How does bartering to secure the price of a gem on location translate to a fixed price at your local store (or on a website!)? Gem pricing depends on two very different systems - how are they linked together in the modern world? 

Lab grown diamonds are rapidly increasing their market share but what happens to their value after you've bought one? Should you use them for the jewelry you want to make as an alternative to earth mined gems? 

Tariffs definitely affected attendance at the JCK Show. Some vendors decided not to attend and others scrambled to import their inventory. However, those who did come did well and Yvonne came home with some special discoveries. 

Let’s face it. The world economy is totally topsy turvy these days. Gold has become so expensive that making platinum jewelry is a bargain. Tariffs on gems are 10% from now on despite the pause on higher amounts. Also the standard of living in our supplying countries is rising, bringing further price increases on gems, gem cutting, and jewelry manufacturing labor to consumers. This begs the question: is it still possible to make affordable jewelry?

I think the answer is (a qualified) yes, and the secret lies in what we have been doing all along: working with small gems. But there’s more to the story. What follows are tips on how you can save.

 Use Platinum. I know, it sounds crazy but right now platinum is cheaper than gold because it is not an industrially used metal. Platinum is a metal of choice for setters because it is pliable enough to set the soft gems I so commonly work with.

If you do prefer a yellow or pink color, I would opt for 18K yellow gold because it is truly superior in color to the 14K version, and I would choose 18K rose gold for the same reason. 18K rose is very soft looking.

I do not recommend using silver, however. It tarnishes, even platinum silver and argentium silver do to a degree, and it is very difficult to get the tarnish to stay off. Also, regular and argentium silver are soft. This means the prongs can easily pull open, or an entire ring gets bent, and the stones fall out. We usually make silver jewelry only upon request these days (exceptions apply).

Use smaller gems and make a cluster design. You can even do a cluster ring or pendant without a center or with just a very small center. Here are some examples of new rings and pendants we are making that work for marquis and pear shapes, but could be adapted for other shapes as well.

      Use less pricey center gems and let the side stones be the center of attention. You can do this two ways: use a lighter colored or less vibrant center so that the side stones draw the eye. For example, lighter blue sapphires are considerably cheaper than the vibrant royal blue ones. Same with emeralds. The lighter gems, often sold under “green beryl” go for significantly less money than the saturated gems. Light green beryl also tends to be extraordinarily beautiful, and pairs well with paraiba for example. Or you can use gems that are generally less expensive but still pack a punch in terms of color. Two examples of gems I happen to love that are vibrant are blue zircon and amethyst. You can also work around a gemstone slice, a cabochon, a rose cut or a large entirely less precious gem like fossilized wood, gem silica, or boulder opal. A setting for these gems might sound expensive but need not be because you can make a very thin metal frame in CAD, or in some cases, you can even drill the gems.

      Go eternity. You can do so much with an eternity ring design, with the added benefit of being able to slide it right next to a wedding or other plain band. Or wear several together. Since manufacturing in the US can be expensive, I further suggest doing a partial or half eternity band to save on setting labor. Half eternity bands can also be sized, whereas most full eternity bands cannot (because cutting out or soldering added metal is impossible once the stones are set). Eternity styles can be bezeled or prong or pave set, they can alternate shapes, colors, and sizes. You can do an ombre too.   

      Accent Studs - Single Studs. Instead of making a pair of large stud earrings, make a 3mm pair, or go single, or both. Most people nowadays have a second and third earring hole that would be great for a single fancy accent stud or just a dainty single 3mm post. We are going to make more single and small studs available for precisely that reason! Take a look at these in store here.

      Make a stacking ring. Stacking rings can have a single stone or several, they can be eternity style, and you can, just as with an eternity piece, vary the shape not only of the stones, but the ring design itself. A good example is a crown or V design, either with a center stone or eternity style. Stacking rings can be so much fun as you get to mix and match quite a multitude of options. You can work around a wedding band and an engagement ring even!

Finally, I’d like to add that while we did have to raise our prices on gold and manufacturing – we had absolutely no choice either – we have not raised prices on any of our gems. Nor do we plan to. I very much hope to keep it that way but I do want to add that this is not a promise. So go get 'em while you can!

