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Below are the past issues of Colored Stone that are currently available
online. Each issue has a Table of Contents page that lists all of the articles
that appeared in that issue of the magazine. Select articles from each issue are
online; click on the title and it will link to that article. If you are interested
in an article or issue that is not available online, please e-mail our editorial
department or call (610) 232-5700.
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Colored Stone Back Issues at the Interweave Store
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2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006
| 2005 | 2004 | 2003
| 2002 | 2001 | 2000
July/August 2009
The Argyle Tenders: Diamond
Rhapsodies in Blue, Purple, Brown, Pink and Red
When in 1983 fabulous purplish-pink diamonds from Rio Tinto Zinc’s
Argyle Mine in Western Australia started trickling on to the market, few realized
that the company would make popularization of fancy color diamonds one of its
main missions. The success of that mission has written a new, momentous entirely
unexpected chapter of diamond history.
The C1-C7 Grading System
for Diamonds and Zircons
The C1-to-7 color grading system developed for champagne diamonds works
equally well with zircons and any other colored stone known for champagne colors
and earth tones.
First InStore Show Draws Rave Reviews
April's Chicago InStore show drew around 400 exhibitors and 2,000 buyers. While
this optimism didn’t translate into strong sales, it translated into the
kind of strong enthusiasm among vendors and visitors that hopes to ensure a second
edition of this event.
Gem Show Photography: Getting
Good Images on the Show Floors
Tony Siedeman shares some of his tips on taking great photos at gem shows that
will help with your sales and marketing strategy.
Honor Thy Father: Louisville
Gem Dealer Acquitted of Charges in Estate Jewelry Case
Robinson Brown Jr. wanted to donate an emerald necklace to a Louisville
museum as a memorial for his wife of 62 years. But when he died before he could
give the gift, his heirs spent almost as much money as the necklace cost trying—unsuccessfully—to
convince a local jury to make the seller take it back.
Kenya's New Double-Barrel
Color-Change Garnet
Kenya’s new color-change garnet performs miracles in different lighting
environments. In fluorescent light, it looks the bluest any garnet has ever looked;
in incandescent light, you’d swear it was a very fine alexandrite.
More Blue, Less Provenance: Recutting
the Wittelsbach
The entire gem world is reacting to rumors of imminent recutting of the
famous Wittelsbach diamond by its new owner Laurence Graf as if this gem’s
survival in its current form were as important as the survival of the spotted
owl or snow leopard.
New Gemstone Treatments:
A Coming Crisis
An abridged version of this article by Joel Arem appeared in the May-June 2009
issue of Colored Stone under the title “Ending Diffusion Confusion.”
This is the full version of the scientific paper from which that condensation
was made using its original title.
One Red Diamond In Search of an
Owner
A hidden red diamond worth at least ½ million dollars that was
supposed to be found using clues in a book will come out of hiding at a New York
auction in September.
Social Reponsibility and Environmental
Sustainability in the Jewelry Industry
Years ago, buying gems and jewelry was all about feeling good and looking good.
Nowadays, the jewelry purchase also has a lot to do with doing good for the people
who mined, cut and set the gems we find so beautiful.
May/June 2009
Apache Peridot: Land of Spirit,
Land of Stone
Sometimes you encounter a place where the hand of the Creator is evident
in a dramatic way. The San Carlos Apache Nation is such a place. The story of
its famous gemstones is the story of a people who are intrinsically bound to the
land and its elements.
Business & Marketing: Gem-Enchanted
Evenings at Nancy's
Every couple of months, New Jersey jeweler Nancy Schuring holds after-hours
wine-tasting and gem education evenings in her store. She calls these evening
affairs “Geminars.” Customers call them fabulous.
First InStore Show Draws Rave Reviews
April's Chicago InStore show drew around 400 exhibitors and 2,000 buyers. While
this optimism didn’t translate into strong sales, it translated into the
kind of strong enthusiasm among vendors and visitors that hopes to ensure a second
edition of this event.
Gem Show Photography: Getting
Good Images on the Show Floors
Tony Siedeman shares some of his tips on taking great photos at gem shows that
will help with your sales and marketing strategy.
