cubic zirconia, is an artifical stone, (there is a natural version but its very rare)
Cubic zirconia (or CZ) is zirconium oxide (ZrO2), a mineral that is widely synthesized for use as a diamond simulant. The synthesized material is hard, optically flawless and usually colorless, but may be made in a variety of different colors. It should not be confused with zircon, which is a zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4). Cubic zirconia is extremely rare in nature.
Because of its low cost, durability, and close visual likeness to diamond, synthetic cubic zirconia has remained the most gemologically and economically important diamond simulant since 1976. Its main competition as a synthetic gemstone is the more recently cultivated material, synthetic moissanite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia
anything could be made into a ring or pendants, so long as you have the stone, and the setting. custom made jewellry is a big market. eventually thats what me and rowan want to do, create our own rings, and have some made with designs by the customer. of course we wont go this far..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6215702.stm
bone rings, grown from your own bone cells..
Scientists obtain bone cells from wisdom teeth and then grow them on a "scaffold" material in the lab.
The efforts are part of a collaboration between scientists and artists aiming to learn how to craft complex shapes from bone tissue.
Examples are to go on display at an exhibition at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London.
I would get sent photographs of the material as it was growing so in some sense I felt an emotional connection to the process
Harriet Harriss and Matt Harrison, one of five couples involved in the project, have just been presented with their rings made from their bone cells.
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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii
Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.â€
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein