Cinnabar Crafts, made of Cinnabar, boast a wide selection with unique and exquisite workmanship. There are available in different designs and are with strong art of colors. These hand carved designs also reflect the imagery with rich cultural connotations of natural and human beings.Cinnabar crafts are great for special gift to your family or friends.
What is cinnabar？
Cinnabar is a mineral with a chemical composition of HgS. The crystal of cinnabar is mostly dark red, bright red, light red or Vermilion. The cinnabar containing impurities is brownish red with a dull luster.
The vast majority of cinnabar is not directly produced, and their raw ore is often accompanied by surrounding rocks and impurities. It is necessary to remove most of the surrounding rocks and impurities in order to extract pure cinnabar. The cinnabar obtained in this way is small and fragmented, mostly in the form of granules or even powders.
Cinnabar crystals, like gem crystals, grow in Calcite or quartz crystals. Under the illumination of the light, it can be seen that its crystal is transparent, but when viewed with the naked eye, it appears semi transparent.
The world's largest cinnabar crystal is called the "Cinnabar king", which was discovered in the Wanshan mercury mining area in eastern Guizhou Province in 1980. With its length 10.8 centimeters, width 4.4 centimeters, height 4.2 centimeters, and net weight 237 grams, the " Cinnabar King" is currently collected at the Geological Museum in Beijing, China.
Origin of Cinnabar？
China is a major producer of cinnabar, mainly produced in western Hunan and eastern Guizhou. In addition to China, Mexico, the United States, Italy, and Spain also produce cinnabar.
Value of Cinnabar？
1. Cinnabar is the main mineral raw material for mercury smelting, and its crystals can also be used as important materials for laser technology.
2. As a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, Cinnabar has a long history with over 2000 years. After excavating the containing cinnabar, people select the pure and use a magnet to completely absorb the impurities containing iron. Then, they use water to remove the impurities and sediment, resulting in a small amount of cinnabar.
Cinnabar, as a traditional Chinese medicine, has the effects of clearing the heart, calming the nerves, brightening the eyes, and detoxifying. It is mainly used to treat palpitations, insomnia, dreaminess, epilepsy, infantile convulsions, blurred vision, mouth sores, throat congestion, and sores.
3. In addition, cinnabar is also one of the most important painting and coloring pigments in History of China.
4. Because of its natural red color,Cinnabar Craft is regarded as an item which not only does it symbolize auspiciousness but it can also ward off evil spirits. So it has always been a popular luxury item in the upper class of Chinese society.
How to buy Cinnabar Crafts?
The density of cinnabar is 8.0-8.2g/cm ', but its Mohs hardness is only 2-2.5. That is to say, cinnabar has a large weight but low toughness and hardness. The high density and low hardness of cinnabar make it difficult to polish and carve The brittleness of cinnabar slag also determines its susceptibility to cracking. So it is very difficult to make large pieces of cinnabar jewelry from pure natural raw ore cinnabar.
The shape of genuine and pure natural cinnabar jewelry is also very limited, and it can usually only be polished into a small pendant that follows the shape.
How to Choose ?
1、Usually, the cinnabar jewelry seen on the market is made of cinnabar powder after being pressed and filled with glue, and its cinnabar content varies. High content powdered cinnabar jewelry can have a cinnabar content of up to 80%, and some merchants usually sell them as raw cinnabar.
2. To determine whether the purchased cinnabar is genuine or how much it contains, weighing the amount by hand is also one of the judging methods.The natural raw ore cinnabar has an extremely high density and weight, and can be pressed by hand. Powder pressed cinnabar can also be roughly estimated by weighing its content by hand.
3. Send for inspection to a reliable quality inspection agency.
Where to buy?
In traditional Chinese religious and folk traditions, Cinnabar is often used to draw talismans to suppress evil spirits and pray for peace. But illegal merchants use this as a selling point, exaggerate the implied efficacy of cinnabar, and sell non raw cinnabar as raw cinnabar, profiting from it.
Such as Impression Hunan, Nianzipu Shop, Impression Zhangjiajie, etc, there are a lot of Cinnabar Craft Shops in Zhangjiajie. When purchasing cinnabar crafts jewelry, you should still keep their eyes open and not be blindly praised by merchants for the effectiveness of vermilion. If necessary, a formal testing agency certificate is required. Spending clear money and buying the right things is the most important thing for you.