Gosh they are really pretty though. Being able to discern which colors truly inspire takes serious exposure i imagine. You've seen so many things during the past year. What an education! Sigh...that would be a dream for me, nice sapphire earrings in medium blue tones.Viewed this trio of matching Mogok untreated sapphires on Sunday. Each are between 2.48-2.67ct. Slightly included and native cut. Passing on them as the colour doesn't tug at my heart.
That's so true, they're all unique. That's why I would never consider this as a sign of hoarding! Jade collecting is endless because of the vast range. That's interesting about preferences and moods.I'm glad you like them
True sign of a hoarder? No favourites, I like all of them because they are all SO DIFFERENT. When I'm moody, I find I gravitate towards the greener ones more.
When sanguine, I like the whimsical ones especially the frog on the lotus or lily pad!
I certainly can't afford. Mix of cornflower and darker blues. The huge royal/midnight blue is available for sale hence the silver pendant plated yellow gold. The lighter blues from this mine is getting rare. Darker ones still common. Below 5 ct after cutting, usually.
pendant in my palm shot is considered cornflower blue locally.
It wouldn't be my first choice, but even though It's dark, I would not say no to it. It's still simply amazing in size and has that sapphire glow. It's like a dark, remote star in the abyss of space. Very mysterious!!
). You can imagine the mark up by the time it hits foreign shores. and came to visit them as it's the male owner's birthday. I made sure I brought plenty of nice chocolate eclairs and dim sum items But many of them aren't involved in the finished product sale, preferring to sell the rough. There is a system to honour and also, you don't build a relationship here by asking for direct sales (unless you have a huge budget, I guess).
Yes, this pendant piece is what passes as "royal blue" in Myanmar. I think because there's still a ready supply and of course, marketing. It's actually lighter in the hand, but shows up darker in the photos. Not that much lighter though.
This piece IIRC is under US$40,000 (family price). All the other pieces are 6 figures (so the auction book is right, except the first digit would be different
Bluegemz, you have a good eye. The 17.04ct lighter blue has the best clarity and what in local parlance they call "texture". It shines not because of the decent native cut and lighter blue, but because it's cleaner. My jeweller says this, when set, will look even better.
The cornflower blue and those close in colour to it are not as clean in clarity at all, so it's more about the colour (but serious, if I have one in my ownership, would I complain about the cut and clarity? Naaaaahhh!). Also native cut.
The royal blue piece needs a recut as one edge is chipped, probably a bit of squaring off the edges. It does have inclusions streaking at one lower corner visible to the eye. So it's prized more for the size. Probably the only one I can afford as it's cheaper than a 1.3 litre Japanese/Korean car where I hail from.
The owners speak only Burmese, so they are really friends with my jewellers
Big sizes head straight to the fair, as Seaglow said. Because they have regular buyers. This would also be the HK fair. The smaller ones get sold in massive lots from the mine to the first traders (because too small individually to be worth the effort for individual sale). So the way smaller pieces I have from this mine are from traders x dunno how many times that have broken up the lots + mark up before I bought them in Yangon). I brought a few of my blue sapphire pieces today to ask the owner if the stones are from this mine (my cushion blue sapphire earrings with the bling diamond setting, the pendant, forgot to ask about my cabochon ring).
This is the top producing sapphire mine here currently, non alluvial. There are other mines of varying shades and secondary colours. This mine has the least green (if any) in their blues. There is another mine (I've seen some of the stones) that has a decidedly greenish cast to their dark blues. There are also mines that produce the light blues (like my 3.6ct ring) at very affordable prices, but I think the primary supply gets snapped up fast at source by the Mogok folks/traders. Cornflower blues, rare indeed now.
This mine, unfortunately, doesn't come with spinels or other sapphire colours (not in any saleable quality/size).
Why they are such believers of luck in Myanmar? My jewellers were given a stake to open a sapphire mine in Mogok, but the mine's deposits were inferior and too deep to render commercially viable, so they lost money. Not all mines in the Mogok stone tract are commercially viable.
Oh and in Yangon, you get to rub shoulders with jade, gold and gemstone mine owners aplenty
One such system goes like this:
A member of my jeweller's extended family, let's call him Z: One shop downstairs had a buyer for some jadeite vase and the middleman brought the lot I have and I made a profit on this particular one that went for more than double my asking price to the eventual buyer.
Me: Oh, why did you have to rely on a middleman and his cut when the shop is just downstairs. Can't you just bring the vase down to the other shop?
Z: Because that's the way things are done.
Me:
2 learning points:
1. Ground floor shops are pricier because they get more passenger traffic and can mark up more.
2. You have to abide by the system in this business.
pretty diamond jackets, 4.26ct lavender sapphire rose gold ring, dark blue sapphire ring and a yellow sapphire ring. All Mogok untreated stones.
My jadeite cab earrings without their jackets. Still on the lookout for nice lavender and icy/glassy ones!
I never liked jadeite/nephrite/jade before coming to Myanmar. Now... it's probably too much liking, for virtually anything/everything!
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