Rare Gemstones

Rainbow Moonstone, 18k Gold Clasp

The clasp pictured here is 18k yellow gold with a rainbow moonstone.  Rainbow moonstones are technically not moonstones although, like moonstones, they are in the feldspar family of gem materials.  Rainbow moonstone is a trade name that came about because instead of the typical milky white or bluish sheen floating over regular moonstones, these had pinks, purples, yellow or oranges as highlights.  They have always been a favorite of mine and my wife owns a number of magnificent pieces that came out of my primary source for this gem material's personal collection. 

However a number of years ago, rainbow moonstone became an endangered species.  The mines they were coming from were basically mined out of all the better and larger material available.  Now mind you, this doesn't mean that there isn't mining still going on, but it tends to be of the tailings (the material first thrown away from a mine that,  after a mine has been spent, is often gone back through to find anything now deemed worthwhile). It also doesn't mean that there aren't other jewelers  who bought large amounts of the material when it was available that have back stock of it they can still release (as I had to explain to one of my customers who after I told her that I could no longer get rainbow moonstone because the mines were mined out showed up with a new piece she had bought elsewhere with rainbow moonstones in it and told me I was wrong).  And it also doesn't mean that there isn't other material (like blue sheen moonstone) that has a similar look but isn't really rainbow moonstone. 

When the material first showed up in the marketplace I was selling it for $20-50/carat on a regular basis.  Now if I can even find the material it's five to ten times that amount in cost to ME!  This particular stone is a great reminder of just how precious some gem materials truly are.  When it reaches a point where there is no new material coming in to the market place, not only do prices rise rapidly but availability becomes a huge issue.  Natural gemstones are NOT a renewable resource.  Once they come out of the ground, they can't be replaced.  The only way to have more material is to continually find new sources.  Unfortunately, like tanzanite, rainbow moonstone simply doesn't have other sources than its original ones. So sometimes, when you see a truly unique and beautiful gemstone, you should simply buy it because you never know whether you'll be able to again.

So where did I get the rainbow moonstone in this piece?  I had the good fortune to be approached by my primary moonstone supplier who had just taken on selling a collector's collection of rainbow moonstones as she needed the money more than the gems.  I bought a number of pieces from her because I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity unless another collector decided to sell out.  The one in the picture has some beautiful oranges floating across its surface. 

I am always interested in any feedback my readers might have.  I know you're reading this because you come in the shop and tell me and because I can see it on my blog tracking, so please write something back. Anything....just to let me know what you think. And sign up as a follower too. 

Lessons Learned, Fun Clasp, and Opal Earrings

18k yellow gold, Ethiopian opals and diamonds

A long time ago I learned that it is always better to not try to do everything yourself.  Despite the fact that I am an extremely well rounded jeweler in terms of my skills, there are certain things that, while I know how to do them, I realize it is far better to let someone with the proper skills (and patience) take care of.  I have belonged to a couple of jewelery news groups on the web and I was always amazed at what some of the "jewelers" (I use that term loosely since many of them weren't professionals) would make inquiries about.  They would want to know what people used to do their tax returns, how to build steam cleaners, how to build their own tools, etc.  I could never figure this out.  I mean, if you're a jeweler then you should be spending your time making jewelry, not filling out tax forms (there are accountants to do that), making your own tools (that are, unless you need something very specialized, available for a pittance in terms of your time wasted), or, as in the one case of one very misinformed gent, trying to make your own steam cleaner (which is the only thing that absolutely every person on the forum told him not to attempt to make on his own as it requires building a secure, high pressure boiler that, yes, if improperly made, can explode).

Consequently, I don't do my own casting (the people I know who tried to do the limited amount of casting I would be doing overwhelmingly had poor results).  I don't do my own engraving.  I don't do my own stone cutting. There is one particular type of stone setting that I don't do myself.  And I don't do my own stringing.  I know how to do every one of these things and have actually done them all.  But it quickly became quite apparent that to become a really good, and quick, stringer I would have to spend years perfecting the practice. Same with engraving.  These types of things are specialty projects and are best done by people who do it all day long every day.  Sure I could restring your pearls, but I'd have to charge you ten times as much and it just wouldn't be as good as what my stringer does.  Quite honestly, I also find some of these repetitive jobs incredibly boring (not that some of my work doesn't get a little repetitive but at least it's usually when I have a torch in my hand and I always like to play with fire) and they don't really go anywhere towards the things I love to do best which is actually making up new pieces.

