From Rapaport A Super Stone is sure to be the talk-of-the-town at the May 12 Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, Switzerland. Cut from a 26.58 ct. crystal mined at the famed Cullinan Mine in South Africa, the 7.03 ct cushion shaped diamond has been graded Fancy Vivid Blue and Internally Flawless by the Gemological Institute of […]
from Pantone The annual Pantone color palette for fall 2009 can be downloaded at this link http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/PANTONE_FCR_FALL09.pdf The colors are muted and sophisticated with subtle contrasts. Time to think about your wardrobe and pick out that special colored gemstone to accent and sparkle things up! Orange sunstones and Spessartine garnets, purple-red Rhodolite garnets, padparadscha sapphires […]
From Luxist Musician Prince reinvents himself one more time with this latest “artPod”, an iPod Touch entitled “Prince Opus Number One” that features extremely rare purple diamonds. See the full article at http://www.luxist.com/2009/04/14/prince-piece-includes-rare-purple-diamonds/ Watch this Blog for coming info about colored diamonds. It’s easy—sign up for the RSS feed by clicking the “Subscribe” button on […]
Did you know the Canada Goose is known to mate for life? Did you know that when the Canada Goose migrates north and south in the classic V formation, each bird, bonded by loyalty and trust, contributes its strength to the group’s progress toward the common destination. In response to customer requests for more eco-friendly […]
As mentioned on the Mardon blog, hexagonal nano-diamonds are part of the evidence for the controversial theory that explains the extinction of such critters as the saber tooth cats and the wooly mammoth that occurred 12,900 years ago. The latest Nova program, entitled “The Last Extinction”, explores this subject thoroughly and will air again Sunday, […]
I attended a meeting last November of the Orange County GIA Alumni to hear Richard Drucker speak. His firm, Gemworld International, and the AGTA Gemological Testing Center co-sponsored the Inaugural World of Gems Conference, held Sept. 2008 in Chicago. In February, we finally received Gemworld’s publication of the proceedings. Richard, publisher of the Gem Market […]
Early in my career as a gemologist, while working the gem identification counter at the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory in Santa Monica, I fell in love with Padparadscha—a gemstone, not a girl. The privilege of seeing and handling a few magnificent specimens of this magical sapphire with the glorious sunset orange and pink color was […]
Fine Gems, Full and Complete Grading, Great Photos—Easy Shopping for the Gem Connoisseur After months of hard work and much thought, we’re proud to introduce the Gallery of Gems, our unique catalog of colored gemstones. This initial posting is just a few items from our inventory— more to follow after the Tucson Gem Shows and […]
Recently, I was listening to Patt Morrison of KPPC 89.3 NPR radio when the term “hexagonal diamonds” caught my attention. She was discussing the extinction of saber-toothed cats and other megafauna and the disappearance of the Clovis culture from North America with Douglas J. Kennett, a scientist at the University of Oregon, who authored a […]
Cameos are carvings of gem materials in which the subject carved is in positive relief from the base of the cameo, as opposed to Intaglios, where the subject is carved negatively (into the surface of the gem material). Cameos are more often seen in jewelry objects where the beauty of the piece is foremost, the […]
