The word Jasper means, “spotted or speckled stone”, it comes from the Greek word iaspisand latin iaspidem. Jasper is one of the oldest known gemstones and was very popular in ancient times. It has been written about in Greek, Hebrew, Assyrian, Persian, and Latin engravings, as well as in the Bible. But in those ancient times, what was known as jasper was a totally different stone from what we call jasper today; he was referring only to the transparent green varieties. Jasper is one of the birthstones for the Virgo sun sign and the mystical birthstone for the month of October. There are many varieties and names for jasper; They refer to their employers or their places of origin.
Jasper is like an opaque, fine-grained variety of Chalcedony. Some scientists place it in a group by itself within the quartz group due to its granular structure. It contains eighty percent chalcedony and twenty percent opal, quartz, and rare minerals. Uniformly colored jasper is very rare; most jasper is opaque and can display many different color patterns. The strange minerals it contains form its colors, streaks, spots, and appearance. There are over fifty varieties of jasper, but the most prized jasper gemstones have a combination of red and green patterns. Jasper colors include: red, brown, pink, yellow, green, grey/white, and shades of blue and purple. It has a dull shine, but when polished develops a nice shine. Jasper is at a 6.5 – 7 on the Mohs scale.
Jasper is typically found in the veins and crevices of volcanic rocks, often in conjunction with chalcedony and agate. Jasper veins occasionally occur in igneous rocks, for example, in granite. All jaspers are formed in a minimum of two steps. The tiny particles first settle in layers, then the layers are held together with a liquid silica solution. Jasper can go through many more steps in his training. Many jaspers are named for the region where they are found or for their color patterns. Some names include: Picture, Red, Kambaba, Landscape, Biggs, Frog Skin, Zebra, Mookite, Brecciated Mookiate, Brecciated, Picasso, Artistic, Exotica, Succor, Wilow Creek, Dalmation, Cobra, Ghost’s Eye, Dallasite, Dendrite, Stone Canyon , Plume, Bamboo, Lizard Skin, Polychrome, Desert, Ocean, Orbical, Poppy, Montana Bark, Snake Skin, Owyhee, Fancy, Spiderman, Starburst, Leopard Skin, Rainforest or Rhyolite, Morgan Hill Poppy, Donkey Jasper.
Jasper is used in making all kinds of decorative objects as well as jewelry. It is a beautiful gemstone that many people like to collect. This is due to the different color patterns that it can possess.