topic Re: Beautiful Sapphires in Jewelry

Beautiful Sapphires

songbird — Wed, 03 May 2017 01:27:43 GMT

I collect different colors of sapphires. There are two kinds of good blue sapphires. One is the cornflower blue. That only comes from Ceylon. The other one is the more common Royal Blue. That is darker, but still very blue. The secondary colors must be green or purple. They come from Burma and a few from Madagascar. The Kashmir was the original Royal Blue, But it had a velvety look to it. Both kinds can have a medium or lighter shade. The Kashmir has been described as a sleepy eyed gem. QVC had offered the royal blue, but that wasn't very good. Almost black. Obviously, the better the color, the more expensive. Like precious and exotic gems, good sapphires gain in value. They only get higher in price.

The other colors are teal (recently offered by TVON) purple, the ruby (only the red sapphire gets it's own name) green, orange, yellow, black & white. There other colors too like raspberry. All non blue sapphires are called fancy sapphires.

This is the cornflower blue

And this is the Royal Blue. i wanted to show you the difference.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

Kachina624 — Wed, 03 May 2017 01:36:58 GMT

I remember years ago, back in the '80s, HSN had something they called their "dream bracelet". Seemed like everytime I turned the TV on, there is was. It was a tennis bracelet with large sapphires (they said) that were as black as onyx, set in sterling. I was sure everyone in America but me had one. The sapphires were from Kanchanaburi, maybe India?

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

songbird — Wed, 03 May 2017 01:45:52 GMT

Kanchanaburi, ( a town in Thailland I think) was popular years ago. They were the royal blue kind, but way too dark. Ideal sapphires are medium shade, not dark. They were sold at QVC too. The mine had just open and they were all over the shopping channels. The mine has since closed. People eventually stopped buying them. Thailand is big in ruby and sapphires. I always thought their sapphires were too dark.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

NYLovesQVC — Wed, 03 May 2017 02:17:13 GMT

I really liked the purple sapphires today

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

phoenixbrd — Wed, 03 May 2017 03:43:04 GMT

@songbird....you "collect" sapphires. Where do you purchase most of them? Those shown are outstanding and I would imagine require a hefty price.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

esmeraldagooch — Wed, 03 May 2017 14:38:17 GMT

The only sapphire I own are from Thailand and Montana.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

songbird — Wed, 03 May 2017 16:44:34 GMT

@phoenixbrd wrote:
@songbird....you "collect" sapphires. Where do you purchase most of them? Those shown are outstanding and I would imagine require a hefty price.

I've gotten a few from TVON. mostly rings, as I like to wear them too. I've gotten some from Gem Shopping Network. Good blue sapphires run in the thousands per carat in jewelry stores. Fancy sapphires are not that expensive. With the possible exception of the hot pink and now the growing popularity of yellow sapphires. Most of my sapphires are a carat. One exception. My Ceylon Cornflower blue is 2 carats and set in 18K. That;s my most expensive and from Gem Shopping. All of my sapphires have diamonds. I dislike gem stones without diamonds. Corundum is the only gem stone I like. Don't care for the popular Paraibas/Tranzanites and I hate semi precious ones. The ones shown are quite large and costly. Many of the sapphires online start at $28,000.00.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

itiswhatitis — Wed, 03 May 2017 18:08:12 GMT

@songbird, Sapphires are my birthstone but good ones w/o fissures and no lead glass are hard to come by. I won't buy any, nor would I buy the rubies.

Yellow and Pink Sapphires originate from Ceylon as well.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

songbird — Wed, 03 May 2017 19:42:41 GMT

@itiswhatitis wrote:
@songbird, Sapphires are my birthstone but good ones w/o fissures and no lead glass are hard to come by. I won't buy any, nor would I buy the rubies.

Yellow and Pink Sapphires originate from Ceylon as well.

I don't buy any gemstone without a lab report. All of mine have lab reports.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

VegasBusinessWoman — Wed, 03 May 2017 19:44:08 GMT

Wow! Interesting information! Most of the sapphire jewelry I have was given to me as gifts. I have bought some pink sapphire jewelry for myself in recent years and LOVE that color, too.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

itiswhatitis — Wed, 03 May 2017 23:04:49 GMT

@songbird wrote:
@itiswhatitis wrote:
@songbird, Sapphires are my birthstone but good ones w/o fissures and no lead glass are hard to come by. I won't buy any, nor would I buy the rubies.

Yellow and Pink Sapphires originate from Ceylon as well.
I don't buy any gemstone without a lab report. All of mine have lab reports.

You go girl! I should have owned one years ago but never did. I can't afford the famed Ceyon Sapphires now.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

nycgrl — Thu, 04 May 2017 12:21:13 GMT

Sapphire is my birthstone and I can't afford one - LOL. I don't want the ones that you see commercially that are black, chipped, included, or filled. I want a good stone - don't think I'll ever have one.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

songbird — Thu, 04 May 2017 14:32:16 GMT

@nycgrl wrote:
Sapphire is my birthstone and I can't afford one - LOL. I don't want the ones that you see commercially that are black, chipped, included, or filled. I want a good stone - don't think I'll ever have one.

You can get some good ones in the $1,200.00 to $2,000.00 range. They'll be in the one carat zone, but that's OK! And they are blue, not black.If you buy in a jewelry stores, try the estate section. Older jewelry is cheaper then brand new. For jewelry networks (the good ones) the best price wise is TVON. Anyone here will tell you that. Even better is Gem Shopping, but it will be in he $3,000.00-$4,000.00 range. Gem Shopping's policy is that they never sell glass filled anything. You can buy loose sapphires. Almost always $1,000.00 a carat. You can buy a semi mount later. Don't purchase them set in silver with zircons (the poor man's diamonds) from the cheaper networks. You certainlly get what you pay for in sapphires. .

By the way, it is against the law for a non citizen of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) to purchase a sapphire on thier soil. Only natives can own them. Sapphires are a source of pride. Miners have high rank there. And yes, most colorful sapphires are from Ceylon.

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

Carmie — Fri, 05 May 2017 03:15:01 GMT

I like sapphires too. I own a ring with one yellow and two green sapphires purchased by me, a pair of blue sapphire and diamond earrings purchased by my son for me, and a bee pin with beautiful blue sapphires given to me by my husband for my BD one year.

the clasp on the bee pin broke, so I took it to a high end jewelry store to replace or repair it. When I went to pick it up, the owner came out to speak to me. She offered to buy the pin from me and offered me a price that made me gasp.

Of course, I would never sell a gift from my DH, When I got home, I told my husband what happened. He informed me that he paid a high price for that piece, more than my engagement ring. I was shocked.

The sapphires are a beautiful shade of blue, not dark blue/ black, I used to wear that pin often. Now, I am more careful where and when I wear it.

When I visited Bangkok, I saw a blue sapphire and diamond ring that floored me. I almost bought it,but because the salesman was pushy, I didn't. I still dream about that ring,

Re: Beautiful Sapphires

tdog — Sat, 20 May 2017 17:36:42 GMT

@songbird I can't imagine hating a gemstone. There are some stones that don't appeal to me, but hating? I, too, love the rubies and sapphires but I've never been able to purchase a really fine quality ruby or sapphire.