Publish Year: - Title: From Brazil to China: The Journey of Rubellite Tourmaline Abstract: After witnessing the mining of rubellite tourmaline at the Cruzeiro mine in Brazil, our representative was able to visit the factory in China where the mine’s stones are cut. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Cruzeiro mine.

                      In April 2014, a team from GIA traveled to Brazil to document some of the country’s most important emerald and tourmaline mines. One of the mines the group visited was the Cruzeiro, owned by Nevestones, a family company. The Cruzeiro is a prolific Brazilian tourmaline mine that produces about eight tons of tourmaline each year, 20 percent of which is rubellite.

	Cutting in China

	This video takes you through the cutting factory and headquarters of a company that fashions large quantities of tourmaline and other colored gemstones for China and the global market. You’ll also witness the creation of a faceted colored stone.
In June 2014, a member of the GIA team, Andrew Lucas, traveled to Asia to attend Gemfields’ first Mozambique ruby auction in Singapore and to teach a two-week GIA law enforcement gemology seminar in Hong Kong. While there, he visited the Hong Kong office and Shenzhen factory where Cruzeiro’s rubellite is fashioned and distributed to the market.

	The Miranda Group
Our representative’s documentation of the journey of rubellite tourmaline from Brazil to China began at the Hong Kong office of Miranda Group Co. Ltd. There, he interviewed Miranda Costa, a co-founder of the company. They spoke in detail about his experience in the market and the connection between Brazil’s rubellite tourmaline and the Chinese market. Mr. Costa had been a partner in Miranda Gem Hong Kong between 2005 and 2009. When that company closed in 2009, Mr. Costa co-founded Miranda Group Co. Ltd.

Miranda Costa of Miranda Group Co. Ltd. examines parcels of rubellite that were cut at the company’s factory in Shenzhen. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.
The Miranda Group started working with rubellite in 2010 and entered into a joint venture with KGK, a global diamond, colored stone, and jewelry wholesaler, to acquire and market rubellite in China. At that time, the Miranda Group was buying rubellite from Africa. In 2011, they started working with the Cruzeiro mine and its owners, the Neves family.

	The Business Model
Today, the Cruzeiro mine, the Miranda Group, and KGK work together to bring Brazil’s rubellite tourmaline to the market in China. The Cruzeiro mine provides the rough rubellite to the Miranda Group, which cuts the material. The rough crystals are sliced or sawn in the Miranda Group office in Hong Kong, and then faceted and polished at the factory in Shenzhen, China. The stones then go to KGK’s factory and offices in Panyu, China.

KGK markets and sells the cut stones and also mounts cut stones into jewelry for sale, primarily in China. The Cruzeiro mine also cuts its own facet-grade green and blue tourmaline in Brazil and produces bicolor and multicolor tourmaline, which the Miranda Group has been cutting and stockpiling.

Rubellite rough is sawn at Miranda Group Co. Ltd. facilities in Hong Kong before being sent to the factory in Shenzhen for preforming and faceting. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.
The Miranda Group can cut about 25,000 to 30,000 carats a month at their factory in Shenzhen. They then provide the cut stones to KGK. The Miranda Group also works with bicolor tourmaline, aquamarine, morganite, emerald, and Mozambique ruby. They cut these materials and work with KGK to sell primarily to the Chinese market. They also deal in Mozambique copper-bearing tourmaline and Brazilian Paraíba tourmaline which, in cooperation with KGK, they will supply to the market in 2015.

The factory in Shenzhen was cutting tourmaline as well as morganite during the visit. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.

After cutting a parcel of rubellite, the factory turned to cutting morganite, which has been growing in popularity in China. This rough morganite crystal is being sawn as part of the process. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.

	Interview with Miranda Costa

	Fashioned Rubellite Production
The Miranda Group needs to receive 100 kilos of rough rubellite a month to meet its production goal of 25,000 to 30,000 carats. They promote more-included material for beads and carvings. The company’s goals for facet-grade material are to produce clean stones that meet the requirements of the high-end Chinese market.

Maintaining quality cutting procedures, resulting in clean stones, is of optimum concern in the factory. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.
In the United States, the Miranda Group plans to market gems of three carats or smaller, to meet what they feel is the right price point for that market. In China, there is a ready market for sizes over three carats, including very large sizes of 100 carats or more.

Miranda Costa estimates that the demand from the Chinese market has caused the price of rubellite tourmaline to double over the last three years. Even though there is current resistance to the high prices, the company still finds it difficult to meet the demand for fine-quality faceted stones, so he thinks there is still room for price increases.

At the Miranda Group Co. Ltd. office in Hong Kong, parcels of fine-color, clean rubellites in large sizes were being sorted for delivery to KGK. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.
For high-end consumers, the rubellite needs to be well proportioned, bright, and clean, and have fine color. Because these qualities are essential, the Miranda Group only gets about 12 percent weight retention from the rough.

The faceting equipment was optimized for precision and speed. Some machines use a two-wheel set-up that cuts the facets and then polishes them without a need for stopping and changing wheels. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.
Since many of the crystals from the Cruzeiro mine are bicolor or multicolored, the Miranda Group also cuts that material. Many of the tourmaline crystals from Cruzeiro are zoned with black, green, and rubellite colors. The Miranda Group has been cutting and accumulating green-and-rubellite material over the last two years, so they have about 80,000 to 100,000 carats in stock now. They plan on marketing it in the US and China in the near future.

The Miranda Group obtains green-and-rubellite bicolor tourmaline rough for cutting. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.

The Miranda Group is stockpiling inventory to launch a marketing campaign with KGK for bicolor tourmaline. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.
Comparing Brazilian rubellite tourmaline rough to the material Miranda Costa used to get from Nigeria, he finds the Cruzeiro material to be cleaner, with better crystallization and more even color.  Mr. Costa sees much less Nigerian material on the market today, and the prices are much higher than when the company was buying large quantities in 2010.

Brazilian rough can yield fine-color, clean, bright, and good-sized stones. However, to meet those standards, the weight loss is high, saving only an average of 12 percent of the rough weight. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Miranda Group Co. Ltd.

	Completing the Journey
Visiting a mining operation and witnessing the challenges involved in bringing colored gemstones out of the earth gives you a sense of perspective on how rare and valuable they really are. It’s exhilarating to observe the production at a prolific mine like the Cruzeiro, where impressive crystals come right out of the ground in large quantities. It’s also satisfying to complete the journey by seeing the rough crystals turned into beautiful faceted stones. Finally, seeing the ferocious and increasing appetite of a consuming country for the material puts the relationship between supply and demand perfectly in perspective. @topic:9


Publish Year: 2013 Title: Banded Mimetite Abstract: Figure 1. This mimetite cabochon, likely from Bolivia, weighs 177.75 ct and has an agate-like structure of yellow-brown and dark brown layers. Photo by Jaroslav Hyršl.

Mimetite is a member of the apatite group and a lead chloro-arsenate, known to collectors as one of the rarest faceted stones. Some yellow transparent specimens weighing up to 1 ct are known from old finds in Tsumeb, Namibia. Small orange translucent stones under 0.5 ct have been faceted from Chinese mimetite, and a new type of lapidary mimetite (figure 1), likely from Bolivia but purchased in Tucson without a reported locality, was identified recently.
The cabochon measured 40.5 × 31.7 × 7.2 mm and weighed 177.75 ct, with a very high luster. Its lapidary work was of low quality, but the stone had a very nice agate-like structure, with alternating yellow-brown and dark brown layers. It closely resembled two unusual ornamental stones: the colloidal variety of sphalerite (figure 2) known by the German name schalenblende, and the colloidal cassiterite variety called “wood tin.” Schalenblende is known from many localities worldwide, mainly Poland but also Bolivia, where it is very difficult to visually distinguish from mimetite. Wood tin is known to be from Bolivia and Mexico.

Figure 2. The sphalerite variety schalenblende has characteristics similar to those of banded mimetite. This specimen weighs 106.20 ct. Photo by Jaroslav Hyršl.
The RI of all three minerals is very high, over the refractometer limit. Loose stones can be easily distinguished by their hardness and specific gravity, and the hardness of mimetite and schalenblende is the same, about 3.5 on the Mohs scale. Wood tin is much harder, about 6.5. The SG of the mimetite was 6.31, considerably higher than the 3.8–4.2 of a typical schalenblende. The SG of wood tin can vary from 5.2 to 6.6, likely depending on the presence of thin chalcedony layers. Mimetite and wood tin are also inert in UV light, while schalenblende is usually yellow in long-wave UV. The mimetite was identified by powder X-ray diffraction by John Attard of San Diego, but its exact origin could not be determined. Thin veins of mimetite deposited from hot springs are known to have been mined from a deposit in Lomitas, located in La Paz Department, Bolivia. @topic:1


Publish Year: - Title: Geologist’s Newest Mission: Share the Love of Colored Gemstones Abstract: “You’ll always be learning,” says Robert Gessner. “You’ll never know it all, and our industry is always growing and changing.” Gessner, a colored stone geologist who earned his GIA GG after more than a decade of working in Africa’s mines, is pictured underground in a Zambian emerald deposit in 2014. Photo by Vincent Pardieu/GIA

“Adventure is in my blood,” says Robert Gessner, a GIA Graduate Gemologist (GG) and Cape Town-born geologist who is the owner of Gessner Gems, a sourcing and curatorship firm for colored stones.

Gessner’s parents are of European descent – his maternal grandparents were Dutch diplomats who retired in South Africa, and his father’s family came from Germany before settling in Mozambique. When the Gessners married and started a family in South Africa, they never stopped exploring.

“I was fortunate growing up in a family that loved the outdoors and travel,” says Gessner, the eldest of four children. “By the age of 16, I’d traveled most of South Africa. We were always seeing something new, and it became etched on my soul. Now, there is no adventure to a new destination that I’d pass up easily. I love to meet new people, be exposed to their culture and see their country’s beauty.”

The family’s shared enthusiasm for exploration extended to the natural world.

“My earliest exposure to rocks and minerals was through monthly magazine supplements that my mom purchased from our local newsstand,” Gessner says. “They included a mineral and gemstone in a little display box, and as the months went by, the file of information about our earth, rocks and minerals – as well as the collection of specimens itself – grew into an impressive display. The beauty, variety and perfection of each gem had me hooked.”

Though his family had lived and traveled around South Africa, it wasn’t until college at the University of Cape Town that Gessner says the world truly opened up for him. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in geology in 2002, and said the discipline gave him “direction, a goal and access to a professional career.”

