Glossary of terms | Fameo Jewellery Boutique

Aciding - Aurora Borealis

Aciding: Treating a diamond with acids (usually hot) to clean it after mining or cutting, especially to remove oxides or polishing residue from surface fissures.
Acid cleaning: Same as aciding, or acidizing. Mounted diamonds are sometimes boiled in sulfuric acid to remove the dirt and other residue from the girdle.
Acidizing: A method for cleaning and removing the color coating from rough diamonds, in a solution consisting of hydrofluoric acid.
Ag: A chemical symbol for the element silver (argentum).
Aigrette: An ornament or piece of jewelry in the form of a plume of feather, used as hair ornament.
Alloy: A mixture of two or more metallic elements such as bronze, which is an alloy comprised of copper and silver. Electrum is a naturally alloy. Alloys are produced to achieve other characteristic properties such as greater durability, strength, hardness, etc.
American diamond cut: A modification of the brilliant cut diamond was devised in America in 1919 calculated by Tolkowsky, which achieved some popularity, in which the width of the table was reduced to about one third of width of the stone, and the height of the crown is increased to be about two-thirds of the pavilion instead of one to two. Therefore total number of facets in the crown up to be 40, and one table.
Amethyst: The name amethyst derives from the ancient Greek word amethustos meaning "sober". A variety of quartz. It is created in many different ways and occurs in many igneous and metamorphic rocks, particuarly in granite and gneiss. The common color is purple, which is unstable and can diminish with protracted exposure to sunlight. Also it can be heat-treated to produce the yellow of the rarer quartz variety, citrine.
Aigrette: An ornament of gold or any other noble metals, such as a ring, chain, or band, worn around the ankle by women in Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Annealing: The method, by which metals or glass are heated to high temperature, and then slowly cooled, to give more tenacity, make then less brittle eliminate various stresses and weaknesses.
Anodizing: A method of color covering aluminum, aluminum alloys, magnesium, and a few other metals in an electrolytic treatment bath.
Anodyne necklace: A charm necklace, used to ward off pain or illness in 18th century.
Antiquing: Metals or other minerals made by objecting them to atmospheric corrosion, after long exposure, or being chemically treated, so that they take on color, such as naturally occurs on copper and bronze which achieves a green film or discoloration, to protects the metal from further oxidation. Gold may be darkened by a black chrome.
Appraisal: An estimation or the fixing a monetary value on anything, such as gemstones or jewelry. It differs from valuation and evaluation.
Arabesque: Ornamental work, in the Arabian style used in decorative design for flat surfaces. The style uses interlocking curves, which may be painted, inlaid or carved. Arabesque style can be seen in some jewelry, especially of the Renaissance period for example in designs of virgil solis.
Art Deco: Originally a French movement in the 1920s reacting against the ornate art nouveau style which preceded WWI. Popular in the US the style laid emphasis on bold geometric patterns and abstract forms.
Art Nouveau: Art movement widespread throughout Europe from around 1880-1910 particularly in the decorative and applied arts characterized by sinuous, organic forms and elaborately curving lines.
Articulated: Jewelry constructed with hinges to make it flexible; jewelry with moveable parts.
Artisan: A highly skilled craftsman who exhibits great manual dexterity.
Assay: To examination the proportion of a mineral or gem for composition, purity, weight and other properties of commercial interest.
Au: A chemical symbol for the element gold (aurum).
Aurora Borealis: Stones or beads coated with an iridescent finish that shines rainbow colours. Aurora borealis means northern lights. This coating technique began in 1955.

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Baguette - Byzantine chain

Baguette: A French term for rod, or a long stick of bread. A style of step-cutting used for small, narrow, rectangular-shaped gemstones, principally used for small diamonds and emeralds.
Baguette cut: A modern cut for small-trap stones set next to rectangular-shaped stones with parallel facets.
Bail: The connector at the top of a pendant, enabling the pendant to hang from a chain or jump ring.
Ball bracelet: Bracelet of one or two strands of hollow bead or spheres. Also used for earring designs.
Ball chain: A chain, made of tiny hollow metal beads or spheres, linked together.
Band: A term applied to wedding rings.
Bangle: A hollow or solid wire bracelet.
Barrel clasp: The barrel clasp looks like part of the chain and makes it easier to get a pendant on and off. Used on most rope chains to make the chain more secure.
Bar setting: This is a form of channel setting, except the stones are set in channels across a ring, and the stones on each end of the channel are exposed at the edges of the mounting instead of being secured in metal.
Baroque: Term meaning curved and exuberant in form, or irregular in shape, to distinguish from symmetrical, cut gemstones. A pearl or tumble-polished uncut gem, irregular in shape, such as baroque pearl, and baroque stone.
Beads: Small globules of precious stone, glass, wood or metal, with or without facets, but always with a hole drilled through the center. The form of beads varies from cylindrical, to polyhedral, oblate, or, irregular. Beads are made from gold, silver, other metals, glass, porcelain, wood, coral, bone, jet, amber, and other organic or inorganic substances. Used as personal adornment, ornamental objects or talismans, ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches, rosaries, etc.
Beveled: A surface that has been cut at an angle less than 90 degrees.
Bezel setting: A bezel is a band of metal that surrounds the stone and holds it in place. In the past, bezel settings were used mostly for cabochons (unfaceted, dome-shaped stones) such as jade and star sapphire. They have become popular now as attractive settings for diamonds. The bezel may either fully or partially encircle the stone.
Black diamond: A very dark, gray to black, blue, green, or brown gem-quality diamond, the color of which is due to microscopic, black inclusions.
Black sapphire: Black or very dark color blue, brown, purple and green varieties of sapphire.
Black spinel: A variety of spinel found in Monte Somma, Vesuvius, Italy and in Thailand, where locally it is know as nin. The attractive, dark greenish, black spinel from Sri Lanka is called ceylonite or pleonaste.
Bok oak: A semifossiled, dark-brown to blackened wood, resembling ebony, which was used during the Victoian era for carved objects and for an inexpensive mourning jewelry replacing jet. Does not take a good and high polish, which has a matt surface. Found in Ireland.
Bog wood: A shiny, semifossiled and blackened wood resembling ebony, which was used in the Victorian era for carved objects and as an inexpensive mourning jewelry substitute for jet.
Book Chain: A Victorian style of chain made in gold, gold filled, and sterling silver, in which each link is a rectangular, folded piece of metal resembling a book. They were often elaborately engraved and had large lockets attached.
Box chain: A chain with wide, square links that form boxes.
Bracelet: Any circular ornament, worn by men or women on the wrist or arm, made of gold, silver or other materials, frequently set with jewels.
Brass: A large class of alloys of copper and zinc, frequently containing some quantity of aluminum, iron, manganese, nickel, tin, or lead. Used as gilding metal, and for costume jewelry.
Briolette: A diamond, or other transparent gemstone, cut in the shape of a teardrop, oval, or pear-shape with a double-rose cut in a circular cross-section. The entire surface is cut with triangular facets, or less often with rectangular facets.. It is an elongated modification of the double rose cut, without a table and culet.
Bronze: Any variety of reddish-brown alloy, of mostly copper, with tin up to 11%. Sometimes, contains silver, zinc, aluminum, manganese, lead, and beryllium.
Brooch: An ornamental piece, worn, pinned to a garment, hood, hut, turban, in the hair, on the breast, at the neck or shoulder. Brooches are made in various forms, such as flowers, discs, rings, hearts, etc., sometimes set with gemstones or enameled.
Brushed finish: Brushed finish, also known as "satin" finish, is a texturing technique that can be used on metals where a series of tiny parallel lines are scratched onto the surface with a wire brush or polishing tool.
Buffed top: An interesting combination of both a cabochon and faceted gem in one is found melded in the buff top. In this style, the top of the atone is a low, curved cabochon surface, while the bottom is covered with facets. A mixed cut.
Butterfly: A motif used in jewelry of gold, silver, or other noble metals, decorated with diamonds or various colored gemstones.
Byzantine chain: A chain with close-fitting links, creating an intricate design that forms a tube.