We've got some exciting new rings, pendants and earrings coming to the shop for spring:) New gems and designs are on the way and you'll get a preview of what's new in the shop and what we have still to come. 

Cecile Raley Designs had a fairly busy holiday season and, if you notice our total listing numbers, they have gone down a bit during the last couple of months.

Time, therefore, to refresh and restock. And for that, I will need your input. For this year’s Tucson, we are prepared to spend a little bit more as we have sold down on all of the Denver purchases from September 2024, and I have been emptying the safe since I broke my ankle last spring. Let me take you through the various categories I intend to refresh and invite your comments.

Sapphire: My focus will be on interesting cuts – kites, hexagons, fat ovals like 3x2 and 4x3, rounds above 4mm, and as much in the purple and magenta range as I can find. So in terms of colors, I am hoping for saturated pinks, purples and blues, but lavenders and lilacs we love also. Which cuts interest you most?

Note that pink sapphire in sizes other than melee are usually heated, and there has been increased retail interest in these colors. Correspondingly, vendors have raised prices to curb buying and meet demand. But I have had more requests for these so I will do my best. Hot pink and purple were my best sellers last year.

A color I am confused about buying is teal. The market seems to demand teals and there are a lot of sales, but I hardly sell teals at all. So is there any interest in teal colors, such as greenish, or warmer greens, yellows?

Finally, we have run out of many small sizes, is there any interest in anything particular? 4x2 marquis, 4x3 ovals, 5x3 pears, small hexagons or kites, etc etc. I am wondering how much people still want to buy any of the specialty cuts in any of these.

Ruby: If the Canada Ruby company is back in business, I will be going there for stock. In my view, this is a small investment opportunity as many buyers don’t want to buy rubies from conflicted areas such as Myanmar. I also always look for saturated unheated and heated rubies, but the prices for these have gone up significantly. Under 2mm, I can source most rubies, but, for instance, finding even matching sets of marquis, small ovals, or pears is more difficult. Most rubies I can get my hands on sell quickly but I will do my best.

Paraiba: I have sold down quite a bit on stock. I have hoarded some single one carat pieces that are between 10 and 15K and I have more green paraibas, but what I am really looking for would be some pieces that are below one carat but above a half carat. That is what I am getting the highest demand for, and that category is the most difficult to fill. Ideally I would find round gems but as the rough material is long and narrow, cutting the rough into round shapes is very pricey. And since it is the cost of the rough that dictates the cost of the faceted piece, it often turns out that the final price of a round gem is more than what most clients like to pay.

On the more positive front, I think I can supply more melees in blue to green, round and other shapes, without raising prices this year. I have been working with a new supplier for a year and a half now, they are directly in Brazil and they have offered a consistent supply.

Other Tourmaline: I am always on the lookout for vibrant pinks and blue greens, or icy tones. While the neon pinks do not sell very well, I personally think they are a wonderful alternative to the more expensive pinks like neon sapphires in the same saturation, and despite their rarity, the pinks have not gone up in price as much as sapphires have.

Benitoite: I have my usual meeting with the Benitoite folks before the AGTA and GJX begin the first week of February. But note that I still have small ovals and rounds available. I will therefore be buying less. I am going to ask for small specialty cuts for the most part, as well as rounds above 3mm if possible.

Cobalt Spinel: Again, I would need your advice on this. I have not sold much cobalt spinel in the last few years. Prices have actually been stable for about 2 years, although supplies are down to what people have hoarded. There’s been nothing fresh coming from Vietnam and insofar as anything hits the market, it is old stock. The new blue Mahenge pocket appears to be done or more would have hit the market. I still have blue spinel from Sri Lanka, cobalt spinel from Vietnam, and cobalt spinel from Mahenge, mostly in smaller sets but also a few pieces in the .2 carat range that aren’t round. Again, the rough doesn’t really favor round shapes and the lack of supply doesn’t allow for matched sets. One has to work with a mixed shape and size set and design from there.

Here are some of the cobalt spinels currently in the store and click here to see them all. 

