For those who have caught the Tanzanite Bug, mesmerized by this blue-purple-violet gemstone – below is your buying guide to Tanzanites. The Tanzanite is a plechroic gemstone – meaning it will display different shades of blue/purple/violet/lilac when viewed from different angles.
We had a client come to us late last year, with a specific request for a pair of yellow sapphires to be made into earrings. She was after pear-shaped sapphires, in a nice bright yellow hue that would complement her nice tan, in an ideal size that would complement her frame and build. The key factors in looking for matching pair of gemstones to be set into earrings are:
1. identical shape & size
2. both gemstones should ideally be of matching hue and saturation (for certain types of gemtones, this criteria borders on near-impossible. Eg: Emeralds. This criteria is even more difficult to fulfill if the client would like for the gems to be unheated/non-treated). Reason: 100% natural gemstones may not be exactly identical in hue and saturation due to the fact that these gems are obtained from different locations within the same mine. Being 100% natural, no two gemstones will be exactly alike – Similarly, no two fingerprints will be exactly identical.
3. almost similar levels of clarity
So, our client’s request certainly was difficult, but for Heritage Gems – it was not impossible. In the early weeks, we chanced upon this pair of oval-shaped yellow sapphires, that were not in the shape as per client’s request.
However, this was not a problem for us as we have the facilities to re-cut, re-facet and re-polish the gems to her requirement. So our design discussions with our client began. She wanted the yellow sapphires to be the feature colour of her earrings. Preferring that pave diamonds (if any) would not distract the attention away from the beautiful colour of her sapphires. She’d envisioned the finished look to be simple, classy, yet stunning. Final look of the earrings are below.
Timeline for customised fine jewellery, depending on client’s requirements and level of complexity can range anywhere from 3 months – 9 months.
A close-up shot of one side of the earrings
We had a client who had over the many years, unknowingly amassed several gemstones and jewellery in a very nice, rich orange hue.
She came to us one day with a ring and 2 loose gemstones and wanted us to help create a whole matching set of jewellery.
This was our client’s ring from her mother that she wanted to redesign.
Our client brought her own loose gemstones that she wanted to complement the new design we were going to re-set for her. We were delighted to help her re-design an entirely new set of jewellery she could finally wear.
So we proceeded to start work on dimensions, design process, design customization and final design confirmation. Notice that the above 2 gemstones were not entirely the same shape. But that is definitely not a problem for us – after recutting and re-shaping the gemstones slightly, this was the final outcome:
A beautiful 3-piece jewellery set with a classic vintage appeal, set in 18k white gold with diamonds. Notice her original ring was in yellow gold – we also changed that to white gold during the re-working process.
