paraiba tourmaline

Kat Florence and Sarah Jessica Parker Team Up for Jewelry Auction to Benefit Nepal

I’ve been following Kat Florence for a while on social media. I’ve been fascinated by her truly extraordinary jewelry designs and her passion for gems. When I found out about this project — an auction in Hong Kong to benefit victims of the…

#idazzletravels: AGTA GemFair Wrap Up of Gemstone Trends

It is a good thing it’s sunny in Seattle today (yes, that actually happens about 12 days a year), or my post-Tucson funk would be so much worse. After five days of non-stop gem overload in the sunny Sagauro-land of Tucson, it’s hard enough to adjust my eyes…

Colors and Trends from AGTA and the Tucson Gem Show

Tourmaline, tsavorite, Paraiba, beryl. Druzy, rutile, slabs of agate. Specimens as big as a couch. Jewelry designers in tshirts and sunglasses, spending their entire budget in their first 5 hours at the show. Famous jewelry personalities eating tacos from food trucks…

There Is No Such Thing As A Semi-Precious Gem

We need to ditch the semi-precious phrase. Stat.

In our overwhelming human need to stratify and rank, the jewelry industry ended up with a few arbitrary jewels crowned as the pinnacle. “Precious” gemstones: ruby, sapphire, and emerald. The rest: lumped…

Gemstone Central: Color Trend Review from AGTA and Tucson Gem Shows

I spent a whirlwind couple of days in Tucson, AZ, home to the Tucson Gem Shows. I spent most of my time at the AGTA GemFair, which is the crowning jewel, so to speak, of the whole Tucson gemstone circus…

How to Buy a Colored Gemstone

This will give you some essentials you need to know before you splurge on a colored gemstone piece of jewelry. All the variables mean that a colored stone purchase…