[Jewelry making - Article 00340] - Re: [Orchid] Jeweler chipped my padparadscha

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>      now i'll have to buy my girlfriend another padparadsha  the next
>     time i'm in bangkok..... 

    If it's as small a chip as your post makes it sound, why not just
    pull the stone and let a local lapidary repair it.  that's pretty
    routine procedure, and though you lose a little weight, a good cutter
    can usually produce an entirely acceptable repaired stone, often with
    surprisingly little change.  often, if the chip is small, it can go
    right back in the same mounting it came out of without a major visual
    difference. 

    As to trusting anyone else, I disagree.  As a goldsmith, you need to
    know your limitations.  If you are not confident in your setting
    skills, and the stone is valuable, then by all means job it out to
    someone who is more skilled.  Your error may have been in just taking
    it to any local jeweler, assuming the person at his repair bench was
    a skilled setter.  Some retail stores have people who are skilled
    setters, and others have people who are decent at repairs, and OK
    with setting simple round diamonds, but dangerous around colored
    stones or fancy settings.  You simply need to do your homework, and
    find someone who's well respected for his/her setting skills.  You'll
    do better finding a true wholesale job shop, the sort of place the
    retail jewelers send out work to when it's beyond their skills. 
    Might take a bit more asking around to find.  And be sure to discuss
    the liability issues before leaving your work, and for heavens sake,
    loupe the finished work before you go cranking on it again yourself.
    
    By the way, regarding Padparadsha...  What precautions did you take
    regarding avoiding heat treated, color diffused stones, or were you
    just aware that such might be what you were buying, and did not pay
    for natural.  Natural material of that color remains very rare, while
    there is somewhat of a glut of the treated/color diffused material on
    the market the last few years.  it's worth a LOT less than the
    natural, and isn't always easy to seperate without some very careful
    examination...  In general, unless you've a really good reason to
    believe a padparadsha is natural color material, you should probably
    assume that it's not.  Most of what's out there, is not. 

Peter

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