jewelry

One of the featured “Kraft Masters” at the Kraftwerks 2004 event in Ontario, California was a friend of mine, Jason Penn. He demonstrated the…

The commercial part of the lapidary business favors new mine finds and exotic or rare materials. As gem carvers, these reasons draw us to these materials,…

Some treatments add lab-created material to mined gemstones. The part-natural, part-synthetic nature of these gems has prompted some in the…

A set of color filters is easy to pack for any gem buying trip, but did you know they can be useful in the lab, too? In this article, you’ll learn…

Question: Is there any synthetic jade available? How does it compare to natural jade in terms of quality? By International Gem Society 2 minute…

Your customers may want to know if a green gemstone in their jewelry piece is jade. As a gemologist, you’ll need to determine if the stone is jadeite…

We often recommend that novice gemologists send gems that are difficult to identify to a laboratory for testing. Gemological and mineralogical…

Sometimes, microscopic inclusions and color banding are the only way to distinguish natural from synthetic gems. This makes the microscope an…

In some cases, a hot point test won’t distinguish plastic simulants from natural gems. Some plastics release a protein smell when hot point…