ForMatter/Materials/gemstone

Gemstone

27 entries.

Akoya Pearl (Cultured Saltwater)new Cultured saltwater pearl from the Akoya oyster (Pinctada fucata martensii) — the canonical small-round white pearl of the post-1920s jewelry world, after the Mi
Amethystnew Quartz colored violet to deep purple by iron impurities and natural ionizing radiation acting together. Once a stone of cardinals and popes when Brazilian depos
Aquamarinenew Beryl in pale blue to blue-green — colored by ferrous iron — and the most widely available member of the beryl family. Cleaner than emerald (which is the same m
Baltic Ambernew Fossilized tree resin — solidified, polymerized, and then buried for tens of millions of years. Baltic amber comes mostly from a Tertiary forest of *Pinus succi
Black Opal (Lightning Ridge)new Opal with a black or near-black body that makes the diffracted play-of-color flare against the dark background like neon under nightsky. Lightning Ridge in New
Citrinenew Quartz in yellow to orange — colored by iron impurities. Natural citrine is rare; most commercial citrine is heat-converted from amethyst (above 300 °C) or smok
Cubic Zirconia (CZ)new The diamond simulant the world settled on between 1976 and the rise of moissanite: cubic zirconia, ZrO₂ stabilized into the cubic crystal form that gives it the
Emerald (Natural)new Beryllium aluminum silicate, colored deep green by chromium and vanadium — the most prized member of the beryl family. Softer than ruby and sapphire, more fragi
Industrial Diamond Gritnew Diamond as an abrasive — grit and powder, made by HPHT synthesis at industrial scale, used to make grinding wheels, polishing pastes, dental burs, surgical scal
Jadeite (Imperial Jade)new One of two minerals the word "jade" covers — the other is nephrite. Jadeite is rarer, harder, more vivid, and culturally the more valuable. "Imperial jade" — th
Lab-Grown Diamond (CVD)new A real diamond grown in a vacuum chamber, atom by atom, from a methane-and-hydrogen plasma deposited on a thin diamond seed. Same crystal structure as a mined d
Lab-Grown Diamond (HPHT)new The other route to a real diamond grown in a lab — recreate the temperature and pressure of the mantle inside a steel-belt press, dissolve graphite in a metal s
Lapis Lazulivoice A blue rock more than a single mineral — lazurite (the blue), calcite (the white), and pyrite (the gold-flecked iron sulfide). Mined for over 6000 years from a
Moissanite (Synthetic)new Silicon carbide grown into gem-quality single crystals — harder than CZ, more brilliant than CZ, and more diamond-like in optical character. Originally found in
Morganitenew Beryl colored peach-pink by traces of manganese, named after J.P. Morgan in 1911 by Tiffany & Co.'s gemologist George Frederick Kunz. The romantic alternative t
Natural Diamondnewvoice The hardest natural material on Earth — a single crystal of carbon, formed at depths of 150–200 km under pressures and temperatures most of the universe never r
Nephrite Jadenew The other "jade" — chemically distinct from jadeite, structurally even tougher (a felted mat of microscopic amphibole fibers, almost impossible to cleave), and
Rose Quartznew Pale pink quartz — almost always cloudy rather than transparent because the color centers are paired with microscopic mineral inclusions that scatter light. Typ
Ruby (Natural)new The same mineral as sapphire — corundum, aluminum oxide — colored deep red by traces of chromium, and traditionally distinguished from "pink sapphire" by satura
Ruby (Synthetic, Verneuil Flame-Fusion)new The first commercially mass-produced synthetic gem — Verneuil flame-fusion ruby has been on the market since the early 1900s (process publicly announced 1902, p
Sapphire (Natural)new Corundum — aluminum oxide — colored blue by trace iron and titanium, or pink, yellow, or green by other trace impurities. Mohs 9, among the hardest minerals aft
Sapphire (Synthetic, Czochralski Pull-Crystal)new The premium synthetic-sapphire route — pulled from a melt the same way silicon ingots are grown for semiconductors. Yields larger, optically purer single crysta
Sapphire (Synthetic, Verneuil Flame-Fusion)new The first commercially mass-produced gem-quality stone in history — Auguste Verneuil publicly announced his flame-fusion method in 1902 (full process published
Smoky Quartznew Quartz colored brown to nearly black by natural ionizing radiation acting on aluminum impurities — the irradiation creates color centers that absorb across the
Tahitian Pearl (Cultured Saltwater)new Cultured saltwater pearl from the black-lipped oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) of French Polynesia — the only cultured pearl that is genuinely dark-bodied witho
Turquoise (Natural)new A hydrated copper aluminum phosphate that forms in arid copper-mining country — dry climates concentrate the chemistry, and the world's best turquoise has come
White Opal (Australian)new Hydrated silica that diffracts light through a regular array of submicron silica spheres — the rainbow you see flashing inside an opal isn't pigment, it's struc

