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.

Cecile Raley Designs has been on Etsy since 2009. I didn’t even know what Etsy was back then, but someone in my craft group suggested that I start a shop on their site, and so I did. It took a good year and over 70 listings before the shop started really thriving. Since then, though, it hasn’t stopped. In the last several years, however, we have been asking ourselves if our continued success is really due to Etsy, or if it is just that our own brand is growing. Many of our new buyers come through other social media, and despite us not having products for sale anywhere else, about 50% of our revenue is generated by direct sales.

If you have bought and sold on Etsy for as long as I have, then you will have noticed how much has changed over the years. Sellers still join Etsy daily, but many of them no longer sell handmade goods in the sense that Etsy originally intended. More and more jewelry sellers on Etsy are not the makers of the jewelry. They are resellers, or they mass produce in their own small factory overseas. And while I have been told that Etsy works hard to keep these sellers off its site, this proves almost impossible in real life. An international seller doesn’t have a US tax ID and can just re-open a shop under another name every day. Additionally, sellers of supplies such as findings, chains, as well as loose gemstones do not have to produce the goods they sell. As a result, Etsy is overflowing with international sellers offering their products at a cheaper price than their US counterparts are able to.

And while Etsy’s official story is that they want sellers to be the designers of the product (as we are, for instance); and advertises its handmade goods even on television these days, there are reasons to think that Etsy’s policies actually discourage such sellers from offering their products on Etsy.

There are subtle ways in which Etsy is pushing for fast and easy order fulfilment that undermine its official meta-brand, or brand of brand’s mentality.

1. Etsy pushes for free shipping of all goods above $35, thus forcing sellers of bulky or fragile items such as pieces of metal work, or larger pottery, to overprice their items to include shipping. As a result, they filter out of searches for cheaper products (everything under $50, let’s say). On Amazon, you pay an extra fee for ‘free’ (or lower cost) delivery, but it is an annual fee for Prime, whereas on Etsy the seller has to figure out how to add shipping costs and remain competitive with hand made products.
   
   
2. Etsy rewards shops for on-time shipping with a seller badge. And while this may look great, on the back end the shortcomings of this policy are obvious. We can only change the shipping date once – up to three weeks. So, if a buyer wants us to hold shipment because they are on vacation, they are international and still shopping, or they are holding gems for a custom order, we cannot mark the product as shipped or shipped on time. In short, the extra service to clients can actually make us look bad because we may have to forfeit our seller’s badge.
   
   
3. Etsy doesn’t allow products to be shipped later than 6 weeks after purchase. In other words, the longest shipping profile I can add to an item is 6 weeks. For us, this is largely enough time, because we can then push shipping out 3 more weeks by changing the shipping date. However, we do not like to put a 6-week shipping profile on our gems because if they are not turned into a custom order, they can ship right away. And once they are bought, all we can do is push the shipping date 3 weeks out. So we look as though we do not ship on time. Sellers of products that take more than 6 weeks to make (i.e. furniture, and most jewelry) can expect to be penalized by appearing lower in the search or not getting an ‘on time shipping’ badge, thus making them look as if they are late with shipping.
   
   

Now, you might ask yourself why Etsy is doing this, when it is obvious that handmade products can easily take longer to make and can be expensive to ship (also because many Etsy products can be quite expensive).

In my view, the reason is that they are emulating Amazon in the hope of increasing revenue by offering some of the same services. But when it comes to the prestige that should be added to buying a hand-made or personalized product, this is a mistake. It makes Etsy look cheap.

Amazon is a fulfilment center, and it aims to do just that: Amazon makes it fast and easy for the buyer to receive and return the product. Shipping is fast, overnight in most cases (at least here in NJ), because Amazon relies heavily on fulfilment centers that stock the goods, that pack at night and deliver to targeted areas using its own vehicles and drivers. You can track the product to your doorstep, you have direct and easy access to the shipping department if something goes wrong with shipping, but you have no contact with the seller as the latter is out of the game once he or she has delivered their product to the fulfilment center.

Most Etsy sellers neither sell the quantity of products needed to make use of a fulfilment center, nor do many Etsy sellers want their handmade or fragile products stored in warehouses (opals and pearls, for example, can easily break if stored in unheated locations). Lastly, a more upscale Etsy seller also relies on packaging as part of their brand, so the plastic bags and cardboard boxes that Amazon uses don’t help sell the product.

It is just a fact that a handmade product cannot be shipped quickly, unless it is pre-made, for example. At CRD we stock ready-made jewelry, as well as make custom pieces. Anything ready made that needs no customization, as well as any supplies, can ship quickly, though not always on the same day, certainly not for a delivery early next morning!!!

Everything on Amazon signals speed and simplicity. For example, there is no convo system. Getting in touch with a seller on Amazon is not easy to do. Amazon handles all returns, refunds and exchanges. In Etsy this is done by the seller.

The convo system on Etsy is one of the primary drivers for the sale because it encourages open communication between buyers and sellers. Etsy promotes more individualization and distinction of sellers than Amazon, but this in turn undermines its ability to control the speed of delivery by Etsy sellers: the speed of manufacture, shipping, but also the speed of communication. Etsy now penalizes buyers for not responding to a convo within 24 hours, but as you can imagine, this is not easy for small shops as it means we must have coverage for every weekend. When I travel, my office is in my phone, and that is as convenient as it is annoying.

So what distinguishes Etsy from Amazon? Etsy, in my view, is a Metabrand. It represents makers, designers, inventors.

Unfortunately, however, Etsy isn’t prioritizing handmade because it doesn’t want to make allowances for what handmade means – handmade means difference and personalized and customized.

Amazon, by contrast, does not represent any brand or type of brand. It is a well-honed delivery machine that requires a large infrastructure and a coordinated delivery system. And for any product that’s mass produced rather than personalized or customized, it offers great advantages. They just don’t make any sense if the priority is craftsmanship or artisanship.  

Etsy's popularity grew exponentially over the 2020 lockdowns, as we all loved buying pretty, unique products while we were stuck at home with nothing else to spend our money on! Thankfully, that period of time didn't last and Etsy is struggling to hold onto its place in the market. It can't maintain full control of every product made by every seller and still advertise itself as a facilitator of handmade goods. Both buyers and sellers are suffering for it. 

While sparsely attended by a semi attentive “just looking” crowd (probably due to a new venue and location), for me, the Denver show was a hit. There was so much time to shop in peace, unlike in Tucson where you need to constantly worry that what you are looking at will be bought by the next buyer five minutes later. I’m not the only person who has a good eye for gems – certainly not in Tucson. And the best stuff might be one out of 500 boxes. It takes time to find and then you don’t want it to go to the next person.

I went to the Denver Gem and Mineral Show only briefly, but I did wander around a bit and collected impressions. I also bought a few more opals from my friend Adam of A&S Opals. This time I went for smaller and more calibrated pieces.

