts and in larger carat sizes. At Capucinne we have made rings with a classic round and oval Amethyst as well as with princess cut and other.