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Cable chain - Cut

Cable chain: A chain with round links of the same size.
Cabochon: An unfaceted, highly polished, cut gemstone, in which the top of the gem forms a dome-shaped or curved, convex surface. The base may be flat, convex or concave. The girdle outline may be round, oval, square, triangular, polygonal, or any other fancy shape. Usually, a cabochon stone is one cut from a poor quality or a translucent to opaque mineral, or material, and those with a special optical effect such as opal, moonstone, adularia, asteria etc. Stones with needle-like inclusions are cut with high cabochon, to obtain a star-like effect or eye-like effect. There are 4 basic cut forms of cabochons: (a) the simple cabochon, with a convex top of varying degrees of steepness and a flat base. (b) Double cabochon, a lentil-shaped cabochon or convex top and base cabochon but the underside is flatter than the upper dome. Also called concavo-convex. (c) Hollow cabochon, a cabochon cut, which has a concave depression, hollowed out of the bottom section to improve or lighten the color. (d) Tallow-topped cabochon, a cabochon with a shallow dome often used for opal, or moonstone. Adularia is cut as a low cabochon, to achieve a special optical effect.
Calibre stones: Small step-cut stones, usually have a special form such as square, keystone, or rectangular in outline. They are cut to special sizes.
Cameo: A translucent layered gemstone generally composed of two layers, (or more), and colors. The top layer has a raised figure or a design carved on it, while the layer of the second layer with other color forms a background. Stones with nearly flat bands, such as agate, onyx, sardonyx, opal, shells, jet, rock, crystal, giant conch, helmet shell, etc. are suitable materials. The image is created by carving away material that is, grinding away cavities below the surface of the gem, which is a process known as intaglio. Often used for carved symbols mainly as seal. In both, (cameo and intaglio), the layered mineral has two distinctly different color layers. Dyed cameos are known, made from onyx or sardonyx. Cameos can be molded from substitute materials, such as porcelain, glass, lava, wedgwood, plastics, etc. When two or more pieces of natural stone are cemented together, the piece is known as an assembled cameo, and when, it is not made of natural material, it is called an assembled imitation cameo.
Cameo habelle: A type of cameo with carved bust or head, used as a pendant, earrings, etc.
Cannetille: A style of jewelry in various shapes, made of coarse metal wires of gold or silver, enhanced with gemstones or enameled.
Cape: Term for the color grading of rough or polished, Type Ia diamond, having a distinctive yellowish tinge or bodycolor. The best grades stone in the cape group are called: top silver cape, top cape, light cape, fine cap, fine silver cape, or silver cape.
Carat: A unit that refers only the purity of solid gold and to gold alloy, used in jewelry. To avoid confusion, the term for measuring the purity of solid gold and gold alloy is spelled karat.
Carat weight: The standard unit of weight for diamonds, pearls, and other gems. It is defined as 0.2 gram, or 200 milligrams. One carat is equal to 4 grains. Synonym for caratage.
Cartouche: A symmetrically carved, ornamental framework used in decoration sometimes having an inscription or pictorial subjects.
Carving: In gemology the decoration of gemstone, metal, or a figure or design, produced by carving. Patterns, etc. are usually engraved in translucent materials, decorating objects such as vases, statues, etc.
Casting: The method of pouring glass, or molten metal into a hollow mold of sand, gypsum, or metal, in which it solidifies to produce a shaped-form or component. At this time mass production or centrifugal casting has replaced this method. Mostly used for duplicating famous pieces of jewelry.
Catch: The most common means of securing a brooch before 1900 or so when "safety catches" were invented. The pin connected to one side of the brooch is threaded through a layer of the garment and rests in a "C" shaped catch on the other side of the brooch. The "C" had no mechanism to hold the pin in place and so the pins were usually designed to be long enough to extend far enough beyond the end of the brooch to weave back into the garment for security.
Chandelier: Earrings with a drop that dangles like a chandelier.
Channel setting: A variety of finger ring setting used for small gemstones of uniform size in which one or two rows are so close together that the edges are almost touching, arranged in a channel, usually a straight line.
Charm: Any small article made of gemstone or other material, worn as a pendant or on a chain, or bracelet or carried, for its supposed ability to bring luck, ward off the devil or illness. Charms are made of gold or other metals often with designs of musical instruments, animals, zodiacal signs, hearts, horseshoes, egg, cloverleaf, etc.
Chashing: Ornamentation of metal, by cutting it with a graver, or the product of this process.
Chaton: French term for the bezel of a finger ring, set with a gemstone.
Choker necklace: A standard length necklace, made of short, narrow beads or pearls of the same size. About 35-36 cm or 14 inches in length, it is worn close to the throat, frequently with a suspended pendant. It is sold as a matinee, or opera, and rope.
Chromium: A grayish-white, hard, brittle, non-corrosive metallic element in the Group VIB of the Periodic System, obtained from chromite. One of the eight metallic elements, mainly responsible for green or red color in very important gem minerals such as emerald, ruby, spinel, pyrope garnet, demantoid garnet, jadeite, purple topaz, synthetic topaz, synthetic minerals, glasses, etc. Chemical symbol: Cr. Used to plate articles of costume jewelry, and for enamel decoration as it resists corrosion. It is a constituent of stainless steel.
Citrine: Any transparent golden-yellow, pale-yellow, yellow, yellow-brown, reddish-brown variety of quartz. Sometimes confused with topaz, which is much more precious and expensive. Citrine can be artificially created by heating amethyst or smoky quartz. Natural citrine crystal always shows dichroism, which is absent in heated yellow quartz. It is one of the birthstones for November. Found in Brazil, Malagasy, etc. Synonym for false topaz, yellow quartz, citrine quartz, quartz topaz, jeweler's topaz, jeweler's topaz-quartz, Colorado topaz.
Clarity: A classification term used in the grading of polished gems or diamonds depends on the included particles, cracks, features, etc. and the surface blemishes. Most diamonds contain some minute imperfect inclusions, which were formed by nature.
Clarity grading: The classification of fashioned gemstones or diamonds according to their clarity using the standard nomenclature of terms: flawless, pure, clean, perfect (for top grade). VVS, VS, SI, and pique. Lower grades are called spotted, or rejections. The grades from flawless to pique must be examined through a lens.
Claw setting: A type of mounting of a gem in a finger ring, in which the gemstone is set and secured in a prong above the girdle or at its edge.
Clip: A dress clip is like a brooch, except instead of having a pin stem on the back, it has a folding clip that enables it to be worn or used in a variety of ways. A fur clip also has a folding mechanism on the back, but the mechanism is made of 2 sharp prongs, originally used to hold fur wraps around a woman's neck. They were popular in the 1920's through the 1940's. Today they are very collectible, and can be used in many ways.
Coated diamond: A brilliant diamond, which has been coated entirely, or on pavilion or girdle with a bluish or yellowish transparent color substance to improve the phenomenal effect or color of the stone.
Coated gemstones: A gemstone partially or entirely covered by some transparent material to heighten color, improve phenomenal effects or conceal defects such as pale color emeralds and rubies.
Cobalt: A tough, ductile, lustrous, somewhat malleable, nickel-white or silver-gray metallic element in the group VII of Periodic System. One of the eight metallic elements mainly responsible for color in minerals and important coloring agent of synthetic blue spinel, some glass imitations and in ceramic industry. Chemical symbol: Co. Used in many alloys.
Cocktail ring: Oversized ring with precious or semi-precious stones.
Cognac: A color grading of brown diamond.
Collar: Collar necklaces about 30.5-33 cm in length lay snugly around the middle of the neck. They are a must-have when wearing V-necks, boat necks, and off-the-shoulder fashions.
Collet setting: A form of setting an opaque or flawed stone in a finger ring in a circular metal rim or box, in which a gem is bent over the girdle in a collet to secure it.
Color: A term used in optic to describe three different properties according to light: (a) property of an object such as gold is yellow, (b) characteristic of light rays such as gold reflects yellow light because of nearly full absorption of other colors, (c) grading of sensation in the brain, which be interoperated in special kind as the eye perceives light selectively reflected yellow from gold.
Color change: Different significant color change can be seen in some gemstones when studied under different lighting conditions such as alexandrite a chromium, highly dichroic, rare variety of chrysoberyl with emerald green-blue in natural daylight or under many fluorescence rays, reddish-brown to deep violet red by artificial light, due to its unusual absorption properties. Frequently called alexandrite effect. This effect can be seen in corundum, spinel, tourmaline and garnet. Synthetic alexandrite and synthetic sapphire with color change are made; simulated glasses with color change are produced.
Colored stone: A commercial term used in North America for any gemstone species other than diamond. This usage illogically classifies all varieties of such species as colored stones, including colorless varieties. However, it has proved a practical and satisfactory classification.
Color grading of diamond: In diamond grading there are many divisions and subdivisions, into which diamonds may be color-graded. For grading the color of diamonds uses the standardscomparison master diamonds, Master stones for diamonds are carefully selected and usually range from colorless to shades of yellow and brown, 7 in number by CIBJO. Generally, the following grouping for white diamonds is used: Extra collection (blue-white), collection color, finest white, fine white, browns (varying from light brown to light green), top capes (stones having a yellowish tinge), and yellows. Other colors of diamond are called fancy stones or fancy colored.
Commemorative jewelry: Jewels which are made to celebrate event such as Jubilee.
Copper: A bright, soft, reddish, ductile, metallic element with the symbol Cu. One of the eight metallic elements mainly responsible for color in minerals. Used as alloys such as brass and bronze, gold, silver, and other alloys. As a color agent, it occurs in many idiochromatic gemstones such as azurite, malachite, chrysocolla, azurmalachite, etc. Rarely occurs as allochromatic mineral.
Cr: Cr - A chemical symbol for the element chromium
Crown: A usually circular royal head-dress with an open center, often made of precious metal and decorated with gemstones, worn by a monarch or consort as a symbol of sovereignty. Crest.
Cube: A crystal form of six equivalent square faces perpendicular to each other. A crystal form of crystal system.
Cuff bracelet: Round or oval bracelet with clasp and hinge.
Culet: The very small flat facet polished at the base of the pavilion of a diamond-cut or other gemstone parallel to the table facet. Its principal function is to reduce the possibility of damage to the gem but is often omitted in modern cut stone. The sharp point apex is called a close culet, when larger than normal is called open culet.
Cultured pearl: A variety of pearl produced by the inducing in the pearl oyster, a piece of mantle tissue, a grain of sand, or other irritant, usually by the introduction of mother-of-pearl, and the deposition of nacre thereon by the pearl-bearing mollusk. Over this core, layers of nacre, seldom more than ½ millimeter in thickness, exactly like those of natural pearls. The technique was tried in China in the 13th century BC by inserting Buddha or other objects into a fresh-water mussel. Cultured pearls are produced largely in Japan, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, Tahiti, and New Guinea waters. The pearl-producing mollusk, which lives in Japanese waters, is the small oyster Pinctada martensii, about 8 cm. The colors are: white, pink, cream, gray, rose, black.
Curb link chain: A chain with oval links that are twisted to lie flat.
Cushion shape: Any rectangular or square diamond cut with curved sides and corners.
Cut: The form or style used in the fashioning of gemstones, such as diamond-cut, emerald-cut and step-cut as opposed to rough or uncut stone.