Most of my time was spent in Westminster at the Hard Rock Summit, and only in one quarter of it: the section with gems and jewelry. There were only about 20 booths, and most of the vendors had little business, but the selection was good, particularly Dudley Blauwet’s booth, where I bought probably 80% of my new goodies.

One of the trends I noticed was an increased amount of specialty cuts: hexagons and kites in particular. Since I know how to set these, I always enjoy getting more of these shapes. The Art Deco jewelry I like and that I partially emulate works a lot with these types of shapes, though they are more expressed in the overall layout and design than the gems themselves. The latter are mostly round diamonds actually, with a few French cuts or tapered baguettes mixed in.

There were a lot of unusual cuts at the Denver show, continuing a trend that started about 18 months ago. It takes a minimum of 6 months to cut a production, and then there might be additional sorting and packaging, and repricing of course (also sets, pairs and individual gems cost more than parcels). So when a trend starts, it can be a year before the appearance of these materials peaks. I think that peak is now, and I think in a couple of years the market will be saturated with these shapes.

Luckily there are other shapes to work with that are also cool, just less trendy. I have gotten into designing a lot with marquis, and with fat ovals like 4x3mm, or more long ovals like 3x2mm (which are almost impossible to find). I also brought back more Asscher cuts.

One of my favorites from the show was a set of seven vibrant 2.5mm ruby hexagons from Mozambique, no heat. But because they were unheated, almost neon, and because of the wasteful cut, I would have had to charge $3000/ct for them and that struck me as too steep for just the look. The rubies remained unbought as far as I know, so let me know if you have steep funds and a million-dollar taste. But not every price is justified. If you think about cobalt spinel for a moment, you will realize that sometimes too much is just too much. I saw a little bit of Mahenge cobalt at the show, and again, after the math, it was going to be $6000-$8000 a carat in my shop, and at those prices the sales are very, very slow (as you can tell because most of my cobalt spinel is still listed).

On the bright side, I was able to obtain a larger lot of Benitoite from my vendor, due to the fact that fewer people came to Denver this year than in previous years. The production is always small and it depends on how many people come to buy it, plus the production size varies. I even got a few additional suites with an orange piece, and one single orange piece that I thought would sell in a day but it is still in the shop. You never know with this stuff…

I was also surprised by a few small lots of hauyne, this time from Afghanistan, and not as clean as the material from Germany. I bought a couple of boxes, the material is not expensive, but opaque and possibly more brittle in setting than even the cleaner specimens.

My largest purchases were most likely spinel (I haven’t counted my boxes but in total there are over 80). Dudley continues to process some of his older lots, which means better pricing for me. There was not as much vibrant material, but I scored some smaller Mahenge Spinel, Mozambique opalescent pinks as well as silver and grey, and a few pieces of Vietnamese spinel also.

In addition to hexagons, kites and marquis cuts, I focused on getting rounds in 4mm, 5mm and 6mm so that my clients have more available center stones for my designs. I have sapphires and spinels coming up in rounds. I also have more teal and yellow colors ready to list, to fill out that spectrum of the color wheel, which I tend very much to ignore (because I prefer the turquoise spectrum as you know). And I did my best to obtain at least a few of the vibrant colors the shop is known for (although a couple of them have already sold).

Last but not least, there will be a few surprise gems for you, or rather, gems I am particularly proud of having snatched. The Clinohumite is already listed, there is also some phenakite, and other gems whose names are more familiar. An outstanding sapphire kite, an opalescent cushion, and a couple of softer gems you will see after setting (rhodochrosite, Mexican fire opal), in the hopes that they make it through the process…

I realize that not everything I talked about is presented here in pictures. I don’t want to let all the cats out of the bag. Just a few of them. But you are welcome to inquire.

Purple is definitely the gemstone color of the year! Although it’s not just one color… I’ve received requests for specific hues in the purple family: lavender, lilac, magenta, periwinkle, deep purple, blue-purple, fuchsia. We are inventing new names for our listings at this point to distinguish the shades. How come there are so many types of purple, sometimes in just one gem, i.e. sapphire or spinel?

The purple spectrum in gemstones is very wide because there are so many trace elements that make up its color: iron, titanium, vanadium and chromium all contribute to the purple spectrum in both sapphires and spinels. On the other hand, red in corundum (sapphire, ruby) is only caused by chromium.

When people ask for a specific shade of purple to be matched, it is a near impossibility to find the right shade. Matching a gem to a photo already creates a problem as a photo of a gem never really looks like the gem it represents. Just recently I sent photos of a box with about 10 different shades of dark blueish purple sapphire to a client in Australia to pick which shade matched the earring she lost. I sent the photo under daylight and LED light so she could see how the light was affecting the color as well. I never heard back. Too many shades of purple is what I surmised and expected. The nuances of even the dark blue-purple spectrum are too varied to make sense of it when matching a photo to the remaining half of a lost earring.

Another relevant point is that matching gems from two different locations rarely succeeds because the trace elements in the locations will differ. For example, Madagascar purples are more often softer and more medium purple to reddish purple, whereas Sri Lankan purples tend to be darker and more blueish on average. So while there is overlap with some of the shades, it may not be enough overlap for the gems to really match if seen side by side.

By difference in location I don’t mean just different countries, by the way. To see geological variation, you only need a few meters of space, not a few thousand miles. When you are exploring a pocket of gems in one area in a tunnel, you will already find some color variation.

Also, if the gems are mined by washing a layer of sediment from an old river bed either on the surface or a few meters underneath, you can expect to find even more color variation. Why? Because the runoff from mountainsides and hills that has collected in the riverbed could be from far away and will be all mixed together.

I recently received a request for a specific light blueish purple set of 3 matched round sapphires, 4mm-6mm. From the photo I was assuming that the tone the client was after was Sri Lankan and roughly matched a shade that I have seen at shows until maybe 2020 or 2021. I asked about origin of the gem in the photo she sent me, so I could determine whom to call to get the color. I also asked about treatment and when the photo was taken. This information turned out to be unavailable, and since that hue was most likely a few years old I couldn’t track it down. I face a similar problem when matching greens in tourmalines (not pure chrome colored green, but all the other greens colored by mixes of iron, vanadium, copper). Blues in sapphires or blues in spinels are much easier.

I am also regularly asked for sapphire melee (say 1mm-2mm) that’s deep purple. This means I have to find vendors who still carry older Sri Lankan material as the Madagascar sapphire rough is not saturated enough to cut melee that small that’s still purple – it turns into a faint lavender color. Pinks are much easier to find in that size, even saturated pinks (i.e. Burma ruby, Mozambique pink sapphire), but along the more mid purple to blue purple range the saturated tone is almost non-existent.

So as a buyer, if you have a very specific color shade request, what do you need to do in order to get it filled? Here are a few pointers.

