I love the blue skies on a bright sunny day, so I am naturally drawn to that color. Years ago, I found a stone in a jewelry supply catalog called a "Victoria Stone". It was described as being somewhat like as a "Tiger Eye" gemstone, but man made. Instead of the straight inclusions in the stone, there were many fan shaped crystallized patterns. It came in many colors, but of course I ordered a sky blue cabochon (with a smooth polished top and flat back). I also ordered a fairly inexpensive, gold filled ring setting for it. I'm sure in those days I would not have spent a lot for anything like that, so it would have had to be a cheap deal!
I have worn that Victoria Stone on and off as a pinkie ring for many years, and have gotten a lot of compliments on it and inquires as to where I got it. As I was thinking about that, I realized I had not seen those stones mentioned for quite some time, so I went online to check on the reason why. Surprisingly, here is what I found:
“The Story of Victoria Stone”
by Vyonne Mack-WGMS Club Member
This article was printed in the McPherson Rock Club
Bulletin (Kansas)
Victoria Stone is also known as “Imori Stone”,
named after its Japanese creator, Dr. Imori. It is
not an artificial or fake stone. What Dr. Imori was
able to accomplish was to actually blend several
different minerals using a special process known
only to him to come up with an Imori Stone,
commonly called Victoria Stone.
This beautiful reconstructed gem is mineralogically
similar to Nephrite Jade. It has a harness of six,
specific gravity of 3.02 and a refractive index of 1.62.(For those of you who are rockhounds out there! ~ nanci)
It was laboratory produced from natural raw
materials such as quartz, feldspar, magnesite,
calcite, fluorspar, etc. for a total of seven different
minerals-fused together under high pressure and a
high temperature and again mineralized to make this
gem by adding special crystallizers and habit
regulators.
This is not an imitation or synthetic but is a
reconstructed natural stone. The boule of Victoria
stone was slowly cooled down for 35 to 40 days to
make it crystallize into the pretty fan shapes.
Victoria Stone is minerlogically similar to nephrite
jade, but the arrangement of the actinolite crystals
is different. Instead of the crystals interlocking and
tying together as they do with jade, they have
crystallized in fan shapes to provide the beauty of
the stone. As a result of this difference, the rough
stone is more likely to crack or splinter if overheated.
Victoria Stone could be bought by the boule or in
slices when it was produced in 15 different colors
from 1960 to the 1980’s –green, sky blue, reddish
purple, yellow green, blue green, sky indigo,
chocolate, yellow, deep indigo, white, quiet green,
quiet yellow, quiet blue, grey and black.
The faceted Victoria Stone came in 8 colors,
including sapphire blue, emerald green, amethyst
purple, ruby red, topaz, aquamarine, garnet and
peridot green.
This is a scanned copy of an original sales color chart.
Dr. Imori died without confiding in anyone how the
process worked and no one has been able to duplicate it. There is only a limited and nonreplenishable supply of Victoria Stone in existence, when this material is used up to make jewelry and cabochons, it will become scarcer and about impossible to find.
And I found this article, also...
"Victoria Stone (aka. Iimori Stone) is one of the most beautiful stones you may run across. As much as I hate to apply the term “rare” to a stone, this one is very rare. It is rare because it is man made. Dr. S. Iimori, a Japanese doctor, created this stone in his laboratory in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
The sad thing about this stone is that Dr. Iimori was so secretive about his formula, that he took it with him to his grave. If I am not mistaken, in all fairness to the good doctor, he died suddenly in an automobile accident. The primary ingredient of Dr. Iimori’s creation is known but proportions and the secret ingredient is what the mystery remains. Upon his death, Dr. Iimori’s son continued to operate the laboratory but alas, he could not duplicate his father’s recipe.
Dr. Iimori’s primary ingredients were quartz, feldspar, magnesite, calcite, fluorspar, etc. These minerals were crushed to basically a powder then heated to a molten state. He then added his secret ingredient that made the stone crystallize with the wonderful fan shaped patterns in the stone."
So... my cheap Victoria Stone ring is not so cheap after all (I also hadn't realized I purchased it so long ago)! Of course, now I'm wondering why I didn't get more of them at the time...
And, although my stone is a fairly tiny thing, I do believe I will be getting a nicer setting for it soon!
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