Rose quartz gemstone

Physical properties of rose quartz

Characteristics of rose quartz

The gemstone rose quartz deserves to be told about it separately. Although this is only a variety of quartz of a beautiful delicate pink color.

However, among all quartz, it is pink-colored stones that have been especially popular among ordinary people since ancient times. Maybe this is due to the color of the stone - unobtrusive and pleasant, or maybe it's the price - rose quartz was not very expensive due to its prevalence.

Rose quartz has only one drawback - some stones eventually discolored from the sun's rays and acquired an unsightly gray color. The rest of the quality characteristics that are important for precious stones (such as stone hardness, brilliance, color, beauty) are very good.

Interestingly, unlike other quartzes, rose quartzes are not often found in the form of crystals with clearly defined edges. More often these are veined or amorphous masses of intergrown crystals, some of which reach a thickness of ten meters (as, for example, quartz veins in Karelia), as well as the so-called brushes and druze.

However, ordinary people do not think about it. They are much more interested in the quality of gems that go to jewelers for processing. The best are considered rose quartz from the island of Madagascar. Brazilian rose quartz is of good quality - most of them are supplied to the jewelry market, but, unfortunately, rose quartz deposits in Brazil are significantly depleted today. Rich deposits of quartz in Russia. However, Karelian rose quartz has an uneven color and unstable color. Also in Russia, rose quartz is found in Altai, in the Irkutsk region and in Transbaikalia. There are also deposits in the USA and Canada, Namibia, India, Japan, Mongolia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, France, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria.

Rose quartz is considered more of an ornamental stone than a precious one. Good quality stones with partial transparency are cut for jewelry, opaque varieties are polished into cabochons. Rose quartz with an optical effect of asterism is also polished into cabochons. Rose quartz is also valued as a collection material.

How much is rose quartz

There are a lot of cracks in rose quartz crystals. Because of this, it is more brittle than other varieties of quartz. Therefore, it is rarely used in jewelry. And the price of rose quartz is very low - $10 - $15 per kilogram of raw material.

Rose quartz stones that have lost their color are often repainted. You can distinguish them by their rich color, which is rarely found in natural stones. Sometimes painted alabaster is given out as rose quartz, but the latter is a softer stone. And rose quartz is sometimes given out as kunzite in order to sell it more profitably, since kunzites are priced higher.

One of the most famous rose quartz in the world is the famous Big World Star.