The Bling Blog - Gemstones and Fine Jewelry

Agatized fossilized coral, more commonly called just "Fossilized Coral", has so far only been found only in Indonesia. The rough material is mostly found in Sumatra, but small pieces of lesser quality have been found in Java. These finds have continued for at least 50 years. The material found in Java was not of sufficient quality or quantity to be internationally marketable.

About 12 years ago a fruit seller in Sumatra found some stones and sent them to Java to find out if they were worth anything. These sample stones turned out to be spectacular, multicolored, fossilized coral with large, beautifully delineated "flowers". And some of the stones from a certain location were translucent giving the "flowers" an almost three-dimensional appearance.

The remarkable thing about this semi-precious gem is that the ends of the coral stalks nearly always look like flowers, and some of the best stones look precisely like bouquets or even gardens. The few that do not look like flowers are also beautiful.

During the past 10 or so years the Chinese of Taiwan and mainland China have been buying rough fossilized coral and using it as carving material as well as for cabochons. A couple of American dealers have been buying large quantities of "commercial" quality stones and selling them in the United States. There is also a Dutchman marketing cheap material in Europe.

One knowledgeable dealer in Jakarta has made great efforts to collect unique and extraordinary pieces. Some of these special pieces have caught the attention of one well known Spanish jewelry designer, who purchased significant amounts of the fossilized coral stone. He used the stones for a famous upmarket jewelry gallery in New York City.
not organic material. It is not coral and the mining of these stones in no way presents any negative factor or impact on the environment, the sea, or the eco-system in general. The process of fossilization is a process that takes at least a million years. Fossilization is replacement of organic coral molecule material by agate, or jasper molecules. What was, a million years ago, coral is now stone. This stone is more or less in the agate family. The rough unpolished stone is found on land, usually many meters below ground level, and not in the sea.

Comparison of cabochon semi-precious stones world wide validates a statement that of all cabochon semi precious stones, fossilized coral certainly is the most beautiful.

The process of fossilization is a process that takes at least a million years. Fossilization is replacement of organic coral molecule material by agate, or jasper molecules. What was, a million years ago, coral is now stone.

For more information on Fossilized Coral please contact us by email or phone using the following contact data.

Jewels by Irwan
Email : dmulia@cbn.net.id
Telephone : +62 21 7492850 or +62 21 7402073

This article first published by the same author on Associated Content at the following URL http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1123981/flower_stones_of_indonesia.html?cat=2

Chrysoprase, also known as "Indonesian Jade" is the gemological term for green agate. It is an attractive stone that almost exactly resembles Burmese jade (jadeite). This makes "Indonesian Jade" very special.

The colors range from an attractive pale green to a deep rich emerald green that looks exactly like imperial jade. "Indonesian Jade" of this quality is lso called Imperial Chrysoprase.

Chrysoprase is found in a number of countries with significant amounts found in Australia. Most of the Australian material has a slightly bluish tinge which makes it less like Burmese jade than the Indonesian Jade. Australia produces a chrysoprase which is a clear white agate that is dyed green. These stones are usually found in inexpensive jewelry shops. It is cheap and plentiful

Genuine natural color, never dyed, chrysoprase is not plentiful and therefore not particularly inexpensive. Indonesian Jade is still far less expensive than Burmese jade.

South Africa has stones which are a green grossular garnet, which they call South African jade. India has it's aventurine which they call Indian jade. Using the same logic we have named our natural green chrysoprase "Indonesian Jade". Please note that we are careful to use use the quote marks to avoid misunderstandings.

A treasure waits to be uncovered on the island of Java, all that remains is for someone with the means to continue work done by others that have located and secured the find for future exploitation and development for the good of the Indonesian people. More information about opals in Indonesia can be obtained via this link. Information - Opals of Indonesia

Most people don't know about it but Indonesia produces some of the most beautiful opals in the world. The opals are all of volcanic origin with just about every known type of opal having been found. The quantities found to date are not nearly so much as found in Australia. This is not really surprising as the amount of effort and investment put into exploration is even less relatively than efforts in manpower and funding that have been use to find opals in places like Australia.

