A friend of mine very nicely gave me two lovely spinels - or what she
was told where spinels " after I’d mentioned to her that they’re one
of my favorite gems. It’s actually amazing how many friends have
started to give me “gems” from old jewelry or collections since I’ve
started making jewelry. I always accept them very graciously, even
though most are very obviously dubious. But these are just too pretty
for me not to look into using. But before I use them in jewelry "
especially to sell - I need to know whether or not they really are
natural, and/or if they’ve been heated, etc. I do not need an
appraisal. Where can I get this done without sending the pieces to
some place like Thailand or spending a ton of money? All my local
jewelry stores that do appraisals charge a ton of money. These really
are beautiful, and I do love the bejesus out of spinels (remember my
earlier thread on a setting for a nice cushion-cut spinel), so I’d
love to make some jewelry with them. But for all I know they’re
man-made. And before anyone gasps over my planning to sell her gifts
to me, she told me to make some nice jewelry and hopefully some good
money with them.
Where can I get this done without sending the pieces to some place
like Thailand or spending a ton of money? All my local jewelry
stores that do appraisals charge a ton of money.
GIA Trade Lab provides identification reports very inexpensively.
For occasional use it is the best way to go.
By far the cheapest route will be to educate yourself to learn the
differences between the real thing and the impostor, in this case I
would recommend either taking a colored stone course from GIA, or
spending some time with a knowledgeable expert and let them show you
the differences. Your not asking to get a certification, you just
want to know if they are the real thing, correct? I don’t know anyone
that is serious about this business, that doesn’t have a good handle
on properly identifying stones that come into their possession. If
you want to elevate your understanding and position past the point of
being a hobbyist, then you should get to know gemstones inside and
out. Sometimes your local Jewelers or Gemological association will
haveshort courses to participate in that will help, some GG’s offer
tutoring as a sideline. You will be far better off if you learn the
skills you need yourself, then to spend the 30-150 dollars per stone
shipping every time you have a question. Education is never wasted.
Hope this helps.
Hi, Natural spinels are often cushion cut because of the octahedral
shape of the rough crystals. This doesn’t mean your stones are
notsynthetic but it’s a clue. With lots of experience one can make
an educated guess by adding up all the little clues (cutting, color,
inclusions etc) whether it’s natural or not, but if you want to be
absolutely certain send the stones to a lab for an ID report.
Douglas
Hi Douglas, I actually purchased the cushion cut spinel with a lab
cert, so I’m clear on that one. And another Orchidian fairly close
to me who does ID’s gave me their info, so I sent him the stones. And
luckily they came back natural! So I ended up spending a
comparatively small price for some very nice stones.
There is a great book on gems & their synthetics called “Gems: Their
Sources, Descriptions and Identification” edited by Michael
O’Donoghue. It is a huge book and expensive, but I’ve found that
Google Books has much of the book on line. Once you find it on
Google, you can do a search for spinel on the left side of the
screen. You also may try and get it through an interlibrary loan.
