I launched phase 1 in my search of my dream blue sapphire those last days.
Let me start with a digression. At Christmas, my husband stirred me to a jewellery shop, specialized in diamonds, where we already shopped twice in the past for small pieces, with micro-mini well cut stones. I told him I preferred something different this time, with one bigger stone, and rather colorful. And why not try to leverage on his business travels to several countries across Asia where we live, some of them well-known for their gem mines or cutting & jewellery. Anyway having the opportunity to see gems and compare some of them cannot hurt my education and low-cost air tickets might well be less costly and more pleasant than having one or another gem shipped from an internet shop.
My first travel there, when I started looking at gems, was not a big success. I thought ruby first, but then looked at rubies, spinels, sapphires. And I did spend too much time on just a few stones, rather than see as many as possible to "improve my eyes". We made only a small purchase, not too expensive, which let's say will contribute to our learning curve.
Following this travel, I understood I needed to understand more and have a different approach. My first conclusion was that rubies were not a good deal there, very expensive per carat, hardly none above 1 or worse 2 carats; as the price per carat was very high, the native cuts were usually plain awful, as they only focused on maximizing the weight and not making the most of the stone. Moreover, I realized that I was not so much a fan of most rubies' color, strange as I like both red and pink, but it sort of felt always in between. My dh also told me he preferred blue sapphire to rubies.
The other gems, including sapphire, being less pricy, also had native cuts. However the native cut quality generally increased with the inner quality of the gem, as in better cuts in general for higher quality or bigger gems.
This time, I went there with a defined plan, visit all stalls at the market and gem "mall" to see all sapphires and look at all those between 2 to 4 carats, with a good color preferably well saturated, clean enough (inclusions OK but not if the whole stone looked dirty or blurry), good native cut. No specific requirements regarding shape, except excluding so-called fancy shapes. I had a preference to unheated stone.
I had to make a first selection for my husband to bring him check the better ones during the we.
And last of all, I did not plan to buy this week-end, which I did indeed not, as I'll be in Bangkok next to visit some other places, possibly more expensive with higher-hand sapphires, as well as the gem fair taking place there next week. My dh will go back there in March and later on, so we have and intend to take time, which we were always open about with the vendors.
All stones I selected are unheated, I saw certificates from local gem institutes for all but one - one of the local certification institute seems at least reliable, ie. not prone to be bought. Anyway, if I buy an expensive gem, i'll have another certificate made and will be there.
Anyway I could see inclusions in all, either naked eye or with a loupe, and those should no longer be there, were the stone heated. I'm not too worried about synthetic not being identified by the lab used to deal with local stones and recognizing the mines it come from. I read with interest however the story of the antic synthetic ruby with inclusions inside.
Let me start with a digression. At Christmas, my husband stirred me to a jewellery shop, specialized in diamonds, where we already shopped twice in the past for small pieces, with micro-mini well cut stones. I told him I preferred something different this time, with one bigger stone, and rather colorful. And why not try to leverage on his business travels to several countries across Asia where we live, some of them well-known for their gem mines or cutting & jewellery. Anyway having the opportunity to see gems and compare some of them cannot hurt my education and low-cost air tickets might well be less costly and more pleasant than having one or another gem shipped from an internet shop.
My first travel there, when I started looking at gems, was not a big success. I thought ruby first, but then looked at rubies, spinels, sapphires. And I did spend too much time on just a few stones, rather than see as many as possible to "improve my eyes". We made only a small purchase, not too expensive, which let's say will contribute to our learning curve.
Following this travel, I understood I needed to understand more and have a different approach. My first conclusion was that rubies were not a good deal there, very expensive per carat, hardly none above 1 or worse 2 carats; as the price per carat was very high, the native cuts were usually plain awful, as they only focused on maximizing the weight and not making the most of the stone. Moreover, I realized that I was not so much a fan of most rubies' color, strange as I like both red and pink, but it sort of felt always in between. My dh also told me he preferred blue sapphire to rubies.
The other gems, including sapphire, being less pricy, also had native cuts. However the native cut quality generally increased with the inner quality of the gem, as in better cuts in general for higher quality or bigger gems.
This time, I went there with a defined plan, visit all stalls at the market and gem "mall" to see all sapphires and look at all those between 2 to 4 carats, with a good color preferably well saturated, clean enough (inclusions OK but not if the whole stone looked dirty or blurry), good native cut. No specific requirements regarding shape, except excluding so-called fancy shapes. I had a preference to unheated stone.
I had to make a first selection for my husband to bring him check the better ones during the we.
And last of all, I did not plan to buy this week-end, which I did indeed not, as I'll be in Bangkok next to visit some other places, possibly more expensive with higher-hand sapphires, as well as the gem fair taking place there next week. My dh will go back there in March and later on, so we have and intend to take time, which we were always open about with the vendors.
All stones I selected are unheated, I saw certificates from local gem institutes for all but one - one of the local certification institute seems at least reliable, ie. not prone to be bought. Anyway, if I buy an expensive gem, i'll have another certificate made and will be there.
Anyway I could see inclusions in all, either naked eye or with a loupe, and those should no longer be there, were the stone heated. I'm not too worried about synthetic not being identified by the lab used to deal with local stones and recognizing the mines it come from. I read with interest however the story of the antic synthetic ruby with inclusions inside.
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or just so-so below average 
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