What are Gemstones?
Gemstones are minerals or rocks that have been worked by gem grinders to be used by jewelers and goldsmiths in jewelry and jewelry. Pearls are not gemstones but are often used in jewelry and jewelry. Gemstones are coveted by everyone around the world because of their beauty, hardness and for some, their supernatural properties. They come in truly every color imaginable. In raw form, they do not exhibit nearly the beauty that they exhibit after grinding and polishing.
We deal only in natural gemstones, sometimes still heated to make them brighter or more intense but never in pickled, filled, synthetic gemstones or unaccepted treatment methods such as diffusion treated gemstones.
You have the familiar gemstones that most people are familiar with such as Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald and the lesser known gemstones such as Spinel, Tourmaline, Topaz and many others.
How is the value determined?
The value of all gemstones depends on quite a few factors, the most important of which are rarity, color, hardness, purity, weight and cut. Especially with colored gemstones, I personally always find a very important characteristic of the stone to be whether it is on or not. An intense sparkle over the whole range of the stone, so not just at the edges or just in the center. However, this is mainly due to the grind and also, but to a lesser extent what was chosen as the top edge by the grinder (because of the c-axis).
Of course, if the stone is not pure/clear then the light reflection is impeded and you immediately get no intense sparkle. So purity has an influence.
Color.
Also very important, is there a deep full color without much noise from gray tones or other tones that negatively affect the full color. This is a property that also has to do with taste. For example, currently under the influence of bizarre prices for blue Sapphire, the so-called Teal-colored Sapphires are on the rise. Then the blue color is influenced by shades of green. This is not so much my preference but others love it. But remember, these are less expensive varieties of Sapphire for a reason. Although it is also a matter of taste, the primary colors and then precisely those in the middle of their spectrum are often incredibly expensive, such as Ruby, Blue Sapphire or Emerald. This is because many people prefer these colors to other colors of gemstones and precisely these colors are very rare.
Weight.
For example, an intensely sparkling Ruby in exactly the primary color red is potentially a very expensive stone. What can really make it very expensive is its weight. Indeed, large and pure stones are rarely found.
Rarity is the parameter that is always a bit difficult to place in terms of value. If the world is doing well then exclusive gemstones are unstoppable and the price goes up, logical you might say. But even when demand drops, exclusive gems continue to rise, albeit at a slower rate. My theory is that there is seriously less coming above ground and I hear nothing else from my network. In all countries of origin, more people are searching and ultimately the same or less comes to the surface. There are already stones that are almost not found at all. Then, of course, when one does suddenly surface, the prices are astronomical.
And how does that work for Diamonds?
Diamonds are precious mainly because of the rare absence of color, so the more colorless (whiter) the more precious. Of course, purity and weight play a big role here. With diamonds, another important player in terms of price is the cut. That listens terribly closely with diamonds. The cut that sparkles best also produces the most loss during polishing. So that cut is all rare material that can no longer be sold. A dilemma in some cases…. Read more about diamonds.
In our jewelry collection we regularly use Tourmalines because of their beautiful colors.
Also very interesting and very affordable are the various blue shades of Topaz. Full of life stones and to start with pearls.
The magic of pearls.
Beyond the beauty, the elusiveness of pearls, they have always been found valuable. Moreover, everyone knows a story that involves pearls. For example, they are said to be bridal tears or were even considered a stimulant in ancient times. There are legends about Cleopatra trying a love potion on Marc Antony in which pearls were supposedly dissolved. The Greeks saw them as the tears of the gods. In the early 20th century, the method of growing (Akoya) pearls was invented in Japan by Mr. Mikimoto. Today there are many applications to his brainchild, both in oysters and mussels. You insert a piece of material (core) and around this the oyster or mussel will apply pearl. Surround the oyster with great care and attention, provide plenty of food, chase off predators and wait. Mussels and oysters take years to build up the pearl layer.
Growing pearls is one thing, growing oysters is quite another. An oyster can produce two, at most three pearls in its lifetime, at least of high quality. So the first branch of a pearl farm is breeding oysters. The important thing is to make a selection of those oysters with which you can grow the largest pearls. (After all, those are the most valuable.) That pearl farming is very sensitive to outside conditions can be seen in the blow to the Chinese akoya sector in 2007. Due to heavy rainfall near the island of Hai nan, off the coast between Hong Kong and Vietnam, the salinity of the sea water became so mixed with fresh water that more than 50% of the crop failed.
Learn more about the most important pearls of the moment here.
