Mardon Jewelers at the Mission Inn

Within the gem trade, the color of the best rubies has for centuries been called “Pigeon’s Blood Red.”  As mentioned in a previous blog, the term has actually become a grading term. Part of the way to understand this color is to know what it it not.

Nice 1.35 ct Burma Ruby, not quite Pigeon's Blood

For the most part, better rubies from Burma display this color or at least approach it. But, not all rubies from Burma are Pigeon’s Blood. Like any naturally occurring object, there is a normal distribution pattern that can be described by a bell curve– most examples cluster around the mean, while at either end of the curve, one has the worst, the other the best examples.  In the gem business, we know that the very best quality gems are often less than 1% of the overall production.  This 1.35 ct. Burma ruby has very nice color, a well balanced blend of violetish-red and orangish-red, but it lacks the clarity and the saturation to display the true Pigeon’s Blood color.

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4 ct. Pigeon's Blood Red Ruby, photo by Van Pelt

Pigeon’s Blood Ruby always commands a premium- it’s intensity and beauty strikes a chord deep within the human psyche, and naturally, it’s the most rare of rubies. Within the gem trade, the term Pigeon’s Blood is in essence a color grade, denoting the most beautiful and desirable ruby color. And the color is generally associated with rubies from Burma- more about that in blogs to follow.

The Pigeon’s Blood color is a fairly narrow range of vivid red, with touches of secondary hues between slightly violetish (purplish) red and slightly orangish red.  Pigeon’s Blood red is always highly saturated and relatively dark. Read the rest of this entry »

Classic 4 ct. Burma Ruby, documented to be Pigeon's Blood Red. Photo by Jim Sweaney

Pigeon’s Blood Red – the phrase evokes images of tropic forests, crowded bazaars, and  exotic palaces.

Pigeon’s Blood Red is actually a traditional name in the gem trade for the finest color of ruby.  The term probably originated centuries ago in Burma, for many centuries the source of the best rubies. Read the rest of this entry »

Custom Diamond Ring with Padaparadscha

We recently completed this beautiful ring for a very elegant and sophisticated lady, let’s call her Liz. During our initial design consultation, it soon became apparent that we needed to do something extra special for Liz- well educated and artistic, her tastes were refined and she was looking for something exciting and new. She wanted us to reset her nice 1 1/2 ct diamond into a wide ring to accent her long fingers. She also wanted the ring to be wearable and comfortable. Our discussion led us to her preferences in colors- she wanted something warm and wonderful. Those of you who follow this blog know we are big fans of Padparadscha sapphires, so what better suggestion could we make than one of our very favorite stones! Read the rest of this entry »

We recently completed the final step for our client Dan- we blogged about creating his engagement ring last November.  After his fiance Ileana received her engagement ring, we made a matching wedding band, and soldered the rings together when they were married this spring.  Notice how beautifully the rings fit together and how nicely the patterns match- a good omen for a marriage!

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A Classic Ceylon Moonstone

Light has a very special role of gems- in diamonds, it can dance and twinkle, in rubies, it can simmer with vivid passion, or in other gems, it can play tricks. In gemology, we refer to these special gems that magic the light as the phenomenal gems.

The soft bluish glow emanating from this beautiful moonstone, a birthstone for June, is known as adularescence or schiller, an optical phenomenon in which light is scattered by structures within the gemstone. Read the rest of this entry »

Art Deco Bracelet

We just completed an estate appraisal for a client which included this nice looking white gold bracelet. During the take-in process, we noticed a missing stone and a broken hinge. And, somehow the bracelet just didn’t look quite right.

When we turned the bracelet over, we immediately noticed some remnant parts that were out of place– see the photo below. We also noted a subtle difference in the metal color between the sections and in the workmanship of the added hinges and the attachment rings. Further examination and some thought led us to the conclusion that the bracelet was a “marriage” of two items- the center section appeared to be an Art Deco clasp, buckle or pair of clips, the outer two parts, a bracelet that had been added. Read the rest of this entry »

Double Akoya Strand

An article I noted in the current AGTA ePrism newsletter refers to the challenges facing the Japanese saltwater cultured pearl industry. Prior to my career with Mardon Jewelers, I worked  with John Latendresse, the creator of the American Freshwater Cultured Pearl, and learned firsthand just how difficult, labor intensive and risky the pearl culturing business really is. Sadly, today’s toxic economic environment is the final blow to many Japanese pearl farms.

A pearl farm anywhere is really like a roulette wheel. The pearl grower places enormous bets in hopes of generating a crop of pearls that will yield enough money to pay for his production costs and keep his farm afloat for next year’s production. To produce the pearls, he must pay for water rights, pearl rafts, tender boats, live molluscs, shell bead nucleii, operating tools and medicines for the nucleating process, and the labor to nucleate, tend and protect the mother shells and their precious cargo thru the long growing season. Then, he must sell his pearls.

In Japan, the risks are bad weather, disease, red tide, pirates, overcrowding, pollution, financing, falling markets and intense competition from pearl farms in China and elsewhere. Small wonder the children of the pearl farmers of Japan don’t want to live on the water anymore and are mostly choosing other occupations.

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Yesterday morning, we delivered this beautiful emerald and diamond ring to a delighted customer.  We really have to thank this couple for their patience– the entire design took almost four months to complete!

Our client, let’s call her Mrs. Green, had seen a platinum ring similar to this at a well known gallery in Santa Barbara. She asked the folks at that gallery if they would make their ring for her in yellow gold, with emeralds. To her disappointment, they declined.

Mr. Green, wanting a nice gift for his lovely wife, and not to be denied, had a jeweler  in the LA jewelry mart make the ring. Long story short, the new ring wasn’t great for several reasons– the jeweler set the center emerald in a “gypsy” style flush mounting, but he set the stone from the back in a non-traditional way, with prongs that just held the stone in position below the opening in the gold. The center emerald was never tight, and since it was buried in the mounting, just didn’t show very well. The quality of the small emeralds and diamonds and the way they were set was mediocre, so the small emeralds began falling out with regularity.

The original jeweler added small prongs around the small emeralds. The extra prongs made the ring rather unsightly and Mrs. Green found the ring to be very uncomfortable to wear — and the stones still kept getting loose and falling out. Mr. Green even tried epoxy, to no avail.

They came to Mardon and asked us to fix their problem. We told them there was no practical way to fix the ring- it just wasn’t made properly to begin with. The bottom line– we decided to make a brand new ring similar to the original design, but with some much needed modifications. Read the rest of this entry »

So where is that mine?

I was recently asked to appraise this topaz and a matching pair of 8 mm triangles. At first glance, the stones had a sort of attractive somewhat muted “teal” greenish blue color but something about the look of the stones was not quite right. A quick examination under our trusty gemological microscope revealed a surface coating on the stones. You can see the “scummy” look on the facet surfaces in the following photos.

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