Synthetic manmade gemstones

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi I sell a lot of jewellery with natural gems set in silver and
gold. I also sell jewellery with clear Swarovski Gems, CZ’ds. Bling
is in and fun.

OK customers have no problem buying clear Cubic Zirconias, but don’t
like other synthetic stones even coloured CZ’ds.

Quality of stone is not a problem I recently had a beautiful man
made star ruby it looked natural. But the customers were not
interested when I told them it was man made. But when told the price
of a natural stone ran for the hills so to speak. Can anyone explain
this? Diamond simulants are cool but anything else is not. Go figure.

A customer of mine recently went on a tour to Canada including
diamond mines. The rest of the tour group bought Diamond earrings. My
customer wore my $20 cubic earrings and they outshone the diamonds.
She didn’t tell them they were not real.

The rest of the tour group were jealous.

Also I sold a pair of cz earrings to a South African woman, she
wasn’t telling either.

I just can’t work this out why is a clear cz acceptable but a
flawless synthetic star ruby is not?

My wife who has diamonds loves cz’s but not other synthetics.

This seems to be a mystery of the jewellery universe to me, but I am
only a man.

TTFN
Richard

2

Hi Richard,

I think it’s got to do with perceived rarity.

Diamonds are not rare, but controlled by a cartel. If the diamonds
in storage were released, the price would bottom out of the diamond
market.

Even I would prefer a real diamond over a synthetic, due to the
connection I would get from possessing it.

It has nothing to do with logic, even when a man made diamond can
equal and exceed the quality of a natural stone.

A man made diamond will never exceed the perceived value of a
natural stone.

Regards Charles A.

3

Dear Richard, I started out my stone setting on synthetics, and enjoy
them so much. I want to make them eventually so that I can have
tourists come into a shop, witness the process, pick out their own
stone and guaranteed a made in Alaska product. I once saw a tanzanite
that had 5 visible flaws ( a foot away, no loupe) and done in a cheap
simple sterling setting…$8,000 at a Korean gift shop in
Ketchican. I found a like setting, put in a man made sapphire, and
charged $50 and could have gone less, because I had under $10 in the
ring. I have one of the most beautiful Alexandrite’s because it has
three colors not two. Teal green, pepto bismol pink and cobalt blue.
It is man made, but the color changes are drastic, unpredictable, and
it is a great stone, no matter what the origin. A man made stone
means it is affordable. Blessings pat

4 
I just can't work this out why is a clear cz acceptable but a
flawless synthetic star ruby is not? 

My wife who has diamonds loves cz's but not other synthetics.

I have sold natural gem quality ruby, sapphire, aquamarine,
alexandrite, zircon, sphene,ect.

My retail store over 22 years has sold just about every natural gem.

We also have an extensive collection of sterling silver with natural
and manmade gems.

There are two kinds of people, those who love beauty and those who
love fantasy. We sell the new synthetic quartz that comes in teal
blues, rasberry, hot pink, ect. Basically some colors that are
similar to true Parieba tourmaline colors. I have sold jewelry with
very nice quality true red synthetic ruby and synthetic Ceylon blue
sapphires.

We have no trouble selling lab created gems. The women who buy them
love them. The men are quite pleased to be able to buy something
beautiful and affordable.

Then there are people who are in fantasy that someday they will be
able to afford that perfect ruby or sapphire when the price of the
gems go up faster than the rate of pay they earn.

Most people could not pick out a man made gem or synthetic gem from
a natural gem. So it is not how it looks, it is the prejudice the
person holds against the man made gems. It will be admired until
they learn that it is “not real”.

When a woman is attracted to a lab grown gem, I tell her it is man
made, and I point out that if that was a natural gem of that color,
it would be about $4000. There is little resistance to these gems
They cannot afford large natural, they can afford beautiful.

My opinion is that if you are honest and passionate about your love
of gems and jewelry, and always make full disclosure, you will make
the right connections with the people who admire what you do and
will buy them and support your effort.

I am quite sure that the people who won’t buy the lab star sapphire
are not able to afford a natural one.

There is nothing to “work out”. People have their preferences, it is
not logical or rational.

One last point, in this economy, you are lucky to sell any gems or
jewelry. It has been a tough go the last 2 years for my business.
Still doing repair and custom, but retail is waaaay down. I am too
old to cry and to hurt to laugh.

Richard Hart G.G.
Denver, Co.

5 
I have one of the most beautiful Alexandrite's because it has three
colors not two. Teal green, pepto bismol pink and cobalt blue.

I have a couple of those, there’s no way I could ever personally
afford a natural 5ct Alexandrite the size of the ones I possess, or
as clear, or with as definite a colour variation.

Regards Charles A.

6

It is about money, those who have tons of it invested into "natural
"gems are going to lose theirs down to their diapers if they don’t
attempt monstrous displays of intimidation for the purpose of sales
demagoguery frightening people about buying synthetics. “There is
scarcely an epithet of abuse to be found in the english language with
which the purveyors of “natural” gemstones have not slanted the
supplied to the buying public. Everything which rancour,
prejudice, ignorance, or knowledge could suggest, is poured forth in
the copious fury” of their sales pitch. (borrowed from Thomas Paine)
The real story is they are called synthetics because they are
man-made versions of natures accidental occurrences of the same
thing. They are a renewable resource which means it, creates jobs,
saves digging up the ground and makes slave labor obsolete

7

The romance of a natural gemstone is that it has been created by
immense forces of nature over aeons: seismic shifts, volcanic heat,
the slow seeping of water-born minerals. People who can identify the
stone in the rough wrest it from the surrounding rock and, finally, a
skilled lapidary cuts away everything ugly and shapes or facets the
stone to reveal a gem of extraordinary beauty. Wow.

Manmade says only that a gemstone is not this, and is a turn-off to
the customer. It implies it is cheap trash, but well, if it’s all you
can afford …

A lab-created gemstone is chemically identical to the natural
stone,same hardness and everything. It’s been created in a shorter
time through scientific processes that mimic the natural ones. It’s
flawless because it has not been fractured and healed underground and
doesn’t contain other minerals or detritus that cause inclusions in
natural stones. A gemologist will recognize a lab-created stone by
its flawlessness, because every other measure will match the natural
stone.They’re not cheap to make and so they cost more than synthetic
stones.

A synthetic is a different material, made up to cheaply imitate the
natural stone. A CZ is a synthetic, as is a glass rhinestone. They
are simulants.

The terms aren’t interchangeable. I saw a necklace in a store that
was tagged as “lab-created red jasper.” Now why would anyone would go
to the trouble and expense to precisely recreate a stone that is
cheap and abundant? I suspect it was synthetic, but it was labeled
"lab-created" because it sounds better, doesn’t it? Because it is.

I love natural stones because I respect all that has gone into their
creation, by nature and man. But a lab-created alexandrite or
emerald is a thing of beauty that one can wear with pride.

8

Dear Charles, mine is a 13mm round, and it is great. I use it as a
hook to get people to look at my Etsy site. I enjoy messing with
synthetics, I feel that I could make mistakes, and learn, once I
did, I used my plyers and broke the bottom off of a beautiful
flourite. blessings pat

9

Hi Guys,

An interesting discussion today about man made diamonds that rival
and exceed natural diamonds.

The conclusion is “What’s the point?”

There are so many diamonds hoarded by a cartel that if all the
diamonds were released they would be less than a buck a pop.

There is no real point, in making man made diamonds, apart from
getting around the cartel.

Regards Charles A.