Enticing yellow

Recently I fell in love with yellow gold; before that I have always only loved white gold. Given the gold price is fairly low at the moment it is actually a good time to get gold jewelry made. I have become such a 'yellow fan' I really wanted a yellow sapphire set in yellow gold. Pictured is the result. Photos really don't do justice.

I designed it along with a local jeweler. We decided to make the ring in mat finish. Stone looks magnificent against the mat background. I also wanted this to be a dress ring that I can wear everyday. Instead of spending money on cheaper fashion jewelry which I never feel like wearing twice, I thought its better to spend a bit more and get something made that I wouldn't get sick of wearing. It has worked so far, I wear it every day and I get so many compliments on it. And it feels special have a handmade jewelry.

Yellow sapphires are relatively inexpensive, yet so beautiful.

How do sapphires get their color?

I had a few customers enquiring about sapphire colors and the difference between ruby and sapphire. Well, I do not intend to be too technical here, but it is exciting to know a little more about these beautiful natural sapphires. I’ll try to be as clear and concise as possible. 

Firstly, sapphire and ruby both belong to the the family of corundum, which comes in all colors. All colors except red are referred to as sapphire.

Corundum in its purest state is aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), which is a colorless sapphire. Additional elements or impurities combined with these base elements gives the breathtaking sapphire colors. 

Combination of titanium and iron makes a blue sapphire. Chromium impurities make a ruby red - various shades of pink to red are based on the amount of chromium. Existence of chromium with other elements of a blue sapphire makes a purple sapphire. Yellow sapphires are a bit more complicated. They have a few different ways of getting their color. Majority are colored by the existence of iron (I won’t discuss other methods here as it involves a lot more chemistry). Iron is also responsible for green sapphires; due to rarity green sapphires are virtually unheard of. 

As you can see iron is responsible for blue, yellow and green colors. Majority of Australian blue sapphires tend to have more of a greenish secondary hue mainly due to higher quantities of iron. 

Other than the color, all other properties such as hardness and toughness remains the same across all sapphire colors. 

We are also working on updating the website with a more descriptive content around sapphire colors. Until then hope you enjoy reading. 

Latest addition to my sapphire jewellery collection

Collected this precious little thing from the jeweller this afternoon. Perfect! Just the way I expected; great work of art by a jeweller in Melbourne, Australia. The whole process of designing and having a custom-made jewellery was very exciting; it is definitely much more precious than buying a pre-set jewellery because I got the chance to connect with my sapphire.

Centre stone is a 3.07 carat unheated natural blue sapphire from Sri Lanka.  Blue is one of my favourite colours amongst all sapphires (you are probably thinking ‘mine too!’). It is such a pleasant sapphire that will add elegance to an outfit with no effort.

Although we have many blue sapphires in store I fell in love with this one for myself. This is something I always say to my clients too; you need to pick the one that you fall in love with, the one that you connect with the most. Sometimes it’s like the love at first sight and other times it takes a little longer to fall in love with the perfect one for you. 

Either way once you find the right one for yourself, you will be delighted to watch it twinkles all day long. 

New sapphires

Most of you may have already seen that lots of new sapphires from Sri Lanka are now in store, just in time for mother’s day. If you haven’t already, you still have just enough time to order online and receive it by Friday. Mum will be very happy to have something natural that lasts a lifetime and more.

It is always very exciting when we get new sapphires. All our sapphires are unheated natural sapphires. Unheated natural sapphires are rare, unlike treated sapphires; it took us a very long time to collect these precious stones. Some were cut at the mines itself (most we re-cut) and some we got the rough stone and cut in our lapidary under instructions of my father, who is an award winning cutter.

I tell you what, photographing sapphires isn’t the easiest thing. Specially when they are cut so well the twinkle of the facets makes it very difficult to photograph; some facets appear black whilst others appear white. We still have a lot of fun photographing, never a dull moment.

4.11 ct unheated natural yellow sapphire

Amongst the new stones was this stunning unheated vivid yellow sapphire. Beautifully faceted. It is about 1mm deeper than usual cutting standards in comparison to the width, but this has done a great job in intensifying the colour. Lustre is fabulous. This sapphire will make a ring or a pendant that truly stand out. Yellow sapphires in this colour are usually beryllium treated (a chemical that is used when heating sapphires under extreme temperatures to obtain a golden yellow colour), so it is very rare to find an unheated natural sapphire in this colour. You will see that some suppliers who claim to supply only unheated natural sapphires, still supply treated yellow sapphires stating that it is difficult to find unheated yellow sapphires.

