MY SUNDAY BEST MEME #29 - AMETHYST

Welcome to the meme, "My Sunday Best", which is a photographic and creative meme that allows you to showcase your talents in imaging. Every Sunday, you can post here showing an image you have created using your camera, (and/or) image processing software, and/or painting and drawing in the conventional way and have scanned in.

The rules are simple:
1) Create your image and post it up on your blog;
2) Put the "My Sunday Best" logo image link somewhere on your post so people can click and come by here;
3) Leave a comment here once you have posted;
4) Visit other posters' blogs and be amazed with their creativity!

Please do not use this meme to advertise your goods or services. This is a creative meme and any inappropriate links or comments shall be removed immediately!

This post is also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

Please leave your link below:

OLIVINE

The mineral olivine is a magnesium iron silicate with the formula (Mg+2, Fe+2)2SiO4. Thus it is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. It is a common mineral in the Earth's subsurface but weathers quickly on the surface.

Olivine incorporates only minor amounts of elements other than oxygen, silicon, magnesium and iron. Manganese and nickel commonly are the additional elements present in highest concentrations.

Olivine gives its name to the group of minerals with a related structure (the olivine group) which includes tephroite (Mn2SiO4), monticellite (CaMgSiO4) and kirschsteinite (CaFeSiO4). Olivine gemstones are called peridot and chrysolite.

This post is part of the Friday Greens meme.

SAPPHIRES

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide (α-Al2O3). Whilst typically associated with the colour blue, sapphires can also naturally occur in a wide variety of colours such as blue, yellow, purple, orange, green colours - which are also called "fancy sapphires". "Parti sapphires" are those sapphires which show two or more colours in a single stone. The only colour which sapphire cannot be is red - as red coloured corundum is called ruby, another corundum variety.

Commonly, natural sapphires are cut and polished into gemstones and worn in jewellery. They also may be created synthetically in laboratories for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boules. Because of the remarkable hardness of sapphires – 9 on the Mohs scale (the third hardest mineral, after diamond at 10 and moissanite at 9.5) – sapphires are also used in some non-ornamental applications, including infrared optical components, such as in scientific instruments; high-durability windows; wristwatch crystals and movement bearings; and very thin electronic wafers, which are used as the insulating substrates of very special-purpose solid-state electronics (especially integrated circuits and GaN-based LEDs).

Sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the 5th and 45th anniversaries. Here's the perfect gift for such an anniversary: A sapphire and diamond bracelet set in white gold ;-)

This post is part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme.