The Danburites of Morogoro

I love unusual gemstones, as you know, and if my gemstone dealer has anything of interest, no matter how tiny the production, he usually shows me first.  So you can imagine my surprise when he had me guess what the three teaspoons of clean yellow material were that he pulled out of a little plastic bag a couple of weeks ago.  I know Danburite to be clear or faint vanilla color but had never seen this type of color before.

Danburite was actually first discovered in the Danbury, CT, right here in the United States, in 1839.  It is also sometimes found in Mexico, Myanmar, and Madagascar, but production is very limited.  Danburite is a fairly hard crystal, about 7-7.5 on the Moh’s scale, and it does not require treatment.

Danburite from Morogoro

The strongly saturated yellow pieces that my gemstone dealer unearthed are from the Morogoro mines in Tanzania.  It was first found approximately 10 years ago, or maybe a little further back – the story gets murky at that point.  My geologist friend Jochen Hintze, who travels to Tanzania several times a year, first saw the crystals in 2004, when they were offered to him as yellow apatite.  The hardness of the stones revealed however that they weren’t apatite, so he set out to investigate.  It took Jochen 3 more years to determine the actual origin of the stones.  In 2007, when he was in his office in Aruja, Tanzania, waiting for brokers to arrive with new materials, someone offered him 50 kilos of the yellow crystal (most of which was not facet grade).  He was told the material came from Morogoro.

So Jochen set out to travel to Morogoro with the broker who had offered him the rough.  Most mining areas, naturally, are not located in the cities, but further out in the bush area, so any car will only go so far.  The last few miles of the trip, therefore, took them on a narrow foot path through the bush.  After some travel they arrived at a clearing the locals called “Munaraima” where about 15 men dug away at rocks with hammers and other basic equipment.  According to the miners, production was about 200-300 kg per month but the facet grade materials were rarely larger than what fits into the palm of the hand.  A few of the rocks also had a cat’s eye effect.  Jochen bought a fairly large piece but had to turn back quickly because at the time of his visit, the mine had not yet been reported to government officials in Tanzania.

Since then, the mine is in production only off and on, depending on availability of tools and dynamite.  It is not likely that the production will ever be large, and due to political unrest and disagreements among locals, it is often the case that a mine simply ceases operation even if material is still available, only to start up again a few years down the road.

Danburite Mine - Courtesy Jochen Hintze

Hand Engraving

Engraving can add a nice personal touch to a piece of jewelry that is special to you. I recently sold an unheated Burma sapphire to Jeannie, who had been looking for one for years. But that kind of expenditure doesn't always leave financial room for a custom design from scratch. So we had to improvise.  Jeannie wanted something antique looking but without an astronomical price tag (which is rather understandable!).

Since her gem was a 5.9 mm round there was a good chance it would fit my 6 mm bezel ring. The ring was a tad large but I improvised and had a rubber mold from a casting and the ring recast, which shrank it by about 10%.  The idea was then to place diamonds both on the halo and on the shank, together with a double row of millgrain around the inner rim of the bezel. I had to check with the setter to make sure there was room for two rows of millgrain.  He also had to tell me what diamond size he needed.

Jeannie's Ring Side View

Jeannie's Ring from the Front

The ring came out beautifully as you can see from the photos, but it was a bit empty looking from the side.  And while the millgrain lent it a very nice antique look, it needed something more.  This is where Alex Pugachevskiy came in.  Alex learned hand engraving when he was 14, and has done it pretty much full time ever since.  He opened his shop in NY in 1991.  All engraving is done by hand, with teensy tools and a big microscope.  One has to have a very steady hand for this kind of work, and it helps to have seen a lot old jewelry to get a feel for the kinds of curves and swirls look best.  Alex has engraved rings, bracelets, cuff links, watches, and even put family crests on gold buttons.  I want to have him engrave a pendant for me that I will then recast (for casting, the engraving has to be made deeper).  But I have to save first!

Let’s have a look at exactly how Alex proceeded with Jeannie’s ring: Note first that he added some swirls to the shank, going past the diamonds, finishing with a sort of V.  That makes it look almost like there are more diamonds on the shank. Alex also lengthened the millgrain, and you cannot tell where the setter’s millgrain ends and his begins.

Jeannie's Ring After Engraving

Then, Alex engraved the sides of the shank with a similar pattern, going as far down as room allows (in the back, the shank is a bit thin for much engraving).  The diagonal line at the end suggests more engraving than there is. 

Alex also engraved the entire gallery including the basket, where some people place diamonds.   To top it all off, he engraved the outer part of the bezel.  I remarked on this when I picked it up and he just said, “well, it looked empty.”

