View allAll Photos Tagged Labradorite
"Gypsy" Teardrop Labradorite and oxidized copper Necklace
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39384785
This beautiful necklace is filled with mystery with a gorgeous teardrop shaped labradorite. It is paired with oxidized copper that has been hammered and wrapped around the stone. It has a forged swirl chain that measures approx. 16.5" long.
I encased this pretty polished labradorite cabochon in black polymer clay and touched it with a bit of gold metallic paint.
Labradorite
9 x 5 cm
No 19 in front is Arsenic
Brosso Mine, Cálea, Léssolo, Canavese district, Torino Province, Piedmont, Italy
Purchased from www.macminerals.com/
This labradorite has tiny crystals that are oriented at precise angles. They are very shiny, so the labradorite lights up with sparkles at one lighting angle, and shines the usual blue at another lighting angle, with the tiny crystals in silhouette as shown here. I'm thinking that they're hematite...
A custom version of my Nothing But Flowers Ring. This one sports a 3mm moonstone cab, a 5mm labradorite cab, and a faceted 6mm rainbow topaz set within a flower border. Each of the stones spins around the ring and can be rearranged. It is 3/8" wide.
Inspired by Grace of the Moon Goddess. I prefer labradorite to moonstone, and less bling too.
Almost every single stone has significant fire. This is just luscious
This is the back side of a Labradorite free form cabochon gemstone that I picked up years ago. I didn't see the exact ratio but this is somewhere between a 1:2 and 1:1.4 ratio in terms of how close I could get to the gem with my macro lens.
Labradorite has an iridescent optical effect (oriented in one direction) sometimes referred to as labradorescence. The iridescent colors are normally shades of blue, blue-green, and yellow.
A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5700 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.
The silicates are the most abundant and chemically complex group of minerals. All silicates have silica as the basis for their chemistry. "Silica" refers to SiO2 chemistry. The fundamental molecular unit of silica is one small silicon atom surrounded by four large oxygen atoms in the shape of a triangular pyramid - this is the silica tetrahedron - SiO4. Each oxygen atom is shared by two silicon atoms, so only half of the four oxygens "belong" to each silicon. The resulting formula for silica is thus SiO2, not SiO4.
The simplest & most abundant silicate mineral in the Earth's crust is quartz (SiO2). All other silicates have silica + impurities. Many silicates have a significant percentage of aluminum (the aluminosilicates).
Feldspar is a group of common silicate minerals. Feldspars are silicate minerals having one-fourth of all the silicons in SiO2 replaced by aluminum (Si4O8 to (Si3Al)O8). When this happens, the (Si3Al)O8 has a -1 electric charge. The charge is satisfied by the addition of one or more metals. The (Si3Al)O8- structure has relatively large holes, and the only metals that tend to stay in these holes are: K (potassium), Na (sodium), Ca (calcium), Cs (cesium), Ba (barium), Sr (strontium), and Pb (lead). Of these, K & Na & Ca are the most common metals that enter the matrix. Sometimes, several different metals enter the structure, resulting in "garbage can minerals".
Chemical analyses of feldspars show that they range in composition from K-feldspar to Na-feldspar and from Na-feldspar to Ca-feldspar. Mineralogists have thus established two "families" of feldspars. There is no chemical gradient between K-feldspar and Ca-feldspar.
The sodium- and calcium-feldspars are called plagioclase ("plag" for short). Six different mineral names are available for the plagioclase feldspars: albite, oligoclase, andesine, labradorite, bytownite, and anorthite. Albite is ~pure sodium feldspar (NaAlSi3O8) and anorthite is ~pure calcium feldspar (CaAl2Si2O8). The other mentioned minerals are plagioclase feldspars having a mix of sodium and calcium. The pure end-members are whitish-colored. The plagioclase feldspars having a mix of sodium and calcium tend to be light gray to dark gray to mottled gray. Some have a spectacular play of color.
Seen here is a polished piece of labradorite plagioclase showing iridescent colors. This property is called labradorescence. Gem-quality samples are called spectrolite.
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Photo gallery of albite:
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=96
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Photo gallery of oligoclase:
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=2976
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Photo gallery of andesine:
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=220
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Photo gallery of labradorite:
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=2308
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Photo gallery of bytownite:
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=815
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Photo gallery of anorthite: