[Jewelry making - Article 00562] - Re: [Orchid] Blurring of Lines

[William Denayer]

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>     What do we call a natural stone that is changed by a man induced
>     substance not found in the natural stone?  Is this a natural
>     synthetic? (Gerry) 

    Gerry, you make some good points in my opinion, although I do not
    agree with most of it. You say that a gemsteone must have three
    qualities: rarity, color-clarity-size (let's call it outlook) and
    durability. Well, I read somewhere that nowadays 85 % of all American
    women own a diamond. Most of these diamonds are perhaps rather poor,
    still you can't really call this rare, can you? If anything, diamonds
    are everywhere. Durability? About how many years do we speak here?
    Generations? Opals are a point in case here. Many don't last
    generations, even if set well. Outlook? That's at least in part
    subjective or is it not? What is a synthetic and what is a simulant?
    It seems that it depends on intentions, for if I use CZ and I hold
    that it is not my intention to simulate diamonds with it, it's not a
    simulant to me, but only a synthetic, while you, when looking at the
    same piece, may find that I used the CZ to simulate diamonds and, so,
    the CZ are simulants for you. I don't think - witness the
    (interesting btw) discussion which has been going here, to solve this
    discussion by logical, rational, communicative or even semiotic (does
    this expensive word creeps up here as a simulant these days?) means,
    so maybe a gem is just something which a designer deems worthy to
    incorporate into his/her jewelry, unless, obviously, the intrinsic
    value of it is so low (paper or wood, for example), and then we could
    perhaps call it a component? After all, the quality of a good
    designer is to combine materials in unexpected and aesthetic ways and
    good designs - as art in general - often bring something to the world
    that was already there to begin with but not in this particular
    constellation. The Greeks, btw, called this activity - of which only
    poets were able of (witnessing the old Greek bias towards the world
    of the word) to metapherein: to change what was already there to
    begin with in such a way that it illuminates the soul. With this in
    mind, I think it becomes pretty much irrelevant what a gem exctly is
    - i.e. what others consider to be a gem. The designer-artist will
    decide what it is through his/her creative efforts, leaving
    downtrodden paths behind - indeed, they don't illuminate the soul nor
    the intellect. I guess that's why some jewelry is actually just junk,
    however 'natural' the flashy stones it incorporates.  And for what
    concerns your last point, I really liked your question. My thesis is:
    we do not live in a natural world anymore and there are no natural
    things. Even a diamond is not natural. There are no natural things.
    Best, Will 



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