One of a kind sapphire ring with a natural, unheated, 2.75 carat, color- change sapphire center stone surrounded by multicolor sapphires that highlight the many hues found in this stone. This ring radiates joy, and there's only one. Set in 18KT white g
Delicate, hand made 18Kt gold bracelet packs a punch with its tutti frutti assortment of sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and tsavorite garnet. See color combinations you never thought of. Wear this delicate bracelet with your other gold chains or tennis bracelet and enjoy the custom-made clasp set with more coored gems. Approximately eight carats of gemstones.
Elegance for Every Day. Length: 6.5"
You can probably tell that I’m in a sapphire kind of mood these days, particularly exploring the subtleties of multicolored single gems. I’m buying gems from Burma, Madagascar, Nigeria, and Montana and combining them as they speak to me. Admittedly, the Burmese stones usually end up surrounded by diamonds, as their provenance is so rare.
What attracts me overall is the calming palette of blue and green. These colors remind me of ocean, sky, celadon, leaf green, and forest green. The round green sapphire in the lower right corner is called a "Pharoah's Eye," because of its centered golden hue. These are very rare. This sapphire is from Montana, as is the bi-colored oval in the top row. One stone I particularly love is in the lowest row, center. This stone has a naturally occurring, strong division of color, as do several others in this collection. Some classic blue, round Ceylon sapphires and a pair of icy green, "Coke Bottle" colors are some other standouts.
In my last newsletter, I wrote about Burmese sapphires and their legendary beauty. I’ve created a new series called “Inner World” so that you can see what makes these stones so special. Most Burmese are not heat treated and this letter explains what goes on inside a stone when it comes to us straight from the ground after faceting. (Most other sapphires receive heat-treatment, which is commonly used to dissolve internal inclusions and enhance color.) There are no heat-treating facilities in Burma as of this writing, so when we are presented with a Burmese stone, we see, through its inclusions, all the ways in which it formed over millennia.
This “Inner World” series will cover the presence of inclusions in colored stones and diamonds. Informed purchasing benefits you and, besides, the existence of natural growth indicators over millennia is just cool.
Unheated sapphires and rubies are rare in the jewelry world and their value rises accordingly. My clients generally embrace the existence of inclusions and love the fact that nothing, but faceting has been done to their stone. Many of the inclusions are downright beautiful in their own right.
First, a common misnomer that needs to be cleared up. An inclusion in a gemstone is not a “flaw.” Rather, inclusions are natural indications of the gem’s growth over millions of years and their presence allows us to identify them correctly. Inclusions confirm the species of gem (Sapphire? Garnet? Peridot?) and sometimes, the geographical origin. The latter can be very important.
To be clear, however, some manufactured gems contain inclusions and sometimes, it takes a trained gemologist with high-level equipment to differentiate natural from lab grown. That’s what you hire me for when we are going into the market to buy you something special.
The diamond industry has educated the public to put a premium on brilliance. However, inclusions are omnipresent in natural diamonds. For instance, the popularity and public awareness of diamond grade criteria, most particularly “color” and “clarity” have educated the buying public to the visible existence of micro-crystals and growth markers. To be sure, value is affected by how visible these inclusions are and how they affect light transmission in your diamond A trained jeweler-gemologist can help you find a stone that is bright and lively, despite internal inclusions. When shopping for diamonds, we explore a series of stones and choose the one that gives the most value for your budget. It’s a delicate balance, but the world is full of beautiful stones that each have a singular reason for their beauty. Like people.
The same is true for colored gemstones, although we are less obsessed about clarity and more tuned into color.
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Let’s talk about what we call “silk” in sapphires and rubies. Silk is actually a system of tiny, needle-like platelets that float in sapphire. Under the microscope, they appear like gossamer clouds, and lattice. The existence of silk proves that a stone has not been heat treated, which is desirable in the marketplace. Silk also allows the purity of the stone’s color to consolidate and send back to us a deeper, rich hue.
Simple in design but complex in color mixing, these sapphire drops hold approximately 7 carats of sapphires in teal, green, and multi colors. Lightweight yet stunning, these earrings are a wardrobe staple. Elegance for Every Day. Approximately 2.25" long.
Gorgeous blue sapphires nestled between white diamond and gray spinel set in 14KT white gold. Wear with everything, every day. Approximately 1.2" long.
