Do you know…? – Amber Experts

What is presented in the Trend book 2021?

Amber Experts — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 11:09:25 +0000

Trend book 2021

The latest trends in jewelry with Baltic amber

architectonix | talisman | slowstainable | glitch | entwined

Works of invited designers, students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and designers participating in the Loupe residency program – Chow Tai Fook Jewelery Group in Hong Kong.

architectonix

A clear nod towards Constructivist geometry

talisman

Reffering to the anthropologically oldest function of jewelery

slowstainable

As an portmanteau of the notions of ‘slow’

and ‘sustainable’ with a strong reference

to the idea of sustainable design.

glitch

Apretext for the creative use of computer techniques.

entwined

An intercultural invitation to learn about the jewelery tradition of ancient and contemporary China through the requirement to combine amber and jade.

AmberExperts was the co-organiser of the project.

how baltic amber can be treated to change the colour?

Amber Experts — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 09:44:33 +0000

treated gemstones according to CIBJO Blue Book

Baltic amber, like diamonds, coloured gemstones, corals or pearls may have been subjected to special treatments. Usually to change their colour, durability, stability and/or clarity.

Historical

The oldest records about improving the colour and transparency of gemstones are dated back nearly 4,000 years.

In ancient Rome, amber was also treated, if only to change its colour to a darker one and improve its clarity. For this purpose, slow cooking in fat of young goats was used and sometimes it was also dyed in different colours.

What happend with amber during treatment?

During heat and heat/pressure treatment of Baltic amber chemical processes occured:

Oxidation process
Loss of volatile compounds
Saturation of multiple chemical bonds

Colour changes

Baltic amber colours can be changed in autoclave.

We can receive a wide range of colours:

light yellow (lemon)
orange (cognac)
dark red (cherry)

The darker colours received during heating are only on the surface of amber. The colour change does not penetrate deep inside the stone. Thanks to the further processing, interesting colour transitions of tones can be obtained.

sun Spangles

Visual effect of heat treatment and internal stress round fractures. ‘Sun spangles’ gained popularity in the 1970s to 1990s. Especially in Germany.

Green amber

The green colour of Baltic amber is an optical effect. Very interesting and fascinating to look inside. It is made by light yellow treated amber with sun spangles painted or burned downside.

How amber is gained?

Amber Experts — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 17:27:15 +0000

Amber appears in specimens of less than 1g and up to pieces of 10 kg.

How do people get the amber?

Amber sources in the past

People picked up the first pieces of amber from the Baltic beaches in prehistoric times.

Other methods:

Amber-scooping
Amber-poking
Amber diving
First open-pit mining

Amber from the baltic sea

On the Baltic beaches, amber can be most frequently found after winter storms. The waves wash it out of the sediments and the currents move it to the beaches along with sticks and tree remnants.

Night amber fishing with uv lights is very popular. Amber has visible fluorescence in ultraviolet light and is easy to find during the night.

Amber fishermen often say:

We do not find amber, amber finds us!

Open-pit mines

Amber and glauconite (blue earth) mining from palaeogenic shallow sea sediments (Russia, Poland, Ukraine). Depth about 15-30 m.

Hydromechanical exploitation

From Holocene secondary deposits, f.e. former beaches (Poland, near Gdańsk). Depth approx. 2-15 m.

post Ice age finds. Several ice ages have changed the landscape of Europe. It has moved many boulders, rocks, sand and amber. Amber transported and lost by the ice sheet can be found all over the Central European Lowlands.

Let’s find it!

What is the name of amber in different languages?

Amber Experts — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 16:58:16 +0000

english

The English name for amber is derived from the Arabic word anbar, originally used to describe ambergris (Eng. ambra).

arabic

كهرمان Kahraman

Borrowed from Persian kahrobâ (کهربا). Similar names are found in the region of Central Asia.

polish

The Polish name for amber (bursztyn) is derived from the German word Bernstein, meaning a stone that burns.

ambre, ámbar, âmbar, ambra

French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

Slavic and Baltic languages

Slavic and Baltic languages trace the name for amber back to the Phoenician word yainitar (sea resin), with the Slavic yantar (Russian янтарь), Lithuanian gintaras, Latvian dzintars, Slovenian jantar…

tiger soul

琥珀 (Hǔpò)

The meaning of Chinese name amber translates as Tiger Soul.

“When the tiger dies, its soul enters the earth and transforms into stone”.

nordic countries

Swedish – bärnsten

Norwegian, Danish – rav

Icelandic – raf

Finnish – meripihka

Other languages

Merevaik (Estonian), Sukceno (Esperanto), Κεχριμπάρι (Greek), Borostyán (Hungarian), Hổ phách (Vietnamese), Chihlimbar (Romanian), 호박 (Korean), कहरुवा (Nepali), อำพัน (Thai), ပယင် (Burmese).

What is the chemical formula of Baltic amber?

Amber Experts — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 16:10:23 +0000

Baltic amber is fascinating biogenic gemstone

Full of secrets and mystery. It has been the subject of intensive research in a wide variety of scientific disciplines for more than 500 years!

There is no complete information about the structure, composition and structure of Baltic amber.

What we know?

The first described important chemical research on amber was conducted by Georgius Agricola in the 16th century. He carried out a dry distillation of amber. He obtained a very important product of this process, later recognized as succinic acid.

The main chemical elements of succinite are carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H)

Research has also shown the presence of chemical elements: sulfur (S), nitrogen (N), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), nickel (Ni), silicon (Si).

The content of chemical elements is variable.

With Gas Chromatography (GC) and Mass Spectrometry (MS) ~50 chemical compounds can be separated from Baltic amber.