1. Origin affects color hues, so try to find out where the gem you are matching is from.
2. Treatment affects color. You need to know if the color is a treated color or occurs naturally, and what treatment brought it about (if any). For example, bright orange or reddish orange tones in sapphire are achieved by diffusion with beryllium. If you want the beryllium color/shade, you have to let your vendor know that that’s the color you are after, because it doesn’t naturally occur so you’d immediately be told that it can’t be found. So don’t point to a beryllium orange and say you want a natural stone. We are gem sellers, not genies. Miracles happen elsewhere.
3. Photos are inaccurate, so don’t expect a photo of a gem to match to an actual gem when you see the gem and the photo side by side. If you have to send a photo instead of providing a description – yes we gem sellers often go by description, not photo – then add the description to it or give us an actual link to a gem you are matching so we can do some research to find out more about it. It can also matter at which color temperature the photo was taken. Color temperature is affected by the latitude of the place where the photo was taken, the time of day and the equipment used. Cameras often have blue tints, which is fixed by adjusting the white balance, but not everyone does that. And of course, you do not know if someone did or not.
4. The hues in gem finds change over time. Therefore, we need to know when the shade you are matching was most commonly seen (online, at shows, or on location). As I go to trade shows at least 3x a year, I can see the shades drift over time. Having a reference point about when that shade occurred or seemed to be circulating in the market helps me figure out who might still have it. No vendor carries everything, and many gem dealers have connections to some locations and not others. I’m not going to ask a Madagascan sapphire dealer for periwinkle for instance, as that would make no sense. The trace element composition in Madagascar tends towards more reddish tones of purple, not towards blues.

And finally, if you do have an actual gem you want to match, then using it as a color comparison is ideal, so bring it to the viewing or the show, or even send it to the vendor you are working with to find a match or something similar.

Happy color matching!

In the spring of 2022, everyone wanted to buy emerald cut teal sapphire. This year it is blueish purple and lavender round sapphire, and my favorite - Vietnamese lavender spinel. But the story is the same: a particular gemstone, color or cut goes viral and within 6-8 weeks, the market is wiped clean and what’s left has risen significantly in price. Why does it happen so quickly?

It is hard to convince buyers of this, and I really don’t know why! With a few exceptions – such as amethyst – natural earth mined colored gemstones are rare. Really, they are! Purple sapphire – the latest fad – for instance, is much rarer than blue sapphire. Judging by what I see at gem shows the ratio is perhaps as much as 10:1. I can’t give you exact production, but I do speak from experience. I’ve been to hundreds of gem shows at this point and all I have to do is look at the offerings and speak to the vendors to know what is going on in their market segment.

I’ve watched white sapphires starting out cheap as chips in around 2012, as well as the beryllium sapphire from Songea (4mm and below trading at $1 a carat). Now both are nearly non-existent – even beryllium sapphires are hard to buy. Mahenge spinel started at $40 a carat for 4mm pieces back in 2012, and they cost about $100-150 for 1-1.5 carats. Now you cannot get them in the market at all except for what vendors have left over in their older stock.

Teal blue tourmaline from Brazil, dark purple sapphire from Sri Lanka, lavender and neon pink spinel from Vietnam, neon blue tourmaline from Namibia. All have come and gone since I started my business. There was a ton, then it went mainstream, then it went poof. At one point, we were selling Mahenge and Burma spinel beads for around $10/inch - anyone who bought it at that price is laughing now as there is none to be found anywhere! 

Once upon a time, the jewelry market was dominated by white diamonds. They are still in abundance, supply is still controlled and they are overpriced, but even now when you go to standard jewelry stores, 90% of what you see is white diamond jewelry.

Then the internet came along and the niche market I was in – untreated colored gems – gained public interest. According to an online article from CNBC (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/14/gemstone-engagement-rings.html), the colored gemstone market share in engagement rings has gone up from 5% to 15% in the last decade. Sapphire is one of the leaders in this market (also London Blue Topaz but let’s forget about that, it is NOT a rare stone). Natural (heat or no heat) ruby is being cited as difficult to come by, and part – but only part - of the issue is geopolitical conflict in the regions (i.e. Burmese ruby, but also any goods from Afghanistan and Russia, to name two additional examples). In 2023 alone, sapphire wholesale prices rose by 12% - meaning they rose faster than the S&P 500 Stock rates.

Other articles on gemstone market research predict a growth rate of 6% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in the next decade https://www.credenceresearch.com/report/gemstones-market; most of this growth rate will take place in the United States. Synthetic gems will be the market leader, but in my opinion that is largely due to a more or less unlimited supply line in synthetics, whereas the growth rate of natural gemstones will be more limited due to supply and corresponding price rises. The rising prices may push the smaller collectors out of the market (though I hope that doesn’t happen of course).

While it is always difficult for an end consumer to directly benefit from the added value of the gems they own, the continuing digitization of colored gemstone market allows both buyers and sellers from all over the world to connect with each other, and it allows for more retail buyers to sell and trade their goods on platforms such as Loupe Troop, among others. Auction houses such as Christie’s report that jewelry items often fetch higher than asking prices, some ending up in bidding wars just like real estate. Investors are looking for places to put their money, and some of them have a lot of it.

That said, a retail buyer still has to hold on to their goods for a longer period of time for them to accrue in value, and of course the authenticity and rarity of the gemstones they sell has to be verified. Not all retail buyers do the same research deep dives that we gem dealers have to engage in to vet our merchandise; and the lack of buyer protection or the knowledge of how to buy goods from overseas has caused many retail buyers to sink considerable sums of money. But that is to be expected with any commodity and any stock as well. Smart buying is difficult! You don’t need insider information to make good choices, but you do need to have good research skills and most of all, you need to work with people you can trust.

It is important to note that the largest growth segment of the market is expected to be in certified gems. Overall, consumers prefer natural stones to synthetics, so among the higher valued certified gems we should see more of a price increase. In synthetics, where the cost is actually dropping so rapidly that gemstone dealers do not keep them in stock but buy them only on request.

Regarding certification for gems, a word of caution is in order. A ‘certificate of authenticity’, as it is often called, is not what the trade means by certified gemstones. We are only talking about authentication by an independent laboratory such as GIA or GRS, where for each gemstone, the main value determinants are listed – not the price or value itself, but the character traits of the particular gem that determines the price. The prices themselves are subject to fluctuation, and for the most part, this fluctuation has an upward trend.

A proper certificate primarily means that the gem is properly identified (i.e. as an emerald, and not as a lab created or synthetic emerald). But where treatment is available that affects value, such as heat in sapphires, this needs to be stated as well. For example, as there is no known treatment for garnets, they do not require that a certificate includes determination of treatment. The same goes for alexandrite, but in the latter case, synthetics need to be excluded because these have been common in the alexandrite market for some time. Origin matters at times but not all the time. For instance, it is not particularly important if a blue or purple sapphire is Madagascan or Sri Lankan, but if the claim is that the sapphire is Burmese, then an origin report is needed to verify this. With emeralds, this is important also, as Colombian emeralds are still considered the desirable and thus the most expensive. In the case of emeralds, treatment identification is paramount also.

