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Fine Jewelry University Articles matching: “natural stone”
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How to Tell If a Diamond Is Natural or Lab Grown
…synthetic diamonds before continuing with this article. So, now you know that lab grown diamonds are just as real as natural diamonds, but we still want to be able to tell them apart. When it comes to diamond simulants like Cubic Zirconia (… they aren’t diamonds. But, with lab grown diamonds, the chemical structure and properties are all the same as natural diamond, so it becomes much more difficult to differentiate them. Responsible Disclosure The first thing to realize is …
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What Are Lab Grown Diamonds?
… is being created. Therefore, a “synthetic diamond” has the same crystal structure and chemical composition as a natural diamond. The same cannot be said of the many imitation or fake gems that are often, incorrectly, described as synthetic … highly advanced technologies that produce crystals with the exact same chemical structure and optical properties as natural diamonds. Now, let’s compare lab grown diamonds to some of the other gems that you might have heard of. Lab Grown …
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Is a Lab Grown Diamond Right for Me?
… of misinformation and paranoia both from inside the trade and from outside observers. I have heard people say that natural diamonds come with a 400% mark up, or that most mined diamonds are conflict diamonds (both wild falsehoods). On the … consumers’ minds. While the real world issue is not nearly as severe as many people believe it is (over 99.9% of natural diamonds are conflict free, and you can buy verifiable Canadian diamonds of known origin if you want), it is still …
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Fake Diamonds: The Great Diamond Attack
… intense colors. The colors they are making are somewhat unusual for the diamond trade. The common colors are a bright green and yellow/orange stones. Some call the colors antifreeze looking. Is this process a simple treatment of a natural stone or is it the manufacturing of a diamond using some natural elements? Regardless of way the industry calls it, I feel strongly that the customer must be told. I disclose all treatments and modification of a gem to all my clients and it …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Pearl
…time, layer upon layer of nacre is deposited around the irritant, eventually forming a pearl. This process can occur naturally or via human intervention. Natural pearls grow in the wild without human intervention. They are very rare, and … locations around the world. The process by which they are created is completely unpredictable, and as a result, natural pearls come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors. They are typically irregular in shape and have a unique, …
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Anatomy of a Ring
… The gallery of a ring is a somewhat ambiguous term that refers to the underside of the ring beneath the center stone. There is often a design on the top part of the ring that is lifted up above the finger. In order to maintain the …next to each other. The constant friction with another ring can actually wear through the gallery leaving the center stone at risk of calling out. This is why we typically recommend that you have your rings soldered together if you plan to…
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Gem in the Spotlight: Spinel
… by mistake. Since then many processes have been used and perfected to create spinel in even more colors than it is naturally found in. Because of how easily it can be created in a lab, synthetic spinel has been used to imitate many other ….). In fact, the ubiquity of synthetic spinel may be part of the reason why most people have been slow to appreciate natural spinel in its own right. Interestingly, most lab-created spinel has a slightly higher refractive index than natural …
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Synthetic Gems: The Whole Story
… gemologist to detect. But if you had gem material that is the same chemically, optically and crystal structure as a natural gem, it would be very hard to tell them apart. In gemology we call this a synthetic gem. Synthetic gems are not bad…a man made synthetic ruby has the same exact chemical formula and crystal structure and optical characteristics as a natural ruby. How can a person tell them apart? I will tell you it is very very hard. It takes a lot of training, very good …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Quartz
… and sometimes unattainably expensive? If you answered quartz to all these questions you would be right (but naturally you looked at the title and knew). Quartz is one of the most common minerals on earth. Many quartz varieties are cut into … is the “Berns Quartz,” named after the donors that donated it to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. It is an 8,000 pound (yes you read that correctly) slab of natural clear quartz and is one of the largest clusters ever …
