Popular Silver Jewelry at the JOGS Tucson Gem Show

We meet up with AF Designs at JOGS Tucson Gem and Jewelry Winter Show 2012 to check out what is trending in the jewelry fashion industry this season. Visit us at: www.jogsshow.com The JOGS Tucson Gem and Jewelry Show is known world-wide for its variety of international dealers, and as one of the largest shows at the annual TGMS in Arizona. Every year, JOGS hosts dealers both of finished jewelry from around the world, as well as the manufacturers and producers of every sort of gem and precious stone the world has to offer. At JOGS Southwestern Pavilion, you can find many dealers, including Sunwest Silver offering the widest variety of turquoise available anywhere; Nashaf Khalaf with high-end signed Native American pieces both old and new, and many more silver and turquoise dealers as well. A brief stroll finds you at JOGS Amber Pavilion. Here the organizers work closely with the American Amber Association, Amber Man, and the top dealers of Europe to offer the absolute broadest selection of Amber available anywhere. Each year the success of the shows ensures that Poland Russia and Lithuania bring their best honeyed offerings to JOGS Tucson . With Silver from Indonesia and Mexico, and a dizzying array of rough and cut stones, as well as beads from Africa, Brazil and Thailand; JOGS presents the professional jeweler and the committed hobbyist with everything they need to create works of art. You'll find the best--Straight from the mines, at the JOGS Tucson Gem and Jewelry Show!

Smithsonian Handbooks: Gemstones

From Wikipedia: A gemstone or gem (also called a precious or semi-precious stone, a fine gem, or jewel) is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments.[1][2] However certain rocks, (such as lapis lazuli) and organic materials (such as amber or jet) are not minerals, but are still used for jewelry, and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone. Apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity until the 19th century engraved gems and hardstone carvings such as cups were major luxury art forms; the carvings of Carl Fabergé were the last significant works in this tradition. ~~~ The traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the Ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious stones; similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern usage the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald, with all other gemstones being semi-precious.[3] This distinction reflects the rarity of the respective stones in ancient times, as well as their quality: all are translucent with fine color in their purest forms, except for the colorless diamond, and very hard,[4] with hardnesses of 8-10 on the Mohs scale. Other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. The traditional distinction does not necessarily reflect modern values, for example, while garnets are relatively inexpensive, a green garnet called Tsavorite, can be far more valuable than a mid-quality emerald.[5] Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone. Use of the terms 'precious' and 'semi-precious' in a commercial context is, arguably, misleading in that it deceptively implies certain stones are intrinsically...