A self-described “eternal optimist,” Gessner submitted his near-empty resume to a local recruiting agency. Within weeks, he was contacted for a position as a geologist in Tanzania and accepted right away.

“It turned out to be the early years of the company that became Tanzanite One, the biggest, most technological colored gemstone miner and supplier of tanzanite to the world,” he says.

“My favorite thing about my career has been seeing the beauty of the finest gemstones and specimens and hearing stories from the owners who display them,” says Robert Gessner, inspecting a piece of tanzanite rough. He recently joined William Noble Rare Jewels as a colored gemstone specialist, and owns Gessner Gems, which specializes in sourcing and curating colored gemstones. Photo by Brendan Laurs/GIA
Some of Gessner’s new colleagues were earning their Graduate Gemologist diplomas through GIA’s Distance Education program, and he was intrigued. “It was the first time I’d heard of GIA,” he says. “I wanted to get involved.” He earned his Accredited Jewelry Professional diploma in 2008.

Gessner spent six and a half years in Tanzania before joining Gemfields PLC’s Kagem Mine in Zambia, working another six and a half years there.

“After 13 years of colored gemstone mining and exploration in East Africa, I was looking for my next opportunity,” he says.

Gessner started with a trip to the United States – his first ever – in 2015 for the Tucson gem and mineral shows. As a GIA alumnus, he knew about the Alumni Association’s annual dance party, and he knew he would have a chance to network and discover new paths within the industry.

“It was life-changing,” he says. “It was a 10-year reunion for me, meeting with all the field gemologists, scientists, writers and editors and professionals from our industry whom I had hosted, met and gotten to know in the mines.”

As a specialist in African colored stones, such as tanzanite, tsavorite and Zambian emeralds, investigating gemstones from Southeast Asia and South America also piqued his interest.

“Seeing all the gemstones and minerals from around the world lit a spark to learn all about them,” he says. “For continued career growth, studying at GIA was a no-brainer.”

Robert Gessner’s marriage to Los Angeles designer Melissa Spencer, GIA GG, began two years after the pair’s unexpected meeting at the GIA Alumni Association dance party. “It was love at first sight,” says Gessner, celebrating with Spencer on their March 2017 wedding day. Photo by Trent Bailey. Courtesy of Robert Gessner and Melissa Spencer
But the life-changing moments in Tucson didn’t stop with professional and academic changes. He met a Southern California jewelry designer named Melissa Spencer at the alumni dance party and after just a few dances, Gessner – who was being groomed for a position as general manager of Gemfields – knew he would not be returning to Africa.

“When you know, you know,” he says. “There was an immediate connection, like the stars and galaxies aligned. We have been inseparable since then. Our meeting at the GIA Alumni Association party was meant to be and changed our lives.”

Gessner returned to Zambia the next week and resigned from Gemfields. He also enrolled in GIA’s Graduate Gemologist program in residence at Carlsbad – much closer to Spencer, a GIA GG who was living in Los Angeles. Gessner graduated from GIA in March 2016, and married Spencer in March 2017.

“I enjoyed every single moment, particularly while in residence,” he says. “GIA’s practical and theoretical education platform and resources, including the staff and library, are world-class. The lab classes and practical work are vital, and supplemented by the literature and theory, they lay the foundation for a career. The relationships and friendships that I made there – and continue to make through GIA – helped equip me for success.”

Gessner Gems has just turned two years old and Gessner is thrilled to connect clients with fine colored gemstones from around the world.

“I share knowledge about gems with each client – its source, if known, what makes it different from other sources, if and why the gem is treated, and the romance of its geological origins in describing its rarity,” he says.

In addition to his own business, Gessner has recently accepted a position as a colored gemstone specialist with William Noble Rare Jewels in Dallas, Texas. He has also begun writing for trade publications, including GemGuide and AGTA’s Prism magazine.

In the same way that geology – and eventually, gemology – opened doors to learning and adventure around the globe, Gessner hopes that sharing his knowledge will open doors for others.

“I want to help take colored gemstones mainstream,” he says. “I want the public to know so much more about colored gemstones, to share the excitement and passion.” @topic:9


Publish Year: 2018 Title: Rex Guo: The Science and Art of Recutting Fine Gemstones Abstract: Figure 1. The Geometeer, a synthetic ruby cut in a hybrid Portuguese-brilliant design, is dedicated to Rex Guo's mathematics professor and mentor, Dr. Timothy Poston. Photo by Rex Guo.

Deciding how to cut a gemstone is inevitably one of the most difficult decisions when transforming a piece of rough into a fine faceted gem. The three main factors to consider are final carat weight, color, and light performance (a general term describing the brilliance and scintillation of a faceted stone). In most cases, optimizing one of these factors comes only by sacrificing something else. This is especially true for light performance, which often suffers at the expense of carat weight. The colored stone market has historically demanded that cutters produce goods with the highest possible weight in the finished stone. This often leads to cuts that are not designed to optimize light performance. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing demand in the high-end colored stone market for precision cuts and optimized light performance. This year at Tucson we had the chance to sit down with Rex Guo, whose Singapore-based Sutra Gems focuses on sourcing and systematically recutting faceted stones to unlock their inner beauty.

Guo is a self-taught gem cutter who came into this profession after spending 20 years working with computer graphics and video editing software. In 2015, he decided to take a sabbatical from software to pursue his passion for gemstones. The seed of his passion was planted during childhood, when he discovered an amethyst geode among a pile of sand in his schoolyard. This inspiration stuck with him and was fueled by years of formal engineering studies, which now serve as the backbone of his lapidary art. This technical foundation led to his realization in 2016 that optimizing the interaction of light with a faceted gemstone was exactly the sort of problem he had been working on for 20 years in 3D graphics software. Guo’s mathematical mentor, the late Professor Timothy “Geometeer” Poston, was the inspiration for one of his latest creations, currently featured in the Somewhere In The Rainbow exhibit at the University of Arizona Gem and Mineral Museum. The Geometeer (figure 1), dedicated to Poston, is a precision-cut synthetic ruby in an innovative hybrid brilliant-Portuguese cut designed with Guo’s proprietary gem design and optical simulation software, Axiom.

Rex Guo’s Gem Cutting JourneyRex Guo reflects on how his previous career as a software editor impacts his current work as a self-taught gem cutter who recuts faceted stones.
While Guo enjoys the privilege of cutting from fine gem rough, about 80% of his work is in recuts. Given the ever-increasing price of rough material, recutting provides an opportunity to work with very fine material that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. He starts with excruciatingly accurate measurements of the geometry of the original faceted stone. Every angle of every facet must be recorded for input into Axiom. This software allows him to experiment with many possible recut designs to see how changing any single facet will affect the appearance of the final stone. Guo works very closely with his clients in this stage of the process to ensure they are getting what they want out of the recut. There are multiple paths that can be taken. The stone can be recut with an emphasis on saving weight, or a bolder design can be chosen with better light performance to bring out the stone’s inner beauty, but with more significant weight loss. At this point Guo finds he has to walk a fine line between presenting himself as a master craftsman and as a scientist. While diagrams from his software are useful to show clients various options, he avoids coming across as overly technical so as not to detract from the emotional and romantic aspect of his craft. He quips, “Machines and software don’t understand beauty—humans do.”

Figure 2. Guo's light performance-optimized unheated blue sapphire. Photo by Rex Guo.
Guo is very much on a journey through the world of gemstone faceting. He started with round patterns, as most cutters do. Once he understood rounds, he moved on to optimizing trilliant and oval cuts. In the future, he plans to experiment with squares, rectangles, and more. The light performance–optimized cuts in which he specializes are best exhibited in high-RI materials. For this reason, he has set a minimum refractive index of 1.72 for stones he works with, a playing field that includes spinel, zircon, garnet, ruby, and sapphire (figure 2). Test cuts are often used before recutting important stones.

Spinels are one of his favorite stones to cut. The high RI and rich color of fine spinel produce stones that are “just divine.” Zircons are another favorite, as they have a much higher RI than most other natural stones. With such a cornucopia of gem materials in front of him, Rex Guo’s lapidary journey has just begun. @topic:8


Publish Year: 2017 Title: Unusual Bodycolors ofPrecious Opal Abstract: Figure 1. Both of these precious opals show an unusual and attractive bodycolor. The opal on the left is a 6.71 ct transparent pink cushion brilliant. On the right is a 2.37 ct transparent orange round brilliant. Photo by Robison McMurtry.

Two faceted loose stones with unusual bodycolors (figure 1) were recently submitted to the Carlsbad laboratory for an identification report. The first, a 2.37 ct transparent round brilliant, showed a weak to moderate play-of-color with irregular color patches and brushstrokes. It exhibited an attractive orange bodycolor (similar to the hue of some padparadscha sapphires) and a light degree of haziness. Careful microscopic examination revealed turbid orangy clouds and waves of coarse particles. The larger specimen, a 6.71 ct transparent cushion brilliant, also displayed a weak to moderate play-of-color but more of a pink bodycolor. A similarly hazy appearance from clouds of orangy red particles and tiny black inclusions was also observed (figure 2).

Figure 2. The pink opal contained clouds of tiny orangy red particles. Photo by Nathan Renfro; field of view 2.88 mm.
Standard gemological properties were consistent with opal. The orange and pink stones both had a specific gravity of 2.03, with refractive indices of 1.442 and 1.445, respectively. Both were inert to long-wave and short-wave UV light. No indication of clarity enhancement, color treatment, or dye was observed in either. The two stones were therefore identified as natural opal with natural color.

A single drop of water placed on the surface of each stone was observed under direct transmitted light with the microscope in brightfield mode. The opals showed no indication of porosity and did not absorb the water, suggesting they were not hydrophane material (Fall 2013 Lab Notes, pp. 175–176). Crazing was not seen in either opal.

Advanced gemological testing with energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) showed properties consistent with natural opal (SiO2· nH2O), but also the presence of Fe, most likely from the clouds of particles.

While the exact cause of these pink and orange bodycolors is unknown, the minute inclusions might be influencing the perceived color.

Our gemological observations confirmed the natural origin. However, further study on additional samples would be required to better understand the cause of color in these unique opals. They were reported to be from Mexico, but the author could find no reference consistent with this material. @topic:13


Publish Year: - Title: Romancing the Source: Cruzeiro Mine, Brazil Abstract: Brazil

	Tons of tourmalines are mined in Brazil, with much of the production destined for China.

	This series of articles and videos follows a team of GIA Field Gemologists on their travels from the mountains of Afghanistan to the jungles of Sri Lanka in search of the sources of colored gemstones and the people who pursue them. This thrilling journey will take you to remote gemstone-mining areas, where you’ll witness the extreme effort required to wrestle nature’s treasures from the earth.

