Ruby Catalog

Posted on 20/12/201620/12/2016 by Steve Waddington

I have been working on cataloging and publishing a catalog for ruby cabs from the parcel of rough ruby we bought earlier in the year. I was thinking about using a simplified grading system that groups colour/finish/proportions into one metric called ‘appeal’, but it soon became apparent that it would not be workable. Instead I have used the GIA grading method. After consideration, it can’t really be simplified or improved on in any helpful way. And no need to reinvent the wheel.

It took a couple of days to develop the framework for the spreadsheet, going through several iterations before I was happy with it. The version I am running with will auto-generate a long form description from the grading information. I can then just cut and paste that into the description field of the product on the website. I was quite proud of that little bit of spreadsheet scripting, until someone expressed disappointment that it didn’t just automatically post to the website instead of having to manually cut an paste. Alas, the skills for that type of coding left me long ago. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the functionality of my catalog spreadsheet as it is.

Given a base price for the ruby, the spreadsheet will also generate a price. That part still needs a little bit of work, but basically it works on giving a high value to the ‘sweet spot’ of hue, tone and saturation, with modifiers for clarity, finish, proportion and treatment. The base price I take from the average street/negotiated price I see in the market for unheated ruby cabs.

The end result looks like this:

Which gives me a price from $38 to $128 for the best colour/finish grade stones. Market pricing for ruby cabs at the moment starts at $5 per carat for heat/glass filled, $20-$80 for heat treated and $50-$150 for natural/no heat.

The autogenerated description looks like this:

Autogenerated description from grading data

It will be easy enough to replace the commas with line breaks using a text editor if I want the formatting to look better on the product web page.

Now, I know what you are asking. What about the rubies themselves? They are much more interesting to look at that a spreadsheet, after all. So here is a sample of some we have photographed so far:

The next task will be to take the spreadsheet and publish it as a catalog table on the website. That should be straightforward, and I can include a thumbnail of each gem as well, which will link to the full size picture. I expect to have that completed pretty soon.

In the meantime, if you would like more information on the any particular piece, or for rubies in general, just email me at steve@sjwgems.com.

Wikipedia Article for Gold Sheen Sapphire

Posted on 06/12/201606/12/2016 by Steve Waddington

I have just completed the draft of a wikipedia article for gold sheen sapphire. You can see the draft here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Golden_sheen_sapphire.

It’s been a long time since I tried to edit anything in Wikipedia, and it still remains a fairly esoteric publishing system. But I have to say that the visual editor and upload wizards do make things quote a bit easier.

Here is one of the photos from the article:

Now just to wait while the Higher Powers of Wiki review the draft. Hopefully it will not need too many revisions to get accepted in the article space. I might just go sacrifice a chicken to appease the Wiki gods, just in case.

Gold Sheen Sapphire Article and Lab Report from GIT

Posted on 29/11/201629/11/2016 by Steve Waddington

The GIT (The Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand) has just completed an excellent lab report on gold sheen sapphire. They have also featured gold sheen sapphire in the latest GIT magazine.

Gold Sheen Sapphire feature article in GIT Magazine July-August 2016

From the lab report:

Golden Sheen and Non-Sheen Sapphires from Kenya
Nalin Narudeesombat, Saengthip Saengbuangamlam, Thanapong Lhuaamporn and
Thanong Leelawatanasuk
The Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (Public Organization), Bangkok, 10500, Thailand
Abstract
A new variety of sapphire from Kenya with unique golden sheen ± star phenomena, the so- called
“Gold Sheen” sapphire has been introduced to the gem market in the last 6-7 years. This study was aimed
at characterizing both the sheen sapphire and non-sheen sapphire from the same locality. It was found that
both sheen and non-sheen samples shared somewhat similar inclusion assemblages, namely magnetite,
goethite, hematite, short needles and zircon. The sheen stones, however, were apparently translucent to
opaque with golden sheen ± star effect caused by the reflection of the light from the combination of dense
and well-oriented reddish brown platelets and short needle-like inclusions exsolved along three
crystallographic directions in the basal pinacoid of sapphire. The transparent-to-semi-transparent nonsheen
stones, in contrast, contained relatively much less amounts of platelets and needles. The advanced
analyses revealed that both sheen and non-sheen sapphires contained high iron content, including boehmite,
diaspore and kaolinite which were good indications of untreated stones.