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Damascene - Dyeing

Damascene: Refers to a type of jewelry that today most often comes from Spain; the jewelry is inlaid or engraved with gold or silver metals and black enamel; originated in the 14th century in Damascus, hence the name.
Dark cape: A color classification of yellow to yellowish gem diamond in the lower end of the cape range subdivided into: very light yellow, light yellow, and yellow.
Demi-parure: A pendant and matching earrings. A French term for semiprecious.
Diadem: A light jeweled or ornamental headband or royal crown worn by men and women usually made of gold. Sometimes decorated with diamonds, gemstones and pearls.
Diamond: An isometric mineral, representing a naturally occurring crystalline for of pure carbon polymorphous with graphite, chaoite, and lonsdaleite and being the hardest substance known. Found in volcanic neck, volcanic pipe, and alluvial deposits. Cut into various forms and shapes, when free from flaws. Sometimes fluorescent under ultraviolet light. There are two distinct types of diamond; Type I, to which the majority of stones belong, which exhibits complete absorption beyond 300 nm, and Type II, the rare transparent type, which transmits light down to 225 nm. Its high dispersion makes it valuable as a gemstone, Diamond is ready subject to cleavage. Polycrystalline mineral variety and is crushed and used as an abrasive powder in drilling and cutting such as carbonado boart, ballas. Diamond in Sanskrit is known as the Artha-Sastra, which means the Lesson of Profit. Found in alluvial and volcanic pipes in south Africa, India, Brazil; South West Africa, Tanzania, Australia, Russia, West Africa, Guyana, Congo, Ghana, Venezuela, china, USA, and Borneo.
Diamond colors: The colors for untreated and for natural diamonds are: completely colorless, white bluish, shades of yellow or brown, red, violet, pink, green, blue and black. The color of diamonds can be artificially altered or enhance by irradiation or heat treatment.
Diamond cut: The most popular style and cut for diamond and other transparent gemstones. Diamond cut increases the brilliance and minimizes the amount of light that escapes at the bottom of the gemstone. Diamond-cut stones exist in the style of two octagonal pyramids. The line where the two pyramids meets is called the girdle, above which is the crown and, below which is the pavilion. The large facet, parallel to the girdle on the crown is called the table, and the small facet, parallel to girdle on the pavilion is a culet or an apex. The triangular facets along both sides of the girdle, (parallel to the girdle with their bottoms) are now collectively known as girdle facets. (Those 16 facets that face upward from the girdle are known as upper girdle facets, and those 16, which face downward are called lower girdle facets). The 8 lozenge-shaped facets on the crown are kite facets or main facets (also called bezel facets, of which four are quoins and other four called templets), and those 8 small triangular facets, that, with the bottom meet the table are called star facets. Those 8 facets that extend downward from girdle to the culet are known as pavilion facets. The standard round, (girdle outline), diamond consists of a total of 58 facets, (sometimes less but often more),: 1 table, 8 main facets, (bezel facets), 8 star facets, and 16 upper girdle facets on the crown, (32 facets on the crown); and 25 facets in the base: 8 pavilion facets, 16 lower girdle facets, and usually a culet on the a pavilion. To obtain the most brilliance, the angle between crown facets and the girdle must be 35-40 degrees, and the angle between the pavilion faces and the girdle must be 40 degrees. In a standard, diamond cut, the depth of the crown is about 35-40% of that of the girdle. The diameter of the table is approximately 55% of that of the girdle. Usually the culet is small or, is not present in some modified modern cuts. When the pavilion, (or crown), is too deep or too shallow, too much light escapes through the bottom of the gemstone.
Diamond grade: The worth of diamond is based on an individual sorter's interpretation, which is somewhat arbitrary, standards of weight, proportion, finish, clarity, color, presence of flaws, and soundness.
Diamond hardness: The hardness of diamond is generally designated as 10.
Diamond inclusions: Diamond inclusions of special interest here are syngenetic; carbon, carbon spot, garnet, diopside, olivine, enstatite, chrome-spinel, rutile, nitrogen, magnetite, boron, colorless octahedron of diamond itself.
Diamond refraction: Diamond is famous for its high single refraction, the measurement of this is 2.417 for yellow light.
Diamond tweezers: Sharp, pointed small metal pincers used to pick up, hold and manipulate angle diamonds.
Dog collar: A flexible necklace or collar consisting of several parallel arranged strings of gemstones, worn tightly around a woman neck.
Doublet: A doublet is a gem made from two layers in order to save expenses; the lower part of the composite stone is glass or a non-precious stone, the top is the more valuable stone. Many different types of doublets have been manufactured (including opal doublets). One common doublet contains a layer of real garnet and a layer of glass. A thin, red garnet top is glued to a colored glass bottom. A green glass bottom with a red garnet top layer produces an emerald-like stone. A diamond is enlarged by cementing it to a crystal base.
Drop: A term used for tear-shaped or small globular drop-shaped piece of amber. The size of drop-shaped ambers or resins varies from a poppy seed to a walnut or bigger.
Drop earrings: Earrings that dangle below the earlobe.
Duette: A combination of two clips on a pin back. Duette was a registered design by Coro, but is now used generically for this design.
Dyeing: An old and an obvious method of artificially altering or improving the color of gem material, especially porous stones such as chalcedony, turquoise, calcite, jade, coral, etc., which are easy to stain with an appropriate dye.

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Earring jackets - Eye-clean

Earring jackets: An accessory designed to decorate a stud earring.
Earrings: Worn suspended from the ear-lobes as ornamental objects in form of buttons, clips, pendant-shapes, spheres, rings, piercing, fashioned stones, etc.
Electrolytic polishing: The soft and bright polishing of metal surface by immersion as an anode in an electrolytic bath.
Emerald: A brilliant, grass-green variety of beryl, highly favored as a gem. Green color is caused by trace of chromium and vanadium ions. Flawless specimens are rare and most of them contain inclusions, which are known as jardin of emerald. The are fashioned in a step-cut - this is so common that the rectangular step-cut is known as emerald-cut. Found in Colombia, Russia, South Africa, Austria, Zimbabwe, Brazil, India, and Africa. It is the birthstone for May.
Emerald cut: A style of rectangular or square trap-cut faceted large stones on a copper lap charged with diamond powder. Favored for emeralds, diamonds, and other transparent colored stones with the corners beveled and all surfaces covered by a series of rectangular or square facets or steps on crown and pavilion, parallel to girdle. The table is a large rectangular or square. A new modification is the royal 144 cut. If the form is square, it is known as square emerald cut.
Enamel: Glassy coating of metal or other materials. Used as an ornament for metal pottery, or for protection. A glassy substance, finely ground colored with metallic oxides (or uncolored), translucent or opaque, fused to a base or to the surface by heat of articles, glass, metal, ornament pottery, etc. Enamels are often mixed with a flux agent to facilitate the melting point. The jewelry enamels are cloisonné, Plique a jour, Champleve, Basse taille, niello, painted enamels and lacquer.
Emboss: Embossing is a method of surface decoration in which a design is raised slightly above the surface. Sheets of metal, leather, and plastic can be embossed.
Enameling: The method of decorating the surface of various metals or other substances by the use of enamel in order to protect against corrosion or to enhance their appearance.
Enameling gold: A gold alloy free from zinc metallic element.
Engagement ring: Generally a solitaire diamond ring given or token of betrothal, so given by a man to his fiancé.
Engraving: The art of gemstone block, plate, or other surfaces that have been engraved is generally a branch of the lapidary and jewelry trades. There are two types of engraving: cameos and intaglios but quite large carvings in hardstone and metals.
Enhancement: The process to raise a higher value, intensity, color, attractiveness, quality, etc. In the diamond industry enhancement is caused by irradiation, fracture filling, coating, lasering, heating.
Eternity ring: A ring or circle made of gold or platinum set with multi minute diamonds and other colored precious stones. Presented from husband to his wife on special occasions. In Europe the circle is the traditional symbol of eternity.
Ethical gemology: In accordance with principles of conduct that the name of gem is corrects.
Eye-clean: An undesirable clarity grading term that means no internal flaws, which are visible to the unaided eye of a diamond-clarity grader.

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Facet - Full cut diamond

Facet: A term applied to a polished plane-geometrical surface of a cut diamond or other gemstone of various shapes and sizes. In French spelled facette.
Facet cut: A term used to distinguish faceted gems from cabochon cut or other unaffected stones.
Facet design: Fashioning and preparation of the facets on a gemstone or diamond.
Faceted stones: Generally a faceted diamond or other stones used as an ornament. The form or style used in the fashioning of gemstones, such as diamond-cut, emerald-cut and step-cut, etc.
Fade: Lower saturation of color.
Fancy cut: Any style of diamond cutting other than the round diamond cut, which are rarely used such as marquise, emerald cut, pear-shaped cut, baguette, pentagon, half moo, mixed cut, irregular forms, unique cut (one-of-a-kind) triangle, key-stone, etc. Synonym for modern cut.
Fancy diamond: Any gem variety of diamond with a natural color, which has a definite shade of color, such as emerald green, sapphire blue, red, canary, orange, pink, tints of violet, reddish-brown, coffee-brown, golden-brown, blue, and black. Some green and yellow-colored diamonds may have been treated. Treated diamonds are not fancy diamonds, but sometimes called treated fancy diamonds.
Fancy shapes: The term applied to any diamond cut or other transparent gemstones other than round diamond such as oblong, pentagon, marquise, emerald cut, pear-shaped cut, baguette, half moon, triangle, key-stone, etc.
Fashioning of stones: The term applied to the cut form and polish of gemstones, such as cabochon-cut, diamond-cut, rose-cut, briollette, zircon-cut, cameo, intaglio, cuvette, step-cut, fancy-cut, seal-cut, scissors-cut, cross-cut, mixed-cut, etc.
Figaro chain: A chain with long and round links that are not uniform in size.
Filigree: Naturally occurring native metals such as gold, silver, or copper in lacelike form.
Findings: All types of construction components used in jewelry making such as clasps, pins, hooks, tabs, etc.
Fine gold: Gold containing no other elements or metals. It's also called pure gold or 24K (24 karat) gold and has fineness 999.
Fineness: The degree of purity of gold, silver or other precious metals, expressed as the number of parts per thousand.
Finish: The term applied to the excellent quality, polish, symmetry, proportions and general fashioning of gem diamond. Also classified as diamond external clarity. In such a system, the external grade is a synonym with finish quality.
Fire: The flashing spectrum of colors seen in other gemstones.
Flawless: A term used to describe a diamond or other gemstone, which is free from all internal and external blemishes or flaws of every description as observed with 10x magnifier. Often abbreviated: Fl or IF (internal flawless).
Florentine finish: A Florentine finish is a cross-hatched pattern, tooled into the surface of a metal. The lines are often coarse and more deep than that of a "brushed finish".
Florentine mosaic: A picture of pattern design formed by small, opaque, geometrically shaped, varicolored fragments of ornamental hardstones such as lapis, turquoise, malachite, azurite, marble, and coral, which is named as Florentine mosaic. The patterns are usually of flowers, or natural scenes and are cemented on a background of white or black marble. Used for making boxes, and plaques, or sometimes as ornaments. Materials used for Florentine mosaic are pieces of colored stones such as marble, malachite, opal, turquoise, lapis lazuli, coral, etc.
Fluorescence: A variety of luminescence. Certain material display an effect of producing visible electromagnetic light, when irradiated by ultraviolet light, cathode ray or X-rays, or other forms of radiation of an appropriate wavelength. The emitted light has another form of energy different to absorbing light. The fluorescence phenomenon ceases immediately, when the source of ray is removed, if the effect continues after removal of the energy source it is then termed phosphorescence.
Flush setting: Flush setting is a popular style for people who use their hands a lot in their professions; it offers good protection for their stones. The stone is fit snugly into a tapered hole that is grooved to hold the girdle of the stone. Then the surrounding metal is pressed and hammered around the rim of the opening to secure the stone. When center stone is flush set in a moderate to high dome at the top of the ring, it's called a gypsy setting.
Fob chain: A short chain with a decorative seal or other device attached to the end.
Foil: A thin leaf of metallic sheet of gold, silver, copper, or an alloy usually of 0.01 – 0.02 mm or less, used as a backing to a certain mounted glass or inferior gemstone to improve the color and brilliance.
Fracture filling: A series of imperfections, caused by the too-rapid polishing on diamond girdle, which produces very fine hair-like fractures, small cleavages or lines on or within the girdle. The lines are fuzzy, the diamond without the normal, smooth and waxy polish, which can be filled with high refractive materials such as epoxy or lead based glass and capable of obscuring the tiny cleavages.
French wire: A curved wire resembling a fish hook which passes through the pierced earlobe and has a catch closure. It is mostly used with dangling earrings due to their extra weight.
Fresh-water pearl: Clam pearl a variety of fresh-water bivalve pearls of inferior quality in relation to oyster pearl in various colors. These fresh-water pearls are common in North America, Amazon basin, Mississippi River, Scandinavia, Scotland, and European waters. Mississippi region pearls are found in bivalve mussels such as Alasmadon margaritifera. Some fresh-water bivalves are more interesting for the production of cultured blister pearl such as Cristaria plicata from Chinese rivers the Chinese insert pieces of bone, wood, brass and leaden images of Buddha between the shell and mantel. Fresh-water pearls from Bangladesh river are pinkish in color. Usually fresh-water pearls are baroque in shape, have a strong color and orient, hence they are called dogtooth pearls are usually fluorescent under X-rays, salt-water pearls are inert.
Full cut diamond: A round diamond – cut diamond or other colored gemstone with a total of 58 facets including the table and culet. Consisting of 32 facets above the girdle, and 24 facets below the girdle or at pavilion. On the colored gemstones, the girdle is usually polished, but seldom on diamonds. The term used as a synonym for melee.

