Padparadscha Sapphire

[purpleman]

I would be very careful when buying a Padparadscha Sapphire.

I spent the last 2 months searching for a natural, untreated one.
It was a long hard process and I live NYC, so I went from Jeweler to Jeweler.

In the end I bought one from Thenaturalsapphirecompany.com
Unfortunately, I took them up on their guarantee and had it certified by AGTA, which now has a Padparadscha certification that costs another 65 bucks. It came back as a Pink Sapphire!! Npt a Pod.


I would be very reluctant to buy a padparadscha unless it was certified...

I must say that the Natural Sapphire Company was very patient, and apologetic for this mistake. However, they still have the stone on their site as a Padparadsha. They did refund me all my money and were fairly honest to work with. I would just be a certain you are getting what you are paying the extra few thousand per carrot for.

I hope to one day continue my search when I''m at my 5 or 10 year anniversary for the stone I originally tried so hard to get. Instead my engagement ring is now a beautiful pink sapphire designed by Mark Paterson with very good saturation and clarity.

Best of luck to all

 

[oobiecoo]

Sorry you''ve had such trouble! I was just browsing the site and noticed a heat treated pad and it only says it at the bottom of the page so everyone should make sure they read everything very carefully before they purchase there.

 

[LegacyGirl]

Sorry about your luck

I''ve been looking for color change alexandrite and having no luck also.

 

[lavenderlill]

How big an alexandrite are you looking for? I was browsing Wild Fish Gem''s color changers and they have one. Green/red color changer but a pricey 4.5 carats.

 

[cinnamon013]

Why don''t you contact Jeff White and see if he can source something for you?

 

[oliveg]

Hi
Padparadscha sapphires are a problem for the trade.
First of all, there is no definite percentage of pink and orange color (how to mesure?) for Padparadscha. As long as you can distinguish pink and orange color, it can be called Padparadscha.
It is a really subjective appreciation and can vary from lab to lab.
Another problem is coming from the new beryllium diffusion treatment. A lot of light pink material has been heat heated with beryllium to produce a yellow-orange tone in a pink stone which becomes padparadscha, a lot more expensive material (if not treated).
The problem with this treatment is the equipment labs need to have to recognize it.
It can only be done with LIBS or LA-ICP-MS. This equipment is very expensive and not many labs have it. This is why you paid 65 USD for a check.
This padparadscha material has been marketed under a few names like sun sapphire (for the more orange than pink treated material) and even sold to big international jewelry brands.