I always have on hand amber resin. Every night I burn a small peice of amber resin on charcoal and the aroma helps my daughter and I relax and send us off to peaceful sleep. It has a calming, exotic scent and burns beautifully on the charcoal.
**SEE PIX IN PHOTOS

TRANSFORMATION
RESIN into AMBER

The process and transformation of resin into amber is not fully understood. But there are one or two elements which are recognised as being essential the following pages concentrate on these areas.

When the resin is initial exuded it is soft and tacky. The molecular structure consists of unlinked complex organic compounds. The resin then has two significant phases through which it must go in order to become amber, both relate to molecular changes, here portrayed with simple diagrams. The yellow background colour represents the general resin matrix, the green dots represent volatile turpene molecules and the blue dots represent some of the organic molecules within the resin.

The first change which takes place within the fossilising resin is the partial polymerisation of the molecular structure. The molecules begin to cross chain link and form stronger bonds. In the diagram we can see the molecular structure becoming more uniform and organised. The resin begins to take on a harder quality due to this molecular change. When rubbed vigorously a strong smell of resin is still prelevant as the sample still contains many volatile oils in the form of turpenes.This process of polymerisation may take thousands of years before the resultant material can be called copal.

Contentious arguments have been raised about whether certain sources are copal or amber. One of the most fiercely debated deposits is that found in South America, Colombia, Santander. George Poinar has proved that this particular source is very definitely copal and not amber.

The second stage involves the evaporation of volatile oils trapped within the resin its self. In this diagram the volatile oil molecules, known as turpenes are shown as green dots. They can be seen escaping from the matrix of the resin shown in yellow.

The length of time needed to reach the point at which the majority of turpenes have escaped varies dependant upon surrounding conditions and the nature of the resin at the moment of its formation. It is known that this process can take millions of years.

In brief the process follows this development:

THE RESIN-AMBER CONTINUUM

It should be noted that although the rate of transition from resin to amber is shown as a straight linear process, in reality it is variable and not at all a regular transitional mechanism.

There is one other known factor that must be present for the transformation of resin into amber to be successful. It is an anaerobic environment for most if not all of the transformational stages. Oxygen when its comes into contact with fossilising resin slowly begins to oxides its surface. This corrosive effect on the resin can progress through the entire structure until finally nothing but tiny chips and pieces remain. For the most part the anaerobic environment is achieved through immersion in water, frequently sea water. The Baltic and Dominican Republic amber sites both show evidence of long term immersion in a sea water environment. This has been determined through fossils found in situ with the amber its self. Here is a photograph of a shell attachment which obviously adhered to the amber over a long period of immersion, in this particular case, the Baltic sea.

Where amber has lost its anaerobic environment its can very quickly succumb to the effects of oxidation. Even jewellery a few decades old can show the distinct signs of crazing and cracking on its surface which are clear indications of oxygen attacking the amber's surface.

Andrew Ross of the Natural History Museum in London pictured below with part of the useums amber collection informed me in some recent correspondence that the sediment in which the resin is laid down may also play a significant role in the process of 'amberisation'. He makes the following observation:

'The amberisation process appears to be more complicated. Borneo amber is of Middle Miocene age. Specimens that come from sandstone beds are dark and undoubtedly true amber (no reaction with alcohol), however specimens that come from clay beds of the same age are yellow and are copal (react with alcohol). Clearly the kind of sediment is very important in this process'

This issue will be further referred to in his book on amber which is due to published hopefully sometime in 1998.

Very old deposits,dating back to the Cretaceous produce amber in small pieces. Sizes larger than 1-2 cm in diameter are unusual and rare. For the most part they are tiny individual pieces. This is predominately due to the extreme age of these sources and the long term effects of the atmosphere upon the resin once the anaerobic protection ceased.

Heat and pressure may also play a crucial role in the formation of amber. But precisely what mechanisms they support and how they effect the transformation is not fully understood, though it is likely that they impact in some way upon the polymerisation and turpene evaporation process.

Amber: the Jurassic gem
Dinosaurs have been more popular than ever since their starring role in the film Jurassic Park. A more surprising result of the film's popularity has been a worldwide surge in demand for amber jewellery. Although amber's use in adornment is probably as old as mankind itself, in recent times it has had a limited market. Of course, that was before millions of people saw dinosaur DNA extracted from a mosquito trapped in amber in the film.

Millions of people learned from the film that amber, which is fossilised pine tree resin, is ancient and valuable, like an antique from history.

Demand is especially strong for amber with insects inside it. "Amber is like a time capsule made and placed in the earth by nature herself," said David Federman, author of the Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones. "It has helped paleontologists reconstruct life on earth in its primal phases. More than 1,000 extinct species of insects have been identified in amber."

The two main sources of amber on the market today are the Baltic states and the Dominican Republic. Amber from the former is older, and thus preferred on the market, but that obtained from the latter is more likely to have insect inclusions. Amber prices can range from $20 to $40,000 or more.

Fortunately for new amber enthusiasts, amber from the Baltic states is more widely available on the market than it was in previous years thanks to the liberalisation of the economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The largest mine in the Baltic region is in Russia, west of Kaliningrad. Baltic amber is found in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, and occasionally washed up on the shores of the Baltic Sea as far away as Denmark, Norway, and England. Other amber sources include Myanmar (formerly Burma), Lebanon, Sicily, Mexico, Romania, Germany, and Canada.

The desire for amber is nothing new. Amber artefacts dating back to the Stone Age have been found in what is now Germany and Denmark.

Made by the sun

"Stone Age man imbued amber with supernatural properties and used it to wear and to worship," says Mr Federman. "Amber took on great value and significance to, among others, the Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks. It never completely went out of vogue since the Stone Age. Between 1895 and 1900, one million kilograms of Baltic amber were produced for jewelry."

There are many myths surrounding the origin of amber. Ovid wrote that when Phaethon, a son of Helios, the sun, convinced his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun through the heavens for a day, he erred too close to the earth, scorching it. To save the earth, Zeus struck Phaethon with a thunderbolt and he died, plunging out of the sky. His mother and sister turned into trees in their grief but still mourned him. Their tears, dried by the sun, are amber.

The Greeks called amber 'elektron', sun-made, perhaps because of this story, or perhaps because it becomes electrically charged when rubbed with a cloth and can attract small particles. Homer mentions amber jewellery - earrings and a necklace of amber beads - as a princely gift in the Odyssey.

Another ancient writer, Nicias, said that amber was the juice or essence of the setting sun congealed in the sea and cast up on the shore.

The Romans sent armies to conquer and control amber-producing areas. The Emperor Nero was a great connoisseur of amber. During his time, according to the Roman historian Pliny, the price of an amber figurine, no matter how small, exceeded the price of a healthy slave.

The ancient Germans burned amber as incense, so they called it 'bernstein', or 'burn stone'. Clear colourless amber was considered the best material for rosary beads in the Middle Ages on account of its smooth silky feel. Certain orders of knights controlled the trade, and unauthorised possession of raw amber was illegal in most of Europe by the year 1400.

What secrets might amber hold?

So could a mosquito trapped in amber really contain dinosaur DNA? Most amber just isn't old enough, having had some 25 to 50 million birthdays at the most. The dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The Jurassic period was 144 million years ago. But in 1994, Dr Raul Cano of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, a molecular biologist, reported in the British journal 'Nature' that he and his colleagues had extracted DNA from a weevil that was trapped in amber 120 to 135 million years ago, when dinosaurs did indeed roam the earth.

The amber, which was from the Lower Cretaceous period, was mined in the mountains of Lebanon south of Beirut by Aftim Acra, who has a collection of amber pieces containing 700 insects, including termites, moths, caterpillars, spiders, pseudoscorpions, and midges, which do, after all, suck their host's blood.

Amber- said to be the most magickally used stones by the Witches Of The Old Religion, protection of children, spell strengthner, attract money, overall all purpose gem.

Amber is a fossil resin much used for the manufacture of ornamental objects. Although not mineralized it is sometimes considered and used as a gemstone. Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30–90 million years old. Semi-fossilized resin or sub-fossil amber is called copal.