	The romance of a colored gemstone arises from its beauty, the exotic qualities of its source’s location, the adventure leading to its discovery, and the stories of the people who seek it. These factors have united to create the allure of gemstones through the ages, and continue to do so even in modern times.

Beatrice Neves examines two tourmaline crystals taken from the family mine’s tunnel walls. The Neves family pulled together after great loss, and through their strength, developed the Cruzeiro mine into a source reliable enough to meet China’s insatiable demand for tourmaline. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.

	Brazil is blessed with a wide variety of gemstones, and the country is a major source of tourmaline. One of the country’s most productive states is Minas Gerais, which means “general mines.” This is where the Cruzeiro tourmaline mine is found. All colors of tourmaline are mined here, including the coveted reddish rubellite variety. The mine produces eight tons of tourmaline a year. Twenty percent of that is rubellite. Still, this massive amount finds an equally massive market in China.

	The Cruzeiro mine is also a story of tragedy, perseverance, and triumph. When two brothers were killed in a plane crash, the widow and son of one of the brothers and a son of the second brother took over the mine and developed it into an overwhelming success in the global market supply chain. @topic:9


Publish Year: 2015 Title: Trapiche Muscovite Abstract: Figure 1. Muscovite mica, known from a single locality in Japan, can display trapiche structure with both open (left) and closed (right) centers. Photomicrographs by Nathan Renfro; field of view 4.05 mm (left) and 4.56 mm (right).

	For collectors who appreciate crystals that display distinctive trapiche structure, muscovite offers a very interesting and unusual variety known to mineralogists as cerasite or “cherry blossom stones” due to its form. With a pseudohexagonal habit and a silvery luster, these muscovite pseudomorphs after indialite-cordierite intergrowths may, on rare occasion, show a well-developed trapiche structure (figure 1) virtually identical to that of fine-quality trapiche emerald.

	Trapiche muscovites come from only one locality, the Japanese city of Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture, where they are locally known as “cherry blossom stones” (sakura-ishi in Japanese). Small and attractive, well-formed specimens are occasionally found when they weather out of a contact metamorphic hornfels.

	In figure 2, the closed-center specimen measures approximately 6.49 × 6.44 × 4.48 mm with a corresponding weight of 0.90 ct, while the one with the open center measures 4.71 × 4.27 × 5.21 mm and weighs 0.62 ct. Fine examples of these unusual muscovite pseudomorphs measuring over 6 mm and weighing over 1 ct are considered very rare.

Figure 2. These muscovite trapiches, or “cherry blossom stones,” formed through alteration of complex indialite-cordierite intergrowths. Photo by Nathan Renfro. @topic:1


Publish Year: 2015 Title: Fine Tsavorite and Spinel Abstract: Figure 1. This spectacular 12.46 ct tsavorite recently returned to Bruce Bridges’s inventory after being in a collector’s possession for many years. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA; courtesy of Bridges Tsavorite.

              Bruce Bridges (Bridges Tsavorite, Tucson) said that fine stones often return to his inventory after years in a collector’s possession. At the AGTA show, he showcased a vivid, top-quality 12.46 ct cushion-cut tsavorite fashioned some 15 years earlier, which made its way back into the market in the last two years (figure 1). As tsavorite rough has a high value, gems are typically cut to maximize weight. Rough is typically recovered as long, thin asymmetrical fragments that lend themselves to pear, marquise, and trilliant shapes. This example’s unusual square cushion shape, large size, color, and clarity make it a notable and rare gemstone.

Figure 2. This 18.21 ct Tanzanian red spinel was fashioned from material recovered from one of four enormous multi-kilogram crystals reputedly found in the Ipanko ruby and spinel mining area near Mahenge, Tanzania. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA; courtesy of Bridges Tsavorite.
After seeing the wealth and variety of gems on display at the Tucson gem shows, it might be easy to come away with the impression that fine colored stones are not particularly rare. Yet the truly magnificent stones are extremely rare and often have a memorable provenance. One such gem is the 18.21 ct triangular cut red spinel Bruce Bridges showed us at his AGTA booth (figure 2). According to Bridges, this magnificent gem was cut in 2007 in Bangkok from rough recovered in one astounding find in Tanzania’s Ipanko mining area that yielded several giant spinel crystals, one of which weighed in at over 50 kg. A number of other dealers at this year’s show, including Axel Henn, also displayed fine gems from this one extraordinary discovery. @topic:2


Publish Year: - Title: Inside the Geode Business Abstract: Bob HalemManager, Royal West Warehouse

	Interview with Bob Halem, Manager, Royal West Warehouse
At age 79, Bob Halem loves reminiscing about the serendipity that brought him into the world of colored stones. He was strolling along the Oregon coast near his home when he came upon a group of beachcombers.  He went up to one of them to ask what they were looking for and the woman held out a beach agate. Fascinated right off, Bob bent over and started collecting bags full for himself. Twenty-five pounds of beach agates and tons of fine purple amethyst later, Bob proudly looks back on a career as a supplier of choice for museums such as The Smithsonian and some of the nation’s top interior designers.

In this exclusive interview with GIA conducted at the 2013 Tucson Gem Show, Bob reflects upon the early days when there was only one show in town; he now shakes his head in amazement at the 40 or so shows that dot the Tucson landscape every February. He also measures the time by his own schedule. In earlier days, he tells us, he attended up to 48 shows a year, or almost one a week. Nowadays he does just two, but the two he does are done for the sheer joy of it.

He can afford to scale back like that because Royal West Warehouse has firmly established itself as a dealer in first class geodes for its reliable customer base. Most of the company’s product comes from Brazil where its buyers handpick the specimens to send back to Oregon. For all its heftiness, the material can sometimes break or shatter during the mining, the shipping, or the unpacking. So care and precision are necessary all along the pipeline, and Bob is quick to tip his hat to his warehouse crew for the job they do in handling the valuable goods. @topic:11


Publish Year: - Title: Market Insight From a  Colored Gem Dealer Abstract: Bill VanceVance Gems

	Interview with Bill Vance, Vance Gems
Bill Vance, a colored gemstone dealer from Delaware, sounds the twin notes of apprehension at the increasing worldwide scarcity of high-quality colored-stone rough, and excitement at the investment opportunity this presents for the middle-range buyer. He forecasts rising demand and falling supply of gem-quality rough with no end in sight, due to mines becoming defunct and miners leaving the industry. What is selling at gem shows now, he says, is only the high end “best of the best.”

Middle-class buyers from India, China, and the Far East with disposable income are acquiring peridot, tourmaline, blue zircon, tanzanite, and other colored gemstones. Although this is driving prices higher, according to Mr. Vance it is not yet too late for buyers in this country to purchase, for example, a good-size 5- to 6-carat tanzanite for $400-$550 per carat. Such a gemstone will continue to gain in value, and thanks to currently low interest on savings and other investment instruments, is literally “better than money in the bank.”

As a GIA Graduate Gemologist himself, Vance is enthusiastic about the value of a rigorous gemological education, followed by plenty of exposure to material in the field. Since the public is increasingly knowledgeable about purchasing gems, it is imperative that gem-related businesses hire educated and ethical personnel. Credibility is everything, and those in the field with well-earned good reputations will be able to stay the course.
His advice to students?  “Always trust your instruments, never ever sight-identify, and don’t be afraid to say ‘I don’t know but I’ll find out for you.’” @topic:11


Publish Year: - Title: Unveiling a Chinese Luxury Jadeite Brand: A Visit to Zhaoyi Cuiwu in Beijing Abstract: This “Dancing Bird with Jade Feathers” jadeite necklace was made by Zhaoyi Cuiwu. The necklace’s evocative name comes from an impressionistic resemblance to a bird rather than a literal representation. The pendant portion of the necklace suggests the slender neck of a bird, and the portion above the flower clip suggests its wings. The green jadeite cabochons symbolize glistening bird feathers. The piece epitomizes a key difference between Chinese and Western jewelry design, in that the Chinese tend to focus on the symbolic, rather than naturalistic, representation of natural subjects. The necklace won the Media Attention Award in the China Jewelry Design and Manufacturing Contest. Photo courtesy of Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd.

                      Zhaoyi has been the leading fine jadeite jewelry brand since its debut in 2003. In 2012, it was honored by the American luxury lifestyle magazine The Robb Report as one of China’s top ten emerging luxury brands. In 2013, a GIA field gemology team visited Zhaoyi Cuiwu, one of the three production lines that operate under Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd. This eye-opening experience allowed the authors and Western jewelry industry experts to re-envision the traditional Chinese gold-jade culture as an inexhaustible source of luxury innovations.

	Zhaoyi Cuiwu jewelry

	Sales professionals describe high-end jadeite jewelry made by Zhaoyi Cuiwu.

	Brand Profile
The brand name “Zhaoyi” originated from the ancient Chinese Palace of the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 9 AD). It was one of the high official titles assigned by the emperors to women who served in the palace. In Chinese, “Zhao” means “illuminating” or “being bright,” while “Yi” means “etiquette.” These concepts are also the core of the Chinese gold-jade culture.

Zhaoyi Xintiandi Jewelry Co., Ltd. was formed in Beijing in 2003. From day one, this company has established its image as the leader of Chinese high-end jewelry trends and the inheritor of traditional Chinese jewelry manufacturing craftsmanship. The company integrates jadeite rough purchasing, jewelry design, haute couture design, jewelry manufacturing, jewelry retailing, and brand promotion.

In 2004, Zhaoyi opened its first retail store in Beijing. In 2007, Zhaoyi opened its first flagship store in the Beijing Kunlun Hotel. In that same year, movie star Wenli Jiang walked the red carpet of the international film festival in Rome wearing a Zhaoyi suite consisting of a colorless transparent jadeite necklace and ring. For the first time, fine jadeite jewelry designed and made by Zhaoyi stood out on an international stage.

The store visited by the GIA team in the Grand Hyatt Beijing opened in September 2008. Well-known film stars attended the opening ceremony. In 2012, a new Zhaoyi Cuiwu store image was unveiled at the Shanghai Top Marques private luxury exhibition. International movie star Kar-ling Lau modeled top-quality jadeite jewelry at the show. Since the company’s formation, Zhaoyi has collaborated with many movie stars, and many of them became collectors of Zhaoyi’s fine jadeite jewelry.

