I don't want to be paying those prices but I really do like champagne diamonds. I think it stems from my love if morganite. I like those soft coloured stones and there aren't many.
They do seem to have had a major price hike. I noticed that in November when Don Kogen showed this collection. He had spent two months scouring N Australia seeking out old gem collectors who had found the rough coloured diamonds pre Rio Tinto taking over the mine.
Debbie was selling them last August and the prices seemed much better, perhaps they were smaller stones then but still VVS, VS and SI quality. I have to admit to being tempted!
TJC are showcasing chocolate sapphires. Big chunks at small prices. I prefer smokey quartz myself, but they're selling pretty well. This whopper 5.55 cts was £39.99, IRL they're more of a milk chocolate colour and not clear like SQ.
TJC are showcasing chocolate sapphires. Big chunks at small prices. I prefer smokey quartz myself, but they're selling pretty well. This whopper 5.55 cts was £39.99, IRL they're more of a milk chocolate colour and not clear like SQ.
I've never heard of chocolate sapphires so I just took a look at their 'missed auctions' listings. The photos make them look very opaque like dark chocolate, not really my cup of tea I think.
I caught a bit of Chlomo at lunchtime flogging scarves....so I switched over! click here
I have a brown star sapphire and that's beautiful. It looked nothing like chocolate sapphires they were selling yesterday. Its a cabuchon cut and the stone is opaque. Its a very dark chocolate brown. Its a very pretty ring. You don't see many of them these days.
I wondered that Cog - they certainly don't feature on the coloured sapphire jewellery you and EB have shown us.
Is it Sacha who has multi coloured sapphires too?
Yup.
Your brown cabochon cut Star Sapphire sounds the business Tinks.
I like these stones, having bought a black star one from Gems years ago and more recently a yellow one that looks black! It came from Rocks&Co Gem Guys who scuba dived it up from a shipwreck off the coast of the Thailand where the haul had lain for 200 years. Mined from the Khao Ploi Waen area near Chantaburi....
The reason some of the champagne and other coloured diamonds look so lovely is down to the clarity, VVS will make them stunning. I would love a VVS one carat teal blue diamond, but I'm not actively looking for one lol!
I watched a bit of Q's gem-fest the other night, it was amusing to hear the expert say he had never heard of some the gems viewers were texting in to say they owned. I recognised many of them as the names given by Gems to make something ordinary sound more glamorous.
Its lovely Sacha. It is in a very simple setting with a slim band and I bought it in Thailand in 1989. It was about £20. And it does split the light into a six sided star. The light in the star is gold rather than white. I now know that's typical of a Thai star sapphire but I didn't know that at the time.
I've been into jewellery and beautiful stones all my life.
That does sound unusual Tinks and bought at source also. You may be interested in the link below, it's written by gem expert Richard W Hughes as a potted history of mining areas in Thailand and Cambodia, both major sapphire producers.