New Gemstone Treatments:
A Coming Crisis
An abridged version of this article by Joel Arem appeared in the May-June 2009
issue of Colored Stone under the title “Ending Diffusion Confusion.”
This is the full version of the scientific paper from which that condensation
was made using its original title.
Pixel Perfect: Editing Your
Show Photos with Freeware and other Software
So you've gotten back from Las Vegas with tons of digital gem pictures and you
want to put the best results on-line. There's just one problem: images that may
be good enough to show your staffers are not good enough to show customers. Here's
how to get from flawed to flawless.
Social Reponsibility and Environmental
Sustainability in the Jewelry Industry
Years ago, buying gems and jewelry was all about feeling good and looking good.
Nowadays, the jewelry purchase also has a lot to do with doing good for the people
who mined, cut and set the gems we find so beautiful.
March/April 2009
Colored Stone's First Mystery Gem
This is not a contest. Or, if it is, the winning prize of this guessing game—the
first in Colored Stone history—is simply the privilege of having
seen such a magnificent rarity.
CSI Tucson
Robert James showed evidence of something irregular inside tourmaline, topaz,
and garnet processed in Bangkok. But because he called what he saw “grain-boundary
diffusion,” critics and even those sympathetic to him found semantic grounds
to dispute his findings.
Gold Fever: How to Make
a Killing Without Killing Your Conscience
When times are tough and people need money fast, all that glitters is gold.
Follow the Yellow
Brick Road: Gold Liquidation
Continuing our series "Gold Fever" GemMail presents the story
of Michael Shields who has turned from dealing in second-hand diamonds, jewelry
and watches to dealing primarily in gold--and is doing ten times the business
since the switch.
The Penny Pincher's
Guide to Fine Gems
Spending less doesn’t have to mean you’re getting less. To the contrary,
it can mean you’re getting more—much more. But you might have to shift
your spending away from the old staples to what are quickly becoming the new staples:
garnet, tourmaline and zircon. Here are some of the best-buy gems in a few dealers'
inventories that would retail for no more than $450.
The Penny Pincher's
Guide to Fine Gems Between $400 and $900 Retail.
For those consumers willing to stretch their budgets into the middle and upper
three figures but who want to stay far shy of the $1,000 mark, there are a multitude
of superb colored stones available.
True Blues: Chris
Smith's Amazing Adventures with Tanzanite
A year ago, there wasn't much new to be said about tanzanite, the oven-blued
zoisite found only in its namesake country of Tanzania. Known to be benignly heated
from brown to blue since its discovery in the mid-1960s, tanzanite was one of
the gem world's safer, most worry-free precious stones.
Vince
Gulino's Sunshine Strategy
It's easy to have good times when times are good. The great secret of business
life is to have good times when they are bad. And that's the key to the tremendous
success jeweler Vincent Gulino is enjoying in his Tubac, Arizona, store: giving
customers good times during hard ones.
Wild Things:
Jewelry Goes Natural!
Nature has inspired designers throughout history, but our growing concerns for
our planet, as well as our desire to be more connected with reality, have placed
a greater, more urgent focus on the natural elements of our world. Today’s
hottest jewelry designers are taking cues from Mother Earth and some of her most
brilliantly colorful creations. Tree huggers are not the only ones who’ll
go wild for these styles.
January/February 2009
2009 Gemmy Awards Winners
Chrysoprase Chalcedony: Marlborough
District, Queensland, Australia
Chrysoprase is a form of green cryptocrystalline quartz referred to as chalcedony
or chalcedonic quartz. Chrysoprase chalcedony is highly prized in the Asian market
and among gemologists worldwide.
A Dark Hour for Gemology: The
Diffusion Debacle
Robert James' 14-month investigation into what he calls "grain boundary diffusion"
culminates in a day-the-earth-stood-still seminar at Tucson's Hotel Arizona on
Friday, February 6th at 3:00PM. There he will summarize the high-tech research
that has hardened his suspicions of rampant artificial chemical coloring into
undeniable
truths.
The
Emerald World's Best-Kept Secret:
The La Pita Mines of Colombia
Since the late 16th century, one country, Colombia,
has produced most of the world's finest emeralds. Today, two mines--Muzo
and La Pita--account for 90% of the country's emerald exports.