When experienced US retailers source gemstones, this vetting process is incorporated in the purchase. Most of us work only with reliable companies. I have a small handful of providers in Hong Kong as well as in Bangkok for instance, and I don’t buy from anyone else overseas unless I can get the company verified through one of the dealers I know. And for more expensive gems, i.e. my larger emeralds and paraibas, I also buy only subject to cert. This means that I agree to the sale assuming that the lab we choose verifies the data that justifies the price. I will not buy an emerald that is stated to have minor treatment or less unless there’s a report that says so. In particular, it has to be a report I can use in the US, so all my Colombian purchases, even though initially certified in Colombia, then require a second certificate from, say GIA. Obviously with small gems, i.e. less than half a carat, I will forego this rather expensive process but a below half carat emerald is not something most buyers will regard as an investment in the first place. I am of course liable one way or the other if my claims are false but it is understood by both buyer and seller that verifying the data may be more costly than buying the gem itself, so it isn’t worth doing. I then have to rely on my sources being trustworthy – and I do.

Personally, I expect to see an increasingly sharp divide between luxury and mass market gems and jewelry. Synthetics will dominate the mass market simply because that is the only way to get something like mass market going in the first place. Other cheap gems (red garnet, amethyst, London blue topaz) will be next in line as a growing market segment. When I first started my jewelry, I was approached by stores to replicate my pieces for a mass market but I always had to decline. It was never possible, and it's even less possible now. And I actually prefer this because I know which homes my pricier pieces go to.

Sapphires, emeralds, rubies, but also tourmalines and spinel will have a cheaper segment for overseas goods that will not increase in value – here, I’m talking about more treated goods such as heavily filled emeralds, or less desirable colors like olive green tourmaline -  and a more expensive segment with certified gems that will see an increase in value in the coming years.

Let me end with a final word on my opening example. Spinel – one of my absolute favorite gemstones and one that I personally collect – has seen the sharpest rises in value (sharper than Paraiba tourmaline in my view). This is because while it has been distinguished from sapphire for several decades now, it only became publicly recognized when Mahenge spinel hit the market. It became a birthstone just a couple of years ago.

At the beginning of its popularity, there was sufficient supply of spinel to satisfy the small market segment of interested parties, but that has since changed. Neon colors such as Burmese red Jedi, Mahenge neon pinks and Vietnamese (and a few Mahenge) cobalt blues have captivated audiences all over the internet and now that the secret is out, the market is wiped clean. Spinel was never as ubiquitous as sapphire in the first place, and some of the production countries of the finest specimens such as Mogok and Vietnam are seeing little to no mining and trade, whereas the finds in Mahenge, Tanzania are at present exhausted. The sediment layer that contained them has been cleared and there’s nothing below. A new pocket has to be found and in the last decade, nothing has surfaced (yes, people are looking, of course they are). Adding lavender to the list of popular colors doesn’t help matters – pure lavender spinels without any secondary grey were always extremely rare, but the prices did not reflect this until this past year.

There are still some great buys to be found. Take a look at these beauties!

If you read my last few blogs, then you know that I traveled to Namibia for a fact finding mission. About a decade ago or more, when I entered the trade more seriously, there were a lot of gorgeous blue and seafoam Namibian tourmaline on the market. These gems were never cheap but they were worth the price because they had virtually no grey or sooty daytime tones, and they were a great alternative to the much more expensive Paraiba tourmaline.

But eventually these offerings dried up, and my sources said that mining in Namibia had decreased significantly. So when my travel buddy Jochen invited me on a trip, I was game. Jochen and his friend Klaus wanted to check out what kind of collectors' minerals are available these days, and I wanted to find out more about tourmaline.

Unfortunately, a few days into the trip I broke my ankle in three places while jogging: a friendly dog ran into me in an effort to get me to play, and that backfired. So instead of gem hunting and traveling to see the world famous Namibian desert, I got to sample the Namibian health care system. I can’t say it was boring, but it really wasn’t what I had in mind.

Luckily for me, Jochen and Klaus were able to continue on their journey after getting me safely stowed at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoeck, the capital, where I received excellent care. I had asked them to report to me daily and send pictures, which they duly did. Upon completion of their journey, Jochen wrote me a summary of his journey, and I am translating it here for you so that you can be up to date on the current gem market in Namibia.

Here's the story, in Jochen’s words:

The day after dropping Yvonne off at Lady Pohamba hospital, Klaus and I continued on our crystal hunting journey that was so abruptly cut short after Yvonne’s accident. Our first destination was a place called Spitzkoppe, a giant rock formation located north-west of Windhoeck, about a day’s drive. Spitzkoppe is in the Erongo region, which is known for a number of gorgeous minerals such as polychrome tourmaline, topaz, large quartz crystals, aquamarine and the very rare mineral Jeremejevite.

When we arrived at the turnoff to the road towards the large Spitzkoppe, we saw a group of artisanal miners that had set up stands with their offerings. They lived in a small grouping of the typical Namibian round houses found in the Erongo region. Unfortunately there was little of good quality to buy – just some black tourmaline and a lot of bad looking aquamarine. But we scored with some lemon-yellow hyalite with strong fluorescence under long wave UV light. (At a later point, we also saw some gorgeous faceted hyalite and a loupe clean piece of jeremejevite in a private collection, but the gems were not for sale).

Our journey continued through the land of the Damara, a rocky desert thinly populated by camel thorn trees and a little bit of brush here and there. This lonely area is where the Himba live, one of the few Namibian tribes that has not yet fully adapted to the influence of European culture. I was able to take a photo of a young Himba woman in her traditional clothing.

Our next destination was the mining village of Uis. During colonial times, this village was dominated by giant open pit mines for zinc and wolfram. We had heard that there was still some local artisanal mining under way with vendors selling their wares along the road. Unfortunately, upon arrival we found only three deserted vendor stands underneath a camel thorn tree with a jar to leave cash for any rocks taken. But wares offered were not even worth stopping for.

Rumor had it that we would find more stands along the way so we continued on, but we only found a few more unmanned tables with rocks and the same tin can asking for donations if you took one. There was no human being in sight, so nobody to ask if there was more to be discovered. Disappointed, we turned back.
On we drove through this completely deserted landscape north west toward the Gobobose mountains.

Just past the impressive looking Brandberg mountain we encountered a lonely road sign with “amethyst” written on it, so we followed the turn and arrived at a village called Bobobseb, an assembly of perhaps 50 huts and tents with open mine pits located in the distance around the village.

