Friday, February 10, 2017

Cat's eye

Chatoyance is your word of the week.  It comes from the French "oeil de chat" or "cat's eye" and refers to the optical reflection seen in certain gemstones such as tiger's eye, labradorite, moonstone, chrysoberl, etc.  It's caused by alignment along one direction of fibres in the rock - similar to the sheen seen on a spool of silk thread.  Both of these specimens are man-made and beautiful even without any light directly shining on them.  Hard too - 8.5

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