Sugarloaf gemstones: what vendors carry them?

[Candice]

Hi pricescopers,
I am looking for a sugarloaf gem- preferably one in a light colour like aquamarine. but if one "sings" to me in a vibrant colour then I may go that route. which vendors can you recommend that carry some? I know of Swala, but they dont have that many right now.

thanks
Candice

 

[VapidLapid]

artcutstones sometimes has them their link is on the vendor thread near the top of this page, also The Gem Trader sometimes has some and there should be a new drop from him on wednesday. Wildfish has been known to have them. also I would look at multicolor

 

[Burberrygirl]

Do you mean sugarloaves or just cabochons in general?

I've contacted Rick at Art Cut Gems about cabochons before. He's very nice.

http://www.artcutgems.com/category.php?category_id=51

Barry at Artistic Colored Stones has some. He's amazing to work with.

http://acstones.com/productcart/pc/advSearch_P.asp?customfield=&SearchValues=&exact=&iPageSize=10&keyword=cabochon&iPageCurrent=1&priceFrom=0&priceUntil=999999999&idCategory=0&IdSupplier=10&withStock=&IDBrand=0&order=1&SKU=

Like Vapid I've seen some at The Gem Trader.

http://thegemtrader.com/index.htm

There is another site I know has cabochons... I can't remember the name right now. It's bookmarked on another computer.

Certain jewelers might be able to help you source cabochons. Many have vendors they work with--Julia Kay Taylor helped me source the third cab for my stack ring project. You can also always have a stone cut for you.

 

[Candice]

thanks burberrygirl and vapidlapid. I am looking specifically for sugarloafs (loaves?) I have found a few jewellers that can source sugarloafs but usually its only in amethyst or blue topaz. I was hoping to find something a little different.

 

[Burberrygirl]

I've never tried to source an aqua sugarloaf so I'm not sure how hard it will be.

If I were you I'd probably contact Rick--he offered to cut a sugarloaf for me at the beginning of last year. I remember him being very nice and responsive too.

Do you have a specific size or budget in mind?

 

[Candice]

i'm looking for a larger stone (im a size 8 finger) and i want some finger coverage. so probably around a 7-10 carat stone. my budget is no more than 500.00

 

[Treenbean]

swala always has sugarloaf gems but they are quite pricey and usually spesses, tsavs or spinels. GGGems always has a beautiful supply of cabochon gems too. I got a really beautiful cab aqua from intergem but the vendor doesn't have a website.

 

[Burberrygirl]

i'm looking for a larger stone (im a size 8 finger) and i want some finger coverage. so probably around a 7-10 carat stone. my budget is no more than 500.00

I think you need to consider the dimensions of a sugarloaf that is 7-10 carats (especially beryl). I wear a size 10 and my emerald sugarloaf is about 2.5 carats. I think that's a nice size on me. The density of colored gemstones varies so you need to look at dimensions instead of just carat weight. Plus, you need to think about the shape of a sugarloaf in general and how big the depth of a 7-10 carat aqua would be.

I think you could find a nice topaz sugarloaf within your budget, but I don't know what kind of aqua you'll be able to find for under $500 in that size...

Here is a topaz sugarloaf ring on Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62337829/blue-topaz-sugarloaf-ring-18k-gold-and

The sugarloaf is 10mm with a depth of 8mm.

 

[Candice]

it's funny that you posted this link. i am current talking with Janish jewels Jill is trying to source me a sugerloaf. she has currently found an amethyst and a chalcedony. I like the colour of the chalcedony. what do you think?

 

[Candice]

treebean- i love those sugarloafs!!

 

[Burberrygirl]

I like it a lot. It's very pretty!

 

[packrat]

greatcabochons.com has a lot of stuff..haven't looked around much tho so not sure if they have sugarloaves.

 

[Candice]

both of those sugarloafs were 10mm. the chalcedony is 8mm deep i believe not so sure how deep the amethyst is. im leaning towards the chalcedony in silver in the same setting is the topaz one that burberry girl posted...what do you think?

