[Jewelry making - Article 00418] - Re: [Orchid] Changing the term "semi-precious" stones

[John Donivan]

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>     The GIA colored stone system is intended to give a useful general
>     means by which the grades and qualities of the vast majority of
>     gems can be meaningfully described. 

    I could put Peter's very erudite post in much simpler terms -
    gemstone grading is not so much science as it is art. As he pretty
    much says, there is no D, E, F color, nor is there an SI1 and SI2.
    You could split the colors between D and E into a thousand parts and
    still do it again, though the human eye can't detect such nuances,
    in practice. It is, as he also essentially says, a way to bring
    order out of chaos, and form a common language. And I do remember
    the AGS system. "Let's see, we have 250 gemstones, 8 color families,
    500 tones, plus saturation, that's only 350,000 combinations -
    easy!" 

    Personally, I think that everyone should stick to gem ID, certs. and
    appraisals and keep out of the "Let's try to define gem quality"
    business altogether. There is no such thing as a perfect emerald
    because it's subjective. Or you could say that every emerald is
    perfect because nature made it that way, if you wanted to be smarmy.
    I personally don't like the "ideal" of emerald (ruby, too, for that
    matter) because they are too saturated and too dark in color for my
    taste. That doesn't make me or the industry wrong, it means it's
    more art than science. If an emerald is of exquisite color and has a
    pronounced, elegant jardin, and takes your breath away because of
    it's beauty, isn't that "perfect"? It's nature, not a machine shop.
    Often, in gemology, you get people who are so buried under the
    microscope they forget to stand back and just enjoy a stone.

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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