Natural Amber, without enhancement, just the way it is found in the mines, has become rare. You wouldn’t believe what is being sold as “Natural Amber”. This especially true when you look at the commonly available Baltic amber. Mainly East European amber companies promote the advantages of their amber: they have dominated the amber trade and have given Baltic amber a prominent place throughout the world. Altering the colour and clarity of amber has been known since Roman times. Experiments would lead to astonishing results. For instance, amber would be boiled in the fat of a suckling pig, rap seed oil etc. Being part of history, most of the treatment are considered perfectly acceptable. On top of it most people don’t know or care if this real amber has been treated or modified from it’s original stage. But some do. Nevertheless, most dealers are not educated enough to know the difference between natural amber and treated amber – or don’t want to know. ”Very few people actually can tell you what is genuine amber no less tell a fake from the real thing when they look at it,” according to Gary Granai of the Poland Chamber, Inc. ”This includes people who are selling amber.” As a result, natural Baltic amber in it’s original form is not found very often on the market. Most of what is offered is an industrialized product , treated and enhanced, reconstructed and improved. As an example, many times you can recognize treated amber by the famous “sun spangles” (flints or scales). In some cases, the back of an amber cabochon would be painted and re-heated to produce green amber. In combinations with advertisements like: “The deep forests of our wide land produced this natural green color” or similar Business Speech (B.S.) gets the phantasy of the buyer going and the customer falls for it. There is also pressed Baltic amber (from small pieces, meal and rejects melted together under high pressure, called “genuine amber”) and even “ambroid” (pieces of real amber imbedded in plastic) that are found on the market. Pressed amber is generally very even in color, the way you can see it in some commercially available Baltic amber jewelry. Real natural amber as it comes from the mines, is never as even. Careful: the best varieties of pressed Baltic amber are not discernible from natural Baltic amber. After the treatment, it still possesses the features of “succinite”, so it is permitted to be called “real amber”. If you are interested in purchasing only natural amber, make sure to get confirmation or certificate that you buy NATURAL amber, subject only to mechanical treatment (for instance: grinding, cutting, turning and polishing) without any change to its natural properties. So you sell what the gullible public wants. Regrettably, no matter how persistently the International Amber Association tries to get the manufactures and dealers to declare the nature of their goods, and to weed out the good from the bad, the black sheep in the heard are taking over the white with the help of the gullible public. Bottom line is that if you want to be 100% sure that you are buying Natural Amber without any doubt, buy Dominican Amber. Dominican ‘amberos‘ are much to “primitive” to improve their amber. They don’t need to do it either. Because Dominican amber is beautiful by itself… naturally.

naturalamber.info

Natural Amber Colors
Dominican Origin

Natural Colors of Dominican Amber

Natural Colors of Dominican Amber

This is natural Dominican amber. It is the REAL thing, natural amber just the way it comes from the mines.  Some confound Dominican amber (20 to 40 million years old) with Dominican Copal, (5 million to 18 million years old) which also is found on that Island. Some do this on purpose to make Dominican Amber appear of less importance, others do it out of  sheer ignorance.  (see:  Study by Dr. George O. Poinar Jr., an entomologist at the University of California at Berkeley, with Dr. Raul J. Cano, a molecular biologist at the California Polytechnic Institute at San Luis Obispo, Dr. David W. Roubik of the Smithsonian Institution, and Hendrik N. Poinar, New York Times, October 29, 2006.)

Dominican amber is not heat treated to reproduce the green, cherry and blood red color, or make it transparent by boiling it in rapeseed oil or in the fat of a suckling pig. (Don’t laugh.)

This was and is a method used in famous amber countries to produce rare colors and effects. Some do it even by applying a certain paint to the backs of the amber stones, to cause the beholder’s perception to see green amber or other colors, which naturally are not or not often found in those places. It also is heated up and cooled down to produce the “sun spangles” (flints) and melted and cleared in vacuum chambers (autoclaved) and what have you.

Most Baltic amber flooding the market is made only of amber rejects and amber sawdust or meal, colored, melted up and pressed. Often misleading expressions are being used like: “real amber”, “Genuine amber” etc. and even certificates are being offered.

But Dominican amber uses  none of these methods. They just find it that way and cut and polish it. Yes, they are very fortunate to have naturally what others dream of and try to copy artificially.

Of course, Dominican Amber also comes in “Amber Colors”. There are the honey, yellow, brown and all shades in between. Most of them are transparent or translucent.
Dominican Amber – It is not “succinite” but “retinite”. It is fossilized tree resin from an ancient relative of a tropical species called “algarroba”. It is real amber. See Chemistry of Amber

amberjewel2_bracelets2Dominican amber mines are only a major source of amber during the last 50 years, although its existence has been known about since the times of the descovery of the island by Christopher Colombus. But since there is not much publicity, the uninformed majority knows little about it. Although the book and film “Jurassic Park” gave it quite a boost and told the world about its existence.

The outcrop is much, much less than Baltic amber, therefore it is rare in the true meaning of the word and not found all over the globe. It is the amber that still carries the tradition of being something special, accessible only for a few. Hence, it is not the amber you will see in the Supermarket jewelry store next door.

amberjewel2_bracelets1

Industrialized? No way. Here we are much too “primitive” (…is that good or bad?).

Dominican ‘amberos‘ are much to “primitive” to improve (”viagarize”) their amber. They probably don’t need to do it either.

"Safety" in Dominican Amber Mine

"Safety" in Dominican Amber Mine

Also check out our new documentation on Dominican amber mines at

http://www.blueamberblog.com and watch a movie at
http://www.blueamberchannel.com

amberjewel1

* Dominican amber is found in a wide range of natural colors, some exclusively Dominican, which also places it as a class apart. See:Natrual Colors of Dominican Amber

* Dominican amber is not “enhanced” by heat, oil treatment or autoclaved. These technics are not even known here.

* It is cut and polished fossil resin, just the way it comes from the mines.

* No pressed amber or “ambroid” is being used. Amber pieces too small to be used, or amber meal are disposed of.

* It is not industrialized. Whatever is made from Dominican Amber, beads, cabochons, carvings etc. is “hand made” and original.

True, all this makes it more expensive. But also more exclusive.

Fossilized Leaf in Dominican Amber
The occurrence of fossil insects in Dominican Amber is
about 10 times higher than in Baltic amber.

Dominican amber is also 90 percent more transparent.

Inclusions are generally more visible.

See Fossils in Dominican Amber at : 
www.amberinclusions.com

One Response to “Natural Amber Colors
Dominican Origin”

  • Vincent Calabrese says:
    January 23, 2010 at 8:57 pm

    A great supplier of fossil inclusions in amber! Could not have the business I do have currently without AmbarAzul!

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