I almost decided not to go. Flight and hotel together will run me 2K, never mind food and drink, plus I had to buy a portable coffee maker. For those who may not be aware, Las Vegas hotel rooms, (even fancy ones!), do not have coffee machines or refrigerators. They want you to go downstairs so you are close to the casinos, and they want you to spend money! It’s so annoying because I answer many queries in the morning in my pajamas with coffee or tea next to the bed. In Vegas this means I have to schlep downstairs and stand in line with dozens of other show attendees who are not there to gamble, many of them in their pajamas as well!

Seriously, though, I also considered not going because I wasn’t sure if I had a long enough list for purchases. Not all my Tucson material is even processed yet even though this year is less sluggish than the last. But then again, I really can’t just skip it, can I? And I really can’t - because of the Russian demantoids, the benitoites and the Greenland rubies.

Those are among the things I have to buy there or in Tucson, because the inventory is not in NY and the owners of those pretties do not come to the U.S. otherwise.

Demantoid

There’s good news and bad news about demantoid. The bad news first: I have not seen the vendor I used to work with (and who made the yellow to dark green ombres) since February 2020, back when none of us knew what would happen next. He lives in Moscow, and they’ve not had it easy. First Covid, now a travel ban, grounded airlines etc.  

The good news is that there is one other demantoid vendor who does come here (there are probably just three total in the world, everyone else buys second hand). I forgot how these guys do it, I know you cannot fly direct anymore as most airports do not allow Russian planes to land. They are friends with my original vendor and specialize in nothing but demantoid from the Urals and the prices of both vendors are exactly the same. There are more or less two available colors: apple green and emerald green.

In melee sizes the emerald green is roughly 2x the price of the apple green. In larger sizes you see all the greens, with the brownish or more included pieces being more reasonable than the top-grade stuff. Should you want a larger demantoid, now would be the time to let us know because after that, I will see them again in 2024 in Tucson.

Benitoite

Most of you know this already: the small company that bought up all the benitoite rough several years ago cuts and sells only 3x a year, and only in private meetings to a small set of people, less than a couple of dozen. I do not know most of the other buyers and the sellers really do keep their meetings confidential, spacing them apart so you do not know who else has access. Some of the buyers are private collectors, others are resellers like me. I get about 12-15 boxes each time, most of them are matched sets of 5 or 6 of the same size melees, or they are shaded ombres of 5 pieces (or 6 with an orange). The orange colors are heated blue pieces but very few are produced because the material has to be exceptionally clean or it will break during the heating process. The blues are popular too, so it is difficult for them to gauge how many oranges to produce.

I always ask for matched pairs or larger single pieces but the production above .25 carats is miniscule. The largest pieces I get these days are .2 carats or so. But I acquired a few more in a trade so you will see additional pieces listing in the next few months. And I may be able to buy morevin Denver, if they decide they have enough material to come there in September (yes I am definitely going as I really like Denver. I just don’t like Vegas, plus I get an AirBnB in Denver which is so much more relaxing).

Greenland Ruby

While the Greenland Ruby company does have an office in New York, they do not keep any inventory there. It has to be shipped from Europe, and they basically just ship what you ask to see, and that creates a lot of buying pressure. Since I curate gems and don’t just buy ‘off the rack’ so to speak, that doesn’t really work for me. I want to see all the inventory and pick the best, so I have to buy at the shows.

The rubies below are all available in the store as of the time of writing. Click here to take a look. 

Prices are also very good, especially compared to unheated, but even compared to low temp rubies, which I normally buy. I was hesitant at first but the flux heat is permanent and it improves the material significantly (if my information is correct, the Greenland material is not usable unless it is enhanced with flux heat). You can read up on how they do things here: greenlandruby.gl. They sell pink sapphires as well, obviously. If you want to have information on larger pieces before I go, I am a registered buyer with them and have access to the wholesale site with pricing.

And that’s it?

No but these three are the reasons I am going in the first place. I think I will be able to get more blue Mahenge spinel and I have also heard of lighter steel blue colors coming from the same region, and those sound interesting. I have not seen them in person yet.

Click here to see the ones we currently have in the shop that are featured in the graphic below. 

