The February birthstone, the amethyst, is a lovely stone, worn as jewellery for centuries. It is one of the few purple gemstones and is always very striking, particularly as it is usually has few inclusions and can be a good size.
The amethyst belongs to the quartz family of gemstones and is a macrocrystalline, like citrine and rose quartz, which means it forms as large crystals. The amethyst specimen is the photo above shows some of its prismatic structure with growths with precise angles and plane faces, ending with steep pyramidal terminations. The colour becomes more intense towards the termination.
Amethyst can often show banding or zoning, as seen in the slices of amethyst that have been used to create the substantial necklace above. Its colour can vary too from a light lilac to an intense purple.
Amethysts have a hardness of 7 on the Moh’s hardness scale and so is a good stone for jewellery and for use in seals and as intaglios. Overall, it has a lot going for it.
navette jewellery 