In 1988 the country of Sri Lanka, known for their beautiful "blue-sheen" moonstone, suddenly ran out of this famous moonstone deposit. Very quickly, jewelers were without this type of moonstone to produce moonstone jewelry. Moonstone, which is feldspar, is known for a special color-play effect called "adularescence." Fortunately, a discovery of another type of feldspar was found in southern India. This new material became known as "rainbow moonstone."
Dr. Henry Hanni,a Swiss geologist and gemologist, did an all-encompassing chemical analysis of this new rainbow moonstone and ascertained the Indian gemstone belonged to the labradorite section of the feldspar family while moonstone belonged to the orthoclase branch. Because of traces of albite and anorthite deposited in the labradorite, the stone should have been called "rainbow labradorite" rather than "rainbow moonstone."
But the name "moonstone" stuck. And these two gems are closely related.
The acclaim of India's new labrodorite is rapidly catching on and has become a substitute for blue-sheen moonstone jewelry. Labrodorite shows the same kind of spectacular color reflections as the orthoclase but in assorted colors.
Adularescence is an optical effect caused by light falling between its tightly layered crystal structures. This effect is unique to feldspar. There is good news for enthusiast of blue moonstone, rainbow labradorite also comes in an electric-blue color.
Regrettably rainbow labradorite is fast becoming hard to find in top grades as it is found in a taxing location.
It is excavated in rice paddies in the monsoon-swept coastal lowlands of southwest India around the area of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. These rice paddies are immersed in flood waters and when they are not submerged in flood waters, the rice is being cultivated or harvested. This leaves about four months for mining.
As the Sri Lanka's blue-sheen moonstone started to disappear replenishment became possible by shifting to India. But this put pressure on rainbow labradorite's miners to produce more gems.
Lacking complex mining resources they used more and more dynamite and this in turn unearthed more stones, but pieces remained small and fracture-laden. "At least 75 percent of the polished goods I see are under two carats," an importer says.
The popularity and value of rainbow labradorite has to do with it's color. In America the pecking order for predominant colors are as follows: electric blue, lavender, bluish green, purple, yellowish green and brownish red. All of these colors are found in moonstone pendants, moonstone necklaces, moonstone rings, and moonstone bracelets.
Rainbow labrodorite has become progressively more and more popular and many dealers think it is poised to become the gem world's preferred feldspar - despite it's escalating prices.
Moonstone jewelry fan Jane Brown enthusiast who publishes her product reviews online at Moonstone Jewelry Blog
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_F_Brown
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