Nature created many different gemstones (refer also to the painting “Gemstone palette”). The most precious gemstones, such as diamonds, rubies and sapphires, are the hardest stones. There is a multitude of other gemstones in the mineral word but of lesser hardness. Some of them may be polished without pulverization (turning into powder) and these polished gemstones are used in my paintings. Among them are various chalcedonies (Blue lace agate, Carnelian, Petrified wood, Bloodstone), feldspars (Lapis lazuli, Sodalite, Amazonite, Aventurine), quartz (Tiger eye, Rock crystal, Amethyst), jaspers (Dalmatian, Yellow, Picture, Red and Leopard skin) and other gemstones like peridot, howlite, obsidian, dumotrierite, rhyolite etc.

The difficulties of handling the stones differ for different gemstones. Some of them are more difficult to operate with than the others. It depends on the chemical structure, crystalline form and hardness. The volcanic glass (obsidian) is difficult to handle due to the high electrostatic charges on the surface. Peridot crystals are almost round and heavy; they are also difficult to position on a flat surface. Refer also to one of my paintings named "Gemstone Palette"

For more information on gemstones please refer to scientific information.

Here are examples of the stones I use (shown at approximately two and a halve times bigger than actual size on a 17" monitor set to 1024 x 768 pixels):

Please click on an image to view the enlargement of each gemstone