All Gemstones
Meaning behind the letters of our Gemstones. Here at NEED4BEAD, we have the largest selection of natural gemstone beads in Australia. If you live in South Australia, we promise you will not be disappointed with our collection of gemstone beads. We source our gemstone beads from all around the world.
(ASBL) - Assembled: Products made of multiple layers or combinations of manufactured and/or natural materials joined together. Example: opal triplets.
(B) - Bleaching: Using chemical agents to lighten or remove a gemstone's color.
(C) - Coating: Surface treatments to improve appearance, provide colour or other special effects.
(D) - Dyeing: The introduction of coloring matter into a gemstone to give it new colour, intinsify present colour or improve color uniformity.
(E) - Enhanced: This indicates that this type of gemstone is routinely enhanced. Since many treatments are difficult or impractical to prove definitively, the approach taken in our printed materials and invoices is to assume, unless otherwise indicated, that such treatment has been done to the particular gemstone material being described. If the specific type of treatment is known, that treatment symbol will be stated, rather than the "E" symbol.
(F) - Filling: As a by-product of heat treatment, this is the presence of solidified borax or similar colourless substances visible under properly illuminated 10x magnification.
(G) - Gamma/Electron Irradiation: The use of gamma and/or electron bombardment to alter a gemstone's color, which may be followed by a heating process.
(H) - Heating: The use of heat to effect the desired alteration of colour, clarity and/or phenomena.
(I) - Infilling: The intentional filling of surface-breaking cavities or fractures usually with glass, plastic, or opticon with hardeners and/or hardened foreign substances to improve durability, appearance and/or add weight.
(IMIT) - Imitation: Manmade products, fabricated in such materials as glass, ceramic or plastic designed to imitate or resemble the appearance, but not duplicate the characteristic properties, of a natural gemstone.
(L) - Lasering: The use of lasers and chemicals to reach and alter inclusions in diamonds.
(MM) - Manmade: Fabricated products.
(N) - Natural: Stones which are not currently known to be enhanced.
(O) - Oiling/Resin Infusion: The intentional filling of surface-breaking cavities with a colourless oil, wax, natural resin or unhardened manmade material into fissured transparent/translucent gemstones to improve appearance.
(R)- Irradiation: The use of neutrons, requiring an environmental safety release from the NRC, with the combination of any other bombardment and/or heat treatment to alter a gem's color.
(S) - Stabilization (Bonding): The use of a colourless bonding agent (commonly plastic) with a porous gemstone to give it durability and improve its appearance.
(SYN) - Synthetic: These are manmade materials that have essentially the same optical, physical and chemical properties as a naturally occurring counterpart.
(U) - Diffusion: The use of chemicals in conjunction with high temperatures to produce colour and/or asterism (star-like) inclusions.
(W) - Waxing/Oiling: The impregnation of a colourless wax, paraffin and/or oil in porous opaque gemstones to improve their appearance.
