Amber is one of the few materials jewelry still not commercially exploited in the level corresponding to its aesthetic potential. Amber is a fossil resin plant, is not a mineral substance because it lacks crystallographic structure. Historically has aroused fascination with various civilizations in its peculiar beauty. Archaeologists have investigated the ancient trade routes of amber confirming its importance in the development of trade.

Properties and beauty

The amber was the first gem it used human beings as objects of adornment, religion and medicine. Men and women of the Slavic tribes of the southern Baltic coast wore amulets and ornaments amber 6,000 years ago. Teachers of Babylon and Syria, the warriors of Pompeii and especially the Roman Empire popularized the fame of this material. The conservative properties of the organic resin were known and appreciated by the Egyptians, who used it for momificar their dead, while the Greeks used to store wine.

The amber was found (in trace quantities) throughout the world. But the important deposits are split between the Kaliningrad region, Poland, the southern Baltic Sea, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. For its extraction, the area is dug with the help of big machines, then takes a plant where washing machine, using water jets, amber is separated from the sand and is classified according to the quality and size.

The color and degree of transparency helps to differentiate between the various varieties of amber. The colour depends on the circumstances in which the resin suffered processes volatility, oxidation and hardening. The infinite variety of colors (about 250) due to the presence of biological within the amber inclusions. In times of Nero, the color of fashion was the variety of amber honey reminding the color of hair of women of the emperor. In the Middle Ages, the color most appreciated was the target, who was attached great medicinal properties, recently rediscovered by adherents to natural medicine. His toughness is greater than 2 on the scale of Mohs. Heated to 150 degrees Centigrade softens and melts at over 250 degrees centigrade.

Its origin is still unknown to man. It is not known exactly who or what caused the tree nor the cause of exuberant resin production. Its origin is organic, like that of pearls and coral. The chemical elements present in the amber are: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Many substances both natural and artificial can imitate amber. It is extremely difficult today to determine whether what we have in hand is fosilizada resin or other material polished by man.

Among the materials similar to amber that are in the market are pressing the amber, manufactured under a pressure of 8,200 atmospheres, building small parts and debris of the original amber; copal, a resin subfósil between resin and viscous amber; the ambroid, synthetic resin cast with small pieces of natural amber, or bernit, manufactured exclusively on synthetic resins, injected into molds in various ways.

In jewellery and archeological

The great value of amber in jewelry is due to two factors: their high aesthetic value and the relative ease of carving. The public today is very sensitive to changes that are subject to the gems to improve their appearance. In the case of amber, the changes consist mainly in the heat treatment. This treatment does not allow the use of heat "natural" for the gems that have undergone such a procedure.

Many well-known jewelry designers have been seduced by the magic left, the game color and lightness of amber, creating unique pieces in which this material is combined with gold, diamonds, rough diamonds and other precious stones. The peculiarity of amber best known outside the field of jewellery, is the conservation of plants and animals, particularly insects, within themselves, so perfect in its three dimensions, which if they were real mummies. These inclusions have the advantage of being able to study the internal organs of mosquitoes that lived millions of years ago, photographing the lungs of spiders, reconstruct fragments of DNA genetic code - remember "Jurasic Park"? -- As they are preserved in amber in a better position than in the stone. It is not science fiction, but a tangible reality laboratory scientist.

The secret preserved in amber are numerous, so that studying the amber necklace that adorns a female neck is to go beyond the fashions of different eras. It is discovering the true story of many civilizations.

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