We’re all familiar with our birthstones, and the true jewelry enthusiasts among us can probably name a few other favorite gems off the tops of their heads. But there’s a wide world of gemstones out there, many of which you may not have heard of.

With summer being the perfect season for colorful attire, we wanted to learn more about Mother Nature’s most gorgeous gifts. We caught up with Edmonds’ favorite jeweler, Andy Cline — owner of Cline Jewelers — to learn about some of the lesser-known gemstones you should be adding to your jewelry collection.

Rare Sapphires

While everyone’s heard of the blue sapphire, not many people are familiar with its less common color variants. Pink sapphires get their color from the mineral chromium. Some people use them as a more affordable alternative to pink diamonds. The more chromium it contains, the more vibrant its pink hue. Thanks to their romantic color, pink sapphires are thought to symbolize a particularly intense and passionate love. They were once considered extremely rare, but new mines in Madagascar have made pink sapphires more widely available.

Purple sapphires offer a cool-toned beauty similar to that of their blue sapphire cousins, but with a bit of a twist. It takes just the right combination of chromium, iron and titanium to make a sapphire purple. Depending on the proportion of each mineral, a purple sapphire may be anywhere from a lighter lilac to a bluish-purple (like the stone pictured below) to a deeper violet hue. Like pink sapphires, they are typically found in Madagascar.

There are even more sapphires out there to discover. Two other varieties you can find at Cline jewelers are Montana and Padparascha sapphires. Montana sapphires, as their name implies, can be found in Montana and are typically collected from rivers. They can vary in color but are often a deep blue-green hue. Padparascha sapphires are a rare variety of sapphire with a pinkish-orange color. Their name comes from the Sinhalese word for “lotus flower.”

“One thing we love about sapphires is that they make wonderful center stones for alternative engagement rings,” says Cline. If you’re interested in a colorful gemstone engagement ring rather than the standard diamond ring, start exploring your many, multicolored sapphire options. You’re sure to find a color that speaks to you.

Tourmaline

If you’re not familiar with tourmaline, you’re in for a treat. Tourmaline is the modern alternative birthstone for October (a counterpart to the traditional opal). Its name is derived from the Sinhalese word “toramali” which means “stone of mixed colors.” That’s fitting, because tourmaline has one of the widest color ranges of any gem in the world. It can be found in hues like black, white, pink, orange, red, yellow, purple and green.

Some variants of tourmaline are multicolored, such as watermelon tourmaline, which is an aesthetically pleasing mix of green and pink. Due to its broad range of colors, tourmaline has been confused for other gems throughout history. One of the “rubies” in the Russian crown jewels is, in fact, a red tourmaline, and in the 1500s a Spanish explorer brought back “emeralds” from Brazil that turned out to be–you guessed it–green tourmaline. It took until the 1800s for scientists to recognize tourmaline as a distinct mineral.

Tourmaline is abundant in Brazil, especially in the Minas Gerais region. It’s also mined in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and California. California is an especially prime spot to find watermelon tourmaline. “Tourmaline is a lesser known gem, which is a shame, because there’s a tourmaline out there for everyone” says Andy Cline. “When we’re able to get it in the shop, it’s really exciting for us. We try to create something truly unique with it and show off its beauty to anyone who might be unfamiliar.”

Zircon

Zircon is often confused with cubic zirconia. In truth, they couldn’t be more different. For starters, cubic zirconia is synthetic (i.e. man-made) while zircon is not. Cubic zirconia was created to mimic the appearance of a diamond. You probably already know that many imitations of “diamond” jewelry actually use cubic zirconia. Since it’s synthetic, cubic zirconia can be made to appear nearly flawless. Different colors can be added during the creation process to resemble other gems, such as sapphires or rubies. Unlike zircon, it is infinitely abundant and therefore very cheap to produce and purchase.

Zircon, on the other hand, is a natural mineral formed within the earth. In fact, zircon is one of the oldest minerals on the planet. One stone found in Australia was determined through gemological testing to be 4.375 billion years old. It acquires its color naturally during the formation process, and comes in a wide variety of hues including shades of yellow, green, orange, red and brown. The most popular zircon color is blue. Zircon is known for its brilliance and flashes of multicolored light. It is one of the alternative birthstones for December, alongside tanzanite (the traditional September birthstone is turquoise).

“Zircon was once an extremely popular gem, especially in the late 1800s. You see a lot of it in antique jewelry,” says Andy Cline. “In modern times, it’s not quite as well known. We hope to change that! Zircon has a very intense and beautiful sparkle to it. People who get a chance to see it automatically fall in love with it.”

Explore the Wide World Of Gemstones at Cline Jewelers in Edmonds

Now that you know more about these rare gemstones, it’s time to add a splash of color to your wardrobe with gemstone jewelry. The upcoming Dery Gem Show at Cline Jewelers is a great place to start! On Sept. 24 and 25, join the Cline Jewelers team and world-renowned gem-hunters Roger and Ginger Dery for a dazzling show of colored gemstones from around the globe. Explore familiar favorite gems and stones you’ve never seen before, and hopefully, find a beautiful gem to incorporate in your own special piece of jewelry.

Please call Cline Jewelers at 425-673-9090 to RSVP.