This is a very special stone for someone who loves spring colours, undoubtedly this will add elegance to your outfit.

We also have more natural sapphires coming in soon, sign up to the ‘New sapphire alert’ to be the first one to know when they are in store.

Baby love

Isn’t she adorable? This little one’s aunty got her a fiery yellow sapphire to celebrate her birth. Its  unique, pure and radiant, just like her. Yellow sapphires are also believed to bring good luck and good health. What a wonderful thought; something that will stay with her for a life time.

Colours colours colours!!

I was going through my wardrobe this morning hoping to pick a dress to wear for catch up drinks with some of my closest friends this evening. As usual I was very indecisive. Then I thought I will be able to narrow it down by choosing the dresses that won’t go well with my beautiful medium blue sapphire necklace. It only made things harder for me. The sapphire necklace goes beautifully with all the colours in my wardrobe! It adds elegance even to a simple solid colour dress. Eventually I picked an orange dress. Hot colour contrast is a perfect match!

Do you like a good colour contrast when accessorising your dress?

Visit to Indonesia

Bebek Tepi Sawah restaurent, Bali

I recently visited a few of our clients and my close friends in beautiful Indonesia. Food was delicious and I loved the culture.

I, of course visited many jewellery shops and the Rawabening gem market, a popular gem market in Indonesia. Market was an experience itself. Not what we see in Sri Lanka; round gatherings under the trees in early mornings for a couple of hours with merchants carrying both million dollar stones and cheaper ones just in their pockets. You won't see the same merchant the following day, they vary by the day. Rawabening market is a big building and shops are open during ordinary business hours, same merchants everyday. You need to ask the merchant to bring out their best stock hidden in a safe, otherwise they won't show it to you. I got to see some beautiful gems but didn't find any natural sapphires that caught my eye, which was disappointing although I wasn't looking to buy.
 

My friend and I then went window shopping for fine jewellery. In one of the most popular jewellery shops in Jakarta, I saw this beautiful necklace with 12 matching sapphires (medium to dark blue) and a matching pair of earrings with three 1.5 carat stones in each earring. These pieces were proudly displayed in an alarmed display case and are unable inspect closely. Knowing the value of matching sapphires I was curious to know the prices. Jeweller said they are not for sale but the earrings alone are about US$5,000. She went on to say that the making of the earrings alone cost her $3,000 suggesting 6 matching sapphires of over 1.5 carat each are worth just $2,000. I was taken-back by the cheap price and was immediately concerned about the genuineness. I asked whether the stones are natural or chemically treated. She said they are natural but unaware whether they are chemically treated or not, and that they never get their stones certified. Suspicious much?
 

We hopped into about 15 more fine jewellery shops and heard the same story each time, “stones are natural but they are unaware whether the stones are chemically treated or not” (except just one store who provided only certified sapphire). Some jewellery were over $15,000. They of course tell the customer that their sapphires are ‘natural’. I find this extremely misleading and unfair for the customers who trust their jeweller to do the right thing by them. Customers think they found a bargain!  
 

Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are jewellers in Indonesia who use 100% natural sapphire, but it is disappointing that ‘non-disclosure’ still happens in the industry. When you buy a precious natural gemstone always remember to request the stone to be certified.
 

Other than this insight to the jewellery industry, we had a great time visiting Bali and enjoying some delicious food with some amazing people!

Happy 40th birthday!

Isn’t it such a wonderful thought to present your wife with a custom-made ring on her birthday? Well this gentleman made that thought a reality. He came to us looking for something special and walked out with this beautiful pink sapphire. This was the present to his wife on her 40th birthday last spring. I was lucky enough to know them personally. 

After being married for over 15 years and having two gorgeous girls, these lovebirds still know how to spice things up. Ring is made with a 2.06 carat Deliqa natural pink sapphire from Sri Lanka, surrounded by sixteen 0.10 carat diamonds in white gold. Great work of art by a custom jeweller in Mornington Peninsula, Australia.  A lot of thoughts gone into making this. 

I would love to be spoilt with a custom-made jewellery on my birthday! :) Wouldn’t you?