Happy birthday, Novemeber ladies + gentlemen! Your birthstone is beautiful topaz. This gemstone is available in many colors- from yellow, to orange, brown, pink, red, purple, blue, light green and even colorless.
Natural blue topaz is very rare, and most blue topaz on the market is produced by treating colorless topaz with radiation. This process is a heavily regulated to protect customers, gem cutters and dealers.
Topaz has a MOHs hardness of 8, making it rather tough. Topaz is allochromatic; its color is caused by impurity or defects in its crystal structure. Topaz is also pleochroic, meaning that the this gemstone can show different colors in different crystal directions (all within the same stone!).
Hannah Blount Jewelry works predominately with London blue topaz. This color variation of the gemstone often appears as a grey-hued blue, a bit inky and mysterious. In the 1840s some believed topaz was able to cure lunacy; ancient Greeks believed topaz could improve physical strength.