The types of opals found in Indonesia are as follows.

Milky white and crystal white opals, similar to Australian opals.

Boulder opal, similar in appearance to Australian opals but the base rock "the boulder" is a different type of stone.

Glassy white and tea colored opals that are similar in appearance to Mexican opals.

Black often referred to as Java Black, opals. These are sepia to jet black opal often with a deep red play of color, somewhat similar to Nevada black opals. Occasionally Australia produces opals like this, but rarely.

Hydrophane Opals, which are a remarkable opal that has little or no play of color when wet, but is possibly the brightest of all opals in the world after cutting, polishing and being thoroughly dried. Hydrophane opals also exist in Australia but they are just the opposite when dry. The Australian hydrophane opal is quite dull when dry but has a beautiful play of color when wet. Unfortunately you cannot keep your opal ring or necklace wet all the time. An amazing fact is that untold numbers of opals remain to be found on Java, the most populated island of Indonesia, but lack of foreign investment to purchase heavy equipment hinders exploration. The government has declared that foreign investment opportunities are open in Indonesia for foreign interests with an initial 11 hectare (about 18 acres) of opal bearing land available for the first foreign investor.

A treasure waits to be uncovered on the island of Java, all that remains is for someone with the means to continue work done by others that have located and secured the fine for future exploitation and development for the good of the Indonesian people. More information about opals in Indonesia can be obtained via this link. Information - Opals of Indonesia The jet black Indonesian hydrophane opal stone is the most sought after opal in Indonesia and easily one of the most beautiful types of opals in the world.

For direct contact with an expert on Indonesian Opals visit this website.

http://jewelsbyirwan.com/contact.htm
Jewels by Irwan
Jl. Ciputat Raya 50 (Ir. H. Juanda), South Jakarta
+62-21-749-2850 or +62-21-740-2073
open 7 days a week 9 am - 5 pm

Parts of this article were published previously by this author on Associated Content. Those portions are reprinted here with permission after placing this statement on the reprinted article.

Irwan Holmes was born into a Jewish family, raised as an agnostic/atheist, studied Catholicism in London with the intention of becoming a Catholic (he never did), and became a Muslim (from his experience as a member of the Spiritual Brotherhood of Subud-Susila Budhi Dharma) in 1967 in Indonesia.

Strongly influenced by the many and varied cultures of Indonesia, Pak Irwan produced the "Heritage Indonesia Collection" (18 sterling silver pendants from iconic Indonesian cultural images) in 2004, and then followed it with the "Heritage Islam Collection" in 2005. Since then four more designs have been added.

The "Heritage Islam Collection" consists of two parts - the first, 10 designs using Javanese repousse ("tatahan") work, and the second, 12 designs using the standard bench work of the goldsmith. All are based on Arabic calligraphy using prayers and sayings from the holy Al-Quran.

Pak Irwan chose the motifs using two points of reference: the physical beauty of the calligraphy itself and the beauty, depth and relevance of the meanings to the situation of humanity in this world today.

Like the "Heritage Indonesia Collection" The "Heritage Islam Collection" is in sterling silver, but it is also done in 18K gold plate on sterling silver as there is a strong tradition of gold-leaf calligraphy; and moreover the wonderful words of the holy Al-Quran seem to require the color gold.

This is the fourth of our Heritage Series and the designs are actually taken from a collection of old masks (from our antique gallery, Dharma Mulia Galleries). They are small, charming and unique, from Java, Bali, Madura, Timor et al; great for gifts to take home as a remembrance of the "Real Indonesia".

Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh - if you're an art lover you will certainly know these names. But most of us, if we're lucky, have only seen a very few of their works as they are scattered in museums all around the world.

