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Birthstones for August -- Peridot

Peridot -- Jewelry Making Gemstone for AugustPeridot is the birthstone for August.  Chemically, peridot is a silicate of iron and magnesium combined.  In peridot, the magnesium silicate is in greater concentration than the iron silicate.  Peridot is the gem quality version of the mineral olivine.  Whereas olivine is a very common component of volcanic (igneous) rocks, peridot is far less common.  Peridot comes in many shades of green including light green, green-ish yellow and shades through brownish green.  It is one of few gemstones that comes in only one basic color. 

Peridot has a hardness of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, making it about as hard as most sand or glass.  This is a drawback for jewelry making applications.  As a relatively soft gemstone, peridot may not be a good choice for bracelets and for some rings.  Because peridot is softer than some dust, it is vulnerable to being scratched during normal wear.  For that reason peridot is not considered appropriate for everyday wear.  Our peridot colored cubic zirconia at a hardness of 8.5 may be a better choice for use in jewelry from the perspective of the fact that a CZ is less vulnerable to scratches from dust.

The largest cut peridot is a 310 carat specimen in the Smithsonian Museum.  

The ancient Hawaiians thought that peridot was the tears of the Goddess Pele.  This is because the stone was generally only found in lava flows and Pele is the Goddess of Fire (volcanoes). 

According to European folklore, wearing peridot was though to bring the wearer success, peace and good luck.  (By contrast, wearing peridot colored CZs will give the wearer a larger lump in his or her wallet because of the savings.)

For more information on peridot, visit Wikipedia here.  

To view our selection of natural peridot and peridot colored cubic zirconia (CZs) select the picture above-right, or select here.

  Birthstones                    View our Peridot Jewelry Making Kits

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Peridot"
Last updated 3/30/2007

This WigJig web page is provided as part of WigJig University - College of Jewelry Making Techniques.  We try to provide interesting jewelry making techniques using beads, jewelry wire and other jewelry supplies.  We hope that the jewelry making skills taught on these web pages will provide you enough information for you to incorporate these techniques in your own jewelry making projects.  For beginners, we suggest that you start with a visit to our Beginners Jewelry Making pages. These pages discuss the skills necessary for making jewelry in the detail that beginners need. We also suggest that beginners to jewelry making might need to visit the WigJig University College of Jewelry Making Designs for jewelry making projects using the skills and techniques shown here. 

 Most, but not all of the jewelry supplies shown here can be purchased in our WigJig store.  We try to have a complete selection of jewelry supplies in our store including chain, wire, glass beads, findings, watches, tools, etc. 

The jewelry making projects shown here do not use Sterling Silver.  The reason for this is simple, it is harder to get good pictures of Sterling Silver wire components than with colored wire including gold-filled, copper, or brass wire.  Any project shown in colored wire can be made in Sterling Silver wire.