Gemstone Series: Chrome Diopside

If you haven’t seen chrome diopside before, you’re in for a treat.

Chrome diopside is a green variety of the mineral diopside. The chrome diopside I’ve used is a vivid, vibrant green, and it is less blue-ish in color than the emeralds I’ve used. It has such wonderful clarity too.

Diopside is a pyroxene mineral mineral that grows in monoclinic columnar crystals. Another cool property of diopside is that it fluoresces in black light. Diopside is a 5-6 on Moh’s hardness scale (where diamond is a 10), and it can cleave somewhat easily. Because of its relative softness, it is better suited to items like earrings and pendants, rather than rings and bracelets, which tend to get knocked around a bit.

Chrome diopside owes its green color to the presence of chromium. This beautiful green gem is mined in eastern Siberia. It is a somewhat rare gemstone, but since the recent opening of former Soviet countries to the west, it has become more readily available here. Lucky for us, because it is truly a treat!