Bead with beautiful gemstones and create dazzling earrings, bracelets, and more—includes over one hundred projects for all skill levels. You can learn to create gorgeous gemstone jewelry with this collection of over one hundred projects, ranging from eye-catching earrings and accessories to exquisite necklaces and bracelets. This beautiful book offers an impressive range of twenty-eight beautiful semi-precious stones (including birthstones) and a glimpse into the fascinating history and mythical properties behind them. Projects range from the simplest stringing to more detailed beadwork to cater for all levels of ability. Discover a variety of versatile ideas that can be adapted for any type of gem or bead—with clear artwork, vivid photos, and easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions.

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious Stones provides both the connoisseur and the casual collector with a compact, easy-to-use volume describing more than 100 rare varieties of minerals whose beauty and mystery have possessed our imaginations from time immemorial. More than 450 brilliant photographs accompany profiles of each gem, covering such aspects as appearance, physical properties -- density, hardness, refraction -- occurrence, and how to judge quality and value. Additional sections describe the process of cutting gemstones and the techniques professional gemologists use to evaluate a stone's weight and optical properties. Detailed and comprehensive, this book is essential for anyone interested in the study of gems and precious stones.

"Brazil was the leading world producer of gold and of diamonds between the mid-18th century and the mid-19th century. At the present time, it is the leading world producer of iron ore, tin and niobium, and an important producer of manganese, aluminium, silicon, tantalum, rare earths, graphite, magnesite and countless other ores.....Brazil is the leading world producer of tourmaline (of all colors), of quartz (colorless, rutilated, amethyst and agate), of beryl (aquamarine, morganite and heliodore, and the second ranking world producer of emerald), of topaz (imperial, blue and colorless), alexandrite, euclase, phenakite and many others" INTRODUCTION.

Victoria is often seen as the forgotten state when it comes to gem minerals. The history of gems in Victoria is inextricably linked to the discovery of gold in 1851. In 1854, George Milner Stephen publicised for the first time, the discovery of gems in Victoria. These included blue and white sapphires from Ballarat diggings and rubies, topaz and garnet from the River Ovens in northeast Victoria. In 1857, well-known German natural historian Ludwig Becker reported that these same gems could also be found where there was gold.