Pantone Colors in Gemstones Spring/Summer 2015--Part II

We continue to explore the Pantone color palette in gemstones.

For the color Lucite Green, you can't do better than some yummy gem quality chrysoprase. High quality chrysoprase is difficult to find, but it has a glow to it that can only compare to the finest jade. High quality material will have a silkiness to it, almost lit with an internal luminosity and will be translucent when held up to the light. Here is an example of gemmy green chrysoprase.

Green chrysoprase

If you want an excellent match for the Pantone color of Scuba Blue, then gemmy blue or blue-green chrysoprase is an excellent choice. This is one of my personal favorites because it has such a lovely glowing blue color to it.

Blue-green chrysoprase

The two stones above without the light shining through them

The colors Treetop and Woodbine are shades of woods and forests, complementary to each other. Treetop is a lush saturated green that will remind you of the middle of summer when the trees are in their prime. Woodbine has a warmer olive undertone, which is a color more prevalent in grass and trees towards the end of summer.

A woodbine color in nephrite jade

The green jades are good colors to match for these two. North America, primarily the U.S. and Canada, have many fine jades. Jade has two classifications: jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite is preferred by many, but I've seen many prime examples of nephrite. Nephrite is quite hard compared to jadeite, and because jadeite is softer, it is the preferred material for carvings. Both are tough and wear well in any variety of jewelry or men's accessories. Jadeite is frequently more translucent than nephrite, however as I've said, I've seen outstanding examples of nephrite that will rival that of jadeite. For a ring or cufflinks, which tend to get a lot of wear from abrasion, nephrite jade will hold up better than jadeite.

Woodbine color and treetop color in jade

Strawberry Ice is a lovely color of pink, the rosy hue of a sunset on the evening clouds. There are lots of pink stones. Some you might consider are pink tourmaline, thulite, rhodonite, rhodochrosite and rose quartz.

Thulite--pink on pink

Rhodonite, ranging from a pink with a warm undertone, to cotton candy pink with black inclusions

Rhodochrosite with lacy frills of lighter pink

Or go crazy and choose complementary colors of green and pink to go together, like these examples or pink and green jade, or green jade and rose quartz.

Pink and green jade--thulite and nephrite

Apple green jade with rose quartz

The perky purple of Lavender Herb has some excellent choices with the lighter colors of amethyst. Because they are lighter in color than the royal purple color, they have a higher refractive index than the deeper hues, which means the light can enter and exit easier, making for a lively sparkle. Amethyst is tough and is a good choice for all types of jewelry. Although if you have a very large stone, you want to be careful not to chip it. Amethyst is in the quartz family, which can cleave much like glass. So if the stone is large, and it's in a ring, you want a substantial amount of metal enclosing it. Smaller stones are less likely to chip.


Another of my favorite lavender stones is a schisty lepidolite. Schist means that it has a crystalline structure that is readily visible within the stone. If you've ever seen stones with specks of mica in it, this is schist. There are bright sparkles that wink at you like glitter is embedded inside. Lepidolite is something rockhounds get excited about because it is such a pretty mineral. Here are some excellent examples below, but beware that lepidolite is fairly heavy, so unless the earrings are designed well with this in mind, you might get earrings that are too heavy to wear for extended periods of time.

Lepidolite

Charoite is darker than lavender overall, but it has lovely silky swirls of lavender scattered throughout the darker purple. Sometimes there will be some black or brown present in the stone too.

Charorite

Don't forget sapphires! Most people think sapphires are only blue, but the truth is, sapphires come in a wide range of colors--green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and like these examples of fancy sapphire colors in lavender.

Fancy color sapphires in lavender

When you need a bright and lively color for the Pantone Tangerine, Oregon sunstone is really a shining example. It tends to have some schist in it, so it has those sparkles that wink at you, and it has a lovely saturated deep orange color.

Eye popping tangerine color in sunstones

The Pantone website can give you more descriptions and also give you ideas for complementary colors to round out your wardrobe.

I hope you've enjoyed the exploration of stones for a fashion palette!