[Jewelry making - Article 01086] - Re: [Orchid] Are they Rubies?

[Lisa Orlando]

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Hi, Karen,

    Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I usually say to people who are
    buying jewelry with stones from me something like what you say: "I
    bought these x's from a dealer I consider reputable, but there's so
    much going on in the gem trade that I can't swear to you that they
    aren't lab-grown or whatever." On the other hand, when I make signs
    for my pieces, I'm not going to add even more (self-defeating!) words
    to something like this: "Necklace featuring rubies and hand-made
    glass beads by Nanette Young-Greiner, as well as Swarovski crystal,
    freshwater pearls, vintage German, Japanese, and fiber optic glass,
    hand-made 14 karat gold-filled wire beads and clasp."(Although, if I
    don't know anything about a glass bead, I will tend to list it as
    "mystery glass!") 

    I bought those rubies at a post-Tucson sale held by my local
    high-end bead store. Unlike with e.g. the quartz scams, I have never
    personally heard of anyone testing those classic opaque ruby beads
    and finding out that someone has gone to the trouble of making
    "fakes." 

    The whole digression into Photoshop issues got to me, too, because
    the original poster was trying to be honest, so she wasn't about to
    doctor a photo so that she could be told the beads were real. In
    fact, how many of us buy beads or stones as a result of a lovely
    online photo posted by a dealer we've heard good things about? I
    think the attacks made Cap'n Kirk defensive and he got polarized and
    started to overstate his case. But I would bet that, if the beader in
    question had sent him a decent photo, he could have made an educated
    guess, and I don't think she really needed more than that. 

    Actually, this leads to a question for me: do you trust Rio? Or Fire
    Mountain? I know the former has GGs on staff, and I've been told
    they spot-check the beads, but I would bet they don't test
    everything. Also, these are the only places from which I actually buy
    "stones", which, so far, I "set" in wire or PMC--and I'm much more
    concerned about those. If the catalog says it's an untreated
    amethyst, would you trust that, or would you still do a song and
    dance with the customer? Or pay a local GG to look at them? I've
    always assumed I could trust them. Maybe I should just stick to
    Swarovski... 

Lisa Orlando
Aphrodite's Ornaments
(stuck outside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again)

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