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Safety catch
A safety catch is a secondary closure usually found in a fine bracelet or necklace
and used in case the
primary clasp opens. It helps to prevent the loss of the jewelry. It is
often a hinged, snapping loop that is permanently attached to one
side of the clasp, and, when the bracelet or necklace is
closed, snaps onto the other side of the clasp.
Safety chain
Like safety catch safety chain also prevents the loss of the
jewelry piece. It is usually a chain that is permanently attached
to one side of the bracelet, and attaches to the other side with
a spring ring clasp.
Sapphire
A precious gemstone that is found in range of colors from blue to pink to yellow to
green to white to purple (mauve sapphire) to pink-orange
(padparadscha sapphire). Sapphires are related to rubies.
Sapphires were once thought to protect the wearer from poisonous
creatures. Sapphire has a hardness of 9 and a specific gravity of
3.9 – 4.1.
Sapphire Quartz
Sapphire quartz or blue quartz is
another name for blue chalcedony.
Satin finish
A metal finish that ranges between a matte
finish and a brilliant finish. It is semi-glossy finish that is done by
making shallow parallel lines on the surface of the metal and reduces its reflectivity.
Sautoir
A long necklace also known as a rope, it often has an ornament (a
tassel or pendant) at the end.
Seed Pearl
As the name suggests these are tiny, round pearls that are less
than 2 mm in diameter and weigh under 1/4 grain.
Setting
A setting is a method of securing a stone
in a piece of jewelry.
There are many different types of setting, like collect
setting, the claw setting, Tiffany, the cut-down setting, mille grain, gipsy setting , and
many other types. Some settings are closed with a metal behind the
stone, while other are open in which there is no metal behind the stone,
letting light shine through the stone.
Shank
The part of a ring that
encircles the finger.
Shiller
A coppery flakes within a stone, that can block reflected light,
and decrease the
brightness of stone. Sunstone and spectrolite often have shiller.
Signet ring
A ring that was used as a
means of identification. Such ring was engraved with a symbol to identify a particular person. Some signet rings also
had intaglio-carved seals. The earliest - known signet rings date
from ancient Egypt, thousands of years ago.
Silver
A commonly used fine, silver-white color metal. Pure silver has a hardness of 2.5.
In jewelry making other metals
are usually alloyed with silver.
Sleeper
A small hoop-earring made of
gold that is used to keep the hole in a pierced ear open.
Slide Bracelet/Slide
charm bracelet
A slide
bracelet is a type of modern-day charm bracelet made from
stringing.
Smoky quartz
A brownish quartz
with a smoky look.
Snake Chain
Also known as a Brazilian
chain, it is a metal chain made up of a series of small, linked
cups.
Solitaire
A solitarire is a ring set with a single
stone, usually a diamond.
Spectrolite
Also called Finnish
Labradorite, it is a variety of plagioclase feldspar. It is a
fairly abundant grayish mineral that has brilliant iridescent
flashes of color (usually green, blue, orange, or red) after it
is polished. Spectrolite has a hardness of 6 to 6.5 and a specific
gravity of 2.70.
Striations
Grooves, lines and scratches
that are found naturally in some minerals.
Synthetic stone
Stones made in laboratories, they generally lack imperfections. They are very hard to
distinguish from natural stones.
Spectroscope
An instrument used
to identify gemstones. It works by determining the light waves
that a stone absorbs; different stones absorb different
wavelengths of light.
Spessartine garnet
A orange garnet that varies in color from
reddish orange to brownish orange to yellowish orange. Its
crystals vary from transparent to translucent, it has a hardness of 7.0 –
7.5, a specific gravity of 4.19, and a
refractive index of 1.8.
Spinel
Relatively hard semi-precious stone
composed of octahedral crystals. It comes in the colors from red
to black to yellow, frequently resembling rubies. It belongs to
the feldspar species and found in Burma, Sri Lanka and
Thailand. Spinel is also laboratory
synthesized. It has a hardness of 8, a specific gravity of
3.58 – 4.06, and a refractive index of 1.72.
Split Ring
A tightly-coiled ring that is used as an jewelry finding; it can
attach charm to a charm bracelet or a clasp to a necklace or
bracelet.
Squarillion cut (square cut)
A square-cut stone also known as a Princess
or Quadrillion cut.
Sugar beads
Some beads have a look as though
they were rolled in granulated sugar thus known as sugar beads. The fine grains on the
surface of the beads are in fact tiny trains of glass.
Step cut
A cutting pattern usually used for colored
stones. This cut can be rectangular to square and has many facets
parallel to the edges of the stone.
Star of Africa
Also known as Cullinan
diamond it is the largest diamond yet found, weighing 3,106 carats
(roughly 1.3 pounds) in its rough form. It was mined at the
Premier Mine in South Africa in 1905. and named
after the chairman of the company that owned the mine. It was
given to king Edward VII of England for his birthday in 1907.
Star garnet
A type of garnet, an almandine that exhibits
an asterism. It comes in the range of colors
from deep red to raddish-brown.
Star Ruby
It is a ruby that exhibits an
asterism, it reflects a six-pointed star of light when cut as a cabochon.
The world’s biggest star ruby is the Rajaratna, weighs
2,475 carats and biggest double-star ruby (with a 12 – pointed
star) is the Neelanjali, weighing 1,370 carats.
Star sapphire
A star sapphire also exhibits
the quality of an asterism, but in the form of a colorless, six-rayed
light. Star sapphires are cabochon cut. They are also laboratory
made rather most star sapphires today are synthetic.
Strass
A highly reflective glass that is made to imitate gemstones.
Streak
The streak of a mineral is its color when it
is in powdered form. It can be determined
easily by rubbing a rough mineral (not cut stones!) along the
surface of a hard, unglazed porcelain sheet. Even though the color of a mineral may vary, the streak
color is constant. For example, the
streak of chalcopyrite, graphite, magnetite, and pyrite is black,
the streak of galena is gray, the streak of cinnabar, the
streak of turquoise is white with a green tint, the streak of
olivine, amethyst, and tourmaline is white, and the streak of
hematite is red-brown.
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