The English name comes from the Arabic عنبر, ʻanbar, probably through Spanish , but this word referred originally to ambergris, which is an animal substance quite distinct from yellow amber. True amber has sometimes been called kahroba, a word of Persian derivation signifying "that which attracts straw", in allusion to the power which amber possesses of acquiring an electric charge by friction. This property, first recorded by Thales of Miletus, suggested the word "electricity", from the Greek, elektron, a name applied, however, not only to amber but also to an alloy of gold and silver. By Latin writers amber is variously called electrum, sucinum (succinum), and glaesum or glesum. The Old Hebrew חשמל hashmal seems to have meant amber, although Modern Hebrew uses Arabic-inspired ענבר `inbar while חשמל hashmal means electricity.

The German word is Bernstein ("burn stone"), which comes from the Middle Low German bernen which means burning, this word is a cognate to Dutch barnsteen. This is likely related to the fact that amber can, indeed, burn. The Polish bursztyn was derived from the German word (like burmistrz or rotmistrz).

Amber, which has no primitive uses, has been found at Neolithic sites far from its source on the shores of the Baltic sea, mute witness, like obsidian, to long-distance trade routes established before the Bronze Age. There is strong evidence for the theory that the Baltic coasts during the advanced civilization of the Nordic Bronze Age was the source of most amber in Europe, for example the amber jewelry found in graves from Mycenaean Greece has been found to originate from the Baltic Sea, specifically from the Samland area. Amber was mentioned by Homer, Hesiod (Theogony 337f.) Aristotle, Plato and others. Pliny the Elder complains that a small statue of amber costs more than a healthy slave. Tacitus in his Germania talks about the Aesti people as the only ones to gather amber from the Baltic Sea and who call it glaes (the -um ending is the latinised version).

Since the 13th century craftsmen Paternostermacher also called Bernsteindreher guilds are recorded in the Hanseatic cities, such as Lübeck, Danzig (Gdańsk), Elbing (Elbląg) and Stolp (Słupsk). Daniel Barholz, the city notary of Elbing, recorded in 1646, that the city council has in its employment Bernsteindreher (translation: amber turners).

During the 15th century, the Teutonic Knights controlled the production of amber in Europe, forbidding its unauthorised collection from beaches on the Baltic coastline under their jurisdiction, and punishing breakers of this ordinance with death. The Teutonic Order transported amber from Prussian Samland (Sambia) coast to the other cities, to be worked on by these special craftsmen.

The Paternostermacher (translation: Lord's Prayer (bead) makers) were represented in Paternostermacherämter (Guild Halls). These craftsmen also created the legendary Bernsteinzimmer (Amber Room) which was donated to Russian Tsar Peter the Great in 1716.

One can still go all along the Baltic Sea coastline of Germany (and since 1919 also Poland) and fish for amber with a net, the way it used to be fished for many centuries. In the Deutsches Bernstein Museum (German Amber Museum) at Ribnitz-Damgarten one can watch the Bernsteindreher at work, as well as try doing some of the polishing.

Amber is heterogeneous in composition, but consists of several resinous bodies more or less soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform, associated with an insoluble bituminous substance. Amber is a macromolecule by free radical polymerization of several precursors in the labdane family, communic acid, cummunol and biformene [1]. Labdanes are tetrameric terpenes (C20H32) and trienes which means that the organic skeleton has three alkene groups available for polymerization. As amber matures over the years, more polymerization will take place as well as isomerization reactions, crosslinking and cyclization. The average composition of amber leads to the general formula C10H16O.

Heating amber will soften it and eventually it will burn, which is why the German word for amber is bernstein. Heated rather below 200°C, amber suffers decomposition, yielding an "oil of amber", and leaving a black residue which is known as "amber colophony", or "amber pitch"; when dissolved in oil of turpentine or in linseed oil this forms "amber varnish" or "amber lac".