Close Up of Gallery and Bezel

I had actually given Alex total artistic license with this ring.  I set a rough budget ($350), knowing from previous experience what that might buy, and said “make it look antique.”  Alex obviously knows much more about works and how it looks than I do, so why not let the expert take over at that point?  If you go to Alex’s website (alexhandengraving.com) and check out his work, you’ll see why I didn’t think I needed to provide any further direction. 

The result is a teensy work of art, one that Jeannie will get to treasure for a lifetime.  And I'm jaleous, lol.  

Custom Orders Revisited

Last year my gemstone category outsold every other category I have on Etsy. So I have upped my gem offerings, as you no doubt have noticed. As a result, I have gotten a lot more custom order requests. This is loads of fun, but way more time consuming - plus many quotes don't go anywhere. This is because on the customer's part, there is the experience of sticker shock. What makes custom work so ridiculously expensive?  

 Well, the average labor cost for jewelry work in my area is about $50 per hour. And if i don't do the work myself - I often don't because I don't have the time or the expertise - then that's not money I make. My earnings are Incorporated into my markup formula. That's why so many jewelers manufacture overseas. But I like supporting local artisanship and I don't like not having any control over what happens with my designs and my gems. Nor would my customers like it.

Some pieces I make take perhaps an hour. Soldering just a bail is only a few minutes. But there are labor minimums. Which can be reflected in a per piece price. Making a five stone ring can take 3 hours if done from scratch. The channel wire pieces that are so popular in my shop take about an hour. 

Made For Tracy: Three Hex Bezels Soldered Together Plus Bail

This is why, whenever possible, I use stock settings that I have developed, and occasionally I buy supply parts like pre-finished settings or shanks. Stud earrings for instance come ready made as most etsy sellers that carry studs will tell you.

Another expensive item can be CAD -computer aided design work. This is also billed at $50 per hour. Now, when I commission CAD work, my goal is to cast several pieces and sell all of them. That distributes the cost. But when I make a custom design for one person, the customer has to pay it all. Plus 3-d printing and mold and casting labor.

Made For Julie, Using Channel Wire and Petal Settings

Adding all that up, a custom design might cost a few hundred dollars before any materials and before markup. 

So let's discuss markup. What is that for, and why is it 2-2.5 x cost for wholesale and double that for retail?

Take my case. I do Etsy 30 hrs a week minimum and that's not making any jewelry. 

I also pay my assistant for 1-2 full days. Not making jewelry. What do we do? Photos, listings, convos (oodles and oodles of convos), quotes, bookkeeping, shipping. That's the work at home, 20 hrs minimum.

Then we buy supplies, pick up castings, place orders, wait for pre polish, take the pieces home, inspect, fit the gems, pack each order for setting, go to the jeweler that helps me (or the engraver, or the wax carver), pick up and drop off from setting, inspect again, drop off for electro plating, or final polish, or get rhodium done. Inspect again. That's 2 full days each week with lots of waiting at suppliers when it's busy, or waiting to have a bill done, go over each item. I work on 20-30 items each week. So it's a ton of running around, the convo system always going off in my iPhone. 

Made for Lynne, Channel Wire and Hex Bezel

Let me throw in one more piece of the puzzle: pieces that don't sell and new items you want to produce. That costs money. Production and development that's called. It's so you can grow. But you can't grow unless you have extra profit worked into your formula. 

Long story short, if something you want done costs $20 in materials and $50 in labor, then you might pay $150 at my shop and $300 in the store if its made here. And if I don't charge that, I fold. It's that simple. And that expensive. 

Made for Julia, Hex Bezels and Rose Gold Chain

RISK! How to Deal in High End Gems and Not Lose Your Shirt – or the Gem

Last November, I was approached by an Australian customer to source an engagement stone for her.  She wanted a Ceylon sapphire, 4 carats, emerald cut, no heat, with cert.  The budget: $15,000.  Needless to say I don’t have those kinds of stones lying around.  Not in that price range for sure, but I also don’t have the kind of inventory in larger sizes that allows for such specifics.  Nonetheless I was intrigued to see if I could make this happen.  But where would I get the stone, how would I ship it, and what if the customer didn’t like what I picked?  Would I be saddled with an expensive gem that I couldn’t use, and a huge tab?

This little anecdote illustrates how much risk is involved in buying and selling gems.  There are risks concerning storage, transport, theft and last but not least, enormous risks of financial loss.  How is this risk managed?  Part of the answer is easy: you can get insurance, you can have a safe, and you can get an alarm system.  But that’s not the whole story.  Most insurance companies have a high deductible and demand high premiums, so it only pays to have it when you carry high end inventory.  When I looked for insurance for my jewelry business, I was offered a deductible of $5,000 at a premium of $5000 per year and a $50,000 insurance max.  This basically made no sense for me.  I don’t own anything that’s $5000.

