Hardness: 7.00
Refractive Index: 1.53-1.55
Specific Gravity: 2.63
Birthstone:
Astral Stone:
Anniversary Stone:
Origination: Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, Brazil & Africa
Care & Cleaning: Clean with a soft polishing cloth, plain water rinse mild solution of soap & water or commercial jewelry cleaner. Do not soak.
Fiction, Facts & Folklore:
Iolite is a blue to blue gray variety of the cordierite mineral group.
Astrologers sometimes connect the iolite to the planet Saturn.
Although iolite also occurs in lava rock, it is usually found in water-worn pebbles. For this reason, gems of several carats or more are seldom seen.
Since it is normally found in alluvial (water) deposits, and was in earlier times often mistaken for the finest quality blue sapphires, Iolite was (and sometimes still is) called the �water sapphire.�
In its most simple form, iolite is sifted from the water much like early prospectors searched for gold. Natives use "pans" that are generally made locally out of bamboo to aid in their craft.
One of the distinctions of iolite is its ability to show different colors when the stone is viewed from different angles. This phenomena is known as pleochroism.
Because of this property iolite will show blue, violet, yellow and gray.
Seafaring vikings of long ago used to take iolite with them on their journey, for they believed that it would have a calming effect in rough sea water.
Ancient navigators were able to locate the exact position of the sun on overcast days when looking through an iolite held skyward. This was not as far fetched as it may seem for even today Iolite is used in certain optical coatings.
Iolite came from the word �ios� which was Greek for �violet�.
Folklore tells us that ancient astrologers believed iolite would unlock creativity.