10,050 ct Emerald Found in Zambia

Gemfield Resources PLC, (a United Kingdom entity) announced the recent discovery of a 10,050-carat Emerald crystal from their Mbuva-Chibolele mine, located in Zambia. The emerald itself is a 10 centimeter hexagonal crystal and was found about 40 meters from the surface in a wall of pegmatite. This open-pit mine which has been open only since July of last year, is one of two mines in operation by Gemfield Resources PLC in Zambia.

The presence of emeralds in Zambia has been known since the late 1920's, however they were not mined commercially until the middle of the century. It is believed that much of the gem trade in Zambia occurs on the black market, however this is changing and the find by Gemfield Resources represents a positive step.

Emeralds from Zambia tend to have a bluish hue; in many cases even more blue than their more famous cousins from the mines of Chivor in Colombia in part due to a higher concentration of Vanadium. Zambian emeralds tend to require less treatments.

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Embassy Emeralds - Loose Emeralds from Colombia

Romancing the Stone

I saw Romancing the Stone on TV the other day and it was quite interesting to see how my perception and opinions have changed over time. I forced myself to watch it to get a look at the large Colombian Emerald that the movie revolves around. It was tough, but I did make it to the end. Wow, what a cheesy movie. I recall seeing it back in 1984 and I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe I was drawn in by the adventure parts where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner found themselves in the jungle or the interesting fortress setting of Cartagena, but seeing it again after all this time, I think I must have been on some of the drugs they found in that crashed airplane in the beginning.

How great would it be though, to find a nice Colombian Emerald the size of ‘El Corazon’? Maybe I’ll ask around on my next trip to Colombia.

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Columbian Emeralds vs. Colombian Emeralds

Call me a perfectionist, but I have an issue to discuss with the general public. It centers around something that is near and dear to my heart: Colombian Emeralds. Please note the spelling, it is not Columbian Emeralds… They don’t exist. Now, I can understand how many would think the correct spelling for Colombia contains a ‘U’ because that’s what we’re used to in the United States, but it does not. I guess at one time I thought that it did as well, but after many trips to Colombia and after becoming an emerald dealer, I have to take a stand. So here it is. Here’s my stand.

Columbia is many things. A proposed name for the United States way back when, a city in South Carolina, a river in Washington, and an Ivy League university in New York City among others. What Columbia with a ‘U’ is not, is a country in South America that produces the finest emeralds in the world. Colombia with an ‘O’ is. Please make a note in your mental dictionaries so we can give Colombia the credit it is due.

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Embassy Emeralds - Colombian Emeralds at their Finest

Diamonds in the Moonlight

Being in the gem and jewelry business, I am constantly thinking of ways to promote my business. The other day I was going through in my head some of the advertisements or commercials I’ve seen that were memorable or really seemed effective. There is one in particular that really sticks out. I believe it was more of a campaign with several different variations on the same commercial concept, but it was very simple and powerful. It contained nothing more than water, a beautiful woman, her diamonds or diamond jewelry, and the moonlight reflecting off the water and/or diamonds. The rest of the background was completely dark. Nothing else was at all visible. The diamonds in were extremely bright and captured your attention completely even successfully making the beautiful woman seem secondary.

If only I could capture that sort of attention in a similar fashion but my emeralds. I think it would be effective if done in the same way, but of course that’s not very original. Maybe the blog community might have some ideas or might share some examples of emeralds being presented effectively.

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Embassy Emeralds - Loose Emeralds Direct from Colombia.

Creating Custom Jewelry Is Not Difficult

Creating custom jewelry is not difficult. Actually it’s quite simple. In many cases, you’re simply designing the piece around the emerald you choose. It’s a whole lot easier to cast and shape metal to the size you need than it is to perfectly cut or select a stone that meets the exact dimensions of a premade setting. Let that soak in for a second, because it should relieve some anxiety you might have about doing this. And so with that being the case, you should be able to focus on simply selecting the emerald you want. You’ll also need to decide if there are any accent stones or materials you may desire, and work with the jeweler to get the design that works for you. Most of the time, people have an idea in mind or at least certain features, but if not, an experienced jeweler can help walk you through the completion of the design. Except for telling him/her what you want, leave the sourcing of the accent stones and metals to the jeweler. They’ll be able to obtain what your piece requires.