If you do love art, and like jewelry as well, you will be thrilled to know that the American designer, Irwan Holmes, has created the most extraordinary jewelry inspired by the works of these great artists.

These pieces of remarkable jewelry are not copies or reproductions of the paintings but are inspired by them. Holmes often took single elements from a painting to make one piece of jewelry; with the Matisse "Dancers" a leg had to be slightly adjusted to make the necklace hang well.

The originals have been created in the repousse technique by Java's greatest craftsman and the results are unbelievably accurate.

We're not sure if this has ever been done before, but we've never seen it.

Most of the pieces are in sterling silver (which can be gold plated)and Klint's "The Kiss" is fabulous in a combination of gold and silver.

Most are necklaces but there are brooches, belt buckles and jewelry boxes as well. And they can be ordered in solid gold.

For this collection Holmes would like to collaborate with upmarket galleries and museum gift shops in the USA, Europe and Japan to market them (but only for serious art lovers!).

Despite Marilyn Monroe's claim that "Diamonds are a girl's best friend", the fact is the most appreciated gem for 1,000's of years has been the pearl.

Cleopatra (among other celebrities) had pearls long, long before most gemstones had even been discovered. The only lady's fashion item even more important than the little "black dress" was, and still is, the pearl necklace. And this is for good reason; pearls really do enhance the skin tone of a lady, somehow adding glow to her face.

Freshwater pearls are found in lakes and rivers and although a few have been found in the Mississippi River and other freshwater bodies around the world, 95% of freshwater pearls come from China. Regardless of what you may have been told there are NO FRESH WATER PEARLS FROM LOMBOK OR BALI Indonesia! None!

The Chinese freshwater pearl industry has only been in operation just over a dozen years but they are making progress fast. Chinese fresh water pearls cannot, as yet, compete with the South Sea pearl or even the Akoya pearl in quality.

The second type of pearl most frequently found in standard jewelry is the pearl cultured in Japan using the Akoya oyster. This is usually referred to as the Akoya pearl. Akoya pearls are larger than most fresh water pearls but not as large as South Sea pearls. Akoya pearls are all heavily processed to be very even in shape, size, color and luster, so that strands of Akoya pearls are beautifully matched and for this reason they are very popular. The Akoya pearl rarely reach more than a diameter of one centimeter, which is just under 1/2 inch.

The South Sea pearl grows in the largest oyster found on earth. This is the pinctada maxima, or "golden lip" oyster. This is the largest and most valuable of all pearls.

Recently I read a book that was published in 1999 which states that Australia, Myanmar (Burma) and the Philippines are the main producers of South Sea Pearls. To my amazement Indonesia is not mentioned at all. In fact in total production Indonesia is now the largest producer of South Sea Pearls in the world. Most of the Indonesian pearl production is purchased by Japanese pearl companies, heavily processed and resold at 5 to 10 times the price as "South Sea Pearls without any mention of the fact that the pearls come from Indonesia.

It should be stressed that all pearls discussed in this article are cultured pearls; the fresh water, Akoya and South Sea pearls are all cultured. The very rare 100% natural pearls where no human hands or brains were involved in the process are usually referred to in the trade as "keshi" pearls. Jewels by Irwan is fortunate to have some of these rare natural "keshi" pears in their collection.

Also note that when Indonesian pearls are purchased by Japanese companies the color is bleached, additional color is added, flaws are mechanically removed and coatings are applied for extra shine.

Jewels by Irwan have totally unprocessed Indonesian pearls available for viewing and purchase.

Chrysacolla is a blue-green semi-precious stone that sometimes resembles turquoise. Before China discovered and marketed world wide tons of Turquoise this popular gem (especially Persian Turquoise) was very expensive and Chrysacolla (discovered recently in Sulawesi) was often used as a substitute. Now good Chrysacolla is more expensive, and it is much harder than turquoise so it doesn't discolor or break easily. The good, even color, translucent stones can sell for up to $60 per carat on the international market. My preference is stones with a mix of the blue and black as the contrast is so beautiful.

