A jeweller’s life is never complete without a few topaz along the way. Its hardness, along with its high reflectivity and lustre make for a dependable gemstone in any jewellery store. Well known in different shades of blue and yellow, this gem is considered inexpensive and hard enough to be great practice stones for a setter willing to learn the trade, or students looking to make their first jewellery collection without emptying their pockets.
Do you often wonder why coloured gemstones all have different depths? Do your clients ever ask why, exactly, a particular gem is so shallow, and you find yourself unsure of how to answer?
The eight crystal systems cover all the precious and semi-precious stones used and known in the fields of jewellery, gemmology, and lapidary. Once you have memorized it, you will find it much easier to identify each mineral.
Is there a group of gemstones more intriguing and complex than garnets? This gem represents such a significant part of our industry. With more than 20 categories, garnet is, indeed, a wonderous and diverse stone.
If only one thing could be said about this year’s Tucson GemFair, it’s that the events comprise, without a doubt, the most significant gem show around, as well as the largest gathering of jewellers and gemmologists from around the world. Passion made this show happen—and the same passion will make it continue.
One rarely wonders if there is more to the hardness of gemstones beyond what is at face value. After all, once you have the Mohs scale down to a science, what other use could this knowledge bring to your business? We understand diamond is 10, corundum is 9, and the rest follow as easily as a fish downstream (or, I suppose, a pearl in an oyster).
Coloured gems sell—we don’t even need to classify them as ‘precious’ and ‘semi-precious’ anymore. Depending on a stone’s provenance and rarity of colour and size, today’s shoppers are willing to dig deep into their pockets and shell out serious money for many rainbow-hued gemstones.
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