Movie star Pace Wu wore Zhaoyi’s imperial jadeite jewelry suite. As a well-known fashion icon, Wu demonstrated to the public, especially the young generation, that green jadeite can be very fashionable. Photo courtesy Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd.
Great leadership and industry expertise are always important to the development and prosperity of a business. Zhaoyi’s president and CEO, Ms. Yunhe Wang, has very sharp insights and a clear sense of her company's direction. She selected filigree inlay designer Master Yingyi Bai and Canadian-Chinese jewelry designer Grace Lee as the chief designers. This turned out to be one of the most successful moves in Zhaoyi’s history.

Ms. Yunhe Wang, President and CEO of Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd., treasures the industry experts she has recruited for Zhaoyi. From left to right: Chief filigree inlay designer Master Jingyi Bai, Yunhe Wang, and famous movie star Kai-ling Lau. Photo courtesy Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd.
Currently, Zhaoyi has a total of 13 boutique stores in nine cities. While not a large number, every store is like an art gallery. The Beijing store even houses a private filigree museum. Aside from major cities in mainland China, Zhaoyi also has locations in Hong Kong and is planning to open franchised shops in Paris, New York, and other metropolitan areas all over the world. Their goal is to bring the Chinese gold-jade culture to the international market.

	Creative Jewelry Design
Targeting the high-end jadeite jewelry market in China, Zhaoyi creates jadeite masterpieces with particular appeal to art collectors. In order to successfully inherit and carry on the gold-jade culture and its thousands of years of history, designers apply groundbreaking Western design concepts to jadeite jewelry. These creative designs attract the attention of the younger generation and the Western world.

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	Creative Designs
Colorless transparent jadeite jewelry is one of Zhaoyi’s special products. Previously, colorless jadeite was not favored by jadeite professionals in China. However, it can actually display outstanding transparency and extremely fine texture. Industry experts in Zhaoyi sensed the potential of this material and created the classic transparent colorless jadeite cabochon. Now, transparent jadeite cabochons more or less symbolize the Zhaoyi Cuiwu brand. This is significant, especially because of the shortage of high-quality green jadeite rough. At the same time, for balance, designers bravely use diamonds and colored stones as accents for these cabochons. This has never before been popular in China’s history.

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	The Beauty of Colorless Transparent Jadeite
Besides colorless transparent jadeite and the traditionally popular imperial jadeite, jadeite in other colors is also beautifully designed and manufactured by Zhaoyi.

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	More than Green

	Company Treasures
When a great designer works with extremely rare top-quality material, masterpieces are expected. Zhaoyi claims both elements as company treasures.

Grace Lee, the chief designer of Zhaoyi Cuiwu, was once a broadcaster. Her design innovations resulted in jewelry pieces featuring colorless transparent jadeite. Photo courtesy Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd.
Grace Lee, a Canadian originally from Hong Kong, is the chief designer of Zhaoyi Cuiwu. Once a broadcaster at ATV World in Hong Kong, Grace stepped into the gem and jewelry industry with a jewelry design degree from Hong Kong Baptist University and a GIA Graduate Gemologist diploma. Since she became a jewelry designer, her works have become very popular in auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s. As Zhaoyi’s chief designer, two of her product lines, “Jade for You” and “Jade That She Wants,” are very well favored by clients. Both have been extended into high-end custom jewelry lines.

“Jade that She Wants” is one of two Zhaoyi high-end custom jewelry lines designed by Grace Lee. These jewelry pieces feature large, top-quality, colorless transparent jadeite cabochons and complementary colored stones. Photo courtesy Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd.
One of Grace’s jadeite masterpieces is also the company’s symbol. It’s called “The star of Zhaoyi.” It was released in 2012 and won the Robb Report's Best Chinese Selected Jewelry Award. The center stone of the The star of Zhaoyi is a top-quality lavender jadeite cabochon that weighs 9,499 carats. The cabochon is mounted in precious metal with numerous diamonds and colored stones. The piece resembles a blossoming peony, which is considered the national flower of China. Ten matched rings were made to surround the larger piece. Each ring has a top-quality colorless transparent jadeite as the center stone. All ten rings have the same design as the star of Zhaoyi.

The star of Zhaoyi is the company’s symbol. This piece features a center stone that weighs 9499 carats. Top-quality lavender jadeite of this size is extremely rare. Ten matching rings were also made. The suite looks like a blossoming peony surrounded by ten small flowers. Photo courtesy Zhaoyi Xintiandi Co. Ltd.

	Contribution to the Jade Industry
In addition to promoting and managing the brand, Zhaoyi also played an important role in the formation of the National Jadeite Grading Standard. Because Zhaoyi has access to a huge amount of jadeite of different qualities, it became the sponsor of the research into the grading system. Zhaoyi provided standard samples, and some experts from the company even participated in the research. In December, 2012, the Chinese Standardization Administration officially approved the “transparent jadeite (colorless) classification” standard. This standard was in practice at the end of 2013. @topic:11


Publish Year: 2001 Title: Spring 2001 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Jeweled Bugs and Butterflies”
By Marilyn Nissenson and Susan Jonas, 120 pp., illus., publ. by Harry N. Abrams, New York, 2000. US$29.95

“Paulding Farnham: Tiffany’s Lost Genius”
By John Loring, 151 pp., illus., publ. by Harry N. Abrams, New York, 2000. US$49.50

“The Crown Jewels: The History of the Coronation Regalia in the Jewel House of the Tower of London”
By C. Blair, A. Grimwade, R. R. Harding, E. A. Jobbins, D. King, R. W. Lightbown, and K. Scarratt. Volume I: The History, 812 pp.; Volume II: The Catalogue, 630 pp. Illus., publ. by The Stationery Office, London, 1998. US$1,650

“Colored Stones of Yakutia and Places of Their Origin”
By V. G. Gadiatov and V. K. Marshinsev, 328 pp., illus., publ. by Yekaterinburg Bank of Cultural Information, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2000, 150 rubles (about US$5.25) [in Russian]

“Gemmologia Europa VII—European Gemmologists on the Emerald”
Edited by Margherita Superchi, 221 pp., illus., publ. by CISGEM, Milan, Italy, 2000, 35,000 lira (about US$16.00) [in Italian and English]

“Mughals, Maharajas and the Mahatma”
By  K. R. N. Swamy, 265 pp., illus., publ. by Harper Collins Publishers India, New Delhi, 1997, US$18.95

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:6


Publish Year: 2001 Title: Pink to Pinkish Orange Malaya Garnets from Bekily, Madagascar Abstract: Malaya garnets from Bekily, Madagascar, are predominantly pink to pinkish orange, with some stones orange to red. Discovered only in the late 1990s, the majority are intermediate members of the pyrope-spessartine series with variable contents of almandine and subordinate grossular. The refractive index, specific gravity, and color of these garnets are related to their iron and manganese contents. Inclusions identified by Raman analysis are rutile needles and platelets, graphite, quartz, apatite, zircon, and sillimanite. Negative crystals were also seen. Important differences in predominant color and chemistry were noted when the Bekily garnets, only the second commercial source of malaya garnet, were compared to malaya garnets from East Africa, which have been available since the late 1970s. @topic:1


Publish Year: 1991 Title: Emeralds from the Ural Mountains, USSR Abstract: Emeralds are again being mined in the historic district of the Ural Mountains. Physical, chemical, spectroscopic, and microscopic characteristics of stones from the recent production are presented and compared with data on older samples as well as those reported in the literature. Chemical analysis and visible and infrared spectroscopy provide information on crystal chemistry and color-causing trace elements that is useful both to characterize these stones and to separate them from their synthetic counterparts. A variety of mineral inclusions as well as liquid, two-phase, and three-phase inclusions were seen with magnification. All of the data are critically evaluated with respect to the confirmation of unknown samples as Uralian. @topic:1


Publish Year: 1988 Title: The Distinction of Natural from Synthetic Alexandrite by Infrared Spectroscopy Abstract: Infrared spectroscopy provides a means to distinguish natural from synthetic alexandrites in the range 2000-4200 cm -1, as determined by a study of spectra obtained from 15 natural and 28 synthetic alexandrites from a variety of sources. The technique is nondestructive and, with Fourier transform instrumentation, extremely rapid. It is especially useful for identifying stones that contain no distinguishing inclusions. @topic:3


Publish Year: 1981 Title: The Cutting Properties of Kunzite Abstract: In the process of cutting kunzite, a lapidary comes face-to-face with problem properties that sometimes remain hidden from the jeweler. By way of examining these problems, we present the example of a one-kilo kunzite crystal being cut. The cutting problems shown give ample warning to the jeweler to take care in working with kunzite and demonstrate the necessity of cautioning customers to avoid shocking the stone when they wear it in jewelry. @topic:8


Publish Year: 1981 Title: The Chromium Content of Lechleitner Synthetic Emerald Overgrowth Abstract: The refractive indices of the synthetic overgrowth on the beryl seeds of Lechleitner synthetic emeralds show a linear correlation with the chromium content of the coating. In a sample with refractive indices of no=1.580, ne=1.572a, Cr203, content of 3.99% was found; a stone with no=1.610, ne=1.601 contained 10.01 % Cr2O3. Very broad, faint shadow edges on the refractometer in one sample were caused by an inhomogeneous distribution of Cr2O3,--between 7.64% and 13.20%--in the synthetic emerald overgrowth. From these experiments, it is evident that the higher the chromium content in the overgrowth, the darker the coating (and, therefore, the overall appearance of the stone) will be. @topic:3


Publish Year: - Title: The Royal Ruby Abstract: Ruby specimen gift of William F. Larson.  Cut rubies courtesy of Edward Boehm.

                      Ancient Indians called it “the king of precious stones.” Burmese warriors thought it made them invulnerable in battle. Medieval Europeans believed it cured hemorrhages and inflammatory diseases.

	The ruby has been prized since ancient times. And we still cherish it today.
	Rubies have remained popular for millennia because they are beautiful stones that evoke love, romance, and power. Here’s vivid proof of our fondness for them: rubies can still command the highest per-carat price of all colored stones.

		Nina Switzer-Spano, instructor of gemology at GIA, Carlsbad

Ruby belongs to a species of gemstones called corundum. The presence of the element chromium causes the naturally colorless corundum to turn red.

Myanmar’s Mogok Valley and Mong Hsu are important sources for high-quality rubies. Rubies are also mined in Madagascar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and other countries.

Color is one of the most important factors in determining a ruby’s value. Rubies range from an orangy red to a purplish red. Historically, the name “pigeon’s blood” has been used to describe vivid red rubies; however it is best to avoid using this trade term as it can be misinterpreted.

	Gift of Inta Gems.

Almost all rubies are heat-treated to improve their color. For example, rubies lose their brownish color; rubies mined in Sri Lanka become a more intense red when heat-treated; and rubies from Mong Hsu, Myanmar lose their dark color-zoned centers.