 

[vc10um]

My sugarloaf amethyst, which is a 10mmx10mm just over 4 ct stone was custom cut by Swala and was nowhere near the max of your budget...but it has hefty import/export fees as well. It might be worth it to see if they can custom cut for you.

 

[Candice]

I would lvoe to see your amethyst sugarloaf . do you have a picture?

 

[Michael_E]

if one "sings" to me in a vibrant colour then I may go that route.

Singing gems are always the hardest gems to find, BUT you are probably in luck as far as color since the more deeply colored aquamarines always seems to have inclusions which prohibit cutting large faceted gems. The downside is that cutting sugar loafs is not something that most cutters do, unless asked to. The reason being that high domed ovals are easier to cut, and sell faster, in translucent or mostly transparent materials. The moral of this: if you want something special like this then send out a flurry of e-mails to all the cutters you know and see who's got the "right stuff", (by this is mean material and not astronaut like qualities).

 

[Candice]

thanks Michael, I just started sending out emails. I have decided to have the chalcedony that JanishJewels sourced for me set in one of her silver bezels. but I am also going to send out some emails to see if anyone has any aquas that can be cut into a sugarloaf....and I'm also going to look into spessartite as well

 

[minousbijoux]

Is it the four-sided nature of it that makes it called a "sugarloaf?"

 

[SB621]

here is a pretty spess sugarloaf from Swala:
http://www.swalagemtraders.com/search-gems/detail.php?pid=2099&cPage=1&sort=&perpage=8&cat=&display1=1&display2=&display3=0&category=&variety=&key=&match=&indicate=&reserve_type=&pagefrom=search

 

[VapidLapid]

Sugar used to come in blocks called loaves that were conical, often with a squarish finish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf

http://www.oldandinteresting.com/sugar-nippers.aspx

SUGAR CONES & LOAVES
From Medieval times to the 19th century, refined sugar was sold in solid form, often in cones, blocks or loaves. The standard unit of measure in the United States and United Kingdom (also used in recipes) was the pound and increments thereof.

"Sugar finally came to the sixteenth- and seventeeth-century consumer in blocks or cones, in varying degrees of refinement. This accounts for the elaborate directions for clarifying sugar, and the reiterated instructions to searce (sift) or powder it. (Powdered sugar was only finely sifted sugar, not confectioners' sugar). Block sugar also accounts for the strewing of scraped sugar that made for a charming textural and taste contrast that we have all but forgotten.The presence of sugar in so many of our meat recipes, almost in conjunction with fruits and spices...is part of our heritage from medieval cooking, which, in turn, had come from the Arabs. It is virtually impossible to give precise amounts of sugar It is virtually impossible to give precise amounts of sugar required..."
---Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats, Transcribed by Karen Hess [Columbia University Press:New York] 1995 (p. 11)

"Large and prosperous households bought their white sugar in tall, conical loaves, from which pieces were broken off with special iron sugar-cutters. Shaped something like very large heavy pliers with sharp blades attached to the cutting sides, these cutters had to be strong and tough, because the loaves were large, about 14 inches in diameter at the base, and 3 feet high [15th century]...In those days, sugar was used with great care, and one loaf lasted a long time. The weight would probably have been about 30 lb. Later, the weight of a loaf varied from 5 lb to 35 lb, according to the moulds used by any one refinery. A common size was 14 lb, but the finest sugar from Madeira came in small loaves of only 3 or 4 lb in weight...Up till late Victorian times household sugar remained very little changed and sugar loaves were still common and continued so until well into the twentieth century..."
---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David [Penguin] 1977 (p. 139)
[NOTE: Mrs. David has much more to say on the subject of sugar than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy of this book.]

