With several institutes offering specialized courses in this field, jewelry designing is no longer a family trade but a lucrative career option for first-generation gemologists who can cater to a niche market for custom-made and designer jewelry. And other professionals are like gem appraisers. Jewelry designing has come out of the closet; it is no longer a cloistered trade carried out by semi-literate goldsmiths in family vaults. Also passed down like a well-kept secret from generation to generation.

Nowadays such a distinction is no longer made by the trade. Rare or unusual gemstones, generally meant to include those gemstones which occur so infrequently in gem quality that they are scarcely known except to connoisseurs, include andalusite, cassiterite and bixbite. Some minerals can be very beautiful, but they may be too soft and will scratch easily (such as the mineral fluorite). Fluorite is extremely colorful and pretty but has a hardness of only 4 on the hardness scale and has four perfect cleavage directions, which makes it only an oddity as a cut gem.

Diamond at 10 is the hardest whereas talc at 1 is the softest. Popular gemstones like amethyst and citrine register 7 whereas rubies and sapphires register 9. Most of us come off the beach on the first day with the 3 s’s all achieved - rings caked in sand, sea-salt and suntan lotion. Nude sunbathing, as far as silver and gold jewellery is concerned, is a must! Remember also that sand will scratch the surface of precious metals.

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