Rubies that are not treated command far higher prices than their enhanced counterparts. Assume a ruby is heat-treated unless an identification report says otherwise. Glass filling is another common and much less durable treatment.

Also be aware that synthetic rubies are popular in the marketplace. Manufactured since the late 1880s, synthetic rubies offer consumers a more affordable option than natural ones. Their place in the display case is perfectly legitimate. If a treatment or a country of origin is known, it must be disclosed. Disclosure is essential to building customer confidence and trust.

Tips on Rubies

		Rubies are rich in lore and romance. Be sure to share this with consumers.

		If all factors are equal, rubies mined in Burma are usually more desirable than rubies from other places. You may want to submit a ruby to GIA to identify if it’s natural or synthetic, or treated or untreated. Additional testing is available to determine country of origin. A GIA report with this information can let you purchase and/or sell these gems with confidence.

		Rubies are extremely hard and durable. Let customers know that they can wear them every day, but should make sure that the ruby does not rub against other gemstones, as they can damage softer ones like emerald and topaz.

To learn more about rubies, visit the GIA Gem Encyclopedia Ruby Page @topic:2


Publish Year: 2023 Title: “Atypical Beads”: Variations of Two Types of Nuclei Abstract: Figure 1. Four loose atypical bead cultured pearls weighing 3.30 to 8.53 ct. Pearls 1–4 are shown from left to right. Photo by Gaurav Bera.
Atypical bead cultured pearls (aBCP) are occasionally encountered during laboratory testing. The nuclei used can take the form of various undrilled, partially drilled, or even drilled materials including natural pearls (abalone, scallop, turban species, Pteria species, and Pinna species), freshwater non-bead cultured pearls, coral, plastic, small shells, faceted sapphire beads of various colors, glass, quartz, and agate (“Atypical ‘beading’ in the production of cultured pearls from Australian Pinctada maxima,” GIA Research News, February 13, 2017). Four aBCPs (figure 1) were recently discovered in a group of 50 loose pearls submitted to GIA’s Mumbai laboratory.
Externally, the four white to light cream-colored aBCPs looked similar to the other pearls submitted in the lot. When viewed under 40× magnification, their surfaces exhibited a typical nacreous surface of overlapping aragonite platelets. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry on all four revealed manganese levels between 13.30 ppm and 45.60 ppm and strontium levels between 1064 ppm and 1822 ppm, characteristic of a saltwater environment. Interestingly, optical X-ray fluorescence (XRF) of pearl 1 revealed a strong yellowish green reaction, while pearls 2, 3, and 4 were inert. The ultraviolet/visible reflectance spectra collected on the four pearls showed weak absorption features at around 320–420 nm. Raman analysis using 514 nm laser excitation showed the expected doublet at 702/705 cm–1 and peak at 1085 cm–1, indicative of aragonite.

Figure 2. Surface appearance and internal structures of the four atypical bead cultured pearls. Photomicrographs by Nishka Vaz; fields of view 2 mm, 0.6 mm, 2.86 mm, and 16.3 mm.

Figure 3. Left: Pearl 1 revealed a strong yellowish green reaction under optical X-ray fluorescence. Right: Undulating shell banding visible within the sample’s shell bead nucleus using transmitted light. Photomicrograph by Nishka Vaz; field of view 6.75 mm.
Real-time microradiography (RTX) and X-ray computed microtomography (μ-CT) analysis revealed a variety of internal structures that required interpretation. RTX imaging of pearl 1 showed a thin irregular demarcation close to the surface which was not continuous. On viewing the μ-CT, the demarcation was more discernible and followed the irregular outline of the pearl (figure 2, row 1). An irregularly shaped freshwater shell bead was clearly used as the nucleus, hence the strong yellowish green reaction observed in the optical X-ray fluorescence unit (figure 3, left). Under transmitted light, banding within the bead nucleus was also observed (figure 3, right); externally, the pearl had notable indentations on its surface.
Pearl 2 hosted the most interesting nucleus of the four. A rectangular “tissue-box” shaped bead, likely a piece of cut saltwater shell given the almost identical radio-opacity to that of its host, was evident in the RTX and μ-CT images (figure 2, row 2) (Fall 2022 Gem News International, pp. 378–380). Externally, the pearl was smooth, lustrous, and free of any surface blemishes.
The RTX and μ-CT images of pearl 3 revealed an obvious demarcation with a linear structure at the center of the nucleus and a small “organic tail-like feature” at one end within the boundary separating the bead from the overgrown cultured nacre (figure 2, row 3). All features were consistent with a saltwater non-bead cultured pearl being used as the bead nuclei. The lack of growth arcs around the demarcation was possibly due to rapid nacre deposition during the culturing process (“Atypical ‘beading’ in the production of cultured pearls from Australian Pinctada maxima,” GIA Research News, February 13, 2017). This pearl exhibited distinct surface scratches that were visible without magnification.
Pearl 4 also showed a strong demarcation feature on the RTX and μ-CT images. However, the central area differed from the other three pearls, as it showed a void-like feature in the middle (figure 2, row 4). The bead nucleus used in the process was most likely a saltwater non-bead cultured pearl based on the fact that the pearl was inert to XRF, in keeping with pearl 3, despite the relatively thin nacre layers that would allow a freshwater bead to react. The pearl was also unusual because it possessed three nearly flat “bases” with concave features at the center of each. This raised questions about its identity even before X-ray examination, since the authors have rarely observed natural pearls with such features.
This is not the first time GIA has encountered aBCPs, but to receive four with variations on two types of nuclei—atypical shell (not typical round shell beads) and non-bead cultured pearls—in one lot was very interesting. This proves that such pearls are still circulating in the market and are being mixed with natural goods in an attempt at deception (Fall 2011 Lab Notes, pp. 229–230). Given the spectral data collected (S. Karampelas, “Spectral characteristics of natural-color saltwater cultured pearls from Pinctada maxima,” Fall 2012 G&G, pp. 193–197) and the pearls’ internal structures and external appearance (A. Homkrajae et al., “Internal structures of known Pinctada maxima pearls: Cultured pearls from operated marine mollusks,” Fall 2021 G&G, pp. 186–205), it is apparent that all four of them formed within Pinctada species mollusks, most likely Pinctada maxima. Atypical bead cultured pearls have always been an interesting and sometimes challenging subject. With modern equipment and practical pearl testing experience, laboratories such as GIA aim to remain one step ahead of the possible experiments used by cultivators. @topic:5


Publish Year: 1986 Title: Spring 1986 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary”
By Hans Nadelhoffer, 312 pp., illus., publ. by Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY, 1984. US$50.00

“The Great American Sapphire”
By Stephen M. Voynick, 212 pp., illus., publ. by Mountain Press Publishing Co., Missoula, MT, 1985. US$16.95 cloth, $9.95 paper

“Pearls: Their Origin, Treatment, and Identification”
By Jean Taburiaux, 247 pp., illus., publ. by Chilton Publishing Co., Radnor, PA, 1985. US$24.95

“Larousse Des Pierres Precieuses”
By Pierre Bariand and Jean-Paul Poirot, 264 pp., illus., publ. by Librairie Larousse, Paris, France.
US$45.95

“The Tourmaline Group”
By R. V. Dietrich, 300 pp., illus., publ. by Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY, 1985. US$29.95

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:6


Publish Year: - Title: Winter 2009 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Emeralds: A Passionate Guide: The Emeralds, the People, Their Secrets”
By Ronald Ringsrud, 382 pp., illus., Green View Press [www.emeraldpassion.com], Oxnard, CA, 2009. $80.00

“The French Blue”
By Richard W. Wise, 489 pp., illus., publ. by Brunswick House Press [www.thefrenchblue.com], Lenox, MA. $29.95

“The Pearl Oyster”
Edited by Paul C. Southgate and John C. Lucas, 582 pp., illus., publ. by Elsevier [www.elsevier.com], Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2008. 91.95 (US$111.00)

“Collector’s Guide to Fluorite”
By Arvid Eric Pasto, 96 pp., illus., publ. by Schiffer Publishing [www.schifferbooks.com], Atglen, PA, 2009. $19.99

“The Bohemian Crown Jewels”
By Andrej Sumbera, transl. by Zuzana Jurgens, 114 pp., illus., publ. by the author
[www.korunovacni-klenoty.cz], 2008, $20.00

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:6


Publish Year: - Title: Spinel Description Abstract: Pink to red spinel is in high demand among gem connoisseurs. - Courtesy a Private Collector and Mona Lee Nesseth, Custom Estate Jewels

                      Spinel, like garnet and diamond, is singly refractive, with the same physical properties in all crystal directions. It belongs to the cubic crystal system, and its characteristic crystal shape is an octahedron, which looks like two back-to-back pyramids. Well-formed spinel crystals are fairly common in nature.

	Spinel specimens range from extraordinary crystals to beautifully cut stones. - Jeffrey Scovil, courtesy Barker & Co
Spinel can also form flattened crystals that look radically different from octahedral crystals. The flattened shape occurs when the pyramids that form an octahedron rotate against each other during growth. Scientists describe this as a “twinned crystal.” Large gems cut from good-color twinned crystals are typically shallow, and should be judged on their overall beauty rather than on proportions alone.

	The fashioned spinel is from Sri Lanka, while the rough crystals are from Myanmar. The second crystal from the right is an octahedron. The other crystals rotated during growth and appear flattened. Scientists call them twinned crystals.
The spinel used in jewelry is a small part of a group of minerals that share the same crystal structure. Not all of them form transparent crystals suitable for jewelry use, however. Spinel offers a range of hues, from orange to intense “stoplight” red, vibrant pink, and all shades of purple, blue, and violet through bluish green.
Intense reds and pinks are caused by traces of chromium. The higher the chromium content, the stronger the red hue. Orange and purple stones owe their color to a mixture of iron and chromium.

