Many people in the gem trade will not agree with what we have done with this gem, but it’s incredibly attractive and, to be quite honest, a bit of fun! One of the reasons some don’t like it is because the technique has been used for over a thousand years to make Ruby and Emerald imitations. However, that’s not what we are doing here: we are using it as a technique to make some very attractive looking Quartz for our fashionable jewellery and clearly stating what it is - Quenched Crackle Quartz! But what does it mean? Well, we take colourless Quartz, normally from Brazil, facet it and then rapidly heat it up so that it cracks (that’s the crackle). Into the cracks we pour various coloured dyes (that’s the quench) and then we cool down the gem trapping the dye inside.