The hills around Boboseb are composed of basalt layers from volcanic explosions in different time periods. Some of these layers contain hollow spaces – geodes – in between. These geodes occasionally contain quartz crystals similar to the Herkimer “diamonds” (which are also just quartz crystals) as well as amethyst. Some of the previous finds from this region have fetched up to $80,000 in the international mineral world and were featured in mineralogy books that report on the region. Miners are a cautious folk. When we initially approached them to ask for better material, they were quite hesitant, but after some chit chat during which we revealed that we were geologists and had some knowledge of the Namibian mining world, they started to show us quartz crystals of much better quality (though nothing like the fabled rocks we had seen in our books and
online).

We shopped with them for several hours and despite not finding anything fantastic, we were pretty pleased with our bounty.

On the next day, we took a second drive into the region. On that day, we met a woman of German descent who lived in this wasteland together with her South African husband and a child. Her husband was a geologist and mineral hunter as well, and from him we learned that all of the most interesting claims in the region were already in the hands of a few white people who use heavy machinery and a lot of money to work on unearthing these crystals from the basalt rock – apparently this is quite tough labor because basalt is very hard. The biggest problem faced by the locals is the lack of water in the surrounding region. Before our departure, we therefore gifted our new friends 20 liters of water from our tank. They had not left their tent in the wilderness for over eight months and were exceptionally grateful.

A shorter drive west, this time on much better maintained gravel roads, we reached the Atlantic coast north of Hentjesbaie. I had spent the night there 58 years ago, while I was on a solo expedition of the skeleton coast that led me almost to the border of Angola. Back then, Hentjesbaie was just a collection of a few huts. Nowadays it is a larger town composed of very pretty single family homes. Many of these homes were up for sale, probably of interest to the many south African fishermen we saw working along the coast line. In Hentjesbaie we met a woman named Vera Rath who owned a small gem shop. Vera was in charge of sales for the family claim in the Gobobose mountains – her four brothers were doing the mining. She had a number of beautiful crystals for sale, but her prices were similar to those in Europe and the U.S., so it was not really worth it for us to buy much. Vera also told us that most good finds are immediately sold to long standing clients that come to Namibia to pick up directly. Presumably these clients were able to buy in bulk and had deeper pockets than we did in general. We did, however, purchase several beautiful and shiny black tourmaline from her, as well as two pieces of gold crystals on malachite from the Kaokoveld.

On the main road outside Hentiesbaie vendors were offering salt crystals on rickety tables, and here too we could make a donation of cash into a jar or a can. These crystals were what we call hopper crystals (deep, right angled crystal impressions) and were quite beautiful to look at. So we picked a few and left money in the jar as instructed. Unfortunately, the salt did not last long – it started to disintegrate before we finished our journey, so we ended up leaving it all behind.

From Hentiesbaie, we drove the 60 miles south to Swakopmund, a pretty German style colonial village whose quaint architecture is still nearly fully intact. There, we visited the Crystal Museum and saw some of what are probably the largest crystals mined in Erongo, as well as many faceted tourmaline and topaz.

A small nearby shop called Desert Gems also offered some minerals for sale and I was able to buy crystals from older finds. We sent Yvonne some pictures of their faceted gems but the prices, again, were close to the European and U.S. market so it was not worth buying on location for a wholesaler. We concluded that even a tourist who came to Namibia to buy gems would be better off just buying Namibian gems locally rather than flying to Namibia, unless of course they were interested in seeing the country itself!

Putting our crystal shopping ambitions behind us, we decided therefore that our final destination should be a touristy one: Sossuvlei, a small town in the Naukluft Nature park. In Afrikaans the word “Vlei” refers to a large dip, or small valley. In Sossuvlei, you can see some of the largest dunes in the world. Also, these dunes that aren’t yellow, but red like the Arizona red rocks because the rocks have a lot of iron content. These look most spectacular during sunrise and sunset and they were a lovely ending to what turned out to be a beautiful and adventurous journey through a country, that's easy to travel to.

As I am turning 80 this year, I will not be returning here again, but I hope that Yvonne has another chance to go in the future, whether for gem hunting or not. 

I wake up to the sound of birds chirping, the sun shining onto my cozy comforter in my cushy bed. The window is slightly ajar and I can smell the Namibian air.While I'm gazing onto the surrounding hills of Windhoek, I lazily wait for breakfast to be delivered. Fresh coffee from the French press, omelet and brown toast with butter, a side of stewed tomatoes, warm corn grits and marmalade. I could watch the TV that is fastened to the ceiling by the foot of the bed, using a headset if I want to be undisturbed. Or, I could request a pedicure, a manicure, a bedside shoulder massage. I also have to decide between various lunches that the culinary staff will enter into an iPad, sending my requests directly to the kitchen. Choices, choices.

An assistant arrives, the word “BUTLER” in caps printed just below the name on his tag. He is dressed in grey suit pants and vest, an impeccable white shirt, and a tie. Do I need anything before he takes me over to get the CT? Pain meds, more water? Another ice pack? A change of clothes into freshly pressed white linen?

“You were born in Germany?” he asks by way of making conversation. “I would love to go there some day, I am actually learning German in school. I also speak Afrikaans and my local language.” So educated, I think. I use the buttons on the side of the bed to put myself into the perfect free gravity position, back up 45 degrees, knees slightly raised. Just like United Polaris, only far more comfortable. We chat for a bit before he gently wheels my bed to the elevator…

Where am I exactly? You guessed it, although you might find it hard to fathom. Lady Pohamba, a private hospital in the capital of Namibia. Almost worth staying longer but at $500 per night I could rent a small castle around here. If there were private castles in Namibia, that is.

Also, my broken ankle needs plates and screws put in, and I have to decide where to get this done. I have to call my insurance (Horizon Blue Cross, Omnia Silver) to sort stuff out. I mention my plan because it does include international accident insurance. You just need to look for the blue suitcase on the front of your card. If you have that, you are covered while in far away places. I also have to change my flight, I have to decide when I should leave the hospital and where I should go next.

Lufthansa answers some of these questions for me: no flights for that day or the next, a Saturday change in itinerary is $4300, and Sunday is $250. My flight is to Frankfurt, Germany, where I can sort out next steps, i.e. do I fly back to the US, or do I get this fixed in Germany, rest up a few days for post op and then head home? Hospitals have only basic staff on weekends so Sunday will do fine for a flight to Germany. That leaves me with one day in the fancy hospital, and two days to have fun on crutches.

After a series of additional calls, I land on Progress Guest Farm, located just a short drive from the airport. At $110/night, it is much more reasonable than the hospital, even though it won’t have this fantastic bed. I won’t have a butler or a nursing staff of four, but I think that’s gonna be ok, lol. Breakfast to order and a three course dinner is included in the price, room service if needed since I am on crutches, the lodge is level and the Wi-Fi will just reach my room (rare in lodges). I can sit by the pool underneath palm trees, or I can enjoy the prairie view from the bed. They will take me to the airport, too. Sounds – and turns out to be – rather idyllic.