	Spinel comes in beautiful red, pink, purple, and blue colors.
Violet to blue spinel can be colored by trace amounts of iron, and vibrant blues owe their saturated color to trace amounts of cobalt. @topic:3


Publish Year: - Title: The (Creative) Paths Less Taken: Takeaways from GIA’s 2019 Creative Careers Panel Abstract: Creative Careers Panelists at the 2019 Jewelry Career Fair in Carlsbad are, from left: moderator Mark Smelzer, publisher of JCK and JCKOnline.com; Baba Blumkin, president and co-founder of Luxe Jewelry and Loan; Wade Clar, Jr., director of brand development for Julez Bryant; Alexandra Hart, designer and goldsmith; Jenny Luker, president of Platinum Guild International USA and Tiffany Stevens, CEO and general counsel of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee. Video Duration: 1:21:15
“Go out and make yourself a little uncomfortable” was perhaps the outstanding theme of this year’s “Creative Careers Panel” during the 2019 GIA Carlsbad Jewelry Career Fair.
And by going out, panelist Wade Clar, Jr., director of brand development for Julez Bryant, means attending events like this one. He encouraged attendees to step out and make new connections, learn new things and throw old assumptions out the window.
The panelists, guided by moderator Mark Smelzer, publisher of JCK magazine and JCKonline.com, offered advice as they shared their experiences with attendees.
Takeaway One: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Each panelist’s path had one thing in common: it started when they stepped out of their comfort zone.
Baba Blumkin, president and co-founder of Luxe Jewelry and Loan, spent his early days selling diamonds door-to-door, carrying goods worth a quarter of a million on his back. “You learn to deal with people saying no,” he said.
Alexandra Hart, a metal artist and designer goldsmith, got her first job by sending her resume to every jewelry company she found in the yellow pages.
For some on the panel, discomfort wasn’t in facing the unknown, but rather in being trapped in the supposed “good life.” Tiffany Stevens, CEO and general counsel of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC), was only weeks into a dream law firm job when she realized she was at the wrong place. In the next two decades, she bounced from an investment firm to a startup, began a non-profit for at-risk girls and wrote grants for pediatric medical research, before finally landing at JVC.
“Just because it looks right on the outside doesn’t mean it feels right on the inside,” she said about her earlier experiences.

Wade Clar Jr., director of brand development for Julez Bryant, (center) makes a point during the Creative Careers presentation. From left, moderator Mark Smelzer, publisher of JCK and JCKOnline,(standing), Baba Blumkin, president and co-founder of Luxe Jewelry and Loan, Clar, and Alexandra Hart, designer and goldsmith. Photo by Eric Welch
Takeaway Two: Make Connections
These panelists, many of them leaders of accredited industry organizations, couldn’t say enough about the value of joining jewelry organizations and how these organizations helped them make connections and find mentors and friends.
Clar, a GIA Jewelry Business Management (JBM) and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) graduate, found his first job in the jewelry industry at a GIA Career Fair. This first job in wholesale opened the door for him to work in retail, and his experiences led him to be invited to speak on a Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) panel. That’s where he met and was hired by his current boss, the designer Julez Bryant, who was a fellow WJA member and panel speaker.
Clar said he is bold about approaching people, because “sometimes you have that connection.” The people who liked him didn’t always have a position open at their company, but they created one for him. He said networking is the most challenging but also the most rewarding part of being in the industry.
Jenny Luker, president of Platinum Guild International and WJA, emphasized the importance of having mentors. She cited Kathryn Kimmel, retired senior vice president and chief marketing officer of GIA, as an inspirational mentor who has helped her over the years.
“This is a very open-arms industry,” Stevens seconded. “Look for people who are retiring who can be your champions. A lot of people love this industry and want to see it thrive.”
Takeaway Three: Work Hard and Pursue Your Interests (they may not be what you think they are)
Hart often hears people speak wistfully about their far-off dreams. Her answer: “If you really wanted to do it that much, you’d already be doing it.”
Hart’s two main passions are social justice and the arts. The challenge (or dream), she said, is combining both. A jewelry designer who is also the president of the Ethical Metalsmiths, she has managed to do what one student called: “improving the human cost of jewelry throughout the world” while remaining an “artistic wild-child.”
What makes Alexandra Hart come alive every day? “Shepherding” her different interests together. “The closer they come together, the better I feel,” she said. “It’s a rush.”
Smelzer’s advice to job-seekers: “Embrace the work in front of you. Don’t be afraid to start (over) from the bottom.”
Luker’s advice is similar: “I started out at Platinum Guild International (PGI) answering telephones, while studying to become a sociology professor.” Now she is Platinum Guild International’s CEO.
Blumkin, with true entrepreneurial spirit, suggested that job-seekers don’t have to wait around for the perfect job. “You can create your perfect job,” after lots of industry experience of course. “You can have 10 jobs and get a feather in your cap from each one. Then you create your perfect job.”
Hart counseled along the same lines: “Working for someone else gives you a good idea of how you would want to do things yourself.”
Clar’s succinct advice? “Get your feet wet. Connect the dots … tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”

Hart, left, and Tiffany Stevens, CEO and general counsel of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee, right, listen while Jenny Luker, president of the Platinum Guild International USA, speaks. Photo by Eric Welch
Takeaway Four: Learn Something New Every Day
One habit these panelists have in common? They set aside time to learn.
Luker blocks out an hour every Friday morning, no matter how full her inbox is, to read or watch videos about the industry and to ask questions of her colleagues abroad. “People know not to schedule meetings for that time. They know that time is important to me,” she said.
Hart reads industry magazines, such as JCK or National Jeweler, every morning.
Smelzer enjoys reading and learning things on his cellphone, which he finds calming and anxiety-reducing. “In the two-thousands, a huge advantage we have is that the whole world is in our cellphones,” he said.
For Blumkin, every day is a learning opportunity. “Clients are always bringing in antique pieces on the fly,” he said, and he has to make quick decisions about what to buy and then identify the maker’s marks and time period of each acquired piece. “No matter how good you are, there’s so much out there, you can’t know everything.”
Stevens, who hails from New York City, said every day is an extracurricular activity. She never knows what note each day will end on, but she finds small ways of declaring victory.
“A big career means big emotions,” she explained. “Big emotions don’t mean you’re doing it wrong; it just means you’re doing it.”
Editor’s Note: To hear each speaker’s introduction about themselves in the video, reference the time stamps below:

Mark Smelzer: Beginning
Baba Blumkin: 5:50
Wade Clar, Jr.: 12:33
Alexandra Hart: 20:59
Jenny Luker: 28:04
Tiffany Stevens: 34:03
Read about and watch the Opening Session of the 2019 Jewelry Career Fair in Carlsbad. @topic:6


Publish Year: - Title: Melee: Building Blocks of Contemporary Design Abstract: Melee can be used to ornament a wide variety of contours and shapes such as on this extraordinary ring. Courtesy of JYE's International

An important element of the gem and jewelry industry, melee can create a modern look and elegant design patterns. Designers need to know about it, and so do professionals all along the value chain.

GIA defines melee (pronounced meh-lee) as small diamonds and gemstones weighing less than 1/5 carat (ct), but size ranges vary from country to country and from one segment of the trade to another. Melee are often cut into a round shape, but are available in a variety of  shapes: emerald, princess, radiant, marquise and more. New design and manufacturing technology is enabling more ornate and complicated jewelry that is in high demand.

Dealers may use sieves such as these to sort melee into different sizes.
The more diamonds in a piece of jewelry, the more sparkle it has. Due to their small size, melee diamonds are inexpensive when compared to larger diamond center stones, so they are often generously used in engagement ring designs to add brightness and scintillation.

Melee are often used to enhance nearby stones and to make decorative patterns. They are also used to add sparkle to bracelets, necklaces, earrings, watches and other types of jewelry.
Melee color grades are usually not very detailed: “Face up white” (D-H colors) and “Top light browns” (M-O colors) are examples. Clarity grades are described similarly, such as “Eye clean” for no visible inclusions to the unaided eye. Jewelry manufacturers then strive to match the color of the center stone to the color of melee.

There are approximately 9.50 ct of melee (791 round diamonds) in this 18K white gold bracelet. If the melee were not carefully matched for color, the bracelet would lose much of its elegant beauty. Courtesy of Uneek
Melee diamonds are produced in large quantities in factories that use the latest diamond cutting equipment. High-tech machines have reduced the amount of labor required and improved the quality of the finished product, but cutting and sorting melee is still a labor intensive business. The city of Surat in India is an important manufacturing hub for diamonds, including melee which are faceted, sorted, and sold in parcels of 100 carats or more to jewelry manufacturers (parcels can have over 400 melee). A single piece of jewelry can have dozens or even hundreds of melee stones.

Just like larger carat diamonds, the ability to detect simulants and synthetic (lab-grown) melee diamonds is important to the trade. In the past few years, companies have introduced automated systems like GIA’s Melee Analysis Service, which cost-effectively analyzes and sorts natural diamond melee from synthetic.

Melee in Jewelry Design

Creative jewelry designers are using tiny pieces of melee to make a big statement. They’re incorporating it to add scintillation to engagement rings, and to create a realistic or whimsical look in large, organic curved surfaces (colored gems are often used as melee).

The gradations of color in this ring was accomplished by cutting benitoite into melee. Courtesy of the Columbia Gem House Inc.
In engagement rings, matching the color of melee to the color of the center stone is important. When it does match, the results can be breathtaking. A halo made of melee can make the center stone appear larger. Decorative patterns of melee can create visual interest. But if the melee is darker or lighter than the center stone it’s likely to create an unattractive appearance.

Melee used to create a halo can add additional sparkle and make the center stone appear larger. This platinum engagement ring features a 1 ct center stone with 0.5 total carat weight of melee in the halo and shank. Courtesy of Blue Nile.
When working with melee in jewelry design, it’s important to understand the difference between “carat weight” and “total carat weight,” because diamond weight is a driving factor in determining price. Total carat weight, often abbreviated (tcw) in the jewelry industry, is used to describe the combined weight of all the diamonds in a piece of jewelry that only contains diamonds. The description carat weight (ct) only applies to an individual stone, like the center stone. A ring with many small diamonds with a 2.50 tcw can cost significantly less than a solitaire engagement ring with a single diamond weighing 2.50 ct.

Common Setting Styles for Melee

Bead and Bright: Small beads hold the stones in place in this popular style of bead setting. The bead setting is surrounded by a bright-cut wall that helps to reflect light into the diamond.
Channel: This is a technique where single or multiple stones are secured between two opposing walls with channel supports below. This setting does not have beads or prongs to secure the stone.
Pavé: Another bead-style setting, pavé is setting stones in three or more rows with hand-raised beads that hold them in place.
Prong: Metal supports secure a gemstone and are part of a setting. Prong settings show more of the gemstone by using less metal than other setting styles.

Melee Design and Engineering Challenges

Using melee requires striking a balance between design and engineering. For example, placing melee in every available location on a brooch may impress customers, but if the piece is not designed for this type of application it may not be durable.