True amber yields on dry distillation succinic acid, the proportion varying from about 3 to 8%, and being greatest in the pale opaque or bony varieties. The aromatic and irritating fumes emitted by burning amber are mainly due to this acid. True Baltic amber is distinguished by its yield of succinic acid, for many of the other fossil resins which are often termed amber contain either none of it, or only a very small proportion; hence the name succinite proposed by Professor James Dwight Dana, and now commonly used in scientific writings as a specific term for the real Prussian amber. Succinite has a hardness between 2 and 3, which is rather greater than that of many other fossil resins. Its specific gravity varies from 1.05 to 1.10. An effective tool for Amber analysis is IR spectroscopy. It enables the distinction between baltic amber and non-Baltic varieties because of a specific carbonyl absorption and it can also detect the relative age of an amber sample.

The Baltic amber or succinite (historically documented as Prussian amber) is found as irregular nodules in a marine glauconitic sand, known as blue earth, occurring in the Lower Oligocene strata of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast, where it is now systematically mined [2]. It appears, however, to have been partly derived from yet earlier Tertiary deposits (Eocene); and it occurs also as a derivative mineral in later formations, such as the drift. Relics of an abundant flora occur as inclusions trapped within the amber while the resin was yet fresh, suggesting relations with the flora of Eastern Asia and the southern part of North America. Heinrich Göppert named the common amber-yielding pine of the Baltic forests Pinites succiniter, but as the wood, according to some authorities, does not seem to differ from that of the existing genus it has been also called Pinius succinifera. It is improbable, however, that the production of amber was limited to a single species; and indeed a large number of conifers belonging to different genera are represented in the amber-flora.

The resin contains, in addition to the beautifully preserved plant-structures, numerous remains of insects, spiders, annelids, crustaceans and other small organisms which became enveloped while the exudation was fluid. In most cases the organic structure has disappeared, leaving only a cavity, with perhaps a trace of chitin. Even hair and feathers have occasionally been represented among the enclosures. Fragments of wood frequently occur, with the tissues well-preserved by impregnation with the resin; while leaves, flowers and fruits are occasionally found in marvelous perfection. Sometimes the amber retains the form of drops and stalactites, just as it exuded from the ducts and receptacles of the injured trees. The abnormal development of resin has been called succinosis. Impurities are quite often present, especially when the resin dropped on to the ground, so that the material may be useless except for varnish-making, whence the impure amber is called firniss. Enclosures of pyrites may give a bluish colour to amber. The so-called black amber is only a kind of jet. Bony amber owes its cloudy opacity to minute bubbles in the interior of the resin. In the Dominican Republic exists a type of amber known as the blue amber.

Locations and utilization
Although amber is found along the shores of a large part of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the great amber-producing country is the promontory of Sambia, now part of Russia. Pieces of amber torn from the sea-floor are cast up by the waves, and collected at ebb-tide. Sometimes the searchers wade into the sea, furnished with nets at the end of long poles, by means of which they drag in the sea-weed containing entangled masses of amber; or they dredge from boats in shallow water and rake up amber from between the boulders. Divers have been employed to collect amber from the deeper waters. Systematic dredging on a large scale was at one time carried on in the Curonian Lagoon by Messrs Stantien and Becker, the great amber merchants of Königsberg. At the present time extensive mining operations are conducted in quest of amber. The pit amber was formerly dug in open works, but is now also worked by underground galleries. The nodules from the blue earth have to be freed from matrix and divested of their opaque crust, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. The sea-worn amber has lost its crust, but has often acquired a dull rough surface by rolling in sand.

Amber is extensively used for beads and other ornaments, and for cigar-holders and the mouth-pieces of pipes. It is regarded by the Turks as specially valuable, inasmuch as it is said to be incapable of transmitting infection as the pipe passes from mouth to mouth. The variety most valued in the East is the pale straw-coloured, slightly cloudy amber. Some of the best qualities are sent to Vienna for the manufacture of smoking appliances. In working amber, it is turned on the lathe and polished with whitening and water or with rotten stone and oil, the final lustre being given by friction with flannel. During the working much electricity is developed.

When gradually heated in an oil-bath, amber becomes soft and flexible. Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. Cloudy amber may be clarified in an oil-bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores to which the turbidity is due. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish, are now utilized on a large scale in the formation of "ambroid" or "pressed amber". The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then compressed into a uniform mass by intense hydraulic pressure; the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. The product is extensively used for the production of cheap jewellery and articles for smoking. This pressed amber yields brilliant interference colours in polarized light. Amber has often been imitated by other resins like copal and kauri, as well as by celluloid and even glass. True amber is sometimes coloured artificially.