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Garnets - Gypsy setting

Garnets: There are more than 10 diiferent gemstones belong to garnet group. All of them share similar chemical sructure. The main differences in garnet group are slight variations in color, density, and refractive index. The common color is red; green, pale to bright-yellow colors are rare and beautiful. Six main garnets types: pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular garnet, andradite, and uvarovite. The almanine is what most people think when the word garnet is mentioned.
Gem color: A trade term used for colorless diamond and nearly synonymous with perfect color or good color.
Gemstone: Any rough mineral or other material natural or synthetic, which possesses the necessary attractiveness, brilliance, beauty, rarity, color dispersion, refraction, color or colorless, flawless, portability, fashionably, and durability for use in gem industry. For identification gems are superficially examined by color, optic qualities, sight, and coolness, but require some scientific examination such as determination of specific gravity, hardness, refractive index, crystal system (when crystallized), dichroism, absorption spectra, etc. All minerals, as well as the opal are gemstones, but all type of glass and plastics are excluded.
Gemstone cuts: Any forms or styles used in the fashioning of gemstones such as antique cut, diamond cut, emerald cut, baguette, cabochon, rose cut, etc.
German silver: German silver is an alloy consisting of mostly copper (roughly 60 percent), and approximately 20 percent nickel, about 20 percent zinc, and sometimes about 5 percent tin (then the alloy is called alpaca). There is no silver at all in German silver. This alloy was invented around 1860 in Germany as a silver substitute.
GIA: GIA stands for the Gemological Institute of America
Gilding: The method of overlaying or coating the surface of metal, wood, etc. with a thin layer of gold or gold alloy.
Girandole: Earring or brooch, which is ornamented with several pendants, often diamond or other gemstone.
Girdle: The outer edge or periphery of a polished diamond or other gemstone, which divides the crown (top), from pavilion (base).
Gold: A heavy, soft, yellow, ductile, precious metallic element used in jewelry mainly as a mount for gems, and for decorating in porcelain and pottery. Unalterable by moisture, heat and most corrosive agents, or free from liability or rust. Is unattached by most acids but dissolves in aqua regia. Chemical symbol: Au. Pure metallic gold is too soft for use in jewelry or coin, but as an alloy with copper, palladium, silver, or other metals, depending on hardness and the desired color and intended use. The unit of purity or fineness of solid gold or an alloy used in jewelry expressed in Karat. In trade it is based on a scale of twenty-fourths, 24 karat means pure gold, 18 karat gold, etc.
Gold alloys: Pure gold is too soft for use but as an alloy with various metal such as copper, silver, nickel, iron or other metals it is more useful. Gold alloys can assume many colors depending on their composition. The unit of fineness of solid gold or an alloy used in jewelry is expressed in Karats. In trade based on a scale of twenty-fourths, 24 (100%) karat means pure gold, 18(75%) karat gold, 14 (58.50%), and 9 (37.50%).
Gold filled: A composite consisting of gold platting and rolled with a backing of brass, in which the total thickness of the gold sheet is at least 1/20 of the overall thickness.
Gold jewelry: An American term for jewelry made entirely or principally of pure gold.
Gold leaf: Very thin, bluish green by translucent light. Layers of gold manufactured by beating or rolling. Used for gilding or decorative purpose (thinner than gold foil). It can beaten into leaves of 0.0001 to 0.005 mm thick, this being less than the 300 to 700 nm wavelength of light.
Gold-plated: Base metal which has been bonded with at least 0.0025 mm of gold. Not as durable as alloyed gold or gold-fill. With moderate to heavy use, gold-filled and gold-plated jewelry will eventually lose their coating, leaving the base metal exposed. The United States jewelry product standard for gold- filled is a minimum of 12 carat, as accepted by the Manufacturing jewelers & Silversmiths Association.
Gold washed: Products that have an extremely thin layer of gold, (less than .175 microns thick), applied by either dipping or burnishing the metal, but not plated. This will wear away more quickly than pieces that are gold plated, gold-filled, or gold electroplated.
Grading of diamonds: It means the grading of polished diamond by color, clarity, cut and weight (carat), popularly known as four C's. In diamond grading there are many divisions and subdivisions, into which diamonds may be color-graded.
Gram: A unit of weight in the metric system is equal to the weight of cubic centimeter of water at 4 C degree.
Guilloche: A style of enameling in which a continuous decoration is engraved by an engine-turned lathe, and then covered with translucent enamel, so that the engraving can be seen through the enamel.
Gunmetal: Gunmetal is a metal alloy that is composed of 90 percent copper and 10 percent tin.
Gypsy setting: A mounting style for securing poor quality gemstones, diamonds or diamond imitations in a finger ring, in which the stone is deeply set into a circular or oval metal claw (without collet) so that almost the table facet is almost level with the metal surface.

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Hair jewelry - Hue

Hair jewelry: Hair jewelry is jewelry containing or composed of locks of hair. This type of jewelry was popular in the mid-1800's as a remembrance of deceased loved ones.
Half (carat): A commercial name for 0.50 carat.
Hallmark: An official series of mark or stamps indicating a standard of purity, used in marking gold, silver, or platinum or other precious metal articles to guarantee purity, date of manufacture, etc.
Heat treatment: Certain rough gemstones improved or completely changed in color by means of controlled heat-treating. The induced colors are permanent in varieties such as burnt amethyst to produce yellow, green or brownish-red. Brown and yellow topaz from Brazil changed to pink. Greenish aquamarine altered to blue, dark green tourmaline improved to emerald green. Zoisite turns to a sapphire blue. Brown zircons from Cambodia altered to blue and golden brown, red and colorless depending on the temperatures and the conditions of heating such as in air or reducing atmosphere. Green irradiated diamond change to yellow or cinnamon brown for some hours at about 500-900 C, but the stone is left radioactive for varying periods of times. Heat-treatment of stones increases the risk of splitting or fracture of rough material during fashioning.
Heat treatment detection: Some heat-treated stones such as rubies and sapphires can be exposes using a microscope, absence of silk as inclusions in the stone, stress fractures, and banded color can be seen. It exhibits chalky glow under SWUV light, or sometimes multi-planed girdles seen of fashioned stones.
Heishi beads: A US Indian term for costume jewelry made of dyed minute salt-water shells or other stones beads, which are strung as beads through the center hole of shell that may be hand drilled or have naturally existed.
Herringbone chain: A chain with small, slanting links that appear flat.
Hexagon: Any polygon shape having six sides.
High clarity: A GIA clarity-grading scale for diamonds, which range from flawless (Fl) to very slightly included (VS)
High color: A commercial term for colorless or nearly colorless polished diamond, when set in jewelry.
Holohlith ring: A finger ring fashioned in the form a single piece of stone such as quartz, jasper, jade, etc.
Hoops: Earrings with a circular design, going from the front to the back of the earlobe.
Hue: The characteristic color that is determined by its wavelength as red, green, blue, purple, yellow, etc., and excludes white, black, and shades of gray in reference to the visible spectrum of light; tint: a shade of color, special a pale one; pale hue.

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Imperfect - Irradiation

Imperfect: A term applied to the diamond clarity grade, which ranges from flawless to imperfect. These characteristics are visible to the unaided eye and, which have a serious effect on the stones. The scale is subgraded into three as I1, I2 and I3. Abbreviation: I.
Inclusions: A general name for any small visible foreign matter such as gas, liquid, glass, or mineral enclosed within a gemstone or rock, which is a growth phenomena. Fracture or cleavage in a gemstone are not classed as inclusions. The nature of inclusions are used to indicate the origin of a stone. Inclusions are very helpful in distinguishing synthetic stones from their counterparts. Inclusions are divided into two categories: (I) primary inclusions and (II) secondary inclusions. Inclusions may result in three formations: (a) pre-temporary inclusions, pre-existing inclusions, or photogenetic inclusions, (b) contemporary inclusions, or syngenetic inclusions and (c) post-temporary inclusions, post-formed inclusions, or epigenetic inclusions. Some types of inclusions type are: feather, silk, horsetail, veil, fused or treacle, negative crystal, halo, fingerprint, dendrite, centipede, pleochroic halo, zircon halo, two-phase, three-phase, etc. Inclusions are divided in four shapes: (a) solid inclusions, (b) internal cavities, (c) cracks or fissures, and (d) growths.
Inlay: Decorative articles embedded by small dark, hard and fine stones used as basic stone, which has been inlaid with other colored or colorless geometrical shaped gemstones and sometimes precious opal or ivory flowers.
Intaglio: Intaglio is a method of decoration in which a design is cut into the surface. Signet rings are frequently decorated with intaglio, as are seals.
Intarsia: Embedding of a formed pattern with small colored ornamental tones fragments to make a non-geometrical picture. The term is contrast to Parquetry.
Intensity, color: The strength or sharpness of a color, which express brightness or dullness of a hue.
Invisible setting: Invisible-set stones are placed tightly next to each other with the metal of the setting concealed underneath the stones, allowing them to form a continuous surface.
Iridescence: The exhibition of prismatic colors with the play of the soft rainbow colors in some gemstones caused by interference of light beneath the surface or layers of different refractive index of the stone as seen in the corundum.
Iridio-platinum: An alloy made of platinum 90% and the remaining of 10% is iridium.
Iridium: A silvery-white, brittle, hard, metallic element, corrosion resistant of the Periodic System with the symbol Ir. Used in alloys with platinum in jewelry.
Irradiation: The process of exposing certain diamond or other pale or poorly colored gemstone to radiation, such as in a nuclear reactor, X-rays, neutrons from an atomic pile, deuterons a nucleus of the heavy hydrogen atom, gamma rays from a cobalt-60, electrons positive or negative from a linear accelerator or a cyclotron, protons a particle in the core of all atoms from cyclotron. With the effect of artificially altering color by artificially creating color centers due to crystal defect in the space lattice. Green irradiated diamond often changes the color to yellow or cinnamon brown for some hours by heat - treatment.