One of the reasons you may be into making custom jewelry or enhancing and repairing what you have is the cost factor. In most cases it can be significantly cheaper to make your own jewelry piece than it would be to buy it already made from the jewelry store. It is easy for us to imagine a cost savings of 20-50%, but maybe as high as 70% of what you’d expect to pay. Some of this savings depends on the complexity of the design, your ability to find bargains, the jeweler you choose, and other factors, but a nice cost savings should be in possible for anyone to achieve and you’ll end up with a higher quality piece. It makes you wonder why more people don’t choose the custom option. The best explanation we can come up with is that many people don’t know where to start; they don’t feel they have the time to have a piece made, maybe they don’t know about how much they could save, or they don’t understand how the process would work and how easy it would be. Another possibility is they don’t have the patience to wait 2 or 3 weeks for their piece to be made. It’s unfortunate, because all it takes to get started is to buy the stone you want and visit the yellow pages online and search for jeweler, jewelry design, or custom jewelry.

Learn more about custom jewelry settings at Embassy Emeralds

Custom Jewelry - A Personal Tale

Before getting involved in the gem business, the first thing that came to mind when I heard the words custom jewelry mentioned was my first real love. I was in the military at the time, stationed in Japan for 3 years and I dated a lovely Japanese girl for most of my time there. She was a special girl who truly loved me to the point that it often made me feel unworthy to be so lucky. Because of the nature of my job, I deployed to other countries several times a year, usually for weeks or months at a time. It was difficult for us, but especially for her, as she had to imagine what danger I might be in because of my work or what temptations might be out there to test our relationship in exotic places like Bangkok or Singapore.

On this particular deployment, I was going to Turkey for about 7 weeks and it just wasn’t a good time for us to be apart that long. Our goodbye was tough, so I wanted to get her something special while I was away to show her how much I was missing her. I had been to Turkey before and knew that the goldsmiths there could make just about anything, so I brought along a textbook from my Japanese class that had examples of the Japanese characters that I needed to make a personalized bracelet for my Yumiko. It only took a week for it to be made, but it turned out great. Three gold medallions with Japanese characters on them linked together to spell her name and a lovely gold chain to bring it all together.

To make a long story short, I returned back to Japan and of course she cried when I presented her with the bracelet. It was perfect and it brought us close after being apart for so long. That is until a few months later when she tossed it in the ocean, but that’s another story.

The point is that custom jewelry is truly special and conveys magnitudes of sentiment more than something you pick out of store window or jewelry counter. If you’ve never given or received custom jewelry, you’ll be amazed at what it means to you, even if you’re the one giving it or just making it for yourself.

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Embassy Emeralds - Nothing Greens Greener

Quick... Think of a Jewel

The majority of people, if asked to name a gemstone, would probably think of a diamond first. But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, diamonds themselves only became in favor once lapidaries learn to correctly cut and polish this otherwise dull material to unlock the fire and brilliance within. Long before all this however, colored gemstones- and particularly the emerald- were kings. While a well cut emerald round can be spectacular to behold, the uncut emerald crystal nestled amongst its matrix can be equally impressive.

In the middle and early ages, color was one of the most important characteristics in gemstones. Up until the discovery of the far superior specimens from Colombia in the 1600’s, most emeralds came from Egypt. But despite their poorer quality, the emerald still ran supreme.

With its grass green color, the emerald symbolized life, nature, and rebirth. The color green also has both spiritual and philosophical significance in a large number of cultures, both ancient and modern day. It has been said that to possess an emerald was to possess beauty herself.

Emeralds - Discover the Beauty of Most Ageless of Gemstones