According to the classification, the earth's crust consists mainly of minerals and rocks. Minerals include solid formations, which most often have a crystalline structure, homogeneous in composition. Rocks are solid, mixed massifs or mineral mixtures.
Many beautiful rocks and minerals are used by jewelers to make various jewelry, decor items, etc. Conventionally, they are divided into three large groups - ornamental stones, precious and semi-precious.
The second and third groups will not be considered in detail in this article. Let's just say that precious stones or, as they are also called, gems, are expensive jewelry minerals. Their high cost is due largely to the fact that they are quite rare in nature and have some out of the ordinary unique qualities. Semi-precious is a rather arbitrary concept. In fact, this is a large group that combines not too valuable gems and ornamental rocks of very high quality.
The ornamental stone can be either transparent or opaque. At the same time, it should be distinguished by color, pattern, texture orhave some other feature. From precious ornamental stones are distinguished by a greater prevalence in nature, less "nobility" and other similar factors. Unlike gems, this is most often not a mineral, but a rock.
For ornamental stones, for example, stones such as malachite, serpentine, jasper, turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc. can be attributed. All of them stand out strongly from the bulk of the rocks. Ornamental stone malachite can have a wide variety of "drawings" and "ornaments", the elements of which are united by a bright, very rich green color of various tones. The coil also has a nice green color, but less bright.
The color of lapis lazuli can already be determined from its name - bright blue, the same as blue turquoise. Separately, one can single out such an ornamental stone as jasper. It is quite widespread in nature, and not all of its varieties are used in jewelry. This is a rock that includes several minerals that are different both in chemical composition and in color and texture.
The most beautiful and valuable species of all jasper experts rightly consider Orskaya. Most often, its color varies from dark cherry to pale pink. In addition, minor inclusions of other colors are often present. Minerals that make up a piece of Orsk jasper, beautiful in itself, sometimes also form bizarre patterns that surprisingly realistically resemble natural landscapes. Therefore, this ornamental stone is also called "landscape".
Exceptconsidered, any other beautiful rock or mineral can be used to make jewelry. Ornamental stone is a very broad concept, including a huge variety of solid formations of the earth's crust.
Who would not agree to decorate themselves or decorate their home with items made from natural, original and pretty material. Therefore, jewelry, for the manufacture of which an ornamental stone was used, has always been used, is being used in our time and will be very popular in the future.
