Considered as the powerful shadows of the brilliant coloured gemstones, the Black Stones are no longer kept in oblivion. Much like their colourful siblings, black gemstones too have a respectable fan-following. There are many black gemstones used in jewellery and healing, but we present you a list of those featuring in almost every charmer’s wish list.
Black Diamond
Heard about the 33.75-carat Amsterdam Diamond? Or the 312-odd carat the Spirit of de Grisogon! These are black gems.
Diamonds are available in almost every colour known to mankind. And yes, black is one of them. Though rare, black diamonds actually look like the other allotrope of carbon, the graphite. Black diamonds are actually called “Carbonado” and are tougher than the regular diamonds! It consists of traces of diamond, graphite and non-crystalline carbon.
Most geologists believe that carbonado diamonds are actually extra-terrestrialin nature dating back to 3.8 million years of space travel.For instance, Carbonado do Sergio has a meteoritic origin.
Black Opal
A fascinating variety of opal, Black Opals earned so much popularity that New South Wales- Australia proclaimed it as the official state gemstone! NSW is the world’s largest producer of Black Opals. Due to the small traces of iron oxide and amorphous carbon, some opals exhibit a unique trail of black. Black Opal set in bezel ring is considered as a protection from the evil forces.
The Halley's Comet Opal, a 1982-carat Black Opal is world’s largest uncut gemstone, priced at $1.2 million.
Black Beryl
Beryl is pretty common in nature, but when they appear in black forms they enter the list of rare gemstones. The black shade appears due to the insertion of microscopic black spinel impurities. They often appear as elongated prisms turning the transparent and clear beryl into greyish. The black opals are distinctly identified by their asterism effect, found in cabochon cuts.
Black Sapphire
Sapphire is a legendary gemstone particularly recognised from its electrifying blue colour. But the black varieties are even more spectacular in their appearance. Symbolised as the stone of wisdom and confidence, Black Sapphire contains significant amount of aluminium oxide arranged in prismatic tubular and rhombohedral crystalline structure giving them their conspicuous star-shaped optical effect.
Black Sapphires are very well received in the Arabia and Roman culture as an embodiment of fertility and love.
Black Star of Queensland is a 733-carat black star-sapphire discovered accidentally in 1960 in Queensland, Australia.
Black Garnet
Also known as Black Andradite, it is absolutely hard to imagine that a flourishing red gemstone will also appear in a metamorphic form in black colour! The black garnets are actually a combination of three distinct crystalline structures- pyrope, andradite and melanite. A deeply spiritual gemstone, Black Garnet exhibits clairvoyant properties and heals the negative energy circles.
Other prominent black gemstones in the family that are equally sparkling and popular are Black Obsidian, Smokey Quartz, Black Tourmaline, Onyx and Serendibite.
So next time you shop for gemstones, don’t forget to pay special attention to the black family.
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