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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