The full report is available here: http://www.git.or.th/2014/eng/testing_center_en/lab_notes_en/glab_en/2016/11/D5-A0210.pdf

Anniversary Gemstones

Posted on 28/11/201628/11/2016 by Steve Waddington

The traditional list of anniversary gemstones has a big problem – you have to wait a long time before you get to the good stuff.

These are the traditional gifts that Wikipedia lists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_anniversary#Gemstone_gifts

As you can see, the first really decent gift comes at 12 years with jade. Not that there is anything wrong with garnet and topaz, but to wait 40 years for ruby, and 65 for sapphire is just unreasonable.

Emerald, ruby and sapphire make exquisite anniversary gifts. But why wait for decades before you give them to the one you love?

Here is my alternative list. Sure, not for everyone, in fact, it should be exclusive to those only who really love their chosen partner.

Year	Traditional Gemstone	Alternative, If you really love them	Why?
1st	Mother of Pearl	Moissanite	Better than diamond in every way. You can show your friends and family the success of your first year with a much larger and more beautiful gemstone
2nd	Garnet		Warm garnet remembers the good times and is a promise of better things yet to come
3rd	Moonstone		A more subtle beauty, as your love matures
4th	Blue Topaz		Four years, some tears, but still strong together
5th	Rose Quartz	Ruby	No one should have to wait longer than five years for a ruby
6th	Amethyst		Things have worked out, cherish and protect
7th	Onyx	Gold Sheen Sapphire	Deep, complex and endlessly fascinating. Just like your relationship, with the longevity of sapphire.
8th	Tourmaline	Sapphire	Doubling down on topaz, see, you really mean it.
9th	Lapis Lazuli	Spinel	Underrated and not many people get it. But you both do, spinel exemplifies this.
10th	Crystal or green Tourmaline	Emerald	A decade, and you have to top Ruby and sapphire somehow, only an Emerald will do.
11th	Turquoise	Aquamarine	An extra blue cherry on the emerald cake of last year
12th	Jade		Can’t beat jade for year 12
13th	Citrine		The best colour citrine can hold its own, bring in the sun and prosperity
14th	Opal		So many wonderful memories
15th	Rhodolite	Morganite	Celebrate with something different and unique, just like the both of you
20th	Emerald	Alexandrite	The best properties of ruby and emerald. 20 Years deserves this exclusivity.
25th	Tsavorite		Rare and beautiful, nothing else needs to be said
30th	Pearl		No problem to stick with tradition at this stage.
40th	Ruby		Of course ruby again.
50th	Gold		24 karat, only
60th	Diamond	Moissanite, but a set	Remember your first anniversary?
65th	Sapphire	A very big one	You have earned the best of the best

Yes, it is a little bit tongue-in-cheek. But why not? No one should wait for years for the beauty of a gift of a wonderful gemstone.

Gold Sheen Sapphire in Jewelry

Posted on 16/11/201616/11/2016 by Steve Waddington

I had a number of pieces of my gold sheen sapphire collection made into jewelry. This was partly on the recommendation of a friend, and partly for my own curiosity.

I am not by any means a jewelry designer, so i just gave some basic instructions to the goldsmith and let him come up with the settings he thought best. I didn’t want to spend a lot on the manufacture, so I used silver with either yellow gold or rhodium plate. The results turned out better than I expected:

Gold Sheen Sapphire Pendant — 48 carat gold sheen sapphire pendant

Gold Sheen Sapphire Mens Ring — 45 carat gold sheen sapphire mens ring. Not for sale – this one is mine!

