YOUR STORY - Gemstone spinel

Spinel is a usually red-coloured gemstone. Although red is the most common colour, it is not the only colour. Spinel is also common in yellow, violet, black or even colourless. The gemstone may be founded in Burma and Sri Lanka firstly, but is nowadays discovered all over the world, including the Netherlands.

Orgin

The discovery of the first spinel is hard to tell. People often mix spinel up with other gemstones. This however ended in the second half of the 18th century. The red spinel was for example mistaken by a ruby and was therefore used in many crown jewellery. This is the same with the blue spinel. Because of this past confusion, we now assume spinels to be red. The name originates from 'spinos', Greek for spark or 'spinella' meaning thorn in Latin.

Symbol

People believe in a rejuvenating and renewing spinel effect and refers therefore to the stone of immortality. The gemstone offers new perspectives and gives strength and courage in difficult situations. It also reduces stress and anxiety.

Care

The hard gemstone spinel has a score of 8/10 on the Mohs scale. This score tells us that there are many safe methods safe for cleaning spinel. Safe things to use are steam cleaners, ultrasonic machines as well as cleaning with soap and water are all safe.

Be careful since spinel can change color when it undergoes heat treatment though. It is possible to improve the apparent clarity using a fracture treament. The gemstone rarely gets this treatment but can affect the ability with cleaning. After the treatment,  we recommend warm water and mild soap as the other methods may cause additional fractures.

Would you like to buy such a beautiful spinel? One of our designers, De Parme Design uses these gemstones in their jewellery, click here for jewellery.