Another one of my regular vendors showed me some very nice smaller Mozambique spinel that I want to buy more of - I just had three pieces but they sold in a flash. I have my eye on a heated Vietnamese ruby but it may get graded as a pink sapphire; it’s a recent purchase and I am hoping I will have information from AGL before I make a decision on that one.

Finally, another melees vendor should be there, they had really pretty and very small purple sapphires last year. Hopefully I can find those again! Also, the company that sells the kites and hexagon sapphires will be there. They also sell baguettes, triangles, trillions (they were out in February so hopefully…), all material from Madagascar. I hope to restock on all those.

More when I get there, of course. Stay tuned on all of our channels! 

I’m sure you have noticed this too but prices in the gem world have been nuts lately, and while the increases seem to have leveled off, decreases are not to be expected. More people are buying colored gems now, and ground level (where the gems are mined) has pushed prices up, while demand is not keeping up, or prices would be lower! So, how can you still win when no matter how close you get to the source, prices are not deflating? Let me tell you how I handle my buying, and maybe this will be helpful to you.

First, a more minor point: don’t get too scared about prices being higher than you are used to. The first rule in any kind of trading or investment is that if you are buying in a rising market, the initial cost is much less of a big deal. As a retail buyer, you may need to keep the gems longer but that is true for any kind of investment, even if you are buying stocks on the internet as a private individual rather than a bank or investment company that has a higher buy in. Focus on what is going to happen, not what did happen. The first hamburger McDonald’s sold cost 15 cents. Yours won’t.

With this issue out of the way, let’s look at how to compromise when you are buying gems. And how NOT to. Let’s start with the three most important aspects of colored gems and how to order them: Color, Cut/Shape, Clarity. Then let’s take into consideration origin and treatment.

Color

So here is where I do not compromise. Because the first thing you see in a gem is the color. You see it before the inclusions, and before you ascertain the shape. A brightly colored gem can be seen from across the room and out of the corner of the eye, and you will get pleasure mostly from the color. If you don’t like the color, you will fall out of love with the gem. We react strongly to color, all of us (yeah, even people who don’t like gems like sunsets and green meadows and flowers and the turquoise waves of a gorgeous beach). Accept it and move on. 

This demantoid (see it here on Etsy) is lightly included but this doesn't detract from its vibrant apple-green color:

This Greenland ruby (on Etsy here) has stunning color but there is a small white feather on the left in the photo. It's invisible to the naked eye and shows up only in magnified pictures.

Cut/Shape

I have to buy gems that work for my settings to make things easier for you, so I cannot always compromise on cut. Though if I could, I would. But let me be clear, I mean that I would compromise on the overall shape, not on a wonky cut. I can design around any shape whatsoever and I can adapt styles to fit shapes. Layout styles are like that, they are very adaptable, you just need the right sidestones or you need to place the center a different way, like East - West. You can accommodate a long marquis or fat pear shape and still make a nice ring. If I had free choice, I would just forget shape altogether.

I would not forget about cutting, although you don’t need top quality cutting unless that’s sort of what pulls you in (all my cutter friends prioritize cut over color, which makes sense). You don’t want window, but don’t forget that richly colored stones obscure window, and then it’s ok. You don’t want to see it, that’s what matters. That should be sufficient if you need to save. Ignore tilt window, it is standard in many cuts and with lighter gems. And consider that some gems, i.e., pigeon blood ruby, are cut with some window because otherwise the gem is too dark.

I would also ignore extinction because most of the time you see the gem when it’s moving and then your eye will not be drawn to it. Real window though cannot be ignored, and a stone that is too dark can’t be ignored either (so in that sense, extinction is relevant).

Clarity

This is where the law of diminishing returns comes in. For a loupe clean gem you can pay up to double per carat. And who needs that? I don’t. In fact, when I judge gems at first pass I do not loupe them. For me, a loupe is used to confirm pricing, and to rule out inclusions that affect setting. 

This round chrysoberyl (here on Etsy) looks silky to the naked eye but, when louped, there are small inclusions. The price is a steal given the size and the almost neon color. 