In Sanskrit Pancawarna means "multicolored". It is a term that has been used for decades, and perhaps centuries, to refer to the multicolored agates and jaspers of Indonesia, especially for gemstones found on the Indonesian island of Java.

Panca means five and it is the stones with five colors that command the high prices. If you count black and white as colors these rare and valuable stones could contain five, six or even seven different colors.

The Pancawarna gems often have a lot of black in them. Sometimes they also have contrasting white and this makes for an extremely beautiful gemstone.

The Pancawarna gemstone is very hard (6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale - almost as hard as Jade) and thus these stones take a good polish. Within individual stones there are often wonderful color patterns resembling abstract paintings, and very rarely what seems to be a picture of flowers, leaves, landscapes and even animal or human forms. These stones can be very expensive and are highly sought after in the local market.

Not all gemstones are made of one mineral. Many, usually the most interesting and unusual, are aggregates, a mixture of minerals in one stone.

The "Sui Boku Ga" gemstones are mostly wood fossil which is a common semi-precious material, but it is mixed with white and pale blue chalcedony, sometimes even with a bit of red (carnelian) and/or yellow. Added to this there is a golden color pyrite and occasionally another type of silvery metallic inclusion. These unique gems often have four minerals in one stone and occasionally five.

These stones are extraordinarily beautiful and fascinating. To the best of our knowledge they are found only in Indonesia. Some of them, remarkably, resemble 17th and 18th century Japanese paintings. Those paintings were, in fact, based on earlier Song Dynasty Chinese paintings which is how they got their name.

Geologically and geologically these gemstones are in the chalcedony or agate family. Sometimes the inclusions spell out the Arabic word, Allah.

These stones are usually white-to-grey, but occasionally a carnelian red to brown. The "writing" can be white, reddish brown or even a dark sepia color.

Allah Gems are extremely rare and you may have to split open 10,000 pieces of rough agate to find one Allah gemstone.

There are many ways to make a piece of jewelry; carving directly into a block of metal; twisting and soldering wire; welding various units together to form a larger shape; and numerous recent additions to jewelry making via modern technology such as pressing, casting, etc.

One of the most ancient techniques is that of repousse, a technique well known in the ancient worlds of Egypt, Greece and Rome and of which there are numerous remarkable examples housed in the great museums of the world. However this technique is of such a tedious and time consuming nature that it is now hardly practiced at all. In fact it has all but died out as a jewelry production method.

In Java, however, where patience is still a sought-after virtue, and where material gain has not yet quite become the pre-eminent goal of life, the craft of the repousse' worker (tukang tatahan) is still practiced. Irwan Holmes in his effort to promote Indonesian gemstones and Indonesian jewelry, rather than bring in Hong Kong or Singapore workmen to use the remarkable craftsmen of Java and train them to make jewelry in their usual technique, but using new concepts in design.

The technique itself is a basic one. First the metal must be decided upon, the alloy mixed and the material hand beaten into a flat sheet just the right thickness to allow the tools to work the design. Care must be taken not to make it so thin that the tools will pierce the sheet of metal. For a large piece the alloying, beating and preparing can take a full day before the repousse' work itself can begin.

The sheet is then warmed and mounted on a block of specially prepared pitch. This pitch must be just the correct consistency and not so brittle that it will crack and chip during the repousse' process. It also cannot be so soft that the metal sheet will slide around or move in any way what so ever.

The tools used in this work are quite numerous, being over 50 in number. They are a small hammer and many spike like instruments, each with a different shaped point. Utilizing great finger and wrist dexterity the points are guided back and forth over the piece being worked. Slowly the design is meticulously hammered into the metal.

In the work of a master craftsman the lines are so even and the patterns so true that at first glance you think you are looking at a machine made or cast article.

