Mardon Jewelers at the Mission Inn

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 representation, documentation, etc.  What I saw was a fairly well cut light yellow round diamond, about 1 5/8 ct, maybe M to P color, that was obviously glass filled. I told him about the glass filling, that before being treated, the stone would have graded I1 or I2, and that the color was very obviously light yellow. I said a retail price for the stone and ultra light weight gold solitaire should be about $3.000-3,500.

The stone was represented by the online seller as SI1 clarity, H color, and weighed a bit over 1.6 carats. No disclosure was made of the glass filling, and the grading cert (from a lab I never heard of) stated SI1 clarity, H color. He told me he had paid $3,000.

We discussed the glass filling, and I informed him that GIA and other established labs don’t clarity grade glass filled diamonds because there is no way to tell what the clarity (and value basis for the stone) was before treatment. I also warned him about some of the durability issues with glass filled diamonds. I told him that he got what he paid for, but certainly not the much higher quality SI1 H the stone was represented to be.

He said he was able to return the stone and would bring the replacement for me to verify.  Sure enough, he showed up yesterday with another solitaire– and sure enough, another 1.6 ct light yellow stone with easily eye-visible face up inclusion, complete with “GRA” grading certificate stating SI1 clarity, H color.

I tried to convey to him that he was again getting a stone that would retail for about $3,000, and that a 1.6 round diamond of SI1 clarity, H color should retail for over $10,000, since the current wholesale for a well cut stone of that size, color and clarity, with a GIA cert, is very close to $10,000.

He kept going back to the fact that he had “won” the Ebay auction and didn’t understand that no diamond dealer in his right mind would sell a $10,000 stone for $3,000, regardless of the circumstances.

Even though many other types of merchandise may be heavily discounted on the Internet, diamonds, gems, and precious metals are essentially commodities where prices stay within a narrow trading range set by a trader’s market. When the gold market is $1,100 per ounce, you may be able to buy it for $1,050, but you just can’t buy it for $300, and the same applies to diamonds and gems.

The other issue is that many consumers don’t know the difference between a diamond with a high quality grading document from an established laboratory like the Gemological Institute of America, the institution that invented the modern diamond grading system vs. a diamond with a piece of paper that looks very similar but is essentially just misrepresentation and nonsense.

Ebay site and online seller url available upon request

Shortly after the above episode, we were able to conclude a diamond purchase with one of our clients. They had purchased a beautiful “Naked Diamonds” engagement ring from us several years ago, but hadn’t been able to afford a center stone. Their budget initially was $4,000 but the ring really needed a one carat round, and a nicely cut white eye clean stone would be more like $5-6,000. We counseled them to buy quality, and settled on an SI1 G color target.

We worked with one of our better vendors who had 3 stones that fit the 5-6K budget– all 3 had GIA grading reports of SI1 clarity, with G, F, and E color to boot! When we received the gems, I noticed immediately that the G color stone had faint clouds throughout so that its face up appearance was somewhat dull.  Even though GIA graded it SI1, I personally would have graded the clarity as SI2 because of that fact, and decided not to show that stone to my client.

The 1.01 ct round, GIA graded SI1 F color with excellent cut grade, was our client’s perfect choice– good clarity, great color with a touch of blue flourescence, and excellent cutting, just a gorgeous diamond! Not only that, it has a one year warranty against loss from our vendor and it was the least expensive of the three– we sold it to our client for $5,360 + sales tax. We compared it with 22 similar diamonds available thru Blue Nile, the biggest Internet diamond retailer– the average price of their stones was $6,157.64, and our offering was less than the least expensive of the 22!

PDF of this search available on request

The moral of this story is that diamond grading is an expert field so work with an expert and don’t try to figure it out by yourself, that you shouldn’t buy a diamond solely by a certificate, and that your local jeweler can compete with the biggest diamond retailer on the internet. If you are shopping for a diamond, give us a try– we’ll apply our years of expertise to get you the best value for your dollar!

28.79 ct. Deer Creek Fire Agate in 18K Gold

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 my good fortune to associate with many gem miners, traders, dealers, and aficionados who specialize in truly rare and unusual gems. In fact, I seek these folks out– I call them “The Brotherhood of the Stone.”

Often obsessed and infatuated with gems, in some cases fixated on one gem, sometimes to financial detriment, we are all bound together by our love of gems, but you don't qualify for the “Brotherhood” unless you're slightly crazy about them. To be of the “Brotherhood” doesn't mean you have to follow this particular gem, but one of my favorites/infatuations is the fire agate.

Fire agate is a rare form of cryptocrystalline quartz often characterized by a botryoidal formation (like clustered grapes), a rich brown or black body color, and thin iridescent films of other minerals which produce wondrous and mysterious colors within the agate. The best material comes from Arizona and northern Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Fall, we were contacted by a long time customer whose daughter had a real problem. Her daughter, Kirstyn, was engaged to be married September 2010. Kirstyn and fiance Alastair, a British citizen, were working in the Cayman Islands where they had a local jeweler make a custom engagement ring using her one carat family diamond.

Problem was, the ring was nothing at all like she wanted. She had asked for something delicate, naturalistic and flowing– the picture shows how her new ring was a completely different style, so she was very disappointed and upset. An engagement ring is very important to a young couple, especially the bride, because it symbolizes true love and commitment.

Wrong!

Kirstyn’s mother wanted advice as to what could be done– could the ring be remodeled? I told her that remodeling this particular ring would be difficult to carry off successfully because of it’s heavy construction and the way the small diamonds were set.  Our opinion in this case was that the best solution would be to start over.