Remember I offer to set all stones that I sell so it is in my own best interest to make sure they can handle setting. That’s why I don’t sell apatite or Mexican fire opal, and only smaller rhodochrosites. Vendors that sell only gems need not be concerned with that, and often they aren’t, or they don’t know how to look for that because they don’t make jewelry. So the job falls to me as a gem seller and jeweler. It is in my own best interest not to acquire stones like that. But for instance, a Paraiba can be included, even slightly windowed if it has enough color, it can be a marquis or pear, and all that will make it more reasonable to acquire. Just no scary inclusions.

Origin

This is a bit of a matter of taste. If you want a Burma ruby then you can’t compromise. But if another origin is just as beautiful to you, then why not get another origin? For example, a blue Madagascar sapphire can often look very similar to a Ceylon Sapphire, and initially even labs were confused because they did not have enough comparison data when Mada stones first hit the market. Mozambique rubies are often redder than Burmese rubies, and they cost less. More Mozambique rubies will be deemed pigeon blood than Burma, and a nicer alternative to Burma if you ask me is Afghanistan. They look more similar to my eye than Mozambique and Burma rubies do. Precisely because origin affects price, I often go with an unusual origin if I think I can find better quality.

A sidebar here on Paraiba. The reason I do not buy many Mozambique Paraiba is precisely because I feel that the price is not justified. The color is often not the same as Brazilian, even though many Mozambique gems are cleaner. And the prices are not always lower, so for me it’s not a win-win. There are exceptions but as a rule, I favor more included Brazilian stones because of the intense color.

Treatment

This could be a blog in itself but let me just touch on a few things really quickly so you get at least a sense. If treatment is not durable, that is an issue. Some zircons that are heat treated revert their color, especially the peach and brown tones. A heavily oiled emerald may start showing fissures and cracks later. Same with a Paraiba. They are also not stable for setting, steam or ultrasonic. Heat treated sapphires, on the other hand, will be cheaper, often glowier and more neon blue. At that point I would say that is a personal choice, but if the price is right and you love the stone I’d say go for it. Personally, I would buy a heated blue sapphire for keeps. But not a heavily oiled emerald. And no diffusion treatment or glass filling, though that is simply because at that point you are looking at very low value gems.

The main thing is that you pay the right price for what you are buying (therefore, on occasion, you will need a lab report to verify origin or treatment, and therefore price). And treatment affects price, just like everything else.

Ok that was a lot, as usual. Perhaps let’s boil it down to its simplest terms. Don’t compromise on color, do compromise on shape, and determine if you like it without a loupe. Double check price and rule out problems with the loupe. Must have that flawless stone? I think that often it’s not worth it. I’ll get you flawless stones if you want them, I just personally don’t think it’s necessary, especially if you need to be on a budget and you are not trading in gems for a living!

Everyone wants big gems. I know this all too well because I get asked for bigger almost every day – and I get to dish out a case of sticker shock almost every day, too. And yet I keep buying small gems. Under half a carat, under a quarter even, with 3mm sizes being pretty much my favorite. Many of the larger gems in my shop are ‘on memo’, meaning I borrow them for a few weeks or a few months, depending on privilege with the vendor, until they either go home with you or back to the owner.

Of course, one reason why I do this is financial. If I buy three small gems versus one large gem, I spread my risk out more. I have built up enough connections over the years so I can source larger gems as needed, borrow them long enough to show to clients, and I am trusted to reimburse the vendor should something happen (rule: never borrow what you can’t afford to lose).

But there are other, almost more important reasons, to go small. Let me give you two. The first one you may not guess but is incredibly important to me. And incredibly obvious once it’s said.

FACET SIZE

A diamond cut diamond (or other gem) has 58 facets. A really big diamond cut diamond also has 58 facets and a very small diamond cut diamond also has 58 facets. Diamond cuts are not my favorite (not enough bling for colored stones), but they are a great example to make my point: large gems have large facets, small gems have small facets. That is almost universal. Portuguese cuts have more facets, sometimes many more facets, but unless a cutter really feels like playing around, you again have larger facets on larger gems. And facets are what make them bling, scintillate, make the light bounce around, reflect. It just makes the gems prettier!

A well cut 3mm cobalt spinel or Paraiba tourmaline can, in my opinion, outperform a larger gem of the same cut because it can have so much more sparkle. This is especially true when you go to very large gems, by which I mean something like 4 or 5 carats and up.

But what, you might object, can I do with a mini gem? The answer lies in the second reason for going small.

CLUSTER DESIGNS

While somewhat out of fashion these days, they are my personal favorite, as you can see with many of the designs I carry in the shop. I design cluster style, make color coordinated layouts, and when you start there, the possibilities are endless, as is witnessed by so much of the jewelry of the 1920s and 1930s, which heavily made use of these styles.

For a cluster design you need a center that is 3-5mm, and you can surround it with gems that are equal in size to the center stone or slightly smaller, filling gaps with diamonds if needed.

Contrast that with a larger stone design: what options do you have here? It boils down to three:

Solitaire
Three stone
Halo

Am I right? In a solitaire, you have one color. That’s boring if you ask me. Three stone rings are ok, so are five stone rings, but they are often interesting because they have a bed of color if seen from the top, and a fun gallery. Galleries are not the reason why I make rings. I care most about the top view because I like seeing colors in an interesting geometry. Plus I bang my rings around, so they can’t really be high, and that rules out the gallery. Finally, many of the modern designs use a large center and .5-1mm diamonds, which I find too tiny and, honestly, a bit skimpy. Diamonds aren’t cheap, but many of my personal favorite gems actually cost the same as diamond melee or more. Also, colored gems are hard to cut that small, being softer than diamonds. And once you get to 1.5mm gems surrounding a 4mm gem say, then you are getting closer to a cluster design.

Speaking of design, there’s one more reason why I like smaller gems.

PAVE SETTING

1mm to 4mm gems lend themselves very well to pave setting, and that’s hands down my favorite style. Pave is harder to do, especially when the beads are not in the model, and the gems are sometimes set further apart because of the beads, but you can set almost anything in any kind of layout, and that is not the case with prongs. Pave design is almost like working with a blank canvas.

Its drawback is that it’s easiest to make flat designs. For a gallery you must elevate the top and then build it up underneath, i.e., by using cutouts. Or you have to make a two-part ring so that the wax can flow properly during casting because the ‘pancake’ on top makes that impossible. With a prong design you can naturally use the prongs to form part of the gallery. But designing a prong ring that’s a cluster will have a lot of prongs in the way underneath and that can be a problem too.

Our designs often feature a prong set center so that it can be the feature of the ring. We further elevate the center with a little ‘halo’ around the opening that can be millgrained. To make the design look more three dimensional, we then layer the design elements and angle them outward and down slightly to wrap around the finger. With colored gems you can make the angles steeper than with diamonds because diamonds can ‘grey out’ when seen from the top at an outward angle. Colored gems generally do not. This also gives you a lot of edges for the millgrain tool. The ring below provides a great example of this: 

I want to close with a couple of caveats about working with smaller gems. Just like a large gem with a dark body color can seem too dark, a small gem that is too light can seem washed out. A good example is a Mandarin garnet, which I do not carry in 2mm and below for that reason. Other examples are: tanzanite, peridot, most blue zircon, aquamarine. Even Mozambique paraibas are often too light. That, by the way, is why it is fairly easy to determine their origin; Brazilian material tends to be richer in color in melee sizes, as well as more turquoise. So not all gems look great in small sizes.

(Footnote: a pigeon blood rated ruby which is usually 80-85% saturated, is often cut with a small window to let in light, especially in larger sizes, so you either have a gem that’s not windowed but too dark or a gem that is brighter but has a window.)

Another problem is that colored melees gems break more easily, and pave setting is tough on gems. And of course, they can abscond easily. And over time, these two issues can add up. I supply about 1 in 10 more hauyne and maybe 1 in 20 extra paraibas to my setters, mostly because they break (sometimes they come out during steaming also). And I don’t do handshots with these gems because I’m afraid to lose them.

Have you ever lost or dropped a gem and found it in an interesting place? I have heard of a diamond flying off during cutting and ending up inside the casing of a window air conditioner. I also once dropped a ruby behind my freezer and could not get to it until we moved out. But my favorite lost gem story comes from a client, who actually vacuumed the grass in her yard because she dropped a small gem right outside the door when looking at it in natural daylight. I have vacuumed for gems many times, but never the grass. Have you?