A couple of weeks ago, I did a gemological consultation for a young man who had purchased a diamond solitaire from a diamond merchant’s Ebay site. He was able to win a diamond auction and wanted my opinion of the stone. I looked over the stone first before asking him about the price paid, the […]
My mission this year at Tucson included re-establishing some of my connections to the fire agate community– last year I finished this fire agate ring which has been drawing major compliments, so I figured it's time to try a few new pieces in our market. Over my three decades in the gem business, it's been […]
From an article by Nitin Kumar of Exotic India, “The Golden Fishes symbol consists of two fishes, which usually appear standing vertically with heads turned inwards towards each other. The pair of fishes originated as an ancient pre-Buddhist symbol of the two sacred rivers of India, Ganga and Yumana. Symbolically, these two rivers represent the […]
Shangri-La Sterling, Opal triplet, ball style, $75 Shangri-La is a romantic name that evokes a vision of a heavenly land where people live nearly immortal lives in total happiness. Our friend, Michael Schofield, discovered a jeweler's version of Shangri-La while visiting the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, nestled high in the Himalayas. Guided by his interest […]
After being away from the job a few weeks getting a new knee (replacement), this writer is rarin' to go with new info and anecdotes. In the next few weeks, we'll review our Tucson Gem Show trip, with some interesting gems, twists and turns, our new line of fine silver and gemstone jewelry, the Jewels […]
As we mentioned in our recent blog, we're always excited to see the latest gem finds displayed at the upcoming Tucson gem shows. In recent decades Africa has been the biggest producer of wonderful new gemstones and gem materials. The heavily mineralized Great Rift valley along the eastern side of the continent was one of […]
Every year for the first two weeks in February, gem dealers and buyers from all over the world converge on the small desert city of Tucson, Arizona. The annual Tucson event has become the Mecca of colored stones, fossils and gem minerals where dealers display such sophisticated and extremely valuable gems like this matched suite […]
As promised, here’s a story that should get some chuckles– it’s an episode that turned out to be a long and winding road, so typical of the gemstone and jewelry business. Several months ago, I was contacted by a gentleman residing in London, England. He was impressed by my series of blogs about Pigeon’s Blood […]
True Story- One of our local police officers stopped by early this week with this group of assorted gold items she owned and wanted to sell– jewelry she no longer wore, broken pieces, etc. We sat down, I examined her gold for karat content and weighed it up. Our offer for the lot that day […]
Keeping a sense of humor is so important during the current difficult business environment. We’ve had a couple of sales this holiday season that could be the basis for a sit-com script. Last spring, a long time client wandered in to the shop and was mesmerized by a fine Cartier Tank Francaise wristwatch in our […]
