BLACK STAR DIOPSIDE GEMSTONE
Black Star Diopside is a gemstone with miraculous qualities. It can help cure depression to a great extent by helping the person to cry easily. That is why; it is sometimes termed as 'crying stone' too. Its opaque black appearance is quite impressive and can be made more interesting by achieving the asterix effect by way of cleaving it in correct orientation.
Black Star Diopside is made of Calcium Magnesium Silicate chemically. It is quite popular for the needle-like inclusions that actually take the shape of a star with four rays when cut precisely. This gemstone may be found in green colour too but that happens quite occasionally. It has also got the name 'Black Star of India' because of its major presence in India only.
Black star diopside is many a times confused with black star sapphire. When put side by side in front of you, these will easily be distinguished by the number of rays present. Sapphire actually displays six rays while this gemstone is famous for four-rayed asterix. It is a bit challenging for the lapidary to cut the stone not because of the hardness (it is actually very soft) but due to the way it should be aligned for getting all the four rays correct and visible.
Black star diopside jewellery is being made but not on large scale because of the poor scoring on Moh's scale. It can break easily when put under the hammer and so carving it to get the ornamental shape is a challenge. Still, those jewellery items like cuff-links, brooches and pendants can be made using this gemstone.
You need to be extra careful while keeping the jewellery items made of this black coloured gemstone. It should be stacked separately so that it does not get scratched by the harder contemporaries. This gemstone, however, has almost disappeared from the gemstone market and very few people are dealing in it; especially those who want to use gemstones as healers.
Black star diopside is sold only naturally to get the maximum advantage of the asterix effect that it displays. This gemstone is just quite lovable for its raw appeal and makes you go for it to add an interesting keepsake in your collection. It requires minimum care and can be made to shine by dipping in soapy water and wiping it with damp cloth.
Black star diopside, at present, needs to wait for its revival as a promising best-seller in the semi-precious gemstone market. Owing to nil demand among the users, this gemstone has simply retracted into the shell and not much is being done about its mining and promotion as of now.