So why am I talking about this (besides the obvious at this point that I like to talk)?  Of the things I don't do, engraving is like an add on to a piece, stone cutting is nice but I want to make the jewelry with the stones, and I only cast designs that I make a model up for, and the casting process really isn't about "making jewelry--plus I still do all the finish work on the pieces.  However, when it comes to selling strung product (pearls and beads), stringing is kind of the whole thing---well, usually.  But I'm not usual, so I refuse to use any commercial clasps on my strung product that I sell out of the case. I have for about 30 years always made my own clasps to go on the pieces.  While a lot of the clasps are just a simple "S" style clasp, some of them are much more interesting.  I have shown some clasps on the blog at times but I thought I would show you some pictures of a variation on an "S" clasp that is a two sided clasp.  This particular one has work, and stones, on both the front and back. In the event it rolls over there will always be something interesting to look at. This is a custom piece I made for a customer using her diamond and my chrome tourmaline.

The best thing about my strung product is that once I have it strung for an "S" style clasp or some of my fancier ones (see this blog picture here), you can always add more clasps to your collection as all of them will work on the same strand of pearls or beads.  In other words, your partner never needs to think much about a new gift, they just have to get a new clasp!

The picture at the top of the page is of the new earrings I made up with the Ethiopian opals I got in recently that I mentioned in a prior posting. We got some good representation of the color but it's even better than the picture shows as there are some red flashes that didn't come through.

Gold Prices

18k gold "Pearl Swirls" 

I'm not sure how many of you follow the gold market as closely as I (and most other jewelers) do, and frankly I never used to have to follow it as much myself.  Gold prices remained fairly stable for years and while they changed on a daily basis, we never used to see the kinds of swings that have occurred in the last few years. However with the stratospheric heights gold has risen to in the last few years it has become more and more important to watch where gold is going.  If I place an order for gold on downswings it can mean savings of up to 5% often on my metal costs.  Of course, since I can't predict where it's going in general, I also can get hit on the upswing as I have no control over when my orders will be produced and actually shipped and I pay a price for the metals based on the day they are shipped. In the long run for me price variations don't make a huge difference since sometimes I pay more and sometimes I pay less. It all tends to average out in the long run.  I also learned long ago that I could no more predict the way gold was going then I could predict when the sun was going to shine next. 

All that being said, gold seems to be on a downward slide right now.  It has come down from its highs and is hovering in the upper $1500 range right now.  As it happens it did this same thing last year around this time, so this may just be another seasonal temporary drop.  However a good deal of the reason gold skyrocketed as it did had to do with people's fears about the economy and there are now very distinctive signs that the economy is picking up steam again (check out today's job report) which could lead to a longer term, more permanent, drop in the price.  While the days of $400/oz gold will probably never return (it now costs more than $800/oz to retrieve 1 oz of gold from the ground), it is possible that we could see a return to more subdued figures in the long run. Please remember here that I have never been able to predict the price of gold so I may be completely wrong in all of my thinking but I do read a lot about the movement of the market and I think it will continue a slow but steady drop over a long period of time. I also have customers who are in the market and they claim it will start to go up again and reach new heights but to date it hasn't gone back up to its peak of $1900/oz that it reached in September 2011 and I'm not sure it will during the near future.  Notable also is that most gold mining company stocks have plummeted in the last year. 

So why am I bringing all this up?  Well as some of you know by now I will take gold in as payment towards custom work and case sales (and repairs as it happens).  I don't buy gold outright from anyone but it has turned into something as good as cash for me since I have a network of scrap buyers who will pay me on the day it has been turned in, which means I can pretty much guarantee what price I will get for it.  And I have had a lot of customers coming in the past two years who have taken advantage of this to get themselves into some new pieces of jewelry using old jewelry that is broken, unworn or, as in the case of earrings, where parts have been lost. With gold prices where they are these bits and pieces can add up significantly fairly quickly.  This is the first time in history that you can sell for scrap commercial pieces (note this will not apply to handmade, designer or custom pieces as the labor charges are much higher on those items) you bought 7-20 years ago for more than you paid for them.  However with gold prices on the downward swing, you will get less for your scrap and it might be time to finally consider gathering up all of that stuff and trading it in.  Even if you don't know what you want right now, I'm always happy to keep a credit in my system for future purchases.

