[Jewelry making - Article 00419] - Re: [Orchid] Diamond developments

[Daniel R. Spirer]

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>      First of all Daniel, you say that 'Historically, no synthetic
>     material has impacted the pricing of natural material ...' The
>     media frenzy over 'treated' emeralds a few years back had a
>     significant affect on the market for emeralds. If you stretch
>     'synthetic material' to cover cultured pearls, then that is another
>     major exception. And we are talking about market stability and
>     sustainability as much as just 'pricing'. 

    You are confusing the issue here.  The two examples you bring up do
    not relate to synthetic vs natural material, merely the difference
    between treated and untreated (in the case of emeralds) and in the
    case of cultured pearls, I can't ever recall them being known as
    synthetic.  Actually in the case of emerald, there was no impact on
    the pricing of natural materials when synthetic emerald (not treated
    emerald) was introduced to the market place.  As for cultured pearls,
    they were introduced at a time when natural pearls had been virtually
    fished out of existence.  The price of natural pearls was in no way
    effected by their introduction.  The prices had gone through the roof
    because of the dwindling supply and they have stayed that way. 

    So if you are going to talk about the impact of pricing on natural
    diamond from the introduction of synthetic diamond I believe that as
    long as there is some way to identify them (whether it is more or
    less sophisticated than previously) there will be no long term
    impact.  I think if that were going to be the case then we would have
    seen the price of natural sapphires, rubies, alexandrites, and every
    other gem material collapse as synthetics were introduced.  As a
    matter of fact, alexandrite is a great example as it is extremely
    difficult to tell natural and synthetic material apart and yet the
    natural material's prices were not impacted at all by the
    introduction of the synthetic material. 

    As for it being up to the jewelry industry to set the standards, you
    are right and quite frankly, there are a number of organizations
    working on this very topic all the time.  So I've said it before and
    I'll say it again:  Put your money where your mouth is and pay up to
    join all of the ethics based organizations you can so that they can
    have enough money to devote to the issue.  A list of a few to join: 
    Jewelers Vigilance Committee, American Gem Trade Association,
    Jewelers of America, your local Better Business Bureau. 

Daniel R. Spirer, GG
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
spirersomes AT earthlink.net
www.spirersomes.com


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