Also, setting styles such as pavé, bead and channel require the removal of metal from jewelry. However, removing too much metal from an improperly engineered piece can result in structural weakness and failure during daily wear.
GIA Quality Assurance Benchmarks (QABs™) are criteria for evaluating the design, engineering and manufacture of jewelry and are taught in the GIA Jewelry Design & Technology and Graduate Jeweler diploma programs. Here are some best practices you can use when working with melee:

Melee of different sizes (even by 0.20 millimeters (mm)) may be noticeable to a customer. Selecting similar-size diamonds is important if uniformity is part of the design.
All prong tips should be in solid contact with the gem’s crown so there are no gaps between the prong and the stone. Prong tips that are not flush can snag on clothes, scratch skin and break.
For pavé or bead and bright setting, use at least a 0.50 mm border to ensure structural integrity.
For channel-set stones, build 1.00 mm walls on either side of the stones. Then bearings can be cut into the channel walls, so that approximately 10% of the diamond is in contact with the setting.
Gold, silver and platinum have different properties. Be sure to account for the unique metallurgical properties of the metal you are using when setting melee.

GIA Quality Assurance Benchmarks highlight workmanship of semi-finished and finished jewelry. Learn how to evaluate the quality of a bead-set diamonds in the shank of a platinum ring. GIA.edu/QAB
GIA QAB™, which were developed with support and feedback from the jewelry industry, provide an objective method for evaluating the quality of semi- or fully-finished jewelry by comparing it against acknowledged criteria, and show how to set melee properly.

Challenges aside, setting melee can be very lucrative, and comes with relatively low liability for potential loss due to breakage. For professionals in other parts of the trade, melee has an importance far greater than its size. So knowing about it is essential. @topic:4


Publish Year: - Title: Sri Lanka: From Mine to Market, Part 1 Abstract: Sri Lanka’s gemstone and jewelry industry blends traditional practices and experience with the needs of the modern global market. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.

                      To visit Sri Lanka is to experience one of the great gem sources and trading centers in the world. This country has a rich, almost unparalleled tradition and remains vitally important to the modern gemstone market. Sri Lanka has a true mine-to-market industry, both domestically and for export. Its evolution over the last two decades blends the best of traditional practices with modern technologies and business models.

In this field report, we take you on an expedition to this magnificent island and its remarkable mine-to-market industry.

Sri Lanka has produced a wide variety of gemstones, including cat’s-eye chrysoberyl. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.

	An Amazing Island
Traveling in Sri Lanka, you realize it is a large island with very diverse environments. Most of the terrain consists of flat or rolling hills, but there are beautiful mountains in the southern central interior. Agriculture is a constant presence as you drive around the country, with intense green rice fields and rubber tree plantations.

In Elahera’s rice fields, there are treehouses for agricultural workers to climb into when a herd of wild elephants passes through. In Ratnapura, Elahera, and Balangoda, green rice fields also enclose small pit-mining operations, sometimes covered with V-shaped roofs for a little protection from rain and sun. Gaining elevation, you encounter beautiful tea plantations where it is common to see workers picking tea leaves by hand. Driving along the coast offers views of Sri Lanka’s beautiful coastline and fishing industry.

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	Island Images
Sri Lanka has two monsoon seasons that occur at different times of the year depending on the part of the country. The northeast has monsoons from December through March. In the southwest, where most of the mining takes place, the monsoon season lasts from June to October. As in many places throughout the world, weather patterns in recent years have not been as predictable as they were in the past. We encountered mostly good weather, but intermittent rainstorms occurred regularly, interrupting mining operations.

	History, Culture, and People
It is believed that Sri Lanka has been inhabited by humans for more than 300,000 years. The main ethnic group is the Sinhalese, representing about 73 percent of the population. They arrived from India in about the late sixth century BC. Buddhism came to Sri Lanka around the third century BC, and today it is the main religion of the Sinhalese people and the island. The Tamil people, from the Tamil area of India, are primarily Hindu. There is also an important Muslim and Christian population, leading to a rich diversity that is reflected in domestic jewelry design preferences, especially for weddings.

Sri Lanka's rich cultural heritage has become a major tourist attraction as visitors seek to learn more about this island and its people, which in turn has stimulated the economy. One of the cultural heritage sights we visited as we traveled to gem mining areas was Sigiriya, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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	Sigiriya Images

	Experiencing Sigirya

	Tradition, Experience, and Modernization: The Best of All Worlds
In documenting Sri Lanka’s entire mine-to-market industry, one of the most fascinating aspects is the harmonious and productive blend of tradition, experience, and modernization. This was apparent in the mining, trading, cutting, treatment, jewelry manufacturing, and retail sectors. Mining is done primarily by traditional methods, and it is small-scale by choice and design. Cutting is a fascinating blend of hand-powered techniques, utilizing some of the world’s greatest expertise in orientation of rough, and a growing precision cutting and recutting industry that maintains the strictest tolerances.

	Cutting in Sri Lanka often relies on decades of experience rather than sophisticated or automated techniques. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.
The trading sector combines knowledge and experience acquired over decades, if not centuries, with modern global business models. Just as mastering sapphire heat treatment helped the Thais become dominant players in the global corundum market, the Sri Lankans have great expertise in getting the best yield and color out of sapphire.

Jewelry design and manufacturing is directly tied to the domestic retail market as well as the market for Sri Lankans living abroad. Traditional 22K gold jewelry is in high demand for weddings as well as for investments and as a financial asset to pawn in times of need. At the same time, the market has adjusted to a younger generation with more varied tastes, while aiming to increase tourist purchases and broaden export markets.

	Pits, Mud, Gravel, and Gemstones
Gemstone mining in Sri Lanka is mostly from secondary deposits. The gravels yield sapphire, ruby, cat’s-eye and other chrysoberyls, spinel, garnet, beryl, tourmaline, topaz, quartz, and many other gemstones. Sri Lanka’s gem-bearing gravels, called illam, are some of the richest in the world. The island was blessed with geological conditions that provide an ideal blend of chemistry, heat, pressure, time for gem crystals to grow, and weathering for the gem crystals to be deposited and concentrated in gravels.

Gemstone deposits in Sri Lanka contain gem-bearing gravels called illam. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.
Besides the well-known Pangaea, which existed about 300 million years ago, there were several other supercontinents in Earth’s early history. Their assembly and breakup cycles helped form most of the world’s gem deposits. Some of these cycles are directly related to gem formation in Sri Lanka.

Assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent was a slow process that took place over millions of years, between 550 and 950 million years ago (Ma), when global forces led to large-scale structural changes in the earth’s crust and upper mantle. The resulting collisions formed the Mozambique Belt, which extends from Mozambique to Ethiopia and Sudan, and also covers most of Madagascar, the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka, and the east coast of Antarctica. Sri Lanka occupied a critical area of Gondwana, and many of its gemstones are believed to have formed between 539 and 608 Ma, a time of peak metamorphism for the area.

Most of the gem deposits are in an area called the Highland Complex, extending northeast to southwest and containing high-grade metamorphic rocks. One major primary sapphire deposit was discovered by accident in 2012 near Kataragama, but it was not producing at the time of our visit, and subsequent mining of the area has produced no commercial yields. A full geological study of the deposit has not been performed, however, so the true potential of this area remains unknown.

	The Highland Complex of Sri Lanka is the most important area for formation of
	gemstone deposits. Illustration by Peter Johnston, © GIA.

Sri Lanka’s commercially important colored gemstone deposits come from weathered alluvial gravels. We visited the mining areas around Ratnapura, Balangoda, and Elahera. Although these make up only a small percentage of the island’s gem deposits, they gave us a representative overview of mining operations throughout the country. All of these were secondary gravel deposits. We did not find any active primary deposits at the time of our visit.

The mining operations we visited represented all three types of Sri Lankan gemstone mining: pit, mechanized, and, in this case, river. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.

	Mining
Mining licenses in Sri Lanka are regulated by the National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NGJA). Of the more than 6,500 licenses issued in 2013, more than 6,000 were for pit-mining operations using traditional methods. The remainder went to river and mechanized mining. Licensing for mechanized mining follows very strict guidelines, and only about ten were issued in 2013.

	Most of the gemstone mining in Sri Lanka done by hand in open pits. At this larger pit,
	miners toss up the gravel in baskets. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.
Many of the trade and regulatory bodies in Sri Lanka are against large-scale gemstone mining. They consider traditional small-scale mines less harmful to the environment and a more stable source of employment for more people.

To give an idea of scale, the standard pit mine in Sri Lanka consists of a vertical shaft that measures two by four meters. If the pits are deep and in harder ground, the miners might dig a two by two meter square pit or a two-meter round pit. Depth can range up to 50 meters, though most pits are between 5 and 25 meters.

	Most pit-mining operations in Sri Lanka are relatively small vertical shafts. Mining relies
	on muscle power, not mechanization. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.
Many of the licensees have four to five traditional mining pits on their property. It’s estimated that more than two million pits have been dug over the last 50 years. Compared to gem mining in many African countries, there are hardly any unfilled, abandoned pits. This is partly because the National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NGJA) collects a cash deposit when a license is issued. If the mine owner does not rehabilitate the land after mining is complete, the NGJA uses the deposit money for that purpose.

There are usually several people involved in the venture, including the landowner, the holder of the mining rights, the person who supplies the water pump to remove water from the pit, and the miners. They all receive a share of the proceeds from the sale of the gemstones.

Although not as prominent, river mining is another traditional form of gem mining in Sri Lanka. Rivers in gem-producing areas can contain alluvial deposits where the river bends or otherwise slows down. The river miners pick these slow-moving areas in relatively shallow waters and build a dam of wood or rock where the water slows, allowing it to escape from one side while trapping the gravels.

Mechanized gem mining is very limited in Sri Lanka. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.
Using metal blades attached perpendicularly to long wooden poles called mammoties, the miners scoop up the gravel and remove the overburden until they reach the illam. Then they use long pointed steel rods to loosen the illam and drag it up, allowing the rushing water to wash the gem-bearing gravel. They remove any visible gemstones, and the remaining gravel can undergo further washing.

Mechanized mining occurs when it’s determined that traditional methods won’t apply to the deposit at hand, if the concentration of gems is too low for pit mining, or if the threat of illegal mining activity requires quick mining of the deposit. There are a limited number of mechanized operations, and the requirements are stringent.

	Cutting
It is easy to overlook the importance of traditional cutting in Sri Lanka, which is often associated with bulky cuts. These traditional cutters use simple hand-powered cutting machines to produce some of the best-oriented stones in the world. Their ability to orient a stone for the best face-up color or placement of a star or cat’s-eye, while retaining maximum weight from the rough, is remarkable.

	Their equipment appears primitive, but the skill level of Sri Lanka’s traditional cutters is unsurpassed among traditional cutters. They have a wealth of experience in orienting a rough stone to obtain the best face-up color. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.