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Concordance

House vocabulary — terms ForMatter uses with intent.

anisotropic: Direction-dependent. Wood reads differently along the grain than across it; rolled steel is stiffer along the rolling direction. The Principled-BSDF anisotropic input rotates the highlight to match.
application: What the thing IS, in the world. The third entity, peer of material and process. A water bottle, a chair, an extruded-aluminum profile.
BRDF: Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function. The math behind how a surface returns light for any incoming and outgoing direction. The PBR model is a parameterized BRDF.
channeled: A voice block written within a dead author's philosophy, marked and cited. Distinct from a verbatim quote. Roland Barthes channeled on PMMA reads like Barthes; the citation attributes the lineage.
choral fugue: ForMatter's register. Subject stated plainly (freshman tier), answered in technical and sensorial registers, countersubjects from linked processes and applications, citations as final stretto. Voice blocks where canon attaches.
clearcoat: A second specular layer over the base surface. Glossy plastics and lacquered woods get a clearcoat term in the PBR table. IOR 1.5 by default.
compatibility (process): Each process entry lists which materials it can work. The cross-ref renders as sphere pills so the gallery feeling extends inward.
confidence: Each entry tagged high / medium / low. A senior's low-confidence-with-three-citations beats a freshman's high-confidence-with-none. The label is a contract with the reader, not a brag.
crystalline (finish): A faceted-surface read — gemstones, glassy minerals, ice. Drives PBR defaults: IOR 2.42 (diamond), transmission 1.0, low roughness.
derive_pbr(): The build's single source of truth — sphere palette + finish enum → Principled-BSDF starter values. One function feeds the entry-page table, the per-host snippets, the glTF export, and the Three.js Live Preview.
freshman / senior register: Two registers in every entry — the plain freshman description and the technical / sensorial one. Same database, two readers, no extra subscription.
glTF: GL Transmission Format — the open 3D-asset standard every modern app reads. ForMatter emits a .gltf material doc per material. Open standard, designer-friendly handoff.
IOR: Index of Refraction. How much light bends entering the surface. Air 1.0, water 1.33, glass 1.5, diamond 2.42. Drives transmission and the specular term.
iridescent (finish): Hue-shifted accent over base. Anodized titanium and niobium, opal, paraíba. Drives PBR defaults: medium metalness, sheen, clearcoat.
lite-PBR: ForMatter's PBR approach — Principled-BSDF starter values per entry, no measured BRDFs, no commercial assets. Honest reasonable defaults from the finish enum, per-entry numeric overrides where you have a real reason.
Live Preview: The Three.js shader ball that replaces the static CSS sphere on entry pages. Same derive_pbr() values, real-time lit, draggable. Optional — toggle in Preferences.
material: What the thing is MADE OF. The first entity. Aluminum 6061, white oak, soda-lime glass.
metallic (finish): Specular highlight, deep shadow rim. Drives PBR defaults: metalness 1, low roughness, IOR 1.45. Polished steel, gold, copper.
PBR: Physically-Based Rendering. The shading model every modern 3D app uses, parameterized by metallic / roughness / IOR / transmission / clearcoat / sheen. ForMatter publishes starter values for every material entry.
Principled BSDF: Blender's name for the consolidated PBR shader. Most other apps ship the same shader under different names (Standard Surface, ShaderGraph, Substance). One node, every output.
process: How the material is MADE INTO the thing. The second entity. Cast, machined, kerf-bent, anodized, planished, granulated. Process is a peer of material, not a footnote.
quote: A voice block carrying a verbatim quotation from a living author, with citation. Distinct from a channeled block. Living = quote only; the rule is enforced at the schema layer.
roughness: Microsurface scatter. 0 is mirror-smooth; 1 is fully diffuse. Most real surfaces sit between 0.2 and 0.8.
sphere proxy: ForMatter's visible-character stand-in for every material. CSS-gradient driven by the entry's palette and finish, not a baked render. Honest about being a proxy, scales to six hundred entries cheaply, tweakable in one place.
substitute: A peer material that could fill a similar role. Cross-references render as sphere pills inside an entry — the gallery feeling extends inward.
transmission: How much light passes through. 1 is fully transparent; 0 is opaque. Glass, gemstones, clear plastics carry transmission.
voice block: A versal block where a real authored voice attaches to the material or process. Schema-tagged with status (living / dead) and mode (quote / channeled). Citations always.
woodgrain (finish): Directional sheen with grain ring. Drives PBR defaults: anisotropic 0.6, medium roughness, no metalness. Every wood entry.

