I just wanted to offer my formal apologies for the lack of updates as well as the delay of Part II of the clarity enhancement report. My health has caused a little bump in the road. Hopefully things will resume back to normal soon.
Jamey
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.
Originally it was posted in the Aug. 3 edition of GIA’s Gems & Gemology. It was discovered that some jewelry pieces that had been purchased from one of the TV shows, name not known, had the tanzanite and amethyst glued into the bezel settings with colored adhesive/glue. It was stated that there was a noticeable color lightening once the glue was removed, especially in the amethyst.
Upon inspecting a 1.87-carat tanzanite submitted by the goldsmith, the GIA laboratory team found that a purple-colored flexible adhesive was visible on some of the crown facets, particularly at the corners. After it was removed, the color of the tanzanite appeared “very slightly lighter,” the eBrief said.
http://www.nationaljewelernetwork.com/nj/colored-stones/article_detail?id=20209
What are to expect now? Once again it shows that these TV show home jewelry network shopping shows are misleading consumers and ripping them off! Why has the Government not either forced them to comply with existing FTC Guidelines, as well as laws preventing against fraud and theft, or shut them down and brought them up on charges!!!?? Mistakes do happen, this is a given! But when these so called mistakes start piling up on a regular basis and are simple things that a trained Gemologist should be noticing if they are properly examining their products, it is a bit more then a mistake!
Just a few simple photographic setups for shooting your stones or Jewellery. The person iS the subject/stone in this Case. Discs are reflectors and disc around camera lens is a macro Lens reflector which can be had from Adorama.com for under $10. The reflectors can be true photo reflectors or white poster board, cardboard wrapped in crumpled up aluminum foil or a silver reflective fold up car windshield shade which cost about $6 from Wal-Mart automotive and are essentially same thing as a real photo one as long as get the oval ones that fold up into a small disc.
Read more…
Gemlab Research & Technology has released its GL Gem SpectrometerTM system.
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…
This 1.05 ct pear shape (9.81 x 5.95 x 3.06 mm) was color-graded as equivalent to G. In addition to pinpoint inclusions, it contained some feathers and fractures along the girdle, and its clarity grade was equivalent to I1.
Well, this will make things a bit more difficult in determining whether a diamond is natural or synthetic. So, folks, pay some very close attention to your diamonds you get in to ID and/or appraise, this could be a very costly mistake! “If in doubt send it out!™” I doubt these are saturating the market currently in large numbers, but it more then likely will not be long until they are!
Check out the Full Article HERE
First off please be sure to take the Gem-Metrics Poll on the lower right of the website, thank you very much.
Secondly, this is an unusual announcement considering the last thing heard was a bid to buy another TV show, but