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Jabot pin - Jump ring

Jabot pin: A kind of ruffle worn on the bosom of a man's shirt or woman's blouse. It was designed to hold the jabot onto the shirt. It is basically a pin with a brooch at either end. One brooch is removable so that the pin can be stuck through the garment and then secured by reattaching the removable brooch.
Jappaned: A Japanned finish in jewelry is when metal is finished with a lustrous, black lacquer.
Jewelry: A number of decorative articles made artistically of gold, platinum, silver, and precious stones (natural stones and artificial substances) that are worn for personal adornment, such as bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc.
Jewel tweezers: The tweezers used in jewelry to hold a jewel or gemstone.
Jump ring: A small oval or round wire ring used to link charms or pendants onto a chain. It is not usually soldered shut.

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Karat - Key color

Karat: In metallurgy a unit that expresses only to the purity of solid gold used in jewelry. In trade based on a scale of twenty-fourths, 24 karat means pure gold, 18 karat gold means, containing 18 parts gold to 6 parts of alloy (18/24), and 9 karat gold means, containing 9 parts gold to 15 parts of alloy (9/24). A term that expresses only to the purity of sold gold used in jewelry. In some countries, the proportion is expressed as part per thousand: 24 karat gold is equal 1000 parts, 18 karat gold 750.
Key color: Primary body color seen, when a diamond is in a face-up position.

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Marquise - Mourning jewelry

Marquise: A term applied to a diamond that is cut in the form of a marquise diamond-cut, in which the girdle outline is elongated, boat shaped with hexagonal table. There are 32 facets on the crown and 24 facets on the pavilion and a culet.
Mat: A smooth but lusterless or dull surface of a mineral or metal tending to diffuse light.
Matinee necklace: A pearl necklace of 50 to 60 cm in length.
Melee: A melee is a small diamond, under .20 carat.
Metal: Element metals are characteristics by their solid, grayish color, opacity, brilliancy luster, malleability, heat and electrical conductivity, toughness, ductility, and ability to form positive ions. When polished a good reflector of light. Some of them are used as alloys or quasi-pure in jewelry.
Memory wire: Memory wire is a tough, stiff wire that retains its shape. It is often used for necklaces and bracelets.
Mesh chain: Fabric-like chain woven from very fine wire.
Metamerism: A term applied to crystals or materials that appear as different colors under different types of illumination, because they have different spectral reflectivity curves such as the natural alexandrite a variety of chrysoberyl, which shows red in artificial light and green in daylight. In the case of alexandrite, the spectral band is on 580 nm.
Metric carat: A unit of weight for determination of gemstones, since 1 April 1914 standardized world-wide in the metric carat, equivalent to 0.200 gram.
Micromosaic: An ancient Roman mosaic craft created by using minute pieces of colored glass or stone, called tesserae (tiles), applying up to 1,400 per square inch. Micromosaics were used for brooches and pins for Victorian tourists on "The Grande Tour" of Europe.
Millerite: Very small crystals which have been faceted into small gems. Massive materials are cut cabochon and are prized by collector's. Hair-like variety is known as capillary pyrite. Also called trichopyrite, hair pyrite, nickel pyrite. Weak in yellow pleochroism.
Millimeter: A unit of length that equals one-thousandth of a meter with the abbreviation mm.
Mineral: A loose and inexact term that may be to define: usually homogeneous inorganic substances of definite physical properties and more or less chemical composition, which occur naturally in the earth, and usually possess a crystalline structure, which frequently finds outward expression in the crystalline form or other properties. Those materials, which are amorphous and some organic compounds are classified as mineraloid. Rocks are composed of minerals.
Mold: A variety of rubber with hollow shape, into which casting wax is poured to produce a formed pattern.
Molded cameo: Molded cameos are cameos that are made by the molding process and not by carving the material (as traditional cameos are). Molded cameos are usually made from plastic, glass, or porcelain that is formed in a mold. Often, two colors of material are used, one for the relief pattern (often depicting a person or scene) and another for the background.
Mosaic: A decorative art of picture or pattern formed by very small adjacent pieces tesserae, opaque, geometrical shaped, varicolored fragments ornamental hardstones such as lapis, turquoise, malachite, azurite, marble, coral, which is named as Florentine mosaic. Also known as inlay work, intarsia or pietre dure (pietra dura). The patterns are usually of flowers, or scenes and cemented on a background of white or black marble slab. When the pieces consist of cut geometrical shapes set in metal mount this is known as parquetry. When varicolored fragments are made from non-natural materials such as glass rods cemented together as a glass frame is called Byzantine mosaic or Roman mosaic. Usually the decorative motifs are pictorial views, such as flowers, pets, buildings, and Egyptian motifs. Some samples are enameled fragments.
Mother-of-pearl: The third layer or an iridescent nacreous layer of a pearl-bearing mollusk or shells, made of the mineral aragonite or calcite and an organic compound conchiolin and scleroprotein, a type of Keratin. The third innermost the nacreous layer of shell consist of microscopically very thin platelets while overlapping each other parallel to outer surface with zigzag edges. The combination of edges and film-like layers together make orient of pearl due to interference and diffraction effect of light. Mother-of-pearl is extensively used for making ornamental objects and small beads for inserting in mussels for production of cultured pearl industry.
Mounted stone: Gemstone set or fixed into the metal framework for ear-rings, finger rings, brooches, pendants, etc.
Mounting: A metal framework made of gold, silver, etc., into which a gemstone, glass, or pottery is set in various forms and techniques to improve the beauty of the stone.
Mourning jewelry: Mourning jewelry is a type of jewelry worn when one is mourning the loss of a loved one. It is often black, subdued jewelry (often made of jet or black glass and metal with a Japanned finish) or jewelry that commemorates the dead (like hair jewelry or cameos). After England's Queen Victoria's beloved husband (and cousin) Albert died (in 1861), she went into an extended period of mourning. During these years, she wore black clothing and mourning jewelry. English fashion was greatly influenced by this, and mourning jewelry, especially jet, became quite fashionable.

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Laser - Luster

Laser: An acronym of light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. A device that emits UV to infra red electromagnetic energy, that is a nearly parallel, nearly monochromatic and coherent beam of light of very restricted diameter formed by causing exiting atoms to radiate their energy in phase. Laser systems have been used in gemology specially to improve the clarity grade of diamonds by laser drilling technique. Small portable laser device are filled with noble gases such as neon, argon, krypton, sometimes carbon oxide. Frequently cadmium is mixed with noble gases.
Lavalier: A lavalier is a pendant with a dangling stone that hangs from a necklace. Lavaliers were named for the infamous Duchess Louise de La Valliere (1644-1710), a French woman who was a mistress of the French king Louis XIV (and was involved in many intrigues at court).
Lever back: A classic design wherein the earring is attached to a pierced ear by means of a hinged lever that bends and latches behind the ear.
Light alloys: A general name for alloy of aluminum.
Light carat: Diamond slightly less than one carat, usually 0.95-0.99 cts.
Liquid silver: The term given to strands of small silver beads which were made by carefully slicing tubes of sterling silver into 1/8" pieces and stringing them together.
Lobster claw: An interlocking catch with a spring mechanism and a safety lock.
London blue topaz: A commercial term for dark blue topaz colored by radiation without heat treatment. Heat treatment may be used to remove undesired colors.
Lost-wax process: A casting process, in which a piece of wax is carved or formed into a distinct pattern. The method has been used since ancient times, in which the wax pattern is pouring with gypsum, and than formed or run out of a hole, this negative cavity is suitable for molds.
Luster: A stone's luster is its sparkle or sheen - the way it relects light. The luster depends on the nature of the stone's surface reflectivity. Some types of luster include: adamantine (also called brilliant or diamondlike, like a faceted diamond), earthy (with little reflectivity- also called dull, like shale or clay), greasy (like nepheline or apatite), metallic (also known as splendent, like pyrite or marcasite), resinous (like amber), pearly (with an iridescent reflectivity, like pearls or mica), pitchy (tarry minerals that are radioactive, like uraninite), silky (with a fibrous structure, like some tiger's eye or satin spar), vitreous (also known as glassy, like olivine, transparent quartz, or obsidian), and waxy (like halite or turquoise). A pearl's luster is derived from its nacre.

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Nacre - Noble

Nacre: The horny, hard, iridescent outer layers that are a component of pearls and mother-of-pearls, which is a secretion produced by the mantle of certain mollusks and consists of small 6-sided crystalline calcium carbonate (CaCO3) principally calcite or aragonite and web-like deposit of organic conchiolin cells (C32H48N9O11). A scleroprotein keratin type, which causes the luster and iridescence. Depends on the transparency and placement of crystals. The small prism crystals of calcium carbonate arranged at right angles of their prismatic axes perpendicular to the surface of the layer (known as prismatic layer) and are held together by a cement of conchiolin or mortar. Nacre is prized for buttons, knife handles, small spoons, inlays, and carving articles such as cameos and intaglios, because of its fine iridescence, large quantities, and thickness.
Natural: A mineral or substance, which occurs in nature; opposite of synthetic or man-made.
Near colorless: A commercial term for diamond stone, which appears colorless in face-up position, but actually the stone is very light yellow.
Necklace: A piece of jewelry consisting of a string of gemstones, jewels, beads, or oblates, or other materials, or a band or chain mounted with stones or pearls, or other multi-colored materials, for wearing around the neck. Usually a pendant of single gemstone, cluster, pearl, or cross is suspended.
Needle: A slender ornament made of gold or silver worn as peasant jewelry.
Niello: A black metallic alloy of sulfur, copper, silver, or lead, used as inlay for an incised design on the surface of another metal. Niello refers to both the substance and the process.
Niobium: A rare gray or silvery, malleable, ductile metallic element of the Periodic System with the symbol Nb.
Noble: A term used in mineralogy to express superiority or purity of a mineral such as noble opal, etc., now known as precious opal.