One of the nurses’ brothers works for a small family taxi company (I think it’s more like he just drove me for a price but whatever), and he takes me to the lodge upon my release. I am greeted by the host, Gerda Meyer. She and her husband run the lodge with a small staff. Gerda helps me to my room which had a view onto the open surrounding space. She accommodates me with a shower chair, additional water and snacks (one day they even makes me home-made pizza for lunch), and I spend the rest of the afternoon either by the pool or working on notes for the blog.

As you can imagine, I am not one to sit idle long, and I have one additional day that I can use for touristy things. My research yields another nearby farm, a non-profit Ecolodge and Wildlife Sanctuary by the name of Naankuse Lodge. Naankuse offers various excursions and daytrips, some of which don’t require walking – like, for old people. I pick an animal feeding tour of my favorite animals, wild cats. I am totally alone on the jeep (which my rock-climbing skills get me onto, even with only one working foot), chatting happily with the driver as he introduces me to the rescued wild cats: 2 lions, a leopard, several cheetahs and wild dogs, all coming to the fence as he arrived with the apportioned horse meat for their meal.

The cheetahs even rub themselves against the fence and purr (just like my Lucy!). But no petting, he says. You never know. Cheetahs have lost their fear of humans and we are not their preferred prey (too big), but a wild cat is a wild cat! Too bad, they look really snuggly.

I get back just in time for a three-course meal prepared by Gerda’s husband Niekie: a vegetable skewer, followed by breaded and fried game meat (a very standard meal around here), fresh vegetables, mashed potatoes and panna cotta with local fruit. Gerda walks me to my room so I can navigate the grass, pebbly path and terracotta dirt patch in the dark.

My flight on Sunday was with Discover Airlines, a former step child of Lufthansa, now it is its own company, though you use the LH portal to book. I say “step child” because everything on Discover is clearly a hand me down, including the plane itself. The business class section shows the older seating configuration without privacy, there is no storage, the remote on TV is substandard or not working, food is just passable. I don’t want to complain but a business class ticket isn’t cheap! For that price, United Polaris (my standard, if I fly business) is WAY better.

More interesting, however, is the notable absence of disability assistance. LH no longer has a number you can call in Germany (like, not a single number, just nothing!). A local ‘help desk’ number has a country code of South Africa, and that’s like calling from Northern Germany to Switzerland. It’s next door but not close. Nobody picked that up anyway. I do fill out an online form for disability services, which is supposed to be confirmed by email within 24 hrs but that email never turns up. The flight being delayed by 3 hours, Gerda drives me to the airport in the dark, something they don’t advise to tourists to do because there are no street lights on the dirt roads and lots of animals crossing at night, but she assures me they do this all the time. I figure that once there, service will be a non-issue as the ground personnel is run by the Namibian airport, not Lufthansa. And in any country that is not as wealthy as we are, there’s no lack of personnel. People don’t get unemployment or social security, their relatives cannot support them, so they will work, even for subsistence level pay, because they simply have no choice! Unemployment is extremely high and most people will take any kind of job if it pays for food and shelter. There are no soup kitchens either so for some people it’s either you work for pennies or you die. That is a reason why I always tip handsomely in places like this, even if it’s official staff (like a nurse or an airport service). I don’t want to seem like I’m showing off with my wealth, but I’ll take that as a criticism if it helps others.

As expected, wheelchair service is no issue and everything goes smoothly at the airport. I even get to go to the lounge for a while. The only adventurous part is getting onto the plane. Forklift or stairs, they ask me. Stairs, I say boldly. These prove tiring but the YouTube video I watched gave good advice. Hold on to the rail, use one crutch on the lower step, step up, repeat. 30 times later, I am on the plane. The flight attendants tell me they all watched from the window. Um, thanks.

On-board experience I will skip as uneventful, and pickup in Frankfurt goes ok as well, with the exception of the drop off outside arrivals. I am plopped at a café while my 83 year old dad wandered around looking for me (he doesn’t really use his cell). Once he locates me – 30 minutes later – he gets a luggage cart and I sit on the luggage while he wheeled me to the car.

Our next stop is the BGU, a specialty accident center in Frankfurt that my bestie Dagmar recommended, because most of what they do there is fix broken bones. CT and X-ray in hand we proceeded to their ER. Unlike what I have experienced in the US, this ER has a small and quiet waiting area with us being the only people there. But it is early in the morning and I am told it would fill up later. And it does, with a guy who twisted his knee skiing and a construction worker who fell off a ladder (no joke).

As soon as I report that I had just come back from being in a hospital in Namibia, things got exciting. The nurse dashes off within a split second to grab an N3 mask, pushing another one onto my face and my dad’s. Possible contamination, I am told. Apparently, a previous patient had ‘soiled’ an OR with an infection from a far away hospital and caused $30,000 in additional costs the hospital had to carry (the patient had to be isolated for 30 days). So in addition to being interviewed about my adventure, I am swabbed for germs in my nostrils, mouth, under the arms and my rear end. “Do you want to do that yourself?” the nurse asked. “Uh, no” no was my response. “You just go right ahead and do what you need to do. I don’t want anything to do with it!”

I am examined in an isolated room, door closed, by three different doctors (ER doc, surgeon and anesthesiologist for pre-op), each of them disappearing at the word “Namibia” and coming back fully masked.

Other than that, the docs assess my scans and the emergency room realigning of my ankle. They are quite satisfied with that, and that’s good because that is a very important step in my having full mobility and sensation back. The operation is scheduled for the following Monday.

In the meantime, it's hotel Papa, with a couple of days at my sister’s with her boyfriend and my 20 month old niece who ogled my crutches with great curiosity but who even at her age is observant enough not to run in between them. Thank you, Meira, you will make a great addition to my very practical and efficient family.

At my dad’s I get to learn how to get up and down the marble staircase into the basement where I sleep, and after fixing a broken wheel on my late mom’s fancy $500 rollator, I use that for food shopping and to get around the kitchen.

On Monday the 17^th, I present early morning for my procedure, stomach growling. The contrast to Barnabas, where my late friend Sebaj was treated for his colon cancer, was educational to say the least. My belongings are locked away in a box and transported to the room that is already set up for me. The relay between the room where I changed and the pre-op for anesthesiology is seamless. German doctors are not used to explaining what they are doing to patients but my friendly banter opens them up. “Americans throw away everything,” one assistant says. Here we sterilize and re-use to be environmentally friendly. The anesthesiologist also explains that he would be using a local anesthetic so I would not be in pain as I wake up. That is a new thing to me. At Barnabas, everyone in recovery woke up crying in pain, nursing staff dashing around trying to get the orders for opioids filled – something I didn’t need because the local lasted for almost 2 days. Apparently the new hospital leadership at BGU instituted this policy two years ago. Good thinking! I do need Oxy twice, but that is only because they have to redo the cast the next day to angle my foot at 90 degrees instead of it being pointy and that is painful because the entire ankle is swollen from the toolkit that is now inside my ankle. “In the OR they sometimes have to rush the cast,” someone says. And I do get some IV painkillers, because I peacefully sleep through the entire rest of the day, opening my eyes only to eat two slices of bread with cheese for dinner (I’m very food driven), and then going back to sleep until 6 a.m. when I am woken up by shouting.

