Gemstone Beads

Gemstones are hard pieces of attractive naturally-occurring materials that are cut and polished to be used in jewelry making and other adornments. Loose gemstones are generally referred to as gemstone beads used for making precious and semi precious jewelry. Most of the gemstone beads are hardened minerals. However, there are many gemstone beads that are made of rocks or other organic materials and are not minerals. Examples of such gemstones include lapis-lazuli /lapis-lazuli-beads.html which is made from a rock and amber beads that originate from organic materials. Further, most of the gemstone beads are hard but there are certain soft minerals too which are used for making gemstones due to their aesthetic value. Amber beads again are a very soft kind of gemstone beads.

Types of Gemstones

Gemstones are divided into two major categories based mainly on the value assigned to the particular gemstone beads. The two types of gemstones are precious gemstone beads and semi precious gemstone beads. /semi-precious-beads.html

Precious Gemstones

There are four precious gemstones- Diamond, Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire. These gemstone beads are precious from both- historical and contemporary perspective of gemology. The four major gemstones are considered precious beads due to their historical importance, rarity and their present market value. Three from among the four precious gemstone beads- Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire- have colors that identify with the natural primary colors namely red, green and blue respectively. Diamond- the fourth precious gemstone is colorless but has a shine that sets it class apart. It is also the hardest of all gemstones (hardness of 8-10 on the Mohs scale.) It is perhaps for the reason of their much higher value that the precious gemstones are rarely traded in as wholesale gemstone by the gemstone beads suppliers. The precious gemstones are usually traded on basis of single piece or on their cumulative value after studding them into gemstone jewelry.

Semi Precious Gemstones

Semiprecious Gemstones make up the largest percentage of all gemstones. There is a great range of semi precious gemstone beads. All of these semi precious gemstone beads vary in value, color, quantity, and popularity. Although almost all of the semi precious gemstone beads are less expensive than precious gemstones, there are many which are rarer than the precious gemstones. Examples of such semi precious gemstone beads that are less expensive than precious gemstones in spite of being rare include alexandrite and spinel beads /spinel-beads.html among others. Due to their being lesser expensive, semi precious gemstone beads are produced on a wholesale basis by the gemstone beads manufacturers and also traded as wholesale gemstone beads by the gemstone beads suppliers

Featured Gemstone Beads Product Catalog

Amethyst Gemstone Beads Ametrine Gemstone Aquamarine Gemstone Amazonite Andalusite Gemstone Beads Apatite Gemstone Bead These are the sample gemstone beads. If you have requirement of any types of gemstone beads in bulk, request a quote and receive quick response. Send Your Requirement

Uses of Gemstones

Since very ancient times, gemstones have been used by mankind as a symbol of wealth and status as well as to protect against harm, ward of evil, apart from healing ailments. Ancient jewelry beads were usually gemstones only. Till today, the main use of gemstones remains that of making jewelery. There are certain industrial uses of gemstones too. For example, diamonds- the hardest of all substances- are used for making industrial cutting tools to cut concrete, steel, glass and other metals.

One more interesting use of gemstone beads is as birth stones for bringing luck to the wearer. According to Vedic astrology, gemstone beads are associated with astrological signs ruled by the nine planets- diamond (Venus), ruby (Sun), emerald (Mercury), topaz or yellow sapphire (Jupiter), hessonite garnet (Rahu), blue sapphire (Saturn), pearl (Moon), red coral (Mars), and cat's-eye chrysoberyl (Ketú). On the basis of this classification, Indian Vedic astrology prescribes birth stones for all zodiac signs /articles/birth-stones-zodiac-signs.html to ward of evil and bring luck to the wearer.

Other use of gemstones include healing ailments. It is believed since ancient times that wearing gemstones can have positive effects on one's health. The reason given is that the light enters these translucent gemstones and changes its wavelength. When different wavelengths of light interact with skin and blood, they have different health effects on the wearer of these gemstone beads jewelry.