Is Moss Aqua routinely heat treated?

[mimB]

My question is about Moss Aquamarine, which is often seen in bead form (I know that's sort of a taboo subject here, since beads are treated far more than faceted loose stones): is it commonly heat treated to enhance color?

I know that non-included aqua is often heat treated, sometimes irradiated and now even resin filled, but I cannot find ANY useful info about Moss Aqua treatments online.

I'm attaching a photo of what I tend to consider good bead quality material for Moss Aqua - you can see the tiny black iron inclusions.


Thank you guys regardless!

 

[chrono]

I've never heard of moss aquamarine. Is that the terminology used for blue to blue green beryl with iron inclusions? Theoretically, any treatment that is currently applied to faceted aquamarine can also be done to beaded aquamarine. In reality, I have no clue since I do not keep up with the beaded side of gemstones.

 

[1001smiles]

I also don't know if this aqua is heated, but I am kind of amused at the term "moss aquamarine". Since I've been collecting quartz inclusions for a while, I know the term "moss" started with quarts. It is used as "moss agate" for green inclusions in quartz that look like moss. Here's a random picture I grabbed from Etsy. Then I've seen the term "moss" being used in other quartz inclusions, even if they don't look like moss. But this is the first time I've seen it being appried to aqua. It seems to me that the vendor is just trying to sell a very included aquamarine and gave it a marketing term. I'd expect some kind of green dendritic parttern to be called "moss". Sorry to go off on a tangent

 

[mimB]

Thanks Chrono!

Yes - from what I understand, it's beryl that is smoky-grey and greenish-blue colored, with very apparent speck like inclusions of iron. It's often color zoned, rarely transparent, and seems to be rarely discussed despite being a popular stone for bead form.

I was also going to assume that since faceted aqua is heat treated, so must beaded moss aqua be. What drives me to doubt, though, is that I've been hearing that heat treatment tends to melt inclusions - at least, in stones like sapphires. Have I been hearing correctly? If so, do the inclusions melt only at certain temperatures and in certain stone species?

Meanwhile, I'll continue to be intrigued. I found a bunch of moss aqua listings online with stones of fairly deep body color that claimed no treatment. I've also found some listings for heated moss aqua that were still speckled but with completely white body color (makes me wonder why they even bothered heating).
I've also reached out to a couple of moss aqua vendors on Etsy, based in India, and the two that responded were like "No Treatment. 100% Natural. Very Rare Strand. You want to buy?"

Ok, I over-exaggerated the bad sentence structure, but the content is accurate - and anything with a "100% Natural" label freaks me out and makes me distrustful.

Thanks again!

 

[mimB]

1001smiles - You know, I bet that's how that industry name/practice have started. At this point, it's got a life of its own, so to speak - it is commonly used by Etsy sellers, and I even found this term used by Nordstrom marketing: "'Elements' Moss Aquamarine Earrings by Gurhan"
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/gurhan-elements-moss-aquamarine-earrings/3595061

 

[chrono]

I don't think beryl or aquamarine can withstand the high temperatures required to dissolve the inclusions the way way corundum is able to. I am also doubtful the heating involved stones with iron staining. The inclusions that are dissolved or partially dissolved are rutile, which is titanium oxide.

Ruby:
Heated in 700 to 1200 degrees Celcius to oxidize the iron (remove the blue component).
Heated in 1200 to 1800 degrees Celcius to improve clarity (dissolve the rutile needles or silk)

Blue Sapphire
Heated in 1500 to 1800 degrees Celcius in a reducing environment (Fe3+ to Fe2+) to deepen the colour or oxidized (Fe2+ to Fe3+) to lighten the colour. These temperatures are also high enough to completely or partially dissolve the rutile needles, thereby intensifying the colour and improving the clarity.

 

[Jereni]

Wow, I had also not heard of moss aqua before. Learn new things every day!

 

[movie zombie]

also had not heard of it........

 

[mimB]

So I have an answer, I think, after the vendors I contacted got back to me:

Moss Aquamarine is NOT routinely heated, and SHOULD NOT be heated.

Heating Aquamarine overall drives away the green tones so it becomes more blue. However, it is done at low temperatures to prevent stone breakage and does not melt inclusions (Chrono, you also clarified this for me!). So, nothing would be achieved by heating Moss Aqua - it would lose what makes its color so appealing and, possibly, the many inclusions would cause it to burst.

The heated moss aqua I HAVE found online is colorless, non transparent, and still retaining the speckle inclusions. Which seems to support what I found.

Thank you all for checking out the thread!

 

[chrono]

MimB,
The vendor is correct that aquamarine is heated only to remove the green component, leaving the blue behind. There is still the question of irradiation and clarity enhancement though. (Yes, I question too much in the forum).

 

[mimB]

Le sigh
Yeah, and when I posted this question on forums on Etsy, some very nice person (*sarcasm*) chimed in that moss aqua is actually routinely both Dyed and Heated, and then disappeared! - without any further explanation, or photos to show examples, or anything to back up their sources.

So I've widened my query to more vendors and a couple gemology forums.

On a less frustrating note, I did find that what the beading community calls "moss aqua" is often sold by loose gem places in cabochon form under the tag of "green aquamarine".
http://www.gemselect.com/aquamarine/aquamarine-348585

 

[chrono]

MimB,
The link is broken.

 

[deskjockey]

maybe this will work better?

http://www.gemselect.com/group/gemselect.php?t_17=on&c_4=on

 

[chrono]

Thanks! Isn't that just regular green blue cabochon aquamarine? Just like all gemstones, some are clean and some aren't. Is moss aquamarine then a term used in the bead world? This is interesting because I've never heard of it.