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Oiling - Oxygen

Oiling: Oiling is a process of applying mineral oil to a stone in order to enhance it and mask inclusions, make them more transparent, and darken their color. Emeralds are frequently oiled to mask their many inclusions.
Omega chain: Flat chain with a solid surface formed by the links.
Onyx: A translucent to semitransparent variety of chalcedony or cryptocrystalline quartz that is porous and consists of straight or parallel banded agate of alternating shades of white and black, gray and black, black and red, white and red, white and brown. Used in making cameos. Almost all onyx in trade is dyed to emphasize the concentric structures. The term onyx has been erroneously applied as a suffix to Brazilian onyx, Mexican onyx, Oriental onyx, cave onyx, etc., which are calcium carbonate minerals.
Opaque: Impenetrable to light. A stone is opaque, when light cannot passed through a thin-section of 0.04 mm. For example pyrite, cuprite, etc.
Open setting: A style of gemstone mounting that the facets of the pavilion or lower part are exposed to light from the sides.
Opera necklace: Generally length of a pearl necklace is about 70-75 cm, double that of a choker. The length may vary.
Orb: Spheres or globe.
Ore: Usually a mineral or rock that be potentially valuable.
Origin: A term described the geological formation, in which mineral, ore, or gemstone are generate and found.
Ormolu: A term referring to gilded bronze or brass mounts. From the French for "ground gold"
Oval cuts: A modern variant of diamond cut of the 57-facets (may more or less), with an elliptical girdle outline.
Oval setting: Modification of setting of transparent solitaire gemstone or diamond in a finger ring in oval shape similar to Tiffany setting.
Oxidation: Oxidation is a chemical process in which oxygen atoms bond to atoms of a material (like a metal) and electrons are transferred from the oxided material to the reduced material. Iron oxidizes when exposed to air and moisture, forming iron oxide (rust). Silver oxidizes (tarnishes, turing the surface black) when it is exposed to hydrogen sulfide in the air (forming Ag2S, silver sulfide).
Oxide: A binary composition of oxygen with metals or other elements.
Oxygen: A colorless, odorless, tasteless, nonflammable, active, nonmetallic, chiefly bivalent element of the Periodic System with the symbol O.

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Palladium - PWT

Palladium: A soft, malleable, ductile, silvery-white metallic element of the platinum group of the Periodic System with the symbol Pd. Used as alloy, owing to lower cost, for jewelry as a substitute for platinum.
Parquetry: A style of mosaic, which consists of geometrical shapes of attractive materials cemented together and set in a metal mount. A contrast to intarsia.
Parure: A French term means ornament. A set of jewels decorated en suit made of the same gemstone, composed of necklaces, bracelets, earring, aigrettes, buckles, and brooch, which are designed to be worn at the same time.
Paste: A term used to any imitation gemstone. Paste jewels are readily distinguished from genuine stone by several means; (a) paste feel warmer than gemstone and easily scratched. (b) Looking for black spot. (c) Paste jewels are generally closed and foiled setting. Good paste are made in Austria, France, and the Czech Republic.
Pave setting: A style of setting, in which many small pieces of minute gemstones are set close together as possible to cover the entire mount. It used to make brooches, pendants, etc.
Pavilion: The part of a faceted diamond or other gemstone below the girdle that extends from the girdle to the culet.
Pd: A chemical symbol for the element palladium.
Pear cut: A style of cutting gemstones resembling a pear or pendeloque.
Pearl: A dense, lustrous concretion, biological organic gem formed within the shell of certain pearl-bearing mollusks consists of a small particle surrounded by concentric sheets of nacre composed of conchiolin 10-14%, calcium carbonate 82-86% and water 2%. Calcium carbonates are in the form of minute prisms and secreted with conchiolin together by the mantle of the oyster, which are deposited as many very thin concentric layers covering the small foreign nucleus of sand or small parasite such as cestode worm or a trematode worm or that entered the shell naturally, it is believed the oyster can also produce cellular tissue that causes a resistance. In both cases the pearl is known as true pearl or wild pearl. Or can be also made by inducing an artificial bead, a piece of mantle tissue, a grain of sand, or other irritant, usually by the introduction of a mother-of-pearl, which produces cultured pearl. The sizes and shapes of pearl vary: the size vary from seed pearl to paragon pearl, in the form of the finest spherical, oval, egg-shape to irregular in shape such as baroque pearl, drop pearl, hinge pearl, button pearl, hammer pearl, etc. The color of pearls usually depends on the water where produced, it is a result of body color and an overtone color, known as orient, which causes surface effect and results lustrous sheen. The surface color or orient caused by diffraction and reflection due to the diffuse light source at the edge of overlapping plates of calcium carbonates. The rest of the color is caused by body color. At least two overtone colors can be seen, on the surface in full view and at the edge. Fancy color such as red in the Haliotis rufrescens, pink, violet, blue, green, or yellow in fresh-water pearls are frequently seen. Dark colors in natural and cultured pearls are caused by dark conchiolin in nucleus. Some pearls are artificially dyed. It is on of the birthstones for June.
Pendant: An ornamental object such as amulet, pectoral cross, miniature, etc. hung from a necklace or neck chain, worn for its own sake.
Pentagon cuts: A fancy polygon cut of diamond which consists of 5-sided step-cut and large to small 5-sided table, with the sides of equal length. In some cuts can be seen 5-rayed star. Pavilion consists of 5-sided step-cut without culet.
Peridot: Peridot is transparent to translucent gem variety of olivine, which ranges from pale yellow-green to pale olive-green, dark green. Cut as gem polished by tumbling, sometimes seen as cat's-eye and star olivine. Peridot has a high birefringenece, so doubling of the back facets can easily be seen in larger specimens when viewed from the front. Peridot also a birthstone for August.
Pietre dura: In Italian term for hard, fine, colored stones used as suitably shaped pieces for ornamental inlay in mosaic pattern. The colored stones are marbles, coral, ivory, malachite, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and opal.
Pinchbeck: A type of imitation gold composed of an alloy of copper and zinc invented by Christopher Pinchbeck in the 18th century.
Pinky ring: A ring that is worn on the little finger.
Platinum: A hard, heavy, ductile, silvery-white or grayish-white metallic element of the group VIII B of the Periodic System with the symbol Pt. Very important metal, more costly than gold. Used in jewelry and as alloy.
Plating: Plating is a process in which one metal is coated with another metal using electricity. In jewelry, inexpensive metals are frequently electroplated with more expensive metals, like gold (gold plating), copper (electrocoppering), rhodium (rhodanizing), chromium (chromium plating), or silver (silver plating). The thickness of the metal coat varies. Electrogilded coating is the thinnest (less than 0.000007 inches thick); gold-cased metals have a coating thicker that 0.000007 inches.
Pleochroism: A transparent gemstone that displays pleochroism, when light is passed through it from different direction.
Plique-a-jour: A form of enameling popular in Art Nouveau jewelry that is similar to cloisonne', but where the transparent enamels are held in place by wires on the edges rather than on a metal plate.
Polishing: The final process after placing the facets on the gemstone, which has been rubbed with various abrasives to smooth and brighten the surface. The final polishing by machine is used to achieve a lustrous surface. Cutting and polishing carried out in one operation.
Precious metals: Relatively rare and highly valuable jewelry metals such as gold, silver, and the platinum group.
Precious stones: A term with little effect, meaning that in the past, it was confined to a gemstone of a small group, owing to its hardness, beauty, durability and rarity such as diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire, chrysoberyl, perhaps black opal and pearl (pearl is not a mineral). All other gemstones such as peridot, topaz, zircon, tourmaline, etc. were arbitrarily classed as semiprecious stones. The term semiprecious is now discouraged.
Princess cut: A 57-faceted square or truncated carree diamond cut, which has 21 facets on the crown, 32 facets on the pavilion and 4 facets on the girdle.
Princess necklace: A pearl necklace about 45 centimeters (18 inches) in length.
Prong: One of several curved, sharp pointed, finger-like narrow metal support o 4 or 6 claws used to fasten and hold a gemstone in place.
Prong setting: This is the most common type of setting. It involves fitting the diamond or gemstone in a metal head or basket and securing it with a minimum of three prongs or metal claws. The shape of the prongs can vary. They may be rounded, elongated or pointed. There are many decorative variations of this setting style.
PT or PLAT: PT is an abbreviation for platinum.
PWT: Pennyweights - A weight measurement for gold.

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Quartz - Quatra-foil

Quartz: Quartz is the most abundant and widespread mineral. It is an important rock-forming mineral that occurs in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Quartz includes many varieties of gem-quality and ornamental stones and colors. Quartz is piezoelectric and is used for accurate timepieces, broadcast emission and to produce high-intensity halogen lamps in gem testing devices. Quartz and varieties are: (a) crystalline forms: amethyst, milky quartz, rose quartz, cat's eye quartz, needle quartz, gold quartz, rock crystal, brown or smoky quartz, citrine, royite, morion, and cairngorm. (b) cryptocrystalline: chalcedony in several varieties, carnelian, sard, prase, onyx, chrysoprase, bloodstone, sardonyx, flint, chert and plasma. (c) Massive varieties: quartzite, jasper, aventurine quartz. Some varieties exhibit chatoyancy effect, when cut as a cabochon. Rock crystal is a colorless quartz, which is known as rock crystal. Twinning of quartz are: Brazilian twin, Dauphine twin, and Japan twin. Optically active quartz is divided into left hand and right hand quartz; the plane polarization of light rotates to the left, when lights passed parallel to the c-axis is called left hand quartz. If the rotation is to the right it is known as right hand quartz.
Quatra-foil: A design element with four divisions, as in a four-leaf clover.