"Conical molded cakes of granualted sugar, wrapped in blue paper & tied, as customary for maybe centuries in Europe, & in US in 18th - early 19th C. This one is from Belgium, but form is the same. About 10"H x 4 3/4"diam...The blue paper wrapped around sugar loafs was re-used to dye small linens a medium indigo blue...Sugar nippers were necessary because sugar came in hard molded cones, with a heavy string or cord up through the long axis like a wick, but there so that the sugar should be conveniently hung up, always wrapped in blue paper...Conical sugar molds of pottery or wood were used by pouring hot sugar syrup into them and cooling them until solid. They range from about 8' high to 16" high. These molds are very rare, especially those with some intaglio decoration inside to make a pattern on the cone...Loaf or broken sugar-A bill of sale form Daniel E. Baily, a grocer of Lynchberg, VA, dated 1839, lists two types of sugar sold to John G. Merme (?). "Loaf sugar" and "Broken sugar," the latter cost half as much...Loaf was 20 cents a pound, and broken it was only eleven cents a pound. For cooking, the broken would have been more convenient by far...Perhaps the fear of adulturation...made people want the Loaf."
---300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, Linda Campbell Franklin, 5th edition [Krause Publications:Wisconsin] 2003 (p. 100-101)
[NOTE: other sources say blue paper was employed because it made the sugar appear whitest/most pure.]

"Various kinds of sugar were available in the 18th century, with names indicating either the extent of the processing which they had undergone or the manner of presentation for sale. It normally came in a loaf', of a conical shape...Some of these terms are self-expalnatory, while others are readily understood in the light of early methods of refining sugar. There were succinctly described by the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus [1741]...Here the coarse and unrefined raw sugar was pulverized and boiled in water, diluted with lime-water, mixed with ox blood or egg white, skimmed and poured into inverted cone-shaped moulds, perforated at the tip; from these a syrup trickled down into a bottle; this was repeated, and then the mould was covered with a white, dough-like French clay in Sweden, but it has to be imported.' What Linnaeus witnessed was sugar refining...Lump sugar was just lumps broken off the loaf, whereas powdered sugar had been grated from the loaf'"
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile first edition, Introductory Essays by Jennifer Stead and Priscilla Bain, glossary by Alan Davidson [Prospect Booksevon] 1995 (p. 200)

"Colonial cooks used many grades and kinds of sweetening, both solid and liquid. Virtually all were derived from sugarcane...At earliest settlement in America, sugar was used both medicinally and to season dishes lightly. By the beginning of the nineteenth cnetury, it was called for in a substantial number of recipes for baked goods, puddings, and pies...To supply this increasing demand for sugar, the Caribbean islands and the American South became ever more involved in growing canesugar and refinings its juice for export. A labor-intensive crop and process, the production of sugar consumed the lives of many African slaves without whose unpaid work it would not have been so profitable. The primary forms in which sugar was sold during the Colonial period were white refined sugar in loaves; soft, brown sugar; and molasses. All sugar was boiled out of the juice extracted from the crushed sugarcane. The juice was cooked until granules of sugar began to appear in the thick molasses, whereupon it was packed in barrels. Molasses was allowed to drain out, and the barrels were sent to the refiners or sold as raw, or muscavado, sugar. Refining was another complicated process, and there were several refining methods used in the Colonial era."
---Food in Colonial and Federal America, Sandra L. Oliver [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005 (p. 77-

"...it would be useful to review the various grades of whole-sale sugar as they were designated in Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century. The following list is taken from Hope's Philadelphia Price-Current for October 5, 1807:
Havana white
Havana brown (like Brasilian Demarara)
Muscovado 1st quality
Muscovado 2nd quality
Muscovado ordinary
West India clayed white
West India clayed brown
Calcutta white
Batavia white
Of these, ordinary muscovado was the cheapest, just about half the cost of Havana white, the most expensive sugar then available and the one most like the white granulated sugar of today. Cheap, black, sticky moscovado or brown Demarara-type sugars were the most common table sugars used by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Like molasses, moscovado sugar was always in great demand, even in the eighteenth century, for it was one of the first sugars to be advertised in the Philadelphia America Weekly Mercury of 1719. Regardless of grade, sugar was imported in large cones or loaves...Once the loaves of sugar reached the United States, they were usually purged or refined again and converted into smaller loaves for retail sale and wrapped in blue paper to preserve the whiteness. In spite of this precaution, none of the retail loaf sugar was usable until it was boiled again in water to remove insects and other extraneous material. This irksome process involved egg whites, charcoal, and constant skimming. The syrup was then strained thorugh a cloth bag until clear, returned to the fire, and boiled down."
---Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Foods and Foodways, William Woys Weaver, 2nd edition [Stackpole Books:Mechanicsburg PA] 2002 (p. 152-4)

 

[chrono]

The short answer is that the sugarloaf will have a duck tail like pointy tip at the very top. It can either be square or rectangular.

