GemAddicts.com

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.

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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!

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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.
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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

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Enhanced Diamond

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ISG releases a new newsletter with smoking gun proof of the treating of blue tourmaline. They are calling this treatment “dyefusion”.

The entire article/newsletter with full details and pictures can be seen HERE.

Thomas Hainschwang with Gemlab Gemological Laboratory announced that he recently examined and tested three(3) Emeralds that were purchased in India. The stones were reportedly guaranteed by the Seller to be completely natural and untreated Emeralds. The stones were translucent, green in color as one would expect, and full of fibrous inclusions. When examined under a  microscope Hainschwang reported that these stones were not full of fibrous inclusions but, instead, actually had a fibrous structure! It was also noted that the green coloring was concentrated within this fibrous structure.  This of course indicates that the material is dyed and not an Emerald.

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AGTA ePrism October 7, 2009 edition is out. The leading subject is the election of the 2010 Board of Directors. Quoting their article:

“Peter Bazar of Imperial-Deltah, Inc., Sushil Goyal of Liberty Gems, Inc., and Cynthia Renee Zava of Cynthia Renee, Co. were all elected to three-year terms as Directors. These terms will take effect at the 2010 AGTA Membership Meeting at GemFair Tucson….” We at GemAddicts extend our congratulations also.

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The Sept 29th edition of the ISG QuickConnect Newsletter has arrived. The subject is near and dear to my heart – Tourmaline. Specifically Pink Tourmaline and it’s treatment found in some stones. As usual, the photographs are top notch and the information definitely worth saving. Rather than giving you a short advance view here, I’ll leave you with the link to see for yourself.

Read full issue here

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Solaris Sunstone™

I figured this is a very important situation to touch base on right now before anyone jumps in without thinking!! I would refrain from purchasing any of this material currently! There is NO proof that this material is not just the same duck as Ande-Lab dressed up with a nice new name/title! I find this slightly suspicious, to say the least, that not so long after the AGTA made their Public Announcement about:

With consumer and buyer protection in mind, the AGTA will now require its members who sell or consign any red andesine-labradorite to disclose it as diffused material, and indicate this either in plain language or by use of the industry accepted code, “U”, for diffusion*. If it can be determined that the material is natural, as in the case of particular Oregon material; then it may be disclosed as untreated.

Then suddenly a new material in the form of yet another red feldspar(which, factually to date, only naturally occurs in Oregon and NOWHERE else on the planet), looking an awfully like the Scamdesine of the past, but this time it is instead called a Sunstone! By calling it a Sunstone they actually bypass the AGTA Press Release mentioned above, if this material is indeed the same Frankenstone as before! If it is not, then why no massive news broadcast and hype that a new stone was found, like what would happen with any other legit, or even not so legit, finds!!!?? Why all hush hush and just suddenly be pushing all over the TV Shows and certain other well known Vendors’ websites as being a new stone and new find and, worst of all, that it is completely natural with no treatments!!!???? After all the news hype and legal hype that took place over the Scamdesine issue and no other red material being in existence naturally outside of Oregon, this should have been big time news, not a silent release under the radar, unless there truly is something to hide!?

And why price tags close to US$1000 from these US Sellers & Companies when Chinese wholesalers are posting same exact rings and stones for under US$30!!! The trade has some great mark-ups, no doubt folks, but come on, that is very unrealistic!

No any facts to help? Please post them! Any ideas? Post them! We need to get to the bottom of this one before it does any damage! And if it turns out to be legit, I doubt, I want to find as much info as possible since one of my personal favorites are any stones belonging to the Feldspar families of gemstones and minerals!