forgotten gems

Can be found on Etsy at peacock pearl

I have an ongoing obsession with two things: Tahitian pearls and colored diamonds. Now anyone who knows me is probably thinking either "is that why you are broke?" or "dream on." While these items are extremely expensive they, like many other things, can be affordable in small amounts. In my last post I put up a picture of an opera length, ombre Tahitian pearl necklace. That piece likely took years and years of hand selecting the exact pearls to make them into the appropriate color gradient for that necklace.

Such things may be beyond what I (and most people) can afford but I would like to point out that the recent interest in Tahitian pearls has led to some more affordable options as well. Take for example the necklace at the beginning of this post.

That is a natural peacock pearl, and it was the first hit I got on an Etsy search for Tahitian pearls. The entire thing costs around 30$. I got several pearls myself for Christmas and paid 16$ for six pearls.

But what about the diamonds....

1.01 carat pink on ebay with certification
Available here for the low price of 36,000$.

We have all seen these beauties on the fingers of celebrities and at the auction blocks of places like Sotheby's. Colored diamonds (Particularly pink) cost more than my car (which isn't saying much) and generally are not for the regular public.

I like rocks. I particularly like unique rocks. Such as the unique bi-color sapphire seen below. I still have not managed to acquire one of these. It is on my list. But I digress.

Bi color sapphire available on ebay here

Lab grown from my collection

If you want to acquire interesting gemstones and do not want to pay full price there are options. You can purchase a lab grown equivalent. These are not synthetic. These are real gemstones. The only difference is that they were made by scientists and not nature.



Or you could use another type of stone that comes naturally in interesting colors such as watermelon tourmaline (see below).

Natural Watermelon Tourmaline. 

argyle pink available here

But if none of those options appeal to you then you can look at factors that always affect price: size and clarity. The diamond pictured above is worth 36,000$. But it has the golden number of 1.01ct and is perfectly clear. While it is said that the cost of diamonds increases exponentially with size that gradient becomes even steeper for good colored diamonds. But what if I did not need a carat. What if I was happy with .05ct. The image left and above shows an Argyle pink with an fancy to fancy viv rating and a weight of .05ct for 80$. You might need a microscope to see the things but hey, it is a pink diamond.

The itty bitty diamond collection, Left to right are two pink diamonds, a tiny green (lower right) and a black diamond. 

Tahitians 

When I stared collecting I decided I wanted a tiny diamond in every color in the spectrum. So far I have collected green, black, clear (white is a separate color), and pink. Above is a picture of my collection.  I would like to note that none of these cost me more than 20$ and most were 10$ or less. They aren't really worth much except to collectors. Now I just need grey, blue (that will be expensive) yellow, orange, purple, red and white (not colorless).

I also made my own necklace charm out of the pearls I bought for Christmas. These are 7mm pearls (which is why they were so inexpensive) but have surprisingly good luster and color which is ideally offset by an ancient birdwatching guide and a large thumb-tack. The pearls can be found here and here .

So it is possible. It is possible to have a ring with (small) pink diamonds. It is possible to have a necklace with Tahitian pearls. It is more than possible to have interesting gemstones. With all the synthetics and other things that are available it is sometimes breathtaking to see what nature itself offers. Stay tuned for more on color changing garnets and sapphires, pink and other colored diamonds used affordably and more pearls.