Festive Nights at the Gemstone
Round Table
Jeweler Nancy Schuring learned first hand that the Grinch can't steal Christmas
when shoppers are wined and dined while looking at gems.
Gem Hajj in Quartzsite
Every January, rock and rough dealers from all over America and Mexico gather
for a desert sale/swap at Quartzsite 120 miles west of Phoenix just near the California
border. No wonder the event is considered a harbinger of things to come at the
Tucson Show. With exhibitor attendance down, and far fewer quantity buyers from
Asia, Quartzsite is telegraphing trouble ahead for the colored stone industry’s
main event.
Royal
Saharan Jasper Gets Wired
 Wire
jewelry designer Dale Armstrong was one of the first jewelry artisans to see Royal
Sahara Jasper when Colored Stone showed it to a select group of lapidaries
and craftspeople at Tucson 2008. Her enthusiastic reception inspired the magazine
to sponsor an invitation-only exhibition of cut and set stones for Tucson 2009.
Running from Saturday January 31st to Sunday February 15th at the Tucson Electric
Park Gem & Mineral Show, the event is to be the first annual collection
commissioned by the magazine. In the following article, Armstrong discusses the
challenges and joys of cutting and setting this fabulous material.
What's in the Cards for Credit?
The old no-money-down, take-two-years-to-pay model
of jewelry consumption financing is likely a thing of the past. What will debt-dependent
jewelers do to coax spending in a credit-starved economy?
November/December 2008
Andesine-Copper Diffusion:
The Red Scare is Real
For more than a year, gemologists and dealers have suspected so-called natural
red andesine was, in reality, colored using copper diffusion. Now research physicist
John Emmett has proven these suspicions are quite possible.
Blue Topaz Has the Blues
A year ago, when the NRC decided to enforce its long-ignored health and safety
regulations for irradiated blue topaz, most retailers stopped selling this very
popular gem until licensed testing facilities could be opened. Now six facilities
are open—and no one seems to be using them. Why?
The Diopside Dilemma: No Green to
be Seen
Tashmarine, the luscious green diopside from China that Columbia Gem House introduced
in 2001, has two plusses in its favor: high brand recognition and unquenchable
consumer demand. There’s just one problem. No one can find any more of this
gem.
Feldspar Fury
In the controversy over andesine, gemologist Robert James takes on established
thought and provides his findings on color-treated feldspar vs. natural sunstone.
Sunstone Hunting in Tibet
It was to have been the scoop of a lifetime—being the first reporter to
visit Tibet’s new, much-ballyhooed andesine mine. There was only one problem:
No one in Tibet had ever seen or even heard of it.
September/October 2008
Emmy Stars
Show Best in Color
Attendees at the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ annual
soiree Sept. 21 embraced color in both their garb and jewels, making fun and fanciful
fashion statements.
Opals
Along the Tequila Road
Mexico has become the world's second most important producer of opal after Australia.
So we sent our trusty travel correspondent to visit the country's main beehive
of mining and buying activity.
From
Cropland to Outcropping: Vietnamese Pink Tourmaline
As soon as gem trekker Dudley Blauwet saw the dozens of motorbikes parked in the
corn field at Khai Trung, Vietnam, he knew the locals had switched from farming
to gem mining--in this case, pink tourmaline.
Desert
Storm: Royal Saharan Jasper
At Tucson 2009, Colored Stone will launch its first-ever jewelry exhibition
devoted to showcasing the finest picture jasper ever discovered. You don't want
to miss this collection of loose and set Sahara Desert splendors from North Africa.
July/August 2008
May/June 2008
- The Furor Over Feldspar
Oregon sunstone is facing unfair competition from treated labradorite and andesine
from Asia, Africa, and Mexico.
- Coming to a Court Room near You: The
Labradorite Litigations
If you recently bought red or green "new-find" labradorite on screen
or on line as a natural-color gemstone, you may be in for a rude awakening. These
feldspars may owe their beauty to the gemological equivalent of color implants
- or, more crudely, dyeing.
- The Paraiba Perplex
Miner Dave Sherman has sued AGTA and GIA for $100 million in damages from allowing
the trade to call all green and blue cuprian elabaite "Paraiba tourmaline."
