How much do your family and friends know about gems?

[Indylady]

My SO says, "How about a spess-ar-ite for your engagement ring?"

To which I reply, "How do you know what a spessartite is?!?!"

His response, "Sometimes I see PS threads when you leave your tabs open."

I thought this was just adorable. How much do your family/friends/SO''s know about gems and jewelery?

 

[Kismet]

Next to nothing really.

My brother commenting on my demantoid ring: Nice emerald!
Me: It''s a garnet, not an emerald.
Bro: I didn''t know garnets came in green!

 

[packrat]

My Gramma knows more than the rest of my family/friends b/c she and Grampa used to be into buying gems, and grampa used to cut stones.

 

[colorluvr]

My husband is a professional Geologist, and knows NOTHING about gemstones unless you talk about their mineral composition and then you have his interest - otherwise - nada!

 

[Indylady]

MC: Was he talking about your LM demantoid ring? Swoon. Your ring is one of my all time faves.

Packy: That is so neat that your grandpa used to cut gems!

 

[RockHugger]

Hubby is learning and can usually name stones he sees pretty well. Even the exotic ones. But he has the memory of a super computer. Although out of all the beautiful and expensive stones I have, his favorite is a BE orange sapphire (smacks forhead).
My 8 yr old is also pretty good at IDing them. I am training her LOL.
My mom and rest of the family...nothing.

 

[colorluvr]

Date: 5/4/2010 5:20:31 PM
Author: RockHugger
Hubby is learning and can usually name stones he sees pretty well. Even the exotic ones. But he has the memory of a super computer. Although out of all the beautiful and expensive stones I have, his favorite is a BE orange sapphire (smacks forhead).
My 8 yr old is also pretty good at IDing them. I am training her LOL.
My mom and rest of the family...nothing.

My husband likes my peridots, because he knows them as olivines which come from volcanoes and then you are talking his language... my more expensive stones don''t really interest him (unless he''s afraid I''ve spent a bunch of money on them).

 

[rosetta]

zilch.

 

[Porridge]

Nada. They glaze over if I start talking. They like looking at them though

My dad is actually the only interested one, but he has an encyclopedia brain and loves learning about anything. He enjoys hearing about the technical aspects.

 

[LD]

My husband:-

"Ooooh bad cut"
"That''s got a window"

Sounds like he knows what he''s taking about? Nope! He says that about everything!

However, I then have another set of gemstone junkie friends and family and we have long, deep, meaningful, anorak-filled conversations about the merits of gemstones, cuts, saturation levels and generally spend waaaaaaaaay too much time talking about them!

 

[colorluvr]

Date: 5/4/2010 5:48:35 PM
Author: Porridge
Nada. They glaze over if I start talking. They like looking at them though

My dad is actually the only interested one, but he has an encyclopedia brain and loves learning about anything. He enjoys hearing about the technical aspects.

A while back he thought he might be able to "share" my enthusiasm, so he drug out a couple of his microscopes that he used back when he worked in a lab and started looking at some of them, but he lost interest after a while because he was taught to "break open a rock" to learn about it, so we both decided that I can just enjoy my gemstones and he can enjoy his rocks!

 

[innerkitten]

Not much. My husband knows what a spinel is though so thats more than the average person. Some of the people in my jewelry class are interested in gems.

 

[marymm]

My husband likes to see and handle my gemstone collection, and he has good instincts when it comes to complementary setting styles for gemstones. I truly enjoy talking gemstones and jewelry with him. What I don''t like so much?... he is starting to covet MY stones and looks at them first to see if they are suitable for men''s jewelry! I''m only half-kidding -- I''m glad he shares this growing hobby of mine but I''m pretty possessive when it comes to my gemstone treasures.

 

[Indylady]

Date: 5/4/2010 5:52:42 PM
Author: LovingDiamonds
My husband:-


''Ooooh bad cut''

''That''s got a window''


Sounds like he knows what he''s taking about? Nope! He says that about everything!


However, I then have another set of gemstone junkie friends and family and we have long, deep, meaningful, anorak-filled conversations about the merits of gemstones, cuts, saturation levels and generally spend waaaaaaaaay too much time talking about them!

Teehehe!

 

[baby nurse]

My husband has the same response as LovingDiamonds'' husband.
I''ll say "So what do you think of the stone?" and he''ll nod and say "... it''s got a window."

Sadly, I don''t have any friends or family who are interested in gemstones, which is why I spend so much time on Pricescope

 

[brandy_z28]

nada...zilch...zero

 

[T L]

Not much, why do you think I''m always here???

 

[T L]

Date: 5/4/2010 5:52:42 PM
Author: LovingDiamonds
My husband:-


''Ooooh bad cut''

''That''s got a window''


Sounds like he knows what he''s taking about? Nope! He says that about everything!


