Beads, Tools and Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig®

HOME     BEGINNERS INSTRUCTIONS     WIGJIG UNIVERSITY     WHAT'S NEW     WIGJIG STORE
TECHNIQUES      JEWELRY DESIGNS     JEWELRY MAKING SKILLS     JEWELRY MAKING SUPPLIES     GIFT IDEAS
PURCHASE BEADS   BLING   BOOKS   CHAIN   FINDINGS   MISC.   SUPPLIES   THREAD   TOOLS   WATCHES   WIRE

Birthstones for July -- Ruby

Ruby -- Jewelry Making Birthstone for JulyThe birthstone for July is the Ruby.  A ruby is a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide with chromium impurities).  As such is it related to sapphire and has many similar characteristics.  The name ruby is derived from the latin word for red.  Naturally occurring rubies can vary in color from light pink to blood red with the darker the red color, the more valuable the ruby.  Heating of a mined ruby to a temperature of 1,800 degrees centigrade tends to darken the red color of the ruby and minimizes one form of inclusions in the gemstone.  At present, about 90% of the mined rubies are heated. 

Rubies, like sapphires, have a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale and are the second hardest naturally occurring material.  This hardness coupled with the fact that gem quality rubies (with minimal inclusions) are exceptionally rare, makes rubies one of the cardinal gemstones along with diamonds, sapphires and amethyst.  Because of the rarity of gem quality rubies, some rubies are more valuable than similar size and quality diamonds.  The record price for a ruby sold at auction is $5.86 million dollars paid for a 38.12 cabochon-cut ruby.  Because of the hardness, rubies are suitable for everyday wear as they are relatively impervious to scratches by dust or sand. 

At present there are many processes for inexpensively creating rubies in the lab.  These rubies are chemically identical to a mined ruby, but tend to have few if any inclusions.  Most jewelers viewing a "perfect" ruby with no inclusions will suspect that the ruby was created in a lab and not naturally occurring. 

For more information on rubies visit Wikipedia here. 

To view our selection of man-made rubies please select here or select the picture above-right.

  Birthstones                    View our Ruby Jewelry Making Kits

Return to Jewelry Making Tools, Beads, Wire and Jewelry Supplies by WigJig Home
See our selection of Beads, Wire Jewelry Making Supplies and Jewelry Tools

IMPORTANT PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ruby"
Last updated 3/30/2007

This WigJig web page is provided as part of WigJig University - College of Jewelry Making Techniques.  We try to provide interesting jewelry making techniques using beads, jewelry wire and other jewelry supplies.  We hope that the jewelry making skills taught on these web pages will provide you enough information for you to incorporate these techniques in your own jewelry making projects.  For beginners, we suggest that you start with a visit to our Beginners Jewelry Making pages. These pages discuss the skills necessary for making jewelry in the detail that beginners need. We also suggest that beginners to jewelry making might need to visit the WigJig University College of Jewelry Making Designs for jewelry making projects using the skills and techniques shown here. 

 Most, but not all of the jewelry supplies shown here can be purchased in our WigJig store.  We try to have a complete selection of jewelry supplies in our store including chain, wire, glass beads, findings, watches, tools, etc. 

The jewelry making projects shown here do not use Sterling Silver.  The reason for this is simple, it is harder to get good pictures of Sterling Silver wire components than with colored wire including gold-filled, copper, or brass wire.  Any project shown in colored wire can be made in Sterling Silver wire.