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ForMatter

Materials and processes for people who design and make things.

A local-first library of materials, processes, and applications, equal weight, citable everywhere. Part of the renato.design ecosystem — sibling of Plenum, Specimen, Ingenue, gesture, graf, and the Renato Rhino plug-ins. Form and matter, inseparable.

Why this exists

Half of teaching materials is teaching how the material is made into the thing. The standard subscription library was always light on that half. The wedge here isn't better samples or a prettier interface — it's treating Process as a peer entity, not a footnote.

Rules of the house

Citations or it didn't happen. Every property number, every claim, every borrowed register has a traceable source.
Living authors are quoted only. Verbatim or not at all.
Dead authors may be channeled within their philosophy — marked, cited, never impersonated.
Confidence labeled honestly. A senior's low-confidence-with-three-citations beats a freshman's high-confidence-with-none.
Local-first. Works offline, no login, no subscription.

Sister apps

Ingenue — five voices argue about what to build from electronic parts. Where ForMatter teaches what the thing is made of, Ingenue proposes what the thing could be.
Plenum — vehicle codes through the camera, doo-wop register.
Specimen — iOS field-collection for design students.
renato.design — the rest.

Sources

Conway's Material World on raw materials, Lefteri's Making It on processes, Untracht and McCreight on metalsmithing, USDA Forest Products Lab on woods, GIA on gemstones, Schott / CoorsTek / Toray / Owens Corning datasheets, MakeItFrom for verifiable property numbers, ASM Handbook, ISO standards. Voice blocks: Barthes, Yanagi, Benjamin channeled within their philosophy; Lefteri verbatim. All cited.

v0.5 — 2026-04-27 · Phil Renato · renato.design · MIT-licensed code, CC BY-NC research content

Preferences

Local to this browser. No cloud, no account, no telemetry.

Live Preview on entry pages Three.js shader ball replacing the static sphere. Disable on slower hardware or to keep entry pages text-only.

UI scale Browser-style zoom. Useful for classroom projection or close work.

Sphere density How many material spheres fit per row on the landing grid. Smaller spheres pack more across the page; larger ones fewer. Adapts to desktop and phone.

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Default confidence filter Search dropdown defaults to this level when the page loads.

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