Since KIrstyn and Alastair had already spent money on the first ring (more about this later), they were understandably concerned about the cost of a new one. Because of our experience doing custom jewelry for over 30 years and our use of state-of-the-art CAD/CAM technology, we knew we could make the ring she wanted at a price they could afford. With our upfront quote and commitment to make the ring the way she wanted, they decided to go ahead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Golden Fishes Adorn a Cuff Bracelet of Pure Gold

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 lunar and solar channels, which originate in the nostrils and carry the alternating rhythms of breath or prana.

In Buddhism, the golden fishes symbolize happiness, as they have complete freedom in water. They represent fertility and abundance as they multiply very rapidly. Fish often swim in pairs and in China they represent conjugal unity and fidelity where a pair of fishes would often be given as a wedding present.”

Mardon is fortunate to be able to offer these very affordable handmade cuff bracelets from Nepal.  Read the rest of this entry »

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 in indigenous forms of art and jewelry, Michael was exploring some of the nearby mountain villages when he was fortunate to make the acquaintance of a family of traditional jewelers reputed to be the best in Nepal. He and the family soon established a working relationship — Michael would supply gems and metal, they would hand fabricate jewelry to his exacting specifications. Now Michael makes an annual pilgrimage by pack train to these remote workshops, delivering gems and precious metal, then picking up the year's jewelry production. We are fortunate to be able to bring these fabulous hand fabricated jewels to Mardon.

An especially welcome feature of these Shangri-La gemstone jewelry pieces is their very reasonable price. Amazingly, most of these silver rings sell for only $75, the pendants are usually $95 including chain, and the matching earrings are $125!

This jewelry is interesting and unique for many reasons. It is completely hand crafted using traditional techniques and designs that have evolved for centuries. In fact, Michael told me that when he first began working with these Nepalese craftsmen, they did not polish their jewelry, instead burnishing it by rubbing with smooth stones. Burnishing produces a rather satiny finish rather than a bright high polish– Michael thought their silver jewelry looked like it was made of aluminum. When he introduced them to more modern methods of polishing, the Nepalese were much amazed at the totally new look of their silver work!

An outstanding characteristic of our Shangri-La jewelry is the very precise and exacting craftsmanship. Many of the pieces are decorated with twisted wires and applied beads, like the granulated jewelry made famous by the ancient Etruscans. This photo shows how carefully the twisted wires and the graduated beads are applied– you can see all the decorative elements clearly with no excess solder clogging the design.

This result is possible because the craftsmen of Kathmandu use a blowpipe torch, a time honored method of soldering which produces a perfect flame. The blowpipe technique requires the craftsman to continuously exhale a stream of air thru the blowpipe into a kerosene flame, creating a very hot yet sharp flame. By carefully heating both base and applique to the perfect temperature, the artisans bond these tiny pieces of metal precisely together with a minimum of solder– all done miles high in the thin air of the Himalayas!

Mardon has about fifteen styles of Shangri-La gemstone jewelry available in silver, each design a set with matching ring, pendant, and earring. The matching earrings are made just like high end boutique jewelry, where each side is the reverse of the other so they look proper on the left and right side of the face! Interestingly, even though the silver jewelry is marked sterling silver– i.e. 92.5% silver, they are actually fine silver– 100% silver. Michael has his pieces marked sterling because people are more familiar with sterling than fine silver.

And, you can get any of these styles in your choice of the following gems– Amethyst, Garnet, Blue Topaz, Citrine, Opal triplet, Peridot, Moonstone, Black Onyx, Pearl, Black Pearl, Lapis Lazuli, & Turquoise– If we don't have it in stock, we'll get it for you!

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 of Shangri La, plus some good stories about new pieces and our adventures in the jewelry shop. Watch for these stories and whatever pops up!

11.56 ct. Gem Spessartine Garnet

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 the areas intensively prospected in the last half of the 20th century, resulting in such spectacular gem finds as the famous discovery of tanzanite deposits in the Merelani region of Tanzania and the wonderful green garnet, aptly named Tsavorite by its discoverer, Campbell Bridges, for the famous Tsavo game park of southern Kenya. Numerous sapphire, ruby, emerald, and alexandrite finds, along with many other less commercially important gems were also uncovered along the Rift region during this period

More recent finds in the western half of Africa have included the wonderful spessartine garnets of Namibia and Nigeria. These gems occur in a wonderful array of reds, red oranges, and oranges. Read the rest of this entry »

2 ct. Unheated Pigeon's Blood Ruby

Relating to our recent post about our quest for an unheated Pigeon’s Blood ruby entitled “A Seinfeld Holiday, Episode 2” , we just received this very nice testimonial.

“Jim, thank you for your hard work and dedication in finding the perfect engagement stone for my fiancé – it has been a pleasure to do business with you over the last three months. Your professionalism and expertise stood out far in advance of the many other jewellers and dealers I have dealt with since I started looking for this unique gem. I had spent more than two months looking for such a stone before I found your website – I had previously spoken to some of London’s most prestigious jewellers and gem dealers with no luck. Your patience in helping us understand what we were really looking for and your consistent willingness to go the extra mile even when things got complicated were both greatly appreciated. We are both extremely happy with the purchase and we will treasure it forever. Thank you!”

Our Gemstone Brokering services consist of locating and facilitating the purchase of fine gemstones–and, as you can see from our story,  we are able to do business internationally. Give us a call or contact us by email if you are looking for an exceptional gem– we specialize in exceptional!

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 of Imperial Jade– valued at over 100,000 dollars

Read the rest of this entry »

Fine Burma Rubies, Loose and Mounted

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 Rubies and wanted to know if I could help him find an unheated ruby from Burma that would qualify as “pigeon’s blood” color. The gem would be used as the center of an engagement ring.

We offer gem brokering services for high end gemstones, so even though this person was overseas, I decided to give it a try– we are always looking to innovate and build our business, so why not go for the global market! Read the rest of this entry »