- Un-True Blue:
Cobalt-Treated Tanzanite Is Here
For years, jewelers have complained about the paleness of tanzanite in calibrated
sizes. Now there's an avalanche of deep sapphire-blue material. Alas, it's color-coated.
March/April 2008
January/February 2008
- The 2008 Gemmys
Colored Stone announces the winners of its own cutting competition.
November/December 2007
September/October 2007
May/June 2007 Table of Contents
March/April 2007
January/February 2007
November/December 2006
Ruby: With Open Arms
A Kenyan farmer found precious bounty in his barren fields.
Women With Tools
Women entering the jewelry field for the first time are starting to feel the power.
September/October 2006
- Douala Days
Cameroon's enterprising jewelry designers find their gemstones — and
their customers — where they can.
- Gem Artists vs. The Internet
Self-promotion doesn’t come easily to gem artists, and neither does
cyberspace.
July/August 2006
May/June 2006
March/April 2006
Barcelona: A 24-Hour Muse
A look at the unique jewelry designers from Barcelona, Spain.
ONLINE BONUS: More on the artful history
of Barcelona and the Catalan people.
January/February 2006
November/December 2005
September/October 2005
July/August 2005
May/June 2005
March/April 2005
January/February 2005
November/December 2004
September/October 2004
July/August 2004
May/June 2004
March/April 2004
January/February 2004
November/December 2003
September/October 2003
July/August 2003
May/June 2003
March/April 2003
January/February 2003
November/December 2002
September/October 2002
- The Cutting Edge
High-tech cutting machines and robotic technology have begun to infiltrate
the gem business. Even tech converts agree, though, that the cutter's skill remains
the key factor.
- Designs: Carpets of Sparkle
Usually thought of as a diamond technique, pavé setting has brought
colored stone jewelry to a new level.
Bonus Feature: Has stone-in casting revolutionized
pave?
- Dissecting the Atom
As technologies for creating treatments and synthetics get more sophisticated,
gemologists need better and better equipment to detect them. How far can science
go?
- Mining - Vision Underground
Ground-breaking technologies allow miners to find potential gem deposits without
ever lifting a shovel. But do the methods work well enough?
July/August 2002
May/June 2002
- The Rocks of Ages
How have ruby, emerald, and sapphire retained their status as the three most
highly-prized colored gems? The answer is two parts history, one part gemology,
and a healthy dose of good old-fashioned greed.
March/April 2002
January/February 2002
November/December 2001
- Cuts: Nature's Hand
Instead of using traditional cuts, some designers let Mother Nature shape
the gems they use in jewelry.
- Montana Sapphire Venture Bites the
Dust
Another attempt at large-scale sapphire mining in Montana's Yogo Gulch has come
up short. Where did it all go wrong?
- Shades of Meaning
How powerful is a gemstone's color? Powerful enough to boost your sales —
if you read your customer right.
September/October 2001
July/August 2001
- Coral: In the Red
Coral's reds and pinks are in demand, but threatened habitats are putting
a crimp on supply.
- Jade: Stone of the Heavens
In one of the most turbulent periods of Chinese history, jade took its place at
the center of culture. Part 2 of 2.
- Lawsuits Ignite Over Created
Opal
How far can a synthetic be from its natural counterpart before it becomes
a simulant? The debate has moved from academia to the courtroom.
May/June 2001
- Briolette Cuts: Drops of Light
Briolettes are back! Aficionados reveal the appeal of this romantic cut.
- The Jade Age
In an era when stone was cutting-edge technology, jade became the heart of
Chinese civilization. Part 1 of 2.
- Jade is Jade?
. . . or is it? More and more, top green chrysoprase is being passed off as jadeite.
March/April 2001
November/December 2000
- Brazilian Made
Latin style has invaded the U.S. in fashion, movies and music —
so why not jewelry, too? Brazilian jewelry designers are bringing their bold and
beautiful designs to America in a big way.
- Cuts: The Sparkle Factor (Concave
Faceting)
More flash for the cash. More bang for the buck. Everybody wants it, and cutters
are turning to a new technique that gives it to them: concave faceting.
- Ruby Market Slumps
as Prime Sources Tighten
It's getting harder to bring ruby out of Myanmar, and there's not much of the
good stuff on the market anywhere. What's a ruby trader to do?
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