 

[Candice]

I'm loving all of the new sugarloaf threads!

so I have decided I am going to have JanishJewels on etsy make me a bezel set silver ring with the 10mm chalcedony. I am also talking to rick at artcutgems about a sugarloaf spessartite. but I think this project will take a bit of time.

when I have pictures of the chalcedony ring i will post pictures. promise! thanks for all the help

 

[Indylady]

You could probably have someone cut one for you--I've contacted Bob Kast before and he's said that he'd be able to do a sugarloaf.

 

[Pandora II]

thanks burberrygirl and vapidlapid. I am looking specifically for sugarloafs (loaves?) I have found a few jewellers that can source sugarloafs but usually its only in amethyst or blue topaz. I was hoping to find something a little different.

It's hard to find cabochons in anything that is a more expensive or rarer kind of stone. If you do, it's often included or not of great colour. The reason being that cutters can generally ask more for a faceted stone so it's hard to find facet-grade cabochons unless specially commissioned.

On the whole, as with star stones, the general public don't appreciate cabs in the same way as they do faceted stones and hence aren't prepared to pay the high prices they can command. If a cutter in Thailand or Sri Lanka is debating how to cut a piece of fine clean rough to get the most dosh, he's not going to cut it as a cab unless he's got a buyer who will put the same money on the table.

Since you can't export rough from Sri Lanka legally (Madagascar I can't recall if you can or not) if you want a fine sapphire sugar-loaf you are likely to be asking for a recut of an existing stone. That stone will need to be pretty darn big to cut a decent sugar-loaf and so you are going to have to pay for a big expensive original stone, plus a cutter's time and skill and then loose a big load of weight that you have already paid for. And... hope you like the colour etc of the finished article!

 

[Indylady]

Whoa must have totally missed your update while posting. Looking forward to seeing your chalcedony ring!

 

[Candice]

thanks burberrygirl and vapidlapid. I am looking specifically for sugarloafs (loaves?) I have found a few jewellers that can source sugarloafs but usually its only in amethyst or blue topaz. I was hoping to find something a little different.

It's hard to find cabochons in anything that is a more expensive or rarer kind of stone. If you do, it's often included or not of great colour. The reason being that cutters can generally ask more for a faceted stone so it's hard to find facet-grade cabochons unless specially commissioned.

On the whole, as with star stones, the general public don't appreciate cabs in the same way as they do faceted stones and hence aren't prepared to pay the high prices they can command. If a cutter in Thailand or Sri Lanka is debating how to cut a piece of fine clean rough to get the most dosh, he's not going to cut it as a cab unless he's got a buyer who will put the same money on the table.

Since you can't export rough from Sri Lanka legally (Madagascar I can't recall if you can or not) if you want a fine sapphire sugar-loaf you are likely to be asking for a recut of an existing stone. That stone will need to be pretty darn big to cut a decent sugar-loaf and so you are going to have to pay for a big expensive original stone, plus a cutter's time and skill and then loose a big load of weight that you have already paid for. And... hope you like the colour etc of the finished article!

Thanks Pandora, I am still looking for a nice gemmy cabochon, but I havn't contacted any cutters to make one, when I find it i'll buy it...JCK toronto is coming this summer and i'll be there as a vendor...perhaps i'll buy something then. thanks again

 

[Candice]

Whoa must have totally missed your update while posting. Looking forward to seeing your chalcedony ring!

Hi Indylady, I'll post some pics when I get home. It's a nice ring, not my favorite but its a nice colour and fun for summer!