Ruby

Jewelry Trends Jewelry Metals Gemstones

Fashion Beauty Celebrities

Modeling Only for men Only for women

Ruby or its mineralogical name CORUNDUM is a best-known gem. Essentially it's the same substance as sapphire, it's an aluminum oxide with traces of coloring elements such as chromic oxide. Its name is derived from the Latin ruber, red.

Rubies are very hard and can be worn in any form of jewelry and have long been popular as ring stones. Because of their high density they are usually smaller than most other gemstones of the same weight. They vary in transparency from complete clarity, through various degrees of cloudiness to sub-translucency, but some slight inclusions are not necessarily regarded as defect. The shimmering whitish sheen produced by microscopic needles of rutile and known as 'silk' is accepted as an attractive attribute within reason and as a proof that a stone is genuine.

The brightness of the red color of rubies is caused by their fluorescence. The effect can be spectacular when the stones are exposed to ultraviolet radiation in the dark. For the same reason rubies appear much brighter than other red stones (except red spinels) under a color filer. As usual with gemstones, there is a vast difference in value between really fine specimens and those of lesser quality.

In jewelry setting sapphires and rubies are often combined with diamonds which set off their color to perfection. Larger stones are often surrounded with small diamonds, smaller stones may be set alternately with diamonds of a matching size as in the traditional three stone or five stone rings. In such cases it is important that the stones should match exactly in color and that they should conform to the design in size. If one stone is lost, it may be quite difficult to match it.

Every conceivable method of imitation and synthesis has been employed to produce artificial rubies and blue sapphires. Glass and synthetic spinel have been used, as well as hydrothermal substitutes. Synthetic rubies can now be produced in almost any shape and is widely used in the jewelry industry. The 'jewels' used as bearings in watches are made of synthetic ruby, as are laser crystals.