Pictured above are some new earrings I did recently.  18k yellow gold and pearls.  By the way, my offer in my last post for a $50 store credit if you come in and ask to see the orange sapphire is good through the end of March.

New Gemstones, What Fun

About once a year, when it's possible, I like to get up to see my primary gemstone suppliers who are located not far from Boston.  I like to do this for a variety of reasons, the first of which is that they are friends as well and it's always nice to get together, even if only for a few hours. The second is that, while they are happy to come down and see me with some of their merchandise if I ask them to, they have so much merchandise that they can never bring it all down.  And quite frankly, even after all these years in the business, I still love to see lots and lots of sparkly things all together, and I am still both fascinated and enchanted with gemstones. 

While diamonds may look more or less sparkly, and more or less white, colored stones are great because every one of them is unique. Even in certain consistently colored materials there can be subtle variations that make each stone different.  That's what is so much fun about them! And when I get up to my dealer's place I am still like a kid in a candy shop.  Let's try one of these, and one of these, and oooh look at that one over there.  Then when they start writing up the bill I have to put half of them back because I can't afford them, but it's still a lot of fun. 

I made my annual trip up there this past weekend and came back with some beautiful new stones. I got two pairs of opals from the new Ethiopian source that I have been excited about (and shown you) in some of my past posts, that are quite stunning. One pair will be out within a week I believe and I'll try to get a picture up when they are done.  I also got a set of eight small watermelon tourmalines that I am going to be making up into a bracelet shortly.  They were all a very unusual lighter colored stones and two of them have nice alien faces in them (don't believe me?---come in and see it when it's done!).  My suppliers also gave me some items just to put out, including a fantastic natural color 3.37 ct. orange sapphire, a beautiful pair of rubies and a large, wonderful pair of tanzanites among other things.  So there are lots of new pretties to look at.  Come by and ask to see the orange sapphire, tell me you read about it here, and I'll give you a $50 credit against any custom job or case piece (good any time!). 

The ruby ring pictured above is a new piece I just put out.  I had gotten a couple of rubies in for someone to look at, and I liked this one so much I kept it because it was so pretty. The ring is 18k gold. 

On Old Customers and Lost Rings

Most of you who are local are probably sitting around at home waiting for the blizzard to hit.  I, on the other hand, am at work as usual.  I will probably close early today but only because the media has pretty much scared everyone off the streets, although maybe some of the locals will walk over and see me. New Englanders used to be much hardier it seems to me. 

Last weekend I had a couple come by to purchase a replacement wedding band. They had gotten their original rings from me almost 30 years ago.  While here they told me the story of how they had ended up coming to me.  Prior to opening my original store (Spirer Somes Jewlers) I did craft shows for five years all around New England.  It seems that the husband saw my work at one of the shows we were in and, even though he had no girlfriend at the time, took a card because he was so struck by what I had on display.  They told me that he said to himself, I know someday I'm going to need rings and this is the guy I want to do it.  Sure enough, not long after, he met his now wife, and when they decided to get married a few years later, he simply pulled my card out of his pocket and said we're going to see Daniel! I always like to hear stories like this (probably they told me when they originally got the bands but I'm afraid I really don't remember everything said to me that long ago---although I always remember the jewelry!) as they remind me of why I'm still here today. 

Incidentally, he needed a replacement band because he lost his in one of those blowers in a men's room used to dry your hands.  I do at least one replacement band a month year round for people so here are a few things to remember.  1) Your hands do change with age.  If you feel like your ring is getting loose, get in to see someone about getting it resized.  2) Your hands shrink when you go swimming.  If your ring isn't fitting fairly snugly and you swim a lot you might want to take it off when you do.  If you are swimming in pools, all gold jewelry should be removed, especially those pieces that have stones in them.  Chlorine actually eats the gold and it is quite possible to lose prongs off of settings and the stones with them. 3) If you work out regularly, or do other activities that mean you need to take your ring off regularly, buy yourself a decent weight chain and put your ring on it to wear around your neck.  That way, you don't have to leave it in a locker, or a pants pocket, or leave it lying around on a sink, where it might be stolen, misplaced or lost.

Frankly, I don't mind the extra business, and it's always nice to upgrade a band to something new, but those wedding bands in particular do carry a lot of sentimental meaning.  

Enjoy the blizzard as best you can.  Hunker down and stay warm and enjoy the extra time off.

The picture above is a collection of my wife's earrings, but only one from each pair.  What a lucky woman she is!