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Radiant cut - Russian gold finish

Radiant cut: A commercial term for cushion-shape or emerald-cut diamond with 70 facets. It has emerald-cut outline and emerald-cut facets on the crown and a diamond-cut with triangular facets on pavilion. Designed by Henry Grossbard in 1977-78.
Rectangle: A parallelogram that has right angles.
Refraction: The change of direction and velocity of propagation of any wave or ray of light, when it passes from one medium into another of different optical density as from air into a gemstone. The greater the difference in the optical densities of two media, the greater will be the angle of refraction and reducing of speed.
Regard: A kind of Acrostic jewelry, meaning jewelry where the first letter of each type of stone spells out a word. In this case, a ring or brooch set with a Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, and a Diamond so that the first letter of each gemstone spelled out "Regard". Popular in the Victorian era.
Relief: A kind of raised decoration that protrudes above the surface, like a cameo.
Repousse: A technique used to make relief decoration on gold and silver thin plate of an image by punching and hammering from the reverse pre-designed side into a raised form.
Retro jewelry: Retro jewelry is chunky, geometric jewelry from the 1940's. Pink gold was often used in retro pieces.
Rhinestone: A commercial term for colorless, iridescent lead glass used as a diamond imitation or other gemstone, sometimes it has been backed with a film of metallic foil. Used as colorless paste.
Rh: A chemical symbol for the element rhodium.
Rhodium: A hard, silvery-white, ductile, metallic element, resembling platinum, resistance to corrosion of the Periodic System with the symbol Rh. Used as alloys and coating of silver to prevent tarnishing.
Rhodium plating: Coating of other metal objects in jewelry to improve the color and appearance.
Rings: Circlet finer rings or earrings, usually made of precious metals such as gold, silver or platinum. Finger rings worn on any finger, rarely on the thumb. It was used as signets or seal-rings for personal identification and signature. Now are used as personal adornment for peculiar occasions such as betrothal, marriage, membership, birth-month stones, etc. Earrings worn suspended from the ear-lobes as ornamental objects in form o buttons, clips, pendant-shapes, spheres, rings, piercing, fashioned stones, etc.
Ring sizes: One of the few aspects of the jewelry industry that is standardized is ring size, though many national systems are in use. The US uses a numeric system from 1-13. The UK has an alphabetic system from A-Z. The European system is numeric from 38-70, representing the interior circumference in millimeters.
Riveting: A method of joining two objects together by making a hole in each piece, then passing a screw (composed of the same metal as the piece), through the holes to join the parts. This process was used in jewelry instead of soldering when it was not advisable to use heat or when one part was intended to swivel.
Riviere de diamants: A French term for diamond necklace or neck chain.
RJA: An acronym for Retail Jeweler of America.
Rocaille: Rocaille is jewelry whose design is based on sea life, sea shells, or rocks.
Rolled gold: Rolled gold is a very thin sheet of gold that is laminated to a lesser metal (usually brass). The two layers of metal are heated under pressure to fuse them together. The sheet is them rolled into a very thin sheet and then used to make jewelry or other objects.
Rope necklace: Measuring at least 114 cm in length, the versatile rope necklace is a must-have accessory! Infinitely elegant and classic, this necklace dresses up any outfit night or day. Often, hidden clasps placed in strategic locations allow this necklace to be transformed into multi-strand necklace and bracelet combinations.
Rose finish: Jewelry finished so that it has the look of Rose Gold, but no actual gold content.
Rose gold: An alloy of gold mixed with copper, which gives it a red tint.
Round cut: A simply round diamond cut with eight 4-sided facets and an 8-sided table in the crown. Pavilion has an eight 40sided star with a culet.
Ruby: A red transparent gem variety of corundum. Some specimen shows excellent asterism star ruby. Flawless specimen are very rare and more costly than diamonds of the same size. The colors are intense red to pink due to traces of chromium oxide. Padmagaraya is a Singhalese term for yellowish, pinkish-orange to reddish-orange variety of corundum (sapphire) from Sri Lanka, or a synthetic corundum of yellow to orange color, which means lotus flower. Pigeon's blood ruby is a dark red tending to purple; it contains some small irregular inclusions of needle-like rutile, which give a silky effect to the stone. Rubies have been cut as brilliant, mixed cut, beads, tumbled, step cut, cut as star rubies, star sapphires and cabochon, asterism or with cat's eye (one ray). Also it is called true ruby, red corundum or Oriental ruby. It is the birthstone for July.
Russian gold finish: A Russian gold finish is a matte, antique-look finish.

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Safety catch - SW

Safety catch: One of several means of securing a brooch to a garment. Before the invention of safety catches, the most common means of securing a brooch was a simple "C" catch with no locking mechanism. A safety catch has a swiveling head that locks the tip of the pin stem into the "C" catch.
Sand casting: For hundreds of years sand casting was the most popular of all casting methods. It still plays an important role in the production of large metal forms, (typically Iron, but also Bronze, Brass, Aluminum). Tempered sand is packed onto wood or metal pattern halves, removed from the pattern, and metal is poured into resultant cavities. Molds are broken to remove castings.
Sapphire: Any pure, transparent, gem-quality corundum other than ruby, specially the blue color variety of corundum. Blue color being due to traces of oxides of cobalt, chromium, and titanium. Sapphire color ranges from light-blue, to dark velvety blue (shades of blue). Other colors, which are known as fancy sapphire are colorless, purple sapphire, pink sapphire, yellow sapphire, brown and black. Sapphire shows strong dichroism and often asterism. Some specimens alter their color in daylight and artificial light. Slightly different tones or hues or different colored zones in transparent sapphires are classified as phantoms or ghost crystals. Misnomerly so-called Oriental topaz is a yellow sapphire and Oriental emerald is a deep green sapphire, and purple sapphire is misnomered as Oriental amethyst. Some stones from South and South East Asia are heat-treated or irradiated. It is a birthstone for September.
Satin finish: A satin finish on a metal is between a matte finish and a brilliant one. This semi-glossy finish is done by making shallow parallel lines on the surface of the metal, reducing its reflectivity.
Saturation: A degree of color responsible for vividness of colored of stones.
Sautoir: A long neck chain of approximately equal-sized beads, worn by women loosely from shoulders extended down to below the waist. It is 80 to 110 cm (31 to 47 inch) in length.
Scatter pin: A small pin, usually featuring flowers, birds and insects, that is intended to be worn in a group with many other scatter pins.
Scarabs: Steatite, other stones, metals or Egyptian faience carved in the form of a scarabaeus beetle specially Scarabaeus sacer, which was worn by ancient Egyptians as an amulet of fertility, immortality and resurrection usually with an inscription cut on the flat base. The scarabs beetle being the symbol of the god of morning sun, called Khepera. The form of carving varied from well formed shaped to only a bare outlines and was frequently carried out the human head. It was used for ornaments and symbols or talismans in form of pendants or finger rings and were buried with the dead. When the carved inscription on the base is in the form of an intaglio it is used as a seal such as a finger ring seal. Later they were copied by other cultures such as Phoenicians, Greek, Etruscans, etc.
Scepter: A rod or baton borne in the hand by a sovereign as an emblem of regal or imperial authority. It was used by several cultures made of gold and sometimes decorated with animals figures such as dove, eagle or mounted the hand of justice.
Seed bead: Mass produced tiny glass or plastic beads made by slicing tubes into tiny, evenly spaced pieces. This makes them oblong in shape, rather than round, and flat on the ends. Seed beads can be strung together to make a necklace or bracelet, but are commonly used as spacers for larger beads. They can also be strung on a loom to make beaded bands and belts and curtains.
Seed jewelry: Seeds and stones of fruit used to make various article of jewelry.
Seed pearl: Very small round or occasionally baroque shaped pearl, natural or cultural that weighed less than ¼ grain. Used as gems and ornamental or jewelry articles. Mounted in some jewelry as openwork in pave setting. Finished in the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka.
Semiprecious stones: A discouraged term for all gemstones other than the so-called precious stones, which exclude all synthetic stones, paste, glass, organic materials such as coral, amber, ivory, etc. and plastics.
Setting: Setting or mounting of a diamond stone in a dop for sawing, bruting, and polishing.
Shank: The part of a ring that encircles the finger, does not include the setting.
Shapes: Shape of polished gemstone, when seen in face-up girdle position, such as round diamond, marquise, heart, oval, trap, pear, etc.
Shoulder: Shoulder - The part of a ring between the shank and the center of the setting.
Signed: The term used when a Manufacturers or Designers name or identifying mark is etched, carved, or stamped into the Jewelry.
Signet rings: A kind of flat finger ring with an engraved initial or figure, made of so-called signet or stamp seal, which is used for authenticating a document by impressing the seal of the wearer on a wax seal. When it is in form of a cylinder it is called cylinder seal and are mounted on a ring.
Silver: A soft, white, precious metallic element of group I of the Periodic System with the symbol Ag. It is an isometric mineral, ductile, malleable, capable of high polish, tarnish by exposure in the air and by contact with sulfur, thermal and electroconductivity, resistant to oxidation or corrosion. Used is jewelry, for ornaments, utility articles and coinage. Often has variable admixture of alloys; gold, copper and platinum.
Silver mounting: A general principle and identification that diamonds are not usually mounted in silver jewelry.
Silver solder: An alloy of silver, copper, and zinc used in jewelry as a solder for uniting silver components below 800 C degree.
Simulant: To simulate or imitate a natural gemstone, which is made from components that are easier, cheaper, or more convenient to manufacture. Simulated stone having superficial appearance to the true stone but differs for it either in chemical composition, structure, or physical properties. For example strass or paste used to copy diamond. Other simulants are composed materials, faience, porcelain, ceramic, plastics, metallic substances.
Single row ring: Several cut stones of the same size lined up next to each other without metal separating them.
Slide: An ornament that can be slid onto another piece of jewelry, typically a necklace.
Slide charmed bracelet: A slide bracelet is a type of modern-day charm bracelet made from stringing Victorian era watch fob charms together on a double chain - the charms can slide along the chains. When pocket watches (used by men) and nceklace watches (used by women) went out of style after wrist watches were invented, the charms on the watch chain were removed and then strung together to make bracelets. Modern imitations are made using modern-manufactured charms.
Slightly included: A grade of relative imperfection on the GIA clarity grading scale for diamonds with internal blemishes and on the surface, which are invisible to the unaided eye but are visible under 10x magnifications. Slightly included are divided into two subgrades with abbreviation SI1 and SI2, which are used by CIBJO, IDC and Scan.D.N.
Snake chain: Unlike most chains which are a series of linked rings, a snake chain is made up of round wavy metal rings joined side by side forming a flexible tube with a smooth, scaly texture like snake skin.
Soldering: The process of joining pieces of metal by using a solder metal in molten form to join surfaces. Used to make jewels or repair them.
Solid gold: A misleading term for 100% gold or pure gold.
Solitaire: A finger ring mounted with a single diamond or other stone.
Spark: In jewelry very minute gemstones that are used in jewel settings to surround large stone to enhance their brilliance.
Spinel: An isomorphous mineral of spinel group. A wide range of colors and shade of gemstone. Red-orange is named as flame-spinel, an iron-rich dark-green to black, which is known as green spinel, pleonaste or ceylonite, grass-green as chlorospinel (iron-rich), brownish-black as picotite. Galaxite is a black ferrous oxide rich spinel, blue zinc-rich as gahnospinel. Nin is local term for black spinel from Thailand. Some specimen with prefix or suffix are erroneously named as ruby or sapphire such as fine red as ruby spinel (in Roman times as ballas ruby), and balas spinel or spinel sapphire. Misnomered are orange-yellow as rubicelle, almandine, spinel. Another stone frequently misnomered as spinel such as Arizona spinel or Kandy spinel, both of which are garnet. Star spinel with 4 and 6-rayed stars are extremely rare. Cut as faceted gems in the brilliant cut, step cut, emerald cut, or mixed cut.
Spray brooch: A type of brooch, usually worn at the shoulder, which is characterized by floral themes featuring long stemmed, jeweled flowers and leaves.
Spring ring: A very common kind of clasp used for joining two ends of a necklace. The clasp itself consists of a hollow metal tube in a circle shape with a gap in the side. The hollow tube contains a small wire held in place by a spring inside the tube behind the wire. The wire can be pulled back by means of a small knob which slides along the outer edge of the circular tube. Releasing the knob allows the spring to push the wire forward closing the gap. The other end of the necklace terminates in a small ring. By using the knob on the spring ring to open the gap in the hollow circular tube, one can then place the small ring through the gap and close the wire through the ring securing it in place and closing the necklace.
Square cut: A modification of cutting a diamond or other transparent stone in the form of 4-equal sided, sharp corner and square table with narrow and long facets of step cutting. Emerald cut is an elongated form.
Squash blossom necklace: A traditional piece of Navajo jewelry based on an old and favored Spanish-Mexican ornament which was actually not a squash, but a stylized version of the pomegranate. A shape that the Spanish Conquistadors used as buttons on their trousers, and also as ornaments on their horses' bridles and saddles.
SS: SS is an abbreviation for sterling silver.
Star: A rayed figure with any number of arms in a gemstone normally 4, 6 or 12, consisting of two or more intersecting bands of light radiating from a bright center. In case of the 6 rayed star it is caused by the presence of fine parallel fibers or crystal inclusions or channels at 60 degree angle to each other. It can observed, when the stone is cut cabochon with top of the dome perpendicular to the included structure viewed from a certain direction using a strong single reflected light, which is known as epiasterism.
Step cut: A style of rectangular or 4-sided (6 or 8-sided) trap-cut with long, parallel, usually narrow facets. Favored for emeralds and diamonds and other transparent colored stones with the corners beveled and all surfaces covered by a series of rectangular or square facets or steps on the crown and pavilion, parallel to girdle. Usually on the crown there are two or three rows, and two or three rows on pavilion, this may vary, depending on the size of the stone. The table is large and the outline of such a stone can be rectangular, square, octagonal or hexagonal, step-cut bead, lozenge-shaped, oval or semi-circular, which is known as lunette. Different forms of step-cut are expressed by their outline, such as square step-cut, baguette cut, rectangular step-cut, emerald cut, cross cut, carree cut, calibre, scissors cut, etc.
Sterling silver: An alloy of 925/1000th parts or 92 ½ % silver and 7 ½ % copper. Used in jewelry.
Stickpin: A brooch consisting of decorations on one side of a long pin, held with a fitting on the other side.
Strass: A transparent, brilliant paste of flint glass with high content of lead or thallium, which causes a higher refractive index and specific gravity. Used to imitate various transparent gemstones. When colorless used to simulate diamond with addition of metallic oxides obtained colored glass for imitation colored stones. Now commercially made in Austria, France and the Czech Republic.
Stud: A button-like fastener used in jewelry to set ornamental objects on a shank, which is passed through an article of garment.
Synthetic: Artificially made substance that has the same appearance, physical properties and chemical compound as its natural counterpart mineral. Some synthetic stones have no counterpart in nature they are synthetic gemstones except if they used as an imitation for a natural stone. Many gemstones have been produced synthetically, but only a few of them are used as cut gems. To distinguish a synthetic stone from a natural stone a microscope is usually used.
SW: SW is an abbreviation for salt water pearls.

