More About Topaz and Topaz
Jewelry
Blue, once the most rare color of topaz,
is today the most common, thanks to a stable enhancement process that turns
colorless topaz blue. After the raw topaz is extracted from the earth and cut,
it is irradiated to brown and then heated to sky blue. This enhancement process
is permanent. Due to the popularity of blue topaz, a new treatment process called
vapor deposition has been developed to create additional colors of topaz. In
this treatment process, similar to those used by opticians and camera makers
to make lens coatings, a thin colored film is bonded on the surface of topaz
to create dark blue, red, pink, and green colors or rainbow iridescence. These
vapor deposition-enhanced topaz colors must be handled with special care, as
the coating can be scratched or abraded.
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