4 Carat Sapphire, Ceylon, No Heat

The most interesting risk calculation, however, involves risk of return.  What if the customer isn’t happy with her purchase?  Who pays?  In cases like this, the safe spot is that of middle man.  You memo out a gem the customer might be interested in, and you work out the terms of the memo.  Most memo agreements are only 1-2 weeks, longer terms involve either strong relationships or good references.  A purchase, in the gem trade, cannot be refunded.  I think the reason is simply that even a gem trader may not own all of his inventory (yet).  Or more precisely, he may not have it paid off.  So as he makes sales, he pays his bills, and his own supplier is waiting for that to happen, because that supplier may be in Sri Lanka or India or Africa without access to a wealthy market.  So, until the gem is with its final owner without return, everyone may have to wait.  The risk of loss or breakage, meanwhile, remains with the person who has the stone in their possession. 

Let’s now return to my Aussie customer.  We proceeded with great caution in conducting the sale.  I first investigated possible gem candidates.  I put word out and my search led to an Indian gem dealer who requested some reference before dealing with me.  After passing that test, and having a nice chat in his office during which he evaluated my gem expertise, I looked at the stones, snapped some pix, and forwarded specs, prices, and certs to my prospective buyer.  She preliminarily chose one stone and I went back for more pix.  After more back and forth on Etsy, her asking certain questions about the stone, my trying to answer them, she decided to purchase.  I memo’d the stone, which I ran by my own lab for a quick second look (because I, too, needed to be sure about the seller). 

Hand Shot of the Sapphire

I collected the money via PayPal, then shipped FedEx but through a private insurer. This cost $100 with a $10,000 insurance policy, and my customer had to pay hefty custom’s fees.  (But these were all things we sorted out before I even memo’d the stone.)  I got 1 month memo terms and promised to stay in constant touch with seller and buyer.  As soon as my customer had the stone in her hands, I let my seller know.  Before purchase, my buyer and I had negotiated a 2 week inspection and return period, which my seller had agreed to wait out.  The buyer loved her stone and all was good, no return necessary.  At that point I paid out the seller.  Longer returns are not feasible given the great complexity of these transactions.  These aren’t shirts from Macy’s.  They’re more like real estate transactions – as much as possible, the checking is done beforehand to minimize trouble.  By the time you sign the dotted line, you have 3 days to withdraw, and that’s it.

At no point during this complicated transaction was this gem at my house!  At no point was it in the subway.  I shipped it on the day I memo’d it and I had a friend with me to walk me over to the lab and to my gem dealer friends who shipped it.  They kept it in their safe, in a very secure building, until FedEx picked up.  To this end, some NY gem dealers actually have a lock box at one of the many banks that surround 47^th Street.  That way nothing leaves the area, which is generally very safe (practically every other person on the street is a security guard).  That way they can keep what they memo’d right in the bank in their secure lockup.

Almost every week people ask me if I can get them a “this” or a “that” to look at.  This I am happy to do but when the “this” goes much above $1000, it turns into a complicated matter.  Perhaps this blog entry helps explain why.

The Spinel Craze

As you have probably noticed, I put nearly a half a dozen Mahenge spinels on my site in the last 2-3 weeks, and almost all of them sold.  What is going on? 

Apparently the market on spinels is extremely tight right now.  While there is almost no interest in the Ceylon variety – mostly because they have grey mask, Mahenges but also Burmese reds are flying out the door.  The famous neon spinels are produced only in one location around the world (Mahenge, Tanzania), and Burmese reds, especially the slightly larger ones with open color, are also hard to find.  In general, gemstones that have pure and bright colors are more popular.  They simply catch all the attention, even in the smaller size.  I have earrings that use 3.5mm spinels as a connector gem, with chrysoberyls on the bottom.  Still, everyone asks about the little pink stones.  This would never happen if the gems were garnets.  So the market gets tight when supply and demand are no longer in sync.  Prices jump up, and right now they are jumping on a faster than quarterly basis.  Production of Mahenges is steady but not huge, and demand keeps outpacing supply.

So what makes a top quality Mahenge or Burmese spinel?  Both are judged primarily by intensity in color.  Burmese spinels should be bright, stop sign or fire engine red.  Many Burmese gems have an orange modifier but that is much less desirable.  Definitely they should not look like garnet.  They should be more pink than pyrope garnet but less purple than rhodolite.  The red of a top quality Burmese spinel is extremely pure, and it radiates out.