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Table - Tsavorite

Table: A large flat facet in the center at the top of the crown of a transparent gemstone or diamond. The table can be octagonal, square, oblong, etc. according to the proportion of cut stone. Table facets larger than normal are called open able.
Table cut: Probably an early symmetrical style of cutting diamond or other transparent gemstones, in which the natural points of an octahedral crystal were removed to form a large square or oblong table on the crown and similar but very smaller parallel facet on the pavilion. The remaining parts of the 8 octahedral faces were polished, therefore it called point stone. This cut was in use by the ancient cutters of India until the rose cut was introduced in the middle of 17th century. Portrait stone is a variety of table cut.
Tarnish: A thin film of color that is formed on the exposed surface of a mineral or ore specially on metallic mineral, due to corrosion resulting from exposure to atmospheric actions such as copper bearing or silver bearing material.
Tennis bracelet: A bracelet made up of individually set gemstones of uniform size and color linked together like a chain so it is somewhat flexible.
Tiara: Usually a piece of curved or semi-circular head ornament, coronet worn by women on the hair, which is encrusted with gems diamonds and other stones. The original was a head dress worn by ancient Persians.
Tiffany setting: A style of setting a transparent solitaire gemstone or diamond in a finger ring with six high prong head (frequently four prong) generally round in shape.
Tin: A soft, silvery-white, malleable, ductile metallic element in the group IV of the Periodic System with the symbol Sn. Existing in 3 allotropic form. It is unaffected by air and water.
Tinted gold: The surface of objects made of gold with different hue on a certain part of an article, which is made of gold alloy or copper.
Tinting: To improve the color and brilliance of certain gemstone by backing or painting the facets of the pavilion. For example yellowish diamond is usually tinted with a violet dye. Often tinted stones are mounted in a closed setting.
Titanium: A silvery-white, malleable, ductile, metallic element of the Periodic System with the symbol Ti, resembling iron. One of the 8 elements responsible for color in minerals and gemstones such as sapphire.
Toggle clasp: A toggle clasp consists of a ring on one end of a necklace or bracelet and a short bar on the other end. The bar slides through the ring to keep it closed.
Topaz: It makes excellent mineral specimens because of its high lustre, attractive colours, and well formed crystal. A distinctive feature of topaz is its perfect, easy cleavage. This requires careful handling when stones are cut and polished, since specimens may split or develop internal cracks. The clear or pink, blue, and hony-yellow color varities of topaz, are especially valued. The most sought after and expensive colours are called :"imperial topaz". It is a birthstone for November.
Torsade: A necklace formed by many stands of beads; sometimes the beads include many different sizes.
Translucent: Translucent materials allow light to pass through them, but the light is diffused (scattered). Some translucent stones include moonstones, opals, and carnelian. Lucite and other plastics can also be translucent.
Transparent: Transparent materials allow light to pass through them without diffusing (scattering) the light. Some translucent stones include diamond, zircon, emerald, rock crystal, and ruby. Plastics like lucite can also be transparent. In the confetti lucite bangle above, the glitter within the lucite is visible.
Treatment: Enhancement stained stone, heat-treated stone, coated stone, irradiation, X-rays.
Trembler: A trembler is a piece of jewelry that has a part (or parts) set on a spring; the spring-set parts move as the wearer of the jewelry moves.
Triangle: A plane figure bounded by 3-sided rectilinear.
Trillion cut: It consists of 24 facets and a table on the crown and 12 facets on the pavilion. It has a shield-shaped outline with rounded es for additional weight retention.
Troy weight: Precious metals (like gold, platinum, and silver) are measured in troy weight, which has units of pennyweights, ounces, and pounds. Troy ounces and pounds are different from everyday US measures.
Tsavorite: A transparent, bright green to emerald green variety of glossular garnet colored by chromium and vanadium from Tanzania, and Kenya, Africa.

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Ultrasonic cleaning - Uvarovite

Ultrasonic cleaning: A device for cleaning dirt and other foreign particles from gemstones and jewelry articles by subjecting them to ultrasonic vibrations immersed in water or other solvent. The articles must be free of stress flaws. Glass lenses and other bodies can be polished by this method. An ultrasonic bath consisting of a piezoelectric transducer and a container for fluids, which works at frequencies in range of 50,000 to 100,000 Hz. Beyond the limits of hearing of the human ear.
Uvarovite: Rare emerald-green garnet composed of chromium lime. Named from the Russian Count Uvaroff. As drusy has come into popular use in jewellery. The stone is cut en cabochon and used in pendants, earrings and pins.

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Variegated gold - Very very slightly included

Variegated gold: Different color of gold alloys used in jewelry as decoration.
Varieties of gems: Species of gems are divided into varieties. Varieties are based on color, color distribution, diaphaneity, and optical properties.
Vermeil: Any varnish applied to a gilded surface of a gem or other material to give luster such as gilded copper, gold, silver, etc.
Very slightly included: A grade of relative imperfection on the GIA clarity-grading scale for diamonds with i

Jewellery glossary

Abbreviations and definitions of jewellery terms

Aciding - Aurora Borealis

Baguette - Byzantine chain

Cable chain - Cut

Damascene - Dyeing

Earring jackets - Eye-clean

Facet - Full cut diamond

Garnets - Gypsy setting

Hair jewelry - Hue

Imperfect - Irradiation

Jabot pin - Jump ring

Karat - Key color

Marquise - Mourning jewelry

Laser - Luster

Nacre - Noble

Oiling - Oxygen

Palladium - PWT

Quartz - Quatra-foil

Radiant cut - Russian gold finish

Safety catch - SW

Table - Tsavorite

Ultrasonic cleaning - Uvarovite

Variegated gold - Very very slightly included