Burmese Red Spinel, Mahenge Spinel: I always, always, always look for neon color spinels in reds or pinks, but prices are pretty close to exorbitant at this point, even for melee. Both Burma and Mahenge spinel demand have outpaced supply. In 2020 you could still get them at reasonable prices but even the larger gem dealers that used to stock them, such as Yavorski and Nomads, are very sold down. I look at their stock at every show, hoping there’s some magic they are pulling out of their drawers still, but there’s just nothing left. The best material at this point is mildly included. And even those are expensive, and even those are hard to get in the very neon colors. But if I find the material, I usually buy it!

What I can still get is Mahenge spinel melee 2mm and under. I know one supplier that has parcels still. But Jedi pinks or reds from Myanmar I can’t restock. My vendor for those from the last 5 years has quadrupled in price and their stock is down 80% nevertheless.

Pink and Lavender Spinel: I do continue to buy those but prices of lavenders have gone up as well, as purples and lavenders have been very popular colors. The more reasonable colors, at this point, are the peachy tones, as compared to sapphires in the same saturation.

Zircon: I am less interested in the earth tone zircon or the yellows, even though I think they are super pretty. But whenever I can find truly saturated blues, especially in nice cuts, I will source them.

Demantoid Garnet: Of course I will be replacing the melee I sold as well as add a few other sizes. There are only rounds in small stones, but there are three shades. I call them “olive,” “apple,” and “emerald.” That’s probably self explanatory; olive is the cheapest by less than half and the least popular even though it is not any more common than the more desirable apple and emerald green. Emerald is the most expensive. I tend to pick a large, a medium and a small size in melee. If anything particular is of interest, please let me know.

Purple Garnet: In light of the most recent purple craze, I feel I should stock up on more purple garnet again. That, at least, has not gone up in price as much in the last few years.

What I probably won’t buy are peach toned sapphires as they are mostly not pretty in the lower price range. I feel the same way about alexandrite but I do have access to melee if you are prepared to pay a few thousand per carat (…!). Kornerupine is basically wiped off the planet, except for some overpriced single medium sized specimens (between half and one carat).

In terms of shapes I will work hard to get 5-6mm rounds as that was my most popular size in the last several months. I had made a point to stock anything pretty in that size and shape, and it all sold. I will look for 4mm pairs as well as 7mm rounds. Past that I cannot source anything sufficiently interesting in an affordable price range – that’s my humble opinion anyway.

I will stock up on hexagons and kites as well as Asscher if I can find it, but I would prefer not to buy too much of these specialty shapes as they might go out of style. I'd be interested in your input into this and your preferred gemstone shapes in particular.

Last but not least, I have pre ordered hauyne, and if anyone else would like some in sizes that aren't listed right now, you need to let us know asap. The vendor for these will be at the GJX show and he is setting aside what I would like to have so it doesn't get bought right away: 1.5mm, 1.8mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm) but the amounts will be very limited due to my funds. Remember if you tell me to buy things I have to use money, lol, and if it isn't your money then it is mine. Once that runs out then there won't be anything for you to see... 

Looking forward to your comments. Please email us at cecileraleydesigns@gmail.com

A few years ago I treated myself to a two carat Merelani mint garnet, a gorgeous pear shaped gemstone that is now in one of my most often worn rings. The gem is vibrant and colorful enough to qualify as a tsavorite but I paid mint garnet pricing because the vendor had decided that to him, it was too light for a tsav. Or perhaps it’s being a mint garnet was ‘decided’ when it was bagged up at the factory where it was cut from a large parcel of mixed quality and color grossular, and it was priced according to color intensity.

This is the kind of story everyone wishes to tell. That they got a gemstone for less money because it was a borderline case that was well priced for what it was.

Gemstone colors don’t come with obvious borders. There’s nothing inherent in a gem being a pink sapphire or a ruby. Even the distinction is a historical accident, as these names came up before we knew anything about the chemical composition of gems (or anything else for that matter). That is in fact the reason why people thought that spinel and ruby were the same gem.