Amber was much valued as an ornamental material in very early times. It has been found in Mycenaean tombs; it is known from lake-dwellings in Switzerland, and it occurs with neolithic remains in Denmark, whilst in England it is found with interments of the bronze age. A remarkably fine cup turned in amber from a bronze-age barrow at Hove is now in the Brighton Museum. Beads of amber occur with Anglo-Saxon relics in the south of England; and up to a comparatively recent period the material was valued as an amulet. It is still believed to possess a certain medicinal virtue.

Rolled pieces of amber, usually small but occasionally of very large size, may be picked up on the east coast of England, having probably been washed up from deposits under the North Sea. Cromer is the best-known locality, but it occurs also on other parts of the Norfolk coast, such as Great Yarmouth, as well as Southwold, Aldeburgh and Felixstowe in Suffolk, and as far south as Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, whilst northwards it is not unknown in Yorkshire. On the other side of the North Sea, amber is found at various localities on the coast of the Netherlands and Denmark. On the shores of the Baltic it occurs not only on the German and Polish coast but in the south of Sweden, in Bornholm and other islands, and in southern Finland. Amber has indeed a very wide distribution, extending over a large part of northern Europe and occurring as far east as the Urals. Some of the amber districts of the Baltic and North Sea were known in prehistoric times, and led to early trade with the south of Europe through the Amber Road. Amber was carried to Olbia on the Black Sea, Massilia (today Marseille) on the Mediterranean, and Adria at the head of the Adriatic; and from these centres it was distributed over the Hellenic world.

The Amber Room was a collection of chamber wall panels commissioned in 1701 for the king of Prussia, then given to Tsar Peter the Great. The room was hidden in place from invading Nazi forces in 1941, who upon finding it in the Cathrine Palace, disassembled it and moved it to Königsberg. What happened to the room beyond this point is unclear. It is presumed lost. It was re-created in 2003.

The Amber Room was reconstructed from the Kaliningrad amber.Since the establishment of the Amber Road amber (which is also commonly referred to as the "Lithuanian gold") has substantially contributed to Lithuanian economy and culture. Nowadays a great variety of amber jewelry and amberware is offered to foreign tourists in most souvenir shops as distinctive to Lithuania and its cultural heritage.

Amber and certain similar substances are found to a limited extent at several localities in the United States, as in the green-sand of New Jersey, but they have little or no economic value. A fluorescent amber occurs in the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico, and is used extensively to create eye-catching jewellery. Blue amber is recorded in the Dominican Republic. These Central American ambers are formed from the resins of Legume trees (Hymenea) and not conifers.


Varieties
Besides succinite, which is the common variety of European amber, the following varieties also occur:

