Jewelry Class: Alexandrite a Worthy Upstart in the World of Rubies and Turquoise

In the far-reaching history of gemstones in jewelery, alexandrite is one of the "newer" stones, having been discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in the 1830s and named for Czar Alexander II at his coming of age ceremony; other gems such as turquoise, rubies, and pearls, have deeply ancient roots. So what's so exciting about relative newcomer alexandrite, affectionately called "Alex" by many jewelers?

For starters, it's truly scarce: natural alexandrite is extremely rare, especially in sizes over one carat. But the most fascinating aspect of this gem is its color-change characteristic, with the best quality stones displaying a brilliant verdant green in sunlight or fluorescent light and shifting to a remarkably rich red in incandescent light or candlelight; lesser quality stones are still unusually lovely, showing blue-green in fluorescent light and plummy purple in incandescent light.

So how can you tell the difference between natural and synthetic alexandrite? Well, for starters, alexandrite is so rare that indie-jewelers almost never use it, and larger jewelery manufacturers will generally favor the greater affordability and larger size of lab-created alexandrite. According to the rule of thumb suggested by the International Gem Society, "If the gem has good clarity, strong color change, reasonable size, and your grandmother was not exceptionally wealthy, it is most likely a synthetic."

But hey, I won't tell if you won't! Check out some gorgeous examples of natural and lab-created alexandrite jewelery in my SLIDESHOW.