The chemical structure of amber is not homogenous.

The structure is based on two phases:

micromolecular (soluble)
macromolecular (insoluble)

Macromolecular skeleton is composed of polymerized and partially condensed combinations of compounds of the primary nature of diterpenoids.

In the free spaces of the structure there are monoterpenoids, sesquiterpenoids, free succinic acid and its esters, diterpenoids and products of diagenesis. These can be obtained for research by solvent extraction.

Baltic amber contains 3-8% of succinic acid

It occurs in free form and is bound by chemical and possibly physical bonds in the structure of succinite.

What are the colour varieties of Baltic amber?

Amber Experts — Fri, 07 May 2021 06:22:35 +0000

On the surface of the nugget of Baltic amber there is a skin – the colour is darker than the inside.

This is caused by the weathering process which started on the surface and was brought about by warmth, light and humidity. It is worth discovering what colour is inside.

Today we can see the effect of the resin transformation and conditions in which amber was hidden for millions of years.

Baltic amber appears in a wide variety of colours – we know more than 200! There is no two the same Baltic amber nuggets.

Yellow amber

The most common colour of Baltic amber. It was believed that yellow amber was the stone of the sun.

The spectrum of yellow colour is very wide. The common names for yellow shades are – honey, gold, fatty amber or chicken fat, bees wax.

Baltic amber is not always monochromatic. There are unique combinations of two or more colours or shades. When resin transformed into amber the colour remained or varied according to changes in the resin itself – presence of the volatile components and oxidation process.

The dark tones in the Baltic amber are created by high concentration of plant debris.

Bluish Baltic amber

Baltic amber differs from blue Dominican amber. Bluish shade is very rare. This shade is an effect of intrusions of pyrite (FeS2). When resin landed in soil saturated with pyrite this mineral entered small cracks in the resin.

Baltic amber the living stone

Amber colours are not a permanent feature.

We can observe colour changes over the time – starting from the surface – they darken, become more intense and more saturated.

Why did the trees release their resin so abundantly?

Amber Experts — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 17:01:13 +0000

Was it a natural biological process?
Was it due to climate fluctuations?
Were the causes external – strong injuries to trees or their diseases?

The most likely cause was the volcanic activity.

Late Paleocene volcanic activity was related to the movements of the earth’s crust. This was the beginning of the division of Fennoscandia.

The cloud of ash fell on amber forrest, coated the leaves, branches and tree trunks. The trees defended themselves and began to release resin.

Trees secrete resins for their protective benefits in response to injury. Wound trauma to a tree can stimulate the production of traumatic resin canals. Resin helps containing the injury and help in healing any resulting infection.

Resin:

has high antiseptic qualities that prevent decay
lower the amount of water lost from the plant’s tissues
protects the tree from insects and pathogens.

Where was the amber forest?

Amber Experts — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 20:07:57 +0000

The forests in which the amber-bearing trees grew occupied an ancient continent called Fenoscandia.

In the Paleogene, this area included the present territories of Finland, Sweden, southern Norway, part of the Baltic Sea and the northern part of European Russia. The Scandinavian Mountains stretched to the North.

These forests may have appeared 45 million years ago and had grown for 10 million years.

There were many humid river valleys, lakes, puddles and swamps in the forest.

Based on the study of inclusions in the Baltic amber, scientists say that there was a large variety of plants in the forest. There grew oaks, araucaria, pine trees, beeches, red chestnuts, elms, laurels, willows, maple trees as well as palm trees, magnolias and cinnamon trees. Grasses, ferns and moss grew in the undergrowth. The soil of the amber forest was covered with a layer of organic matter and decomposing wood.

From the sizes of the amber nuggets formed in the resin pockets we can determine beyond doubt that the trees of the amber forest were huge.

Today, the amber forest can be found even in the very popular online game – Minecraft 🙂

Other Baltic amber properties?

Amber Experts — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 18:11:27 +0000

Amber is not rock-hard

Hardness on the Mohs scale is 2 to 2,5. It can be scratched with a needle, amber is easy to drill, saw, grind, polish and turn on the lathe.

MIcrohardness

More precise characteristic than hardness is equal 199-290 MPa (19.9-29 kG/mm2).

Amber can be split in any direction

All forms have a shiny conchoidal fracture surface.

electron

The ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing their amber pieces to remove dust and dirt only made the amber collect more debris.

Amber becomes electrostatically charged and attract scraps.

The urge to understand this eventually led to our current knowledge of electricity.

Amber is a good insulator

The electrons are held quite tightly and are not free to move easily from place to place. Charge cannot flow along or through an insulator, so its electric forces remain for long periods of time. Charge will dissipate from an insulator, given enough time.

Baltic amber properties ?

Amber Experts — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 20:09:57 +0000

succinite

Amber is not a stone. It is organic in origin. Minearological name for Baltic amber is succinite.

amorphous structure

Amber does not have a regular molecular structure – it is not crystalline like diamond. Amber structure is amorphous like glass.

amber is light

A piece of amber weighs less than half the weight of a rock of the same size.

Transparent Baltic amber has higher specific gravity -1,1 g/cm3 than the opaque white one – 0,93 g/cm3.

In fresh water (1,0 g/cm3) it sinks to the bottom, in a concentrated salt solution it will float.

bernstein – burn-stone

Amber burns owing to its composition of various organic substances.

It burns with a bright, sooty flame, emitting black smoke and diffusing a pleasant smell reminiscent of pine resin.

The German word for amber is Bernstein – burn-stone.

Melting point approximately 375C.