Gedanite, or brittle amber, closely resembling succinite, but much more brittle, not quite so hard, with a lower melting point and containing no succinic acid. It is often covered with a white powder easily removed by wiping. The name comes from Gedanum, the Latin name of Gdańsk at the Baltic Sea.
Stantienite, a brittle, deep brownish-black resin, destitute of succinic acid.
Beckerite, a rare amber in earthy-brown nodules, almost opaque, said to be related in properties to gutta-percha.
Glessite, a nearly opaque brown dark resin, with numerous microscopic cavities and dusty enclosures, named from glesum, an old name for amber.
Krantzite, a soft red amber-like resin, found in the lignites of Saxony.
Allingite, a fossil resin allied to succinite, from Switzerland.
Roumanite, or Romanian amber, a dark reddish resin, occurring with lignite in Tertiary deposits. The nodules are penetrated by cracks, but the material can be worked on the lathe. Sulphur is present to the extent of more than 1%, whence the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen when the resin is heated. According to Gheorghe Murgoci the Romanian amber is true succinite.
Simetite, or Sicilian amber, takes its name from the river Simeto or Giaretta. It occurs in lower Miocene deposits and is also found washed up by the sea near Catania. This beautiful material presents a great diversity of tints, but a rich hyacinth red is common. It is remarkable for its fluorescence, which in the opinion of some authorities adds to its beauty. Amber is also found in many localities in Emilia, especially near the sulphur-mines of Cesena. It has been conjectured that the ancient Etruscan ornaments in amber were wrought in the Italian material, but it seems that amber from the Baltic reached the Etruscans at Hatria. It has even been supposed that amber passed from Sicily to northern Europe in early times - a supposition said to receive some support from the fact that much of the amber dug up in Denmark is red; but it must not be forgotten that reddish amber is found also on the Baltic, though not being fashionable it is used rather for varnish-making than for ornaments. Moreover, yellow amber after long burial is apt to acquire a reddish colour. The amber of Sicily seems not to have been recognized in ancient times, for it is not mentioned by local authorities like Diodorus Siculus.
Burmite is the name under which the Burmese amber is now described. Until the British occupation of Burma but little was known as to its occurrence, though it had been worked for centuries and was highly valued by the natives and by the Chinese. It is found in flat rolled pieces, irregularly distributed through a blue clay probably of Miocene age. It occurs in the Hukawng valley, in the Nangotaimaw hills, where it is irregularly worked in shallow pits. The mines were visited some years ago by Dr Fritz Noetling, and the mineral has been described by Dr Otto Helm. The Burmese amber is yellow or reddish, some being of ruby tint, and like the Sicilian amber it is fluorescent. Burmite and simetite agree also in being destitute of succinic acid. Most of the Burmese amber is worked at Mandalay into rosary-beads and ear-cylinders.
Many other fossil resins more or less allied to amber have been described. Schraufite is a reddish resin from the Carpathian sandstone, and it occurs with jet in the Cretaceous rocks of the Lebanon; ambrite is a resin found in many of the coals of New Zealand; retinite occurs in the lignite of Bovey Tracey in Devonshire and elsewhere; whilst copaline has been found in the London Clay of Highgate in North London. Chemawinite or cedarite is an amber-like resin from the Saskatchewan river in Canada.

Protection, magickal workings, solar energy (fire)

Clear yellow or orange ancient petrified resin (possibly pine tree).
Electromagnetic. Opens solar plexus chakra for mental clarity, moods balance, confidence.
Stomach anxiety, spine, Central Nervous System, brain, memory loss, cell regeneration.
Aligns mental and emotional bodies via orange and yellow CTRS.
Excellent detoxification and protection from radiation, especially x-rays, sun, computers, airport, planes and others' energies.
Sacred use (incense/worn) by Asian and American Indians, and worldwide.
H: 2-2.5; CTR: 3; T

Allows the body to heal itself by changing negative to positive energies. Increases physical vitality. Promotes unconditional love. Gives the ability to make correct choices. Has purifying and rebirthing energy.

Birthstones-turquoise, blue zircon, blue topaz

Turquoise - Turquoise is a blue, green or a bluish green hydrous aluminum phosphate that is colored by copper.
The name means "Turkish stone" so named as the trade route that brought it to Europe originally came through Turkey.
Legends & Lore: Turquoise has been used for a long time, since before 4000 BC; Turquoise is believed to give the wearer
clarity, calm and the ability to start something new. It also brings spoils to the warrior, animals to the hunter, and happiness
and good fortune to all.

Blue Zircon - Blue zircon should be gently cleaned and abrasives should be avoided. Blue zircon is mined in Kampuchea,
Sri Lanka and Burma. Legends & Lore: In Greek Mythology, a young boy named Hyacinth was killed where his blood spilled gorgeous Grecian blue hyacinths grew. Pliny compared the blue zircon to the hyacinth. During the Middle Ages, zircon was believed to promote sleep, riches, honor and wisdom. It also drove away plagues and evil spirits; In the 1880's blue zircon was widely used in Victorian jewelry; Heating yellow zircon creates blue zircon.

Blue Topaz - A recent addition to the December birthstones is the blue topaz. Most blue topaz is artificially created by irradiation
of pale topaz. Legends & Lore: One famous blue topaz was found in 1904 in the Hill Country of Mason County, Texas, North America's largest known gem-quality Topaz discovery. This 1,296-gram, pale-blue gem may be seen in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.; Blue topaz was designated the Texas state gem in 1969.