Burmese Spinels, Top Color

Mahenge spinels, the top color anyway, are neon pink.  Not baby pink, not orangy or rosy pink.  But straight bubblegum super strongly saturated neon.  The ones with the orange modifier are next, they can look peachy, almost like an intense padparadscha sapphire.  They would definitely rank above orangy looking Burmese stones, which end up looking less peach but more orange.  Washed out Mahenges are still expensive, but not generally of collector’s interest.

Mahenge Spinel with A Tad of Peach

Cutting for Mahenges should be top of the line, because that’s what most stones entering the U.S. are like.  For Burmese material, you will sometimes have to resort to native cuts, or older cuts.  Many are step cut, not brilliant or Portuguese.

Mahenge Spinel, Portuguese Cut, Top Color

Clarity should be judged the same.  A spinel should be clean or have only extremely minor imperfections. If it isn’t, it’s better to buy a cabochon.

In terms of price, both Mahenges and Burmese spinels are about equal.  Price jumps are every half carat, not every carat.  Retail (gem dealer retail, not store retail) for a .5-.99 ct stone is about $500/ct, for a stone that’s 1-1.5 ct it’s $1000.  Then $1500, and $2000 respectively.  Or more.  After that, astronomical.  Fuhgettaboutit, as they say in Brooklyn.

The Seahorse Ring: A New Design Journey

Several months ago I took on a project that involved setting a customer’s diamond, an old miner, into a ring completely designed from scratch.  My customer, Lynne F. works as a marine biologist in Florida and wanted a motif that involved sea horses.  And I wanted to see if I could make this happen.  Obviously, there’s nothing out there design wise I could borrow from, and these sea horses would have to be absolutely miniscule.  Who would make sea horses for me, and how?

After Lynne insured the diamond and sent it to me (no way I would have taken this on without the owner insuring her stone!), I made a bunch of sketches.  With help from Brandy, my assistant, CAD designer and friend, we decided there’s only one place the sea horses could go – they would have to form the seat, or gallery, or part of the prongs.  Directly under the diamond, in other words.  Lynne also wanted the culet visible, and she wanted the girdle to be above the seat, so we needed a prong setting for sure.  We sketched out some options and then took the design to another jeweler friend to get suggestions.  The ring would be high, this was unavoidable because even tiny sea horses need room.  Lynne was ok with that.

Sketch of Seahorse Ring by Brandy

Generally, there are three ways you can make a piece of jewelry.  You can make it entirely in metal, soldering all the pieces; you can make it in wax and then cast; and you can make it in CAD and then print and cast.  CAD didn’t lend itself to this project because of the organic look of the sea horses – CAD works on a mathematical basis so geometric designs are easier to accomplish.  The challenge in metal was how to make four sea identical sea horses that would hold up the stone.  The soldering job was going to take forever, and you can’t carve in metal.  That left wax carving.  However a wax design would not allow for enough detail, which meant we would have to have that engraved in the metal as a last step.

So I set out to collect references for a wax carver and found Max, an Argentinian who owns a little jewelry shop in the East village.  We met, discussed a price, I showed him the drawings, and off went the diamond with Max to disappear for a few weeks.  Max needed the diamond because he was going to make the ring fit this stone exactly.  Obviously, these kinds of transactions involve a lot of trust!  Some back and forth later – shaving down the shank some more, adding prongs, we had the basic piece you see in the photos below.  Max was ingenious, he actually shaped the sea horses out of two pieces of round wax “wire” and then sliced off four pieces.  This way each sea horse had the exact same dimensions.

Max Discussing the Ring with Us

Seahorse Slices

Wax Carving Tools

My first casting of the ring was in silver which my jeweler Vasken polished with great care (the castings often leave extra metal around these tiny shapes), and I shipped it to Lynne for her approval.  I added a similar shaped gem so she could try it out.  Wax shrinks so we also had to resize the ring a bit more.  Then we made the platinum casting.

Silver Casting of Sea Horse Ring

The idea then was to add diamonds on the shank.  The center stone was a J color and the platinum is fairly white, so I initially thought to go with a lower color.  But then I settled on G/H, and as clean as possible so it would really sparkle.  I got the best cuts, too – Swiss cut, not India cut.  They cost 30% more but it was worth it.

Enter Ethan, the setter.  I got the recommendation to use him from Brandy because we wanted someone who specializes in micro pave.  Ethan works full time for a company that sets almost exclusively for Tiffany and Tiffany uses tons of micro pave.  So I got Ethan to work on my ring over a weekend, and he didn’t disappoint.  The result was near perfection.  All stones facing the right way, tables totally straight, diamonds tightly packed, the beads perfect little round balls, and no. 7 millgrain on the sides to give the ring an old fashioned look.