Color plays a role in the pricing of all gemstones of course. A more intense color is usually preferred in most gems. But how much it affects price can seem very subjective at times. Take cobalt spinel for example. The name 'cobalt spinel' was originally reserved for just a small subset of blue spinel from Luc Yen, Vietnam, where the vibrant blue color first occurred. The most neon colored cobalts in fact are still from Luc Yen, with Mahenge spinel a very close second – and second only because the Mahenge find has not yielded as many neon specimens as Luc Yen has.

On my 2023 trip to Sri Lanka, I was offered some Sri Lankan “cobalt” spinels – or what were purported to be cobalt spinels. While there may have been some cobalt content, the color contained so much secondary grey that the neon effect was entirely lost. And so was the price! Lost in hopes and dreams of riches by the vendors. Well, I overstate. But the price was significantly higher than sapphire in the same color – by a factor of four, if I remember correctly. Definitely far cheaper than the real deal but also far too expensive for the color. And while I agree that gemstone pricing is an art form, that should not mean it is an invention of the vendor.

Funnily enough, both GIA and AGL have certified gems for me as cobalt spinel that are less exciting than I’d like them to be given the price I paid for them. So my opinion on the border between cobalt spinel and plain old blue spinel may not be in accordance with the trade, but to me, color is simply the most important characteristic of a gemstone. Clarity is second, cut matters a lot too but remember that, in principle, a poor cut can be fixed. But you can’t fix bad color.

A simple rule to follow is that borderline pricing more often means that the color interpretation leans toward the more valuable appellation of the gemstone in question. So when it comes to the neon color Burmese pinkish red spinels, you will find that the doubtful cases are more often tagged “Jedi” than not. So the borderline Jedi are more likely to be overpriced than underpriced.

But the fact that borderline cases are sometimes classified as the ‘lesser’ of the two colors is where the opportunity lives for a nice and juicy purchase. I love love love playing with borderline cases. It’s tricky and I have definitely sunk some not insignificant cash into the idea. If you search all the blue and cobalt spinel that I have in my shop you will find where my own weaknesses lie. And you will also find that I avail myself of the term “Cobalt Spinel” more liberally. But before you judge too harshly, I also have lab reports that say cobalt spinel on some spinel that’s not blue enough if I were the sole judge of it.

And, to be honest, if I wasn’t trying to run a business, I would not even worry about these ‘naming contests.’ Most of these names are made up by the likes of us, and then the names just stick. “Mint garnet” is a perfect example. That was invented as a name for light colored tsavorite when I appeared on the scene. Other similar names are “lotus garnet” and “sunset tourmaline”. They just sound cool. For those last two, there are no criteria at all, it’s just a fad name. And gem laboratories do not use the term “mint garnet” on their reports.

2024 has been a tumultuous year, not just for me but for everyone else too. It’s nearly 80 degrees here in North Jersey on November 6^th, despite the fact that it is now getting dark at 4:50! (This is actually really weird). I don’t know what the future will bring now that the U.S. elections are over but if you came to read this blog to be distracted, then join me in focusing on pretty things instead.

While prices are just going up with no end in sight, we have sales coming up to bring them back down😊 Our Holiday Sale Extravaganza starts on November 21^st with 30% off select items until the 24th. On the 24^th the entire shop goes on sale until December 8th with 20% off everything (custom orders excluded, as always).

We continue to make new earrings, pendants and rings for the season but they are expensive to make and so we don’t have as much as we wish we did. That said, we are always happy to take suggestions for pieces as this helps us cater to our audience better. For instance, should we make more platinum jewelry because it is more reasonable to make, or should we make more 18kt yellow gold because it is popular?

If you’re on a tighter budget, we have a huge variety of smaller melees gems, as well as some larger single stones, and we also offer gift certificates. We are going to have some giveaways coming up on Black Friday and in December, so stay tuned on social media…

Our calendar has just come out as well and will be included with purchases until we run out. If you have any interest in a free calendar, just let us know and we will send you one.

Upon request, we are happy to include gift wrap with any of our sales. Normally we include free cleaning cloths with new jewelry purchases.

Last but not least, we do have some jewelry cleaners for sale.

And on a housekeeping note, I will be away for part of the holidays so after Christmas it will be a bit quieter for a few days in our shop. Shipments will go out as needed however and then we will start getting ready for big sales again during Tucson time!

