October has two beautiful birthstones: Electrifying Tourmalines and Mysterious Opals. Read on to find out more … Tourmaline is the newer October birthstone, and it offers a dazzling array of colours. It is not uncommon to see a Tourmaline display more than one colour in a stone. The most popular colours are pink and red Rubellite, green “chrome” and neon…
At Aeron E. King, Goldsmith Ltd. our goal is to offer our clients the highest quality of workmanship, the most exquisite, responsibly sourced diamonds and coloured gemstones, strictly scrutinized by our GIA Graduate Gemmologist, as well as impeccable customer service. We believe in creating relationships with our clients, built on trust. Aeron E. King himself is an extremely talented and…
Sapphire is a variety of the mineral corundum and it symbolizes sincerity, truth, faithfulness, and nobility. It has a long history with nobility and clergy, who wore sapphires because they also symbolized heaven. Some Sapphires are quite famous, such as the Rockefeller Sapphire, a 62.02ct rectangular step-cut stone from Myanmar, which is now set in a platinum ring with two…
Peridot is the birthstone for the month of August as well as the gemstone to celebrate a 16th wedding anniversary. It is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one colour: a bright, grass-green to yellowish-green colour. The word “peridot” comes from the Arabic faridat, meaning gem, and it has appeared in priests’ jewellery as early as the…
Pearls are enchanting and precious. They have been passed down from generation to generation. It’s safe to say that most households have a string, or two, handed down from a family member. Because they originate from seashells, pearls are often tokens brought back from beach vacations. They encapsulate beauty, grace, and tradition. Women of all ages embrace pearl jewellery. They…
Gemmology is the science of analyzing natural and synthetic gemstone material, from coloured stones to diamonds to organic material like pearls, amber and opals. A gemmologist is a person that is academically trained and qualified to identify and evaluate gems using specialized scientific equipment such as microscopes, refractometers, dichroscopes, spectrometers and more.
This is a situation that I deal with a lot. Customers ask for the price of a diamond, let’s say a 1.00ct G SI1 for example, and shop around in order to find the best price. Fair, right? Read on and you be the judge. When shopping for diamonds, customers typically look at the diamond report to ensure that they…
The engagement ring is a tradition dating back to ancient Egyptians who believed circles were symbols of eternity. Wedding rings were worn on the left-hand ring finger because it was believed that a vein runs directly to the heart, the “Vena amoris”. In 1477, the Archduke Maximillian of Austria is believed to have commissioned the very first diamond engagement ring…
While thinking of the birthstone for the month of March, Aquamarine, it led me to dream of warm tropical water and white sandy beaches… But why “white” sandy beaches? What about purple? Or maybe orange or even red! There are a variety of coloured beaches around the world that are worth visiting. Here are a few worth mentioning and “googling”…
In the fifteenth century, the traditional virtue of the Amethyst stone was the cure of drunkenness: it had a sobering effect. The word “amethyst” derives from the Greek “amethystos”, meaning “a remedy against drunkenness”. This stone is known to support sobriety. It was also believed to protect soldiers from harm and help hunters capture wild animals. In our day and…
It is the beginning of a new year and we will all have a birthday to look forward to. This brings me to talk about birthstones and the lore and history about them. Birthstones, also known as “natal stones”, can be traced back to the Bible. Aaron, the High Priest of the Hebrews, wore a breastplate containing twelve precious gemstones…
I recently attended the GIA Jewellery Forensics seminar. As a gemmologist, it is important to participate in continuous education in order to keep up to speed with new technologies, such as being able to identify a lab-grown diamond versus a natural one. As a jewellery appraiser, I need to understand how a piece of jewellery is made in order to…