	Expert Cutting in Colombo

Traditional cutting may in fact be the best technique for some high-end sapphires or stones where the placement of color is critical. There is also a growing demand for Sri Lankan recutting to meet customer specifications. Global clients have different proportion expectations—some allow windows, for instance—and recutting stones that have already been oriented for best color can make them less bulky. The cutters can remove enough windowing to suit a customer’s needs while retaining as much weight as possible. There is also a growing precision-cutting industry in Sri Lanka that meets the strictest tolerances of proportion, symmetry, and calibrated size tolerances.

	Precision Cutting

	Interviewing a Master Cutter

	Trading
Surpassed by Thailand in the 1970s and ’80s, Sri Lanka has modified its business strategy and import/export regulations to restore its position as a major global power in colored gemstone trading. By simplifying the import process and removing prohibitive duties, Sri Lankan dealers are now able to buy rough sapphire from anywhere in the world, including major sources such as Madagascar. They can apply their knowledge and be competitive in obtaining the raw materials to fuel their industry. Abandoning protectionist import regulations on rough from foreign sources has actually saved Sri Lanka's gemstone industry from remaining a smaller player. A smoother export process has also attracted foreign buyers to the country.

Foreign buyers often work with trusted local contacts who bring in a wide variety of inventory from other dealers to their offices. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA, courtesy Sapphire Capital Group-Sapphire Cutters.
We visited Sri Lankan dealers in Colombo and Beruwala, as well as mine markets in Ratnapura, Balangoda, and Elahera. The mine markets were bustling with activity among Sri Lankan dealers and foreign buyers. The dealers were often in the outdoor street markets and in offices or cutting facilities. There were also heat treaters, known as burners, at all of the major markets. Many of the foreign buyers sought the guidance of a trusted local dealer who would have other dealers bring in goods for sale. These trusted dealers would also be consulted for quality, price, and the potential for recutting and further heating.

Beruwala has a large, bustling street market for gemstones. Photo by Andrew Lucas/GIA.
New consumer markets such as China have revitalized gem trading in Sri Lanka. This has led to increased imports from global sources, while fueling the need for Sri Lankan dealers’ expertise and experience to satisfy the demands of Chinese manufacturing and domestic consumption.

	Inside the Sri Lankan Gem Trade

	Coming Next
In Part Two, we will reveal aspects of the Sri Lankan gemstone and jewelry industry that have seldom been covered, especially by outsiders. The country’s jewelry manufacturing and retail industries are very dynamic, blending strong traditions with important innovations. These sectors of the Sri Lankan industry are very different from their counterparts in other parts of the world such as the United States, Europe, Japan, and China. We will show you the sites we visited so you can get a better sense of this famous and exotic trade center. @topic:9


Publish Year: - Title: How One Word Inspired Top Designers Abstract: Big Bite – Mark Schneider

                      Ice, that’s the word the American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC) gave to its members. Their challenge was to make jewelry that evoked it, which you see here.

No rules. No direction. No boundaries.

The AJDC, a non-profit that promotes the application of jewelry design as art, comes up with a new theme every year. Past years have included “wave,” “puzzle,” and “tear.” Invitation-only members like Alan Revere, Alishan Halebian, Todd Reed, Mark Schneider, and Katey Brunini, rush back to their studios and make museum-worthy objects that express it.

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“Variations on a Theme: 25 Years Of Design from the AJDC” is a traveling exhibition of more than 150 jewelry pieces chosen from previous years and previous themes. It is a celebration of creativity – a dramatic, thought-provoking, and entertaining display that inspires you to consider, “What type of jewelry would you make if given one word, like ‘ice’?”

“Variations of a Theme: 25 Years of Design from the AJDC” comes to GIA’s museum in Carlsbad from the end of July 2015 to early June 2016. @topic:6


Publish Year: - Title: Top 20 Traits to be Successful in Retail Abstract: Susan Jacques, president and CEO of Borsheims Fine Jewelry and Gifts and a member of GIA’s Board of Governors, offered these traits for success during a panel discussion at a GIA mini Jewelry Career Fair:

PASSION: Warren Buffett says: “Tap dance to work.” Love what you do every day! Have it show.

LOYALTY: Remember who signs your pay check -- be loyal to your company. If you are unhappy and your job is not what you want to do, leave and find your passion elsewhere.

RESPECT: Know everyone in the company by name; show the same respect regardless of titles and treat people as you wish to be treated.

COMMITMENT: To your company, your job, your teammates, your success.

DEDICATION: Give 110 percent every day to ensure your and your company’s success.

HONESTY: Be a person of your word, always be honest and ethical in everything you do.

INTEGRITY: Have the highest standards of integrity, personally and professionally. Earn your stellar reputation and guard it with every action that you take and decision that you make.

TRUSTWORTHINESS: Trust is essential in our industry and in your company. Be known for your trustworthiness.

TEAM PLAYER: Work well with others, be supportive and helpful. There is no I in TEAM! No prima donnas!

INITIATIVE: Don’t wait to be asked, take initiative, see the global picture.

CONFIDENTIALITY: NEVER breach confidentiality, what happens at X or with X stays there or between you.

DRIVE: Have the personal drive to succeed, do your best, set high goals and strive to exceed them.

EXCELLENCE: Always strive to exceed expectations and excel at what you do.

ATTITUDE: Keep a positive, optimistic, friendly, professional attitude EVERY day.

DETERMINATION: Be determined to succeed and be the best you can be and give every task your best effort.

FOCUSED: Focus on your goals and your ability to exceed customer expectations with every transaction.

MULTI-TASK: Learn to do many things simultaneously and excellently. Retail seldom allows you the
ability to finish one thing before moving on to the next. Be flexible.

EMPATHY: Be empathetic to fellow associates and customers. LISTEN to what they say.

CONFIDENCE: Exude self-confidence and believe in yourself and your ability to succeed.

KNOWLEDGE: Constantly learn and share your knowledge. It’s important to stay up to date on industry news, changes in treatments, product knowledge, social responsibility and sustainability. Stay in touch with GIA and continue to grow through learning! @topic:12


Publish Year: 2005 Title: Spring 2005 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Understanding Jewellery, 3rd Edition”
By David Bennett and Daniela Mascetti, 426 pp., illus., publ. by Antique Collector’s Club, Wood- bridge, England, 2003. US$89.50

“Collecting Fluorescent Minerals”
By Stuart Schneider, 192 pp., illus., publ. by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, 2004. US$29.95

“50-Year History of the Tucson Show”
By Bob Jones, 183 pp., illus., publ. by The Mineralogical Record, Tucson, AZ, 2004, US$20.00

“The Grandmasters of Mineral Photography”
136 pp., illus., publ. by Mineralogical Almanac, Moscow, 2004, US$45.00

“Tone Vigeland: Jewellery + Sculpture Movements in Silver”
By Cecilie Malm Brundtland, 182 pp., illus., publ. by Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, 2004 [in German and English], US$75.00

“The Tourmaline: A Monograph”
By Friedrich Benesch and Bernard Wöhrmann, 234 pp., illus., publ. by Verlag Urachhaus, Stuttgart, Germany, 2003, US$150.00

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:6


Publish Year: 1989 Title: Spring 1989 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Jewelry of the 1940s and 1950s”
By Sylvie Raulet, 332 pp., illus., publ. by Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1988. US$100.00

“Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones, 2nd Edition”
By Joel E. Arem, 280 pp., illus., publ. by Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1987. US$53.95

“Antique and Twentieth Century Jewellery, a Guide for Collectors, 2nd Edition”
By Vivienne Becker, 319 pp., illus., publ. by N.A.G. Press Ltd., Colchester, Essex, Great Britain, 1987. US$45.00

“Jewelry & Gems: The Buying Guide”
By Antoinette L. Matlins and Antonio C. Bonanno, 206 pp., illus., publ. by Gemstone Press,
South Woodstock, VT, 1987. US$14.95

“Mineral Museums of Europe”
By Ulrich Burchard and Rainer Bode, 269 pp., illus., publ. by Walnut Hill Publishing Co., 1986.
US$49.50

“Descriptions of Gem Materials, 3rd Edition”
By Glenn and Martha Vargas, 180 pp., illus., publ. by Glenn and Martha Vargas, Thermal, CA, 1985. US$15.00

“The Jade Kingdom”
By Paul E. Desautels, 118 pp., illus., publ. by Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1986. US$37.95

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:6


Publish Year: - Title: Silver Sizzles Abstract: Cuff bracelets image courtesy of Kara Ross.

                      Sales of silver are sizzling. Some 91% of the jewelry retailers said sales of silver jewelry increased from 2011 to 2012, according to the National Jeweler/Nielsen silver survey. The average increase was 19%.

One reason sales are rising is that the metal is catching the eyes of men, according to the November 2012 issue of JCK. They have a growing appetite for silver cuff links, money clips, and dog tags. It’s also more affordable than gold and platinum, which also appeals to consumers.

But it’s not just trendiness and affordability that’s driving silver’s popularity. As one of the three Noble Metals (gold and platinum being the other two) silver has prestige. It’s also the whitest and brightest of all metals, giving it unmatched luster.

Metalsmiths like silver because it has excellent working characteristics: it’s pliable, readily bends into new shapes, and stays in that position. It’s also extremely strong and can withstand the knocks and bangs that come with frequent wear.

There’s also another side to silver’s renewed popularity. “Traditional and commemorative high-end gifts like baby rattles, teething rings, and picture frames are making a comeback. These items are typically made from silver, and this has created a renaissance for the metal,” says Mark Maxwell, manager of Jewelry Manufacturing Arts, GIA, Carlsbad.

The majority of silver is mined in Mexico, Peru, China, and Chile. In order to be called “silver” in the U.S., alloys must contain at least 92.5% pure silver. Copper is usually the other alloy.

Contemporary designers like David Yurman and Michael Good continue to experiment with the metal, creating new and edgy designs. So while silver has a storied provenance – it’s the stuff of Peruvian crowns and Edwardian tiaras – it’s still very much a modern metal.

	Cartier cufflinks courtesy of C. Danforth.
Tips on Silver

		Manufacturers are creating new silver alloys. Argentum, for example, does not oxidize.

		Let your customers know that silver has cachet. It was more valuable than platinum during the Victorian era, and it was the metal of choice for making tiaras for the aristocracy.

		Sterling silver is increasingly being used in jewelry. Manufacturers are setting diamonds and other stones in a variety of modern sterling silver alloys, and are offering a range of products that are more affordable. Lines of sterling jewelry with karat gold accents are doing well, especially because gold and platinum are at an all-time high. @topic:6