Notes on Gems,Materials and other musings
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On 24k gold 24k gold has qualities about it unlike any other metal. It becomes clear when you work with it why cultures have used it to symbolize the sun, what is holy, and why it was the focus of the work of the Alchemists. Most metals are alloys, meaning they are a mix of metals. 24k is pure gold. When you put a flame to alloyed metals and then take the flame away, the inferior metals rise to the surface and then they oxidize and turn the surface a dark color. You then have to buff that dark shading away. Unlike that, when you put a flame to 24k and then take the flame away, the gold simply retains its luminous color. It retains it's integrity. It is also extremely ductile. One ounce can be drawn into a thin wire 50 miles long. Or it can be pounded into a sheet that covers 9 square meters. As a base on which to put mantra, I find it unequal to any other metal. It is pure, retains its integrity under fire, and due to its molecular structure, reflects more light than other metals. On Opals Opal is made of tiny, microscopic spheres of silica. It is these tiny spheres that give opal its amazing colors by breaking white light up into rays of different colors. When white light enters a precious opal, it hits the spheres of silica. The spheres split light into rays of different wavelengths, which we see as different colors. The colors and patterns in an opal are determined primarily by the size and arrangement of the silica spheres it contains.
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