Amber was once given to their relatives to bring healing, happiness and longevity to the wearer, the Roman gladiators adorned with weapons and shields to amber and I thought it would protect them in the battle, legend has it that amber was the tears of the gods of gold, which fell into the sea and solidified. Today, designers use amber jewelry to unique and exquisite pieces from this interesting stone.
Amber occurs in a variety of different colors, not just the usual yellow-orange-brown that you associate with the amber itself, this can vary from a whitish or pale yellow or golden to dark brown and almost black. The blue, more rarely include amber, red, orange, green and orange (known as cherry amber), are rare and highly sort after. When the amber used in jewelry, is usually clear yellow, brown or amber.
Although the yellow gem is considered, it is not crystalline minerals, amber is a totally organic material derived from fossilized pine resin in extinct species. Sticky resin that oozed out of the pines are often caught small insects such as spiders, ants, bees, butterflies and small, other plant material, and other small objects are trapped in the resin flowing on the road, and became fossilized a long period of time, 10 and 100 million years ago. The trees and their resins became covered with sediment and millions of years of the resin hardens into amber as we know it as today.
For thousands of years amber has been done in all kinds of jewelry, but now has become a value above all for the amazing number of fossils trapped inside. (DNA) can be extracted from the trapped and fossilized organisms compared to their counterparts today. "Remember in Jurassic Park movement."
Although deposits of amber in the world, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Alaska, Canada, Burma and Borneo. The yellow comes more valuable in the Baltic Sea region.
Amber is an amazing story, in 1712 culminated in the use of the amber room in the entire group of amber panels of King Frederick I, who handed it to his son on his deathbed in 1716. This was presented to Tsar Peter the Great to commemorate the Prussian alliance with Russia. Wall Panels, then sent to St. Petersburg, where they packed up and was not seen for 24 years. It was not until Catherine the Great, that yellow panels appeared to back the so-called yellow room, then the main work was the jewel of art ever created. It was finally established in the Palace of Tsarskoe Selo in 1770.
It covers 55 square meters and has more than six tons of amber and many other precious stones embedded in the work of art, diamonds, rubies are, emeralds, onyx, jade to name a few, and the sheet of pure gold, it was then known as the eighth wonder of the world.
The Amber Room was abducted by the army of German occupation in World War II. The Nazis stripped the wall panels, packed in boxes and sent to Germany, and like other works of art treasures looted by Hitler in World War II, they disappeared and were never seen again .
Amber is mainly based on the value of the process, therefore, amber jewelry is classified by its size and beauty as well as the presence and type of inclusions. It measures 2-3 on the Mohs scale of hardness, which means that it is a fairly soft stone. Amber should not be placed in an ultra sonic jewelry cleaner, because it can damage the stone and will keep a bag just to avoid chipping the jewelry much more difficult.
As a jewelry designer, I personally love the yellow, which is rich in history and the fact that every piece of jewelry is unique and no two pieces are exactly the same. So the next time you come in this unique stone is a good look, you might fall in love too.
