Incidentally 60 of the largest gemstones including sapphires had been sourced from this small island in the indian ocean.
Blue sapphire ceylon star corundum.
The term star sapphire encompasses all colors of star corundum except red which is called star ruby.
The appeal of blue sapphires.
Star corundum can be red pink blue black gray brown purple or yellow practically every color under the sun.
Metaphysically the star sapphire imbues one with a high level of discernment especially when it comes to others intentions and helps one to focus their thoughts 1 2 3 in addition to the color properties for each sapphire.
The star effect is called asterism.
Other exceptional blue sapphires are giant of the orient of 466 carats found back in 1902 and the logan blue sapphire the impeccable of its kind has stunning weight of 423 carats.
Important stones from sri lanka.
Stars are usually made up of 2 3 or 6 intersecting bands resulting in 4 6 or 12 rays.
The 423 ct logan blue sapphire and the 138 ct rosser reeves star ruby both housed in the smithsonian institution s national museum of natural history.
The 466 ct blue giant of the orient supposedly mined from the ratnapura area in 1907.
Blue sapphires like being a variety of corundum family shares the same traits of hardness of 9 mohs scale and the specific gravity of 4.
Besides blue sapphire and ruby the corundum family also includes so called fancy sapphires they come in violet green yellow orange pink purple and intermediate hues.
Just remember that.
Naturally some colors of star corundum are valued more highly than others.
While sapphires account for 85 of the 130 precious gemstone varieties mined in sri lanka none of the ceylon sapphire varieties is as popular around the world as ceylon blue sapphires gem corundum that displays a celebrated shade of blue comparable with the hue of cornflowers.
Some stones exhibit the phenomenon known as color change most often going from blue in daylight or fluorescent lighting to purple under incandescent light.
In this post you will read about the most celebrated blue sapphire from sri lanka.
Itâ s caused by reflections from tiny needle like inclusions that are oriented in several specific directions.
An ideal blue ceylon sapphire asscher cut with lovely clarity.
So although corundum occurs in a wide range of colors it can be named only ruby or sapphire.
Sri lanka has long celebrated as the main source for large blue sapphires and star corundum that are above the size of 100 carats.