“Help me, help me.” I hear a woman’s voice next to me. Still woozy, I ask “what’s up?”. “I really have to pee, and I can’t find the help button, the remote fell off the bed.”

I have apparently slept through my roommates arrival in the middle of the night but I am pretty awake now. “I got it,” I say, and push the help button on mine. A voice answers as if it is a phone, not a call button (that’s because it is a phone, of course). At Barnabas, the button just turned the light on outside the room and then someone came, or as was so often the case, nobody came for minutes or sometimes an hour. “What do you need?” the voice asks. “My neighbor has to pee and she can’t find her bell. She has to pee like NOW.” Funny how such basic things can become a real problem. Apparently Mrs. O. already HAD peed because she needed to go for hours, but now the bed was wet and who wants to sleep in that.!

Mrs. O., an witty 82 year old with a dry sense of humor, has broken her arm during a family reunion when she didn’t use the rollator for like two steps. She was so annoyed with herself as she was also caring for her wheelchair bound husband. We become good friends in the days we spend together as I get us cake from the downstairs bakery every afternoon when I go for my practice walk.

Well, it is busy from then on. Breakfast at 7, blood work, vitals check, doctor for the floor examining the wound, then the chief of surgery who operated on me, then lymph drainage, lunch, a new cast, my dad visiting with a few things I’d forgotten, PT to make sure I could get up, coffee, cake, dinner, some sorting of my room mate's dilemmas (like not knowing how to use the wifi). I fall asleep at 8 p.m.

Someone told me that based on my experience with hospitals in three countries, I should write a Michelin guide to in-patient services, lol. Sadly, if I did so, Namibia would end up first and the US in last place. Germany is sort of in between. They don’t have dividing curtains for privacy, it’s unusual there, and the beds are not the greatest either. Care is good, though not amazing like Namibia. Just like in the US, staff shortages create problems in care. That said, the care we do receive and the speed with which we receive it certainly outpaces everything I have seen at Barnabas in the US. Wound care is better as well, food and food services, the idea of a head set for a TV is widespread everywhere except the US. Cost is another important factor. My operation, including 4 days of hospital stay with all of the care inclusive was $9100. Cost in the US can be estimated at three times that figure, with billings significantly higher.

My upgrade to the chief of surgery, for instance, was $800. And he was supposed to be the best, so even if that ends up being out of pocket, why should I care? My ankle is a lifetime investment.

The rest of my four day stay at BGU is fairly uneventful, with the exception of Mrs. O. announcing on Thursday that she wished to die because she was in too much pain and wasn’t feeling mobile. An officially announced death wish always gets everyone on high alert (because it has to be reported up the chain), so we had additional visitors: psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, neurologist. Mrs. O.'s care is improved and so are her spirits, so I am able to leave on Friday with a good conscience knowing she was taken care of in the way she needed. Sometimes a loud cry for help is enough to get the job done and she did deserve better care. (Sometimes…).

I stay in Germany another four days just for a post op visit, but then it is really time to go back to my American home and my cat Lucy, and some human friends, too.

To those of you worried about traveling with a disability, I can say that everything went fairly smoothly, with the caveat that, as Germany is not a litigious society, this leads to substandard service, whereas in the US everyone overdoes it. At Fraport (Frankfurt airport’s melodic sounding name), I was offered a series of relay carts I had to hop on and off of, and I had to make my own way through passport control and security. It was a sluggish and cumbersome procedure, as a result of which I missed my stay in the lounge. I wouldn’t have cared but I did pay for it, so I wanted it. At Newark Airport I was not even allowed to get up from the wheelchair and someone was with me every split second, all the way into the cab.

In my next and final Namibia blog, I will tell you a bit more about the gemstone situation in Namibia and give you a sense of what you should expect if you ever travel there to buy. While I didn’t get to complete the trip, Jochen and Klaus did and they reported to me every step of the way. Until then, know that I have arrived home safely and am getting the needed aftercare until I can be fully mobile again in a few weeks. So everything ended (reasonably) well.

As you read in my previous blog (you didn’t? Go back!), a playful dog plowed into my left leg as I was jogging to the lodge at our remote camp site near Khorixas, Namibia. A hard landing later, I found my foot twisted out of place. Kaput.

What next? After my friends Klaus and Jochen had safely stashed me onto a chair and raised up my foot, we quickly hashed out next steps. Jochen hurried over to the lodge to inform the owner and ask about medical transport. Unsurprisingly, the latter proved unavailable. We had to get to a clinic ourselves, and this entailed a 45-minute drive back to Khorixas. Klaus folded down the roof tents, and after a half hour they pulled the car up next to me to load me into the back seat, resting the broken ankle on a pillow surrounded by cold water bottles to cool it. Klaus placed a wet paper towel over the top of the foot to further reduce the swelling. I had already popped the strong ibuprofen. I took photos of the ankle from various angles.

We then pulled up to the lodge so I could catch enough Wi-Fi to call one of the most important people in my life, Dagmar. Dagi and I lived in the same building when we were little. We met in the sandbox, were inseparable as kids and have remained close our entire lives.

Dagi is my own personal angel. If you had a Dagmar, your life would be better, because Dagmar makes everything better. She’s a pediatrician, and – trained at the renowned Mayo clinic in Wiesbaden, she’s also an excellent diagnostician. She helped me solve various of Sebaj’s cancer-related emergencies from afar, she’s been at my mom’s side when she died after a seven-year battle with Lou Gehrigs and Aphasia in 2021, she takes care of my sister, my 20-month-old niece, and of course, she takes care of me.

Dagi picked up her cell in the middle of a patient visit because she knows if Yvonne calls during Dagi’s office hours from Namibia, there’s a problem. “Broke my ankle,” were my first words. “You sure?” “Yes, I’ll send pix. We’ll be heading to the closest clinic but there’s no advanced medical care here.” “Got it. How long does it take you to get to Windhoek?” “About five hours drive.” “Ok, by the time you get there I’ll let you know what’s next, have the clinic stabilize it.” “Ok. Ta.” “Love you.” “Ja.”

The camping lodge owner had advised us not to go to the hospital in Khorixas (not very good she said) but to stop next door at a small private clinic. So off we went down the dirt road and onto the main gravel road at the top speed Jochen, the most experienced driver of our team, deemed safe.

The clinic was in the center of town, which constitutes a gas station and a strip mall with a furniture and clothing store, as well as a supermarket; nothing more. At the clinic, my friends were stopped with the words “N$250.” ($13). Money first, then treatment, that’s how it is in most developing countries, otherwise the clinics cannot survive and then medical care goes from little to none. We were later told that there are free as well as very low-cost services available but their availability and what these entail is limited.

