Are Dyed Gemstones a problem – How Beads Get Their Colour
If you have been producing jewelry wholesale beads for a though, you’ve probably wondered how gemstones get their colour.
What do terms like colour enrich actually mean?
Have the stones been dyed, heat-treated, or irradiated?
Are these treatments typical?
Will it final?
What do you tell your client?
When you promote jewelry, you should know the answers so you can inform your clients. Just about all beads are dyed or handled in some way. That is not an issue, but all colour will fade if left while in the sunlight also prolonged – either dyed or organic stone.
Colour enhancing
Colour enhancement has existed for thousands of years. In ancient times it was popular to submerge turquoise in animal or vegetable oil. This formed a long-lasting luster, but with oil stains appearing when worn!
Stabilizing
These days, several turquoise beads are colour shot or colour stabilized. Implying normal color that is stabilized – this can be untrue, as color is extra. Nonetheless, there’s absolutely nothing incorrect, as jewelry generating is art and colour enhancement improves the appearance.
Dye & bleaching
Ancient Romans’ dyed agates. The process makes your beads more attractive and has few drawbacks. It’s so popular, that even if a seller tells you the beads aren’t dyed, they properly are! The dye usually won’t come off, but it’s still best to rinse some stones before using them just in case. Don’t fool yourself, the truth is:
Practically ALL jade and pearls are dyed (white pearls are bleached).
Most porous stones agate beads like chalcedony and quartz are dyed. All-natural chalcedony comes only in pale periwinkle gray.
Blue topaz and garnet beads are dyed to make them appear more vibrant.
Virtually all coral is dyed, especially red coral.
Baking
Heat-treatment is another technique that has been used for 1000’s of a long time. Carnelians are heat treated to intensify their orange colour, and usually citrine sold at this time is truly heat-treated amethyst. Sapphires and rubies in most fine jewelry are heat-treated as well, although you won’t see numerous of these stones in bead form.
Irradiation
Lots of bright colors are formed in stones like diamonds by purely natural radiation. Nonetheless, artificial electromagnetic radiation can produce beautiful colors in stones that aren’t even found naturally. Irradiation is a modern way to alter colors of gemstone – commonly used to intensify blue topaz and to create smoky quartz out of ice quartz.
How to Tell Natural Color from Dyed
It’s hard to tell if the colour of a stone is organic – but one giveaway of dying is to look closely with a magnifying glass into the bead holes. You may be able to see a different colour inside.
Sometimes the dye is uneven with varying density across the strand – resulting in not all the beads being the same shade of colour. One other sure way to tell dying is to break the bead open. Nonetheless, it’s even possible for the inside of a bead to be the same color as outside, yet still be dyed!
Another method to expose dye is to put the beads on a damp white towel. Wait a few minutes to see if the color bleeds on the towel. If there’s noticeable color transferred, there will be a ring of colour around the neck of whoever wears the beads in a necklace!
Conclusion
Don’t be too concerned about artificial techniques to improve your beads. It’s much more common than you think, and you’d need a qualified gemologist to tell otherwise. It’s not all bad, the stone’s properties are not altered, and dyes are color-fixed so they won’t come off. Nevertheless, the more you pay: the more purely natural the stone will be.
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