Then, while sorting through my collection, I pulled out some of the larger cabs, and started to idly arrange them into a necklace pattern. Hmm, I thought, that would make a pretty nice necklace. And so I ended up with this stunningly gorgeous necklace with over 300 carats of star gold sheen sapphire.

Gold Sheen Sapphire Necklace — 300ct+ gold sheen sapphire necklace

Beautiful, isn’t it? But even more beautiful on a beautiful neckline:

Gold Sheen Sapphire Price Update

Posted on 15/11/201628/11/2016 by Steve Waddington

The price of gold sheen sapphire continues to rise. This is the origional post of the two year price history – http://sjwgems.com/articles/price-of-gold-sheen-sapphire-2-year-history/. Now here is the price update:

gold sheen sapphire price history — Gold Sheen Sapphire price history for 4th quarter 2016

I am not particularly surprised that the price of the highest grade cut is so strong. The latest batch I reported here http://sjwgems.com/articles/new-factory-cuttings-gold-sheen-sapphire/ really are spectacular.

I heard a comment today from a long time collector and now investor in gold sheen sapphire. He said “The more I handle and look at the goldsheen (sic) sapphires, the more I appreciate their unique beauty”. Which is my own sentiment exactly, and I think that is also evident in the strengthening market price.

New Factory Cuttings – Gold Sheen Sapphire

Posted on 03/11/201603/11/2016 by Steve Waddington

The latest batch of Gold Sheen Sapphires from the factory are showing some remarkable characteristics.

Gold Sheen Sapphire cabochons, yet to be graded.

First, we are seeing vivid asterism in the cabs. All gold sheen sapphires cabs have some degree of asterism, but usually it is quite faint. The rough we are cutting now seems to have more rutile, which gives them both a ‘sleepier’ look, and the much more prominent star:

Gold sheen sapphire cabochons vivid star — Prominent star features on gold sheen sapphire cabochons

You can see the rutile silk under multiple light sources (with a single light source, these would have a prominent star)

Gold Sheen Sapphire cabs softer silk look — Gold Sheen Sapphire cabs showing softer silk look due to greater rutile inclusion

Then, there was this incredible find – for the first time we have seen completely transparent gold sheen sapphire with full sheen and star effect. The smartphone snapshot does it no justice, but imagine the transparency of a vivid blue medium tone sapphire, but instead of blue, the colour is golden sheen.

transparent star gold sheen sapphire — Incredibly beautiful star gold sheen sapphire, completely transparent, very very rare.

Out of 200,000 carats cut, we have found less than 20 carats of stones like this. We know how to cut is as cabochons, so that is what the factory did. But what I am thinking is, what if we faceted it with a brilliant cut? I’ll run it by Tanzim and see what he thinks.

New Factory Cuttings – Ruby

Posted on 02/11/201602/11/2016 by Steve Waddington

I have just seen the latest cuttings from the factory for ruby. We are getting more range of colour and gradings as we progress into the parcel.

Tray of ruby cabochons — Tray of ruby cabs sorted by colour grade

Tray of dark ruby cabochons — Tray of darker ruby cabs sorted by colour grade

I am seeing quite a lot of medium-light and slight purplish red natural unheated ruby cabs in the market now, between $200 and $300 per carat. The lighter stones we are getting from the parcel would match that grade.

Some, like these, are at the other end of the tone scale with strong purple red to purple/red hue and strong saturation:

But I have to say, I do prefer the medium/dark tone best of all:

Medium Dark to dark Ruby cabs with moderate to strong saturation

SJW gems can supply ruby cabs in calibrated sizes to any specification. We own the rough and control the production through to the final polish and shipment. We can accommodate order sizes up to 10,000 carats per month, and welcome small orders from collectors and independent designers. Talk to us now for your Christmas Season orders!