I got pushed into the clinic on an office chair with a broken wheel. I could have hopped faster but that was deemed too risky with that dangly ankle. There was no wait (N$250 is quite a door stopper for locals that make between N$1500 and N$3000 a month), and the doc who introduced himself as Patrick, saw us right away. “Most likely broken,” he said. Uh-huh. “Go next door to the hospital and get an X-ray, then bring it here. I don’t have a machine. But don’t have them attempt to set it or do anything else.”

The small hospital was right around the corner. “N$150” was their greeting, to be settled before any services of course. Klaus and Jochen settled the bill while I was wheeled into X-ray with a real wheelchair. It was quick and efficient. The X-Ray, a Siemens machine, just the printer was broken. (So we took photos of the screen.)

Despite my expensively purchased Verizon wireless plan, internet was completely unavailable in Namibia, but the doc hooked me onto his iPhone so I could send the images to Dagmar. He also put a plaster cast around the lower part of the foot, ankle, and up the calf, leaving it open in the front. He closed it up with a bandage. I asked for a heparin shot to prevent clotting, and the doctor agreed. (The N$150 we paid on entry ($7.50) covered everything).

Images in hand, we headed back over to the clinic and showed the images to Patrick. A clean break of the lower fibula, was his assessment. And a piece of the ankle had broken off as well. The temporary cast should be ok he thought (but I saw in his eyes that he didn’t love the job). He loosened the bandages a little as I could already feel the swelling pushing up against the plaster.

We then dashed off in the direction of Windhoek. The first hour of the drive I was ok, but then the foot started throbbing. Pins and needles in the toes, and pains shooting up from the ankle to the lower leg and calf. “No pressure against the bone,” Klaus said. “And too much swelling.” I took another Ibuprofen but it didn’t do a thing. Four hours to go.

What next? My pain was climbing up the ladder. A 7, I decided, not a lot of room at the top here. “Jochen? You brought the morphine, right?” He did. “I’m gonna have to take one.”

Story detour: about 18 years ago, during the gem shows in Tucson, Jochen contracted a dangerous and extremely painful bacterial infection in his lower back (he was in organ failure when he arrived at the hospital but after 6 months of recovery he was 99% back on track). Jochen was prescribed morphine for the pain, and he saved what he didn’t need at the time. The morphine is always in his Africa emergency pack, for precisely the types of situations we were now facing, as well as for the one you don’t want to ever experience: ending up somewhere on your own and without transport, facing death by thirst or starvation while injured.

I took 15mg – the lowest dose – with a big swig of water. Hydration is key and also helps to dissolve the pill. I should have chewed it for speedier absorption but I forgot. “It’ll just take 20 minutes,” Jochen offered. I disagreed, having watched Sebaj suffer with nerve pain for up to 60 minutes, waiting for the stuff to kick in. “I’ll put it an hour,” was my response. We could do a bet. I was gonna need distraction.

Klaus rubbed my upper leg lightly upon my request, to distract the nerves. Jochen entertained with stories about his previous trip to Namibia, while I worked on my breathing. 4 counts in, 4 counts hold, 4 counts out, 4 counts hold. Meanwhile the pain worked its way up to an 8 or 9.

After 20 minutes it eased a little bit, but it didn’t get bearable until minute 40, and by minute 60 it was gone. (Of course I was counting the minutes). As expected, my mouth went dry, my appetite disappeared, and I became rather chill and relaxed. All are well known side effects of morphine.

Next problem. I really really had to pee. An average bladder holds about a liter, I heard. Mine was on the verge of overflowing. (When did I drink all that water??). My left knee was resting on an empty milk container, which in turn was propped onto our guidebook so I could get my leg into an angle that made for minimal pain. I pulled the container out and asked Klaus to cut the top completely open. We stopped at a rest stop, I slid out of the car, my bum resting against the back seat, and I put the container between my legs. Aaaaaaahhhhh. Let me tell you, I so did not care that I was with two men, neither of which I am in any way intimate with. I just had to go. I put the container on the floor, pulled up my hiking pants and offered the honor of emptying it to Klaus. He complied, with a grin. You gotta take this shit in stride.

We reached Windhoek by 6 p.m. My phone offered 3 bars for roaming (finally) and I called Dagi again. “Lady Pohamba Hospital please.” “Ok, bye.” Dagi’s Namibian friends had advised that I go there. Lady Pohamba is a private hospital, completely operating on Western standards, inclusive of accreditations, equipment, and nursing rotations.

Just in time. The morphine was wearing off. Payment getting sorted (first), this time N$60,000 as pre-payment, to be credited back if not used up. I was then wheeled into the ER and received immediate medical attention. The pain was climbing up the ladder, hastily making its way into the dreaded double digit: the TEN. I resorted to breathing used for birthing (or stretching, by the way), deep breath in, loud and long breath out. I grabbed the nurse’s hand. “We’ll put in an IV and give you Paracetamol,” she told me. “That will not do,” I said. The attending doc agreed.

“Ketamine,” was her view. “Then we open the cast and set the foot. After that you will feel a lot better.” Dagi on speaker, phone resting on my belly, this was confirmed as I explained between long and shaky breaths, apologizing for the “ddddddddd-eeeee-lay.” My entire body started to shiver, my hands went cold. I was still talking, and as the docs told me later, I never stopped the entire time. I have no idea, by then I had passed out. From the ketamine, the pain, who knows.

I was kept for observation for two nights, supplied with lighter pain meds, IV drip; and a South African orthopedist by the entertaining name of Willem Moolman came to check on things twice a day. A CT confirmed the break but also showed a third fracture, making the break “as bad as it can be” in Doc. Moolman’s ‘soothing’ words. Gentle bedside manner, making everything sound better than it is, and being cautious with information is an American medical cultural trait, borne from the necessity of having to avoid giant lawsuits. The rest of the world is a little more blunt...

The CT also showed a lot of swelling, and that makes medical work inside an ankle very messy. Doc Moolman suggested waiting for the swelling to go down, which could take anywhere from 4-5 days to 1-2 weeks. Then I would need screws on one side of the ankle, a plate on the other, and I’d be in a moonboot off that leg for six weeks. Yuckles. “I was welcome to stay,” he said, but it really wasn’t necessary as long as I continued giving myself heparin into the belly (it’s just like insulin shots), took an anti-inflammatory and kept the leg elevated.

At $500 a night, I thought that while the service was fantastic – I had never seen so many staff in one place at any hospital before – it wasn’t exactly worth hanging around. I decided to get myself organized and formulate the next plan. There had to be a way, I thought to myself, to squeeze just a touch more vacation out of this situation before heading out.

I would have done well to be hired as a chief strategist somewhere. For something. Because I both figured out a plan, as well as a way to execute it. And I had bit of luck, too!

And here's a video from before the accident showing Yvonne happily 'helping' Klaus and Jochen put up the tent: