With so many new synthetics and treatments in the gem market, ordinary jewellers or even traditional jewellers cannot depend on their own experience to differentiate between the new synthetic or new treatment. A new breed of educated jewellers or qualified gemologists is required to help jewellers carry out their trade more effectively. A gemologist is… Read More: What is a gemologist? »
Mention your “colic stone” necklace in your jewellery collection and you are unlikely to bring on a grimace among friends. They are both one and the same. Blame it on the Spanish consquitadors who, when observing South American natives using the stone for talismanic and healing rituals, called the lustrous green stone “piedra de tjada”… Read More: Spiritual Gems – Jade »
Like jade, this opalescent gem, lustrous scion of the humble oyster, is attributed with magical, restorative powers and taste. One Roman noble pressingly offered his guests powdered pearl cordials at his frequent bacchanalian feasts, no doubt to titillate their libidos, the better to participate in his orgiastic dos. The oyster itself still has clout as… Read More: Pearl: Tears of Pain »
Unlike the Europeans, Britons are quite happy to buy nine carat gold which does not look much different from 18 or 22 carat but a great deal cheaper. Up till about 30 years ago, jewellery shops in Britain were rather intimidating places for the average wage-earner to enter. Gerald Ratner, who runs a chain of… Read More: A Question of Value »
Japan, one of the biggest importers of gold, does not stop at using gold in jewellery or dentures. They eat it. There is a trend for dusting noodles and other food with very fine gold. Restaurant owner Seiichi Ohmura invented gold sushi and does a roaring trade every day. Given the Japanese propensity for the… Read More: The Sushi Connection »
The most magical and precious of metals, emblem of prosperity universally reverred and even in the reflected glow of Chinese philosophy rife with the symbolism of phonetic similarities, gold as a metal, as jewellery or as another object that is called by the same name in dialect – Cantonese for orange and gold sound the… Read More: Yellow Glitter »