Well. That is a good question. Rainbow Calsilica is it real or not? It is most definitely real as in a real material fashioned into slabs and cabochons.
But the source of this material is man-made without any doubts nor questions!
AGL Identifies Irradiated Emeralds
According to the report the color can be stable or can fade with light and time.
So be on the lookout!
Article link on this page:
www.aglgemlab.com/Default.aspx
A relatively new, but not brand new, fake on the market now is quartz that is cut in typical tourmaline designs and is then coated to look just like watermelon tourmaline. It is the typical CVD method used in the well known Mystic Topaz line of products. The treatment is not the problem, but that many unscrupulous vendors and dealers are selling these pieces as real watermelon tourmaline!
Read more…
Please use the link below for the full story and any updates I may list as I find out more information. But a quick summation is that Sri Lanka buyers have been buying up lots of the dark dark blue sapphire rough from Nigeria and Australia and have some how discovered a way to use Beryllium Treatment to lighten these overly dark and less valuable sapphires into close to top colors and far more valuable blues! The issue is many are just being sold into the Market as Ceylon/Sri Lanka origin materials and the only treatment(s) disclosed are “Heat” or “Heat Only” or “Heated”, no disclosure of Beryllium Diffusion/Treatment disclosed!
Riccardo Befi, of the GIA Laboratory in New York, submitted the following entry to the Gems & Gemology (G&G) Lab Notes section.
Two interesting samples resembling trapiche emerald were recently brought to our attention by gem dealer Farooq Hashmi (Intimate Gems, Jamaica, New York). They had been cut from the same “crystal,” which closely resembled a natural trapiche emerald. The “crystal” was obtained on a mid-2010 trip to Colombia from a seller who was not initially aware he had acquired an imitation.
Check out the full article here: GIA G&G Trapiche Emerald Imitation
This brings yet another stone to keep an eye on! I was starting to suspect something with the sudden influx of these Trapiche Emeralds on TV Networks, Ebay, and the usual outlets that these scams typically fester and perpetrate in and then spread out from there. When a once fairly rare and expensive phenomena stone starts showing up in large amounts and on Ebay auctions for .99 starting prices with lots of them being offered and heavily discounted on TV shows, it is typically a very good flag that should set off the tingles of your spidey senses as to something being awry! Read more…
Read the article HERE
What concerns me a bit is the fact that the CEO and President of the company, Stephen Lux, is reported by JCK as stating, “the industry should not fear his product” and that he has asked for trade leaders to stop labeling his stones “synthetic.” This would lead to some serious confusion in an already confusion filled Industry! It would open up many angles for scammers and unscrupulous sellers, as well as those who just are not familiar with proper terminologies, to exploit this synthetic diamond product! After all, if it is grown in a lab by man, then it is a synthetic material, period.
Barbra over at Gemologyonline made a post recently that reminded me a an important article that I forgot to post about, so here it is, better late then never!
This spring, the New York laboratory examined a 17.02 ct reddish orange spinel that contained a few small expansion halos or “blebs” emanating from strings of minute inclusions. The appearance of the inclusions suggested the stone was of natural origin — but may have been heat treated.
Read entire GIA Article HERE.
Well, as many know there is lots of work being done with “jeweler’s” silicas, aka man-made glass for jewelery usage, and they are now matching colors with Refractive Index to simulate certain natural stones, and with RI’s ranging in the 1.54-2.1 range, they can simulate almost any gemstone out there!
National Jeweler
May 26, 2010
New York–Following months of discussion and debate about what jewelers should say when selling lead glass-filled rubies to consumers, the Gemstone Industry and Laboratory Conference (GILC) ruby committee–which held a meeting about the issue during the Tucson gem shows in February–has reached an agreement on disclosure.
Read more…
First off let me start by showing the image that started the online flaming and arguments towards myself for posting it. I do need to add that technically my initial description of the image was actually not totally correct!! Instead of calling it a picture showing the fracture filling of a hessonite garnet, I technically should have called it an image showing the partially filled fracture of a hessonite garnet.
Partially filled fracture