To produce a fine piece of top quality work with good, high relief up to eight or ten turnings of the plaque may be necessary so that the work proceeds evenly, half the time from front to back and half the time from back to front.

After the respousse' process is finished the plaque must be trimmed, filed and sanded and then mounted to form the desired type of jewelry piece. It could be a bracelet, a buckle or almost any type of jewelry. The final mounting entails the addition of a backing, perhaps a frame, and the necessary findings all of which must be soldered with extreme care to avoid damaging the repousse' work. If stones are added, this take another full series of steps until the piece is truly completed. Some of the larger, finer pieces take up to two months to finish.

As the technique of repousse dies out in Java with the young people preferring technology or tourism, it becomes harder and harder to make quantities of repousse pieces. Since repousse work has a great deal of minuscule detail in seemed impossible to cast well. After many years of searching for a way to cast fine repousse work, Irwan Holmes finally found one caster who could do real "art casting". Thus a process of casting repousse work is used in the most popular of his Irwan Williams designs.

One occasionally finds a semi-precious stone (agate or jasper or other) with a lovely scene like a landscape, a pretty sunset, or even a night scene at sea. These are, of course, interesting and although not common, not very rare either.

But the very best of picture agates are very specific and clear images that you can't mistake (is it a missile or a banana?). These very rare true picture agates are amazing and sometimes unbelievable (is it painted?); and they can command high prices to collectors.

Vivianna (Torun) Bülow-Hübe, silversmith, was born in Malmo, Sweden in 1927. Torun became Sweden's first female silversmith with her own workshop immediately after the war, and even while Torun at college she created a stir with her jewelry which was so different from the usual. She created beauty from available inexpensive and natural materials such as rattan, wood, metal wire and pebbles from necessity as well as from artistic inspiration.

The Paris of Picasso (the 1950's) left a lasting impression on Torun - and she left her mark on Paris. Her simple but unique jewelry became a symbol of the times so that many French film stars chose to wear her pieces.

Back in Sweden Torun opened her own workshop and became one of the leading figures of the Swedish arts and crafts movement. Her philosophy that jewelry should be a natural extension of the woman and not a status symbol was well known. Among Torun's famous clients were Picasso, the singer Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Brigitte Bardot and Ingrid Bergman.

In 1960 Torun was awarded the Lunning Prize and received a gold medal at the XII-th Triennial in Milan. She then met Georg Jensen and the admiration was mutual; Jensen took over Torun's production. Torun eventually became the most prolific and well-known jewelry designer for Georg Jensen over a 30-year period, and Georg Jensen became the world's largest silver establishment with over 100 branches worldwide.

The German Period, 1968-1978- "Shapes of Nature": Torun moved to Germany from the South of France and traveled for a number of years between Copenhagen and her workshop in Wolfsburg. Now that Georg Jensen took care of production, Torun could concentrate on creating one-off pieces and developing prototypes for new jewelry. Her jewelry's organic shapes were deeply influenced by impressions from long walks in the forests.

The Indonesian Period, 1978 - "Movement in Everything": Torun needed a new lifestyle and was offered the job of design consultant for an Indonesian organization which provided creative work for young people. As a long-time member of the Subud (Susila Budhi Dharma) brotherhood which was centered in Jakarta, Indonesia, she was delighted to move to Jakarta. And in Jakarta she met and became friends with Irwan Holmes. At the same time she received an important award from the King of Sweden.

She continued to work on new jewelry designs for Georg Jensen and for her Indonesian outlet as well in a palm grove near rice fields in Pamulang (South Jakarta) until her death in 2004.

Although her designs for Georg Jensen are patented and may not be sold outside the Georg Jensen shops, her other designs made in Indonesia are still manufactured in Indonesia and may be sold outside the Georg Jensen establishment.

Irwan Holmes has held three group exhibitions in Indonesia in which Torun's Indonesian designs have been featured including the immensely successful show DIVINE JEWELS in 2005 held at the Dharmawangsa, Indonesia's poshest hotel.