In this enthralling series of the different birthstones to their respective months, we have now reached March, and so therefore we shall be looking at the ocean-like Aquamarine.
The Aquamarine is one of the two more well-known members of the Beryl family; the other being Emerald. As the name suggests, the aquamarine is often referred to as the magnificent sea blue variety of Beryl. Given it's sea like nature, it is of no surprise that the aquamarine has been favored by many seafarers and sailors for a very long time, in the hopes it would aid them on their travels. Whether it did or not is a different matter entirely, but we can all agree that the stone does truly look rather beautiful within jewellery.
Like most semi-precious stones, the desirability, popularity and value is often determined by how rich the intended colour of the stone is. Aquamarine is no different, and thus the finer the colour of blue, the finer the stone is. The minute amount of iron content is what causes the icy colour, and so obviously the less iron,
the better it looks. As you can probably imagine, this has caused the heat treating of Aquamarine to become popular, in an attempt to make sure their beautiful shades of blue are heightened as much as possible. In fact, most aquamarines you will come across have likely received the skillful practice of heat treating.
Aquamarine is a relatively clear stone, and so generally features very few inclusions. This is the very opposite from it's Beryl family cousin, the emerald, which is almost entirely made up of inclusions. Whilst inclusions are what makes semi-precious stones so unique and interesting, there are any people who dislike so called 'imperfections' in their stones, and so exclusively like 'pure' stones. This makes the aquamarine incredibly popular, as it features almost no imperfections, is a beautiful crystal blue colour and allows light to travel through it wonderfully. Being found in many places across the planet, aquamarine has found itself to be fairly commonly used within jewellery, and if applied within the right kind of setting, can be a truly beautiful show stopping piece for such a subtle stone.