However, I then have another set of gemstone junkie friends and family and we have long, deep, meaningful, anorak-filled conversations about the merits of gemstones, cuts, saturation levels and generally spend waaaaaaaaay too much time talking about them!

My husband''s reaction to my gems.

 

[Barrett]

you are so right TL..if my friends around here were into them then i wouldn''t be online as much..gotta hangout with folks along the same lines as me

 

[CharmyPoo]

Date: 5/4/2010 4:25:29 PM
Author:IndyLady
My SO says, ''How about a spess-ar-ite for your engagement ring?''

To which I reply, ''How do you know what a spessartite is?!?!''

His response, ''Sometimes I see PS threads when you leave your tabs open.''

I thought this was just adorable. How much do your family/friends/SO''s know about gems and jewelery?

That is so cute!

My mom is a gemstone and diamond crazy so she knows a lot. She doesn''t like chatting with me about it though.

 

[marcy]

My husband has picked up quite a bit from listening to me go on and on about them.

Some of the people I work with ask questions sometimes.

 

[Stone Hunter]

Date: 5/4/2010 8:03:00 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
Not much, why do you think I''m always here???

Me too. I do talk about gems with friends and they put up with it for a little while but I don''t think they remember anything.

My kids know that Garnets come in different colors!

 

[stci]

Date: 5/4/2010 7:12:10 PM
Author: brandy_z28
nada...zilch...zero

Same for me!

 

[GliderPoss]

Nothing much I''m afraid he he knows about the 4 C''s which he applies to everything. It''s very sweet he does listen and try to show interest so I appreciate that a lot. Wish I could show the same interest in his photography but it''s so technical!

 

[mariedtiger]

Next to nothing.

I once showed a loose 7 carat aquamarine to my Dad and he politely looked at it. A few minutes later I noticed the the aqua case was empty and I asked him where the stone was. He distractedly said: I gave it to you son. My son was two years old at the time and held the aqua in his grubby little fist... The last time Dad got to hold any of my gems, that''s for sure!

 

[soberguy]

My little brother got the gem bug before I did. He introduced me to alexandrite. The first one I saw (and knew what it was) was at Borsheims in Omaha, NE. It was an extremely fine example and I remember being amazed at how much is sparkled lol! I think I have gone WAY above and beyond him now lol!

 

[ruffysdad]

Guess I''m pretty well off. Picked up a second cutting machine and am teaching SO (of 34 years now) how to cut. She''s been interested in gemstones for a long time but now that her job moved out from under her I put her to work cutting

!

Pete

 

[ma re]

As many have said already, if anyone close to me showed at least some interest in the subject, I probably wouldn''t hang around PS this much. Let''s mention a few of my all time favorite comments of my friends/relatives/neighbours...:

- You know those little diamond-like things (describing CZ''s).
- Amber is extremly expensive, I remember paying a whole lot for this necklace 30 years ago (in a tourist destination known for amber shops, God knows if it''s even genuine).
- That blue stone is topaz? Are you sure? But topaz only comes in yellow...
- So that blue topaz is an expensive stone? But I remember paying a lot for that gold ring 20+ years ago...
- Garnet (red, pyrope) is very valuable, this ring I bought (on a tourist visit) was quite expensive.
- Gemstones, you mean like cubic zirconia?
- What do you mean by natural zircon, isn''t that the same as zirconia, and what''s not natural about it?
- Mom bought me this white gold ruby ring for about 100$, is it a good quality stone?
- Your uncle bought a coral bracelet for his granddaughter, and coral is very expensive. You could buy a nice (few grams) gold chain for that bracelet.
- I know that ring is quite expensive, but you can''t expect it not to be with such a large zirconia in it.

Basically, if I wanted to get rich quick I could''ve done it a long time ago by selling valuable ambers, expensive pyropes and similar stuff, oh and, as you might''ve guessed, CZ''s and synthetics are all the rage here where I live. All in all, any gemstone that costs more than a gram of gold is considered expensive here, partly due to low incomes, but mostly due to lack of knowledge on the subject as well as lack of interest.

 

[klewis]

she "that''s nice, I love sapphires

"
me "thank you - actually it''s not a sapphire it''s.........

"

she " an aquamarine!!!

"
me "no not aquamarine, it''s......

"

she " oh a topaz!, a topaz, a genuine blue topaz!

"
me " nope, it''s not, it''s....

"

she " an emerald!, a blue emerald?

"
me " no"

she " then what is that, I mean what else it there?

"
me "Well, it''s a....

"

she " A what!?????, oooo that sounds like a disease"

she

me

I''m lucky really because although my family and good friends don''t know too much about gems they do seem quite interested when I rabbit on about them...... or are they just good, polite actors?

 

[chrono]

My children know more about gemstones than my SO.