Close Up of Ethan's Setting Work

Engraving was last.  Again, I asked around and several roads merged with Alex, the Russian engraver.  You can see his work here: alexhandengraving.com.  Alex came here from Russia a few decades ago, where he used to help restore old churches – in particular, some of the reliefs that decorate them.  He said working in Russia met the old cliché: they pretend to work and the government pretends to pay. 

Alex took his assignment very seriously.  He wanted pictures of the sea horse, and together we went over every detail: waves on the inside of the shank, adding millgrain on the inside, extending the pave down the sides of the shank past the diamonds, eyes for the sea horses.  Alex also proudly showed me other examples of his work.  All his work is done under a microscope, and the detail is incredible.  I felt in great hands.  So again, I left the ring, fully set, in someone else’s hands.  I asked if I should pre-pay the fee, and he laughed: “But I have your ring, he said.”  True.

Two more weeks went by, and I got a call from Alex.  “The masterpiece was ready,” he said.  I asked for emailed photos but he said that would not capture the work.  So I went into NY the next day.  I was stunned by the result.  I had to study the work with a loupe to fully appreciate the detail.  How can a human hand perform such a tiny miracle?

Alex's Engraved Ring

Detail Photo

 Needless to say, I now want something else engraved.  I just don’t know what.  I could do something for a cast design – the engraving has to be deeper so it comes out in the casting, but it’s doable.  Suggestions are welcome!

Mandarin Garnet

I haven’t written much about Mandarin garnets because I don’t really like orange as a color, and so I’ve ignored this gem for a long time.  But now I think I didn’t do it justice.

Spessartite, the garnet group that Mandarin garnet falls under, has only been on the gemstone market for a little over 10 years.  Although tiny amounts have been found in Germany, California, and Sri Lanka, among other places for a couple of hundred years, it was so rare that it was considered a collector’s stone.  Marketable quantities have only shown up in Namibia, then Nigeria and Mozambique in the last decade or so.  In 2007, there was a find of facet grade Spessartites of beautiful bright color near the town of Loliondo, Tanzania (it's basically a location in the bush, some 10 miles off of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere).  A gemologist friend of mine travelled there a few years ago and got some nice crystals – a dangerous journey that necessitated an ample supply of weapons for security.

Spessarite "Mine" near Loliondo, Courtesy of Jentsch Mineralien

The color of spessartite ranges from a light orange to a deep reddish brown, with the bright and pure neon-color oranges being the most desirable and the most expensive.  The trade has termed them “Mandarin” garnets.  Initially these garnets came from Namibia, and then Loliondo, Tanzania.

Here's a sampling of my purchase, the stone with the best color is the second to the left

Like most garnets, Spessartites are mostly smaller in size, but 1-3 carats are available, 5 carats and above are rare.  While a brown Spessartite under 1 carat can run as low as $20/ct, a well cut Mandarin in that size can cost 10 times that much.  Recently prices have been on the upswing because the mine in Nigeria is no longer up and running.  Originally, prices were low but world demand drove them up very quickly.  As a result, smart dealers that had overbought at the time stashed their parcels away.  Indeed this was a good move, because after staying steady for a few years, prices have recently doubled because supply is now dwindling.  This is in part why I acquired some pieces.

Design wise I was surprised how well the bright orange looks in rose gold, and in particular when pink gems, like mahenge spinel and pink sapphires, are added into the mix.  I also love the combination of red, orange, and yellow (i.e. yellow sapphires and Burma spinels).  Mandarin garnet, as opposed to pyrope garnet, also has excellent performance in incandescent light.  In fact, I find that they look their best when the light does not hit them directly, but when it is subdued.  Then a good quality piece can almost look neon-orange, despite the occasional tiny white inclusions that are called “sugar” in industry.  That neon color is what drew me in the most.  Extra fine Mandarin ovals can look more orange from one angle, with flashes of reddish orange from another angle.  It’s really quite beautiful.

Mandarin Garnet ring with Burmese Pink Sapphire

This not-quite-red yet not light orange color is extremely rare.  I’ve seen large parcels from the Loliondo mines with perhaps just one or two stones that looked like that.  In fact, I went through every parcel at my gem dealer’s office in the smaller, more affordable size, and pulled out all the most neon pieces I could find.  These days, most mines no longer produce that color at all.  Recent reports indicate that only low quality rough is being offered in Nigeria, and one source has told me that because of political tensions among locals, the Nigeria mine is no longer operating now.  And so it goes until we find some more elsewhere on the African continent.