In the meantime, stay warm. Or stay cool...

While CRD is not particularly known for selling birthstone jewelry, most of our curated gems do fall into a birthstone category. One great exception however is the month of November. The official birthstone color is yellow or orangy yellow and not many gemstones have that color. The online lists include mostly citrine and brown topaz, both of which are available in abundance, so we do not bother with them in our shop. Also, while imperial and orange topaz are not always treated, citrine is usually just heated amethyst.

Another reason we do not carry many November birthstones is that yellow is just not a popular color. Most yellow gems we purchase sit in our shop for months, unless they are unusually vibrant or a cooler tone of yellow, like lemon yellow with a wee bit of green.

So let’s give yellow a little bit of a boost and tell you both what options you have in yellow gems, and how to work with yellow in a color layout.

Yellow Gemstone Options

Yellow Sapphire: This would be a very popular option, but pure yellows are fairly rare in sapphire. Unheated gems usually have a hue of vanilla or another warm tone mixed in, or alternatively, you see multi colored sapphires from Montana with hints of teal and green. The bright yellows are usually heat treated, and with very saturated orangy tones you need to ask about beryllium heat because that is extremely common. I have seen unheated yellows in very bright colors from Kenya but they are rare.

Yellow Tourmaline: Tourmaline rarely comes in pure yellows but there is an older find of canary yellow from Zambia that produced great rich yellow colors. Sadly, that find appears to be exhausted as I have not seen any fresh material on the market. Most other tourmaline tend towards orange (like the now popular sunset tourmaline), or towards olive green.

Yellow Garnet: The only yellow garnet I know of is Mali garnet, and most of the Mali garnet finds are older. One of my vendors tells me he has not seen any new material for about five years now, and that coincides with my experience as well. Mali garnet is not treated.

Chrysoberyl: Mostly known for its cat’s eye variety, faceted yellow chrysoberyl is one of my favorites among colored gemstone yellows. Mostly from Sri Lanka and Madagascar, chrysoberyl often has a light lemony appearance, with lime tones being very rare and more highly prized. Chrysoberyl is not treated either.

Yellow Diamond: definitely the highlight of all the yellow gems because of its brilliance, it is important to know that yellow diamonds can be natural or irradiated (and short of a lab test, there’s no easy way to make the distinction). I obviously prefer the natural yellows. If you look at the color terms that GIA uses for yellow diamonds, you can see that the natural colors of yellow range from a greenish yellow to a faint light, to a (very rare) lime tone, bright warm canary yellows and then into warmer browns and oranges. I think that they make a beautiful fall mix when used all together in 18 kt yellow gold. Especially the light yellow and golden tones look quite well together.

Other Yellow Gems: here’s a short list of other yellow gems that can be found in limited quantity; and their treatments:

Sanidine (Untreated) – mostly vanilla color
Danburite (Untreated) – colorless, vanilla, and warm strong yellow as well as cat’s eye
Zircon (Heated) – often a brownish yellow, some unheated orange, the bright yellows are usually heated

Yellow Gemstone Designs

If you do not like the warm fall color palette, then you need to mix yellows with cooler tones. Below are some options that I particularly like with yellow. On occasion you can mix just two colors, but I generally recommend three colors of which two are related (i.e. yellow plus pink/purple or yellow plus orange/pink.

Pink Sapphire or Spinel, Garnet or pink Tourmaline

Purple Sapphire (or purple and pink), or lavender Spinel

Blue Sapphire or Zircon (dark blue sapphire, or dark and light blue like sapphire and blue zircon)

Teal and green Sapphire (like Montana Sapphire), or teal blue

Orange and Pink (orange Diamond, orange Sapphire, Mandarin Garnet)

Orange, pink and purple (sapphire together with the above, or even Amethyst)

Red (Spinel, Ruby, Mexican Fire Opal)

Paraiba tourmaline – this gem goes with almost everything!

 Most of these color combinations are somewhat contrastive, but you can also go tone in tone with an ombre type design. Here are some options for Ombres

Yellow to orange to brown

Yellow to orange and red

Yellow to green to blue or just to green

Do you have other suggestions for yellow gems, or color combos you like with yellow? Let us know.