Sunday, August 24, 2008

All That Glitters Website Changes and Info for September 2008

We were on the road visiting jewelry stores and custom goldsmiths in NC and SC, specifically: Raleigh, NC; Wake Forest, NC; Durham, NC; Chapel Hill, NC; Greensboro, NC; Winston-Salem, NC; Concord, NC; Charlotte, NC; Greenwood, SC; Greenville, SC; Spartanburg, SC; Brevard, NC; Hendersonville, NC; Asheville, NC. In all the 60 or stores that were visited, about 5 were truly stores/goldsmiths that worked with fine quality, high end quality gemstones. We now have a few more very special customers!

Here are the changes to look for on the All That Glitters website for September 2008:

This Months Special: 0.34ct Nice Green Brasilian Emerald



Gem News: Coming to a Court Room near You: The Labradorite Litigations

The information that we had hinted to in a previous Monthly Gem News has indeed proved to be true! "If you recently bought red or green "new-find" labradorite on screen or on line as a natural-color gemstone, you may be in for a rude awakening. These feldspars may owe their beauty to the gemological equivalent of color implants - or, more crudely, dyeing..." You may also find this Months Gem News as a permanent part of our Learn More Page...

http://www.atggems.com/Learn_More.htm



Newly Faceted or Photographed Gemstones:

http://www.atggems.com/Photos_New.htm

Custom Designed, Hand-Made Sterling Silver with Rhodium Plate

(No Tarnishing!) Set with All That Glitters Gemstones...

A few Mozambique Tourmalines, a very large Zincite (yellow) and a nice Green Sapphire have recently been posted. Two small Diaspores and 8 Very Important Large ones are also displayed. The largest gems have been faceted by our Master Cutter, listed in our Inventory Database in the past, but only photographed now.



All That Glitters and GIA Team Up Once Again:

There has been an amount of orangy Topaz on the market over the past 3 years. It is not from the Ouro Preto

area of Brasil and we wouldn't call it Imperial in color. It is more of an earthy tone, but still a pleasing orange.

All That Glitters had purchased two parcels and it was discovered that it lightened tremendously on exposure to

sunlight. This can happen naturally, but we contacted GIA to see what they knew. As of the other day, a parcel of our gemstones were sent to GIA for analysis and study. An article in Gems and Gemology Magazine, published by GIA, will be available in the future with more information. If anyone is interested in this material, we have a small parcel of 6 stones, average weight is just under 8cts, so each stone is about $80 - the color is now a beige and the gems are quite lively.


All That Glitters Contacted For Second Edition of Gemstones Book:

We have been contacted by Keith Wallis, author of a previous book on gemstones. In his first book, All That Glitters provided the photo of the Diaspore that is displayed within the book. Mr. Wallis is currently working on another book and has sought photos of several different gemstones for publication in this new book. We look forward to working with him again on this new endeavour. You can read more about the first book at the following link:

http://www.atggems.com/Gemstone_Pocketbook_Flyer.htm



Next Month:

Our New Photos Page will display a number of faceted gemstones faceted by our Award Winning Master Cutter and part of his collection of gemstones for sale.



Future News Release:

We briefly mentioned a future News Release in the past, but still have not had the time to write it for publication. We can briefly tell you about it now. Back in about the late 1980s, perhaps early 1990s, a well known mineral dealer visited our booth at one of the numerous gem, mineral and jewelry shows where we were exhibiting. He purchased a Tourmaline crystal that we had brought back from one of our trips to Brasil. He paid $480. He then turned around and traded it for two specimens valued at $100,000 that were owned by another well known U.S. dealer. This dealer, then turned around and sold the former All That Glitters Tourmaline specimen for approximately $60,000 in cash to another dealer of fine minerals. We believe that it is still in his collection. It seems that this Tourmaline specimen had an orangy cap/termination which was unusual for this location - the Itinga Mine. All That Glitters was happy to make about 10% profit which was about $50! This scenario is not uncommon in many businesses that deal with very unusual, unique, one-of-a-kind items. Many of All That Glitters gemstones are very rare or exclusive for one reason or another - for two simple quick cases, take the Super Blue Tanzanite we have offered for sale. We know of only one other piece of rough that was available and we did not purchase it. After seeing the results after our Master Facetor cut this rough piece, we were disappointed that the other piece that we initially passed on, was no longer available. It is now somewhere in Russia - the last we heard. And how many faceted pink Tourmalines have a Watermelon Slice displayed in the center!?




Friday, August 22, 2008

Coming to a Court Room near You: The Labradorite Litigations

If you recently bought red or green "new-find" labradorite on screen or on line as a natural-color gemstone, you may be in for a rude awakening. These feldspars may owe their beauty to the gemological equivalent of color implants - or, more crudely, dyeing....

Learn more about this issue by visiting the associated All That Glitters website that contains the article written by Colored Stone Magazine!

< Coming to a Court Room Near You >