John And Laura Ramsey Have Visited Several Gem Mining Districts Of The World

John and Laura Ramsey have a huge knowledge of gemstone jewelry. They both believe in high quality and fair dealing of gems and that is why they have earned a great reputation in the field. The fact that they offer high quality gemstone jewelry at fair prices has made then able to gain the customers trust and make a long-term relationship with them. Both of them have spent nearly 40 years of their life in the wholesale trade of gem and jewelry. During that time, they visited manyl gem mining districts of the world including Brazil, Thailand, East Africa, and Sri Lanka. All these travels have helped them get exposure and their knowledge.

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Birthstone Spotlight: October Opal

Opal three

If you were born in October, you are lucky enough to have your choice of two very colorful birthstones: Opal and Tourmaline. This month’s blog post focuses on Opal—the “Gem of Mystery.”

Opal has perhaps the most mysterious look of any gemstone—especially fine opal. Who would guess that a “rock” from the earth could look like a miniature version of the Northern Lights? The idea of something from the earth looking so ethereal is somewhat of a contradiction. The soil we tramp over in our everyday life is so “earthy”—brown, drab, lifeless, dull, and opaque.

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Birthstone Spotlight: September Sapphire

sapphires

Sapphire is a lot bigger subject than might be thought by the casual observer. For many years, many people thought sapphire was simply that very dark blue stone in small sizes offered by most jewelry stores as the September birthstone. Sapphire is certainly that, but ever so much more…

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Where in the World – Peridot

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San Carlos mine in Arizona

Where in the world is peridot mined?

When I first got in the business the big source for peridot was Arizona. This material comes from the San Carlos Indian Reservation which is more or less 100 miles east of Phoenix. In fact, Laura and I traveled there to buy rough directly from the Native Americans. The material from San Carlos tends to be small and also tends to be included…

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Famous Mogok Rubies of Myanmar

Myanmar ruby rawWhether you are born in July, are a collector of fine gemstones, or a jewelry devotee, the Mogok Ruby should be part of your lexicon. Fine Ruby is sometimes known as the “king of gems”. Ruby from this fabled area of Myanmar (Burma) is highly sought after. Some of the premier stones in collections and museums are from this special Mogok region.

One such stone is the “MOGOK RUBY” weighing 15.97 carats. This beautiful cushion cut gem sold at Sotheby’s auction house of New York for $3,630,000.00 in 1988. It was purchased by Graff of London and later resold to the Sultan of Brunei as an engagement ring for his wife. The incredible color and size make this gem ruby a superior collectible. What would it be worth in today’s money? No doubt a lot more. Especially now that it has an interesting provenance…

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Birthstone Spotlight: June Pearl

PearlMost people are very familiar with the pearl as one the birthstones for June (Alexandrite and Moonstone are the other two June gemstones). Pearl, with its variety of colors and shapes, is an organic gem loved and treasured for centuries. It is said that the Romans built armies from the sale of a single pearl, while poems abound about its transcendent beauty.

The pearl was selected as a birthstone for June by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912. Not only can you select your favorite pearl as a birthstone, you can also receive a pearl for your 3rd, 12th and 30th wedding anniversaries. The allure of pearls is far reaching…

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John And Laura Ramsey Are Highly Recognized For Offering World Class Jewelry

John And Laura Ramsey are some of the most respected names in the industry of gems and jewelry. Their passion for jewelry making can be evaluated from the very fact that they spent almost twenty years of their life in the wholesale gem and jewelry trade, traveling to various gem mining districts of the world, including East Africa, Thailand, Brazil, and Sri Lanka. They later appeared on TV and in no time became familiar faces to the television home shopping audiences in countries like the US, Canada, and Great Britain. Their unique style of offering information about gems and telling about their products immediately caught the attention of viewers. Their program grew quickly and led to an overwhelming response from customers in all three countries.

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Birthstone Spotlight: April Diamond

loose-diamonds

The word “Diamond” is probably the most emotionally charged word in the entire lexicon of gems. Diamond is the most sought after gem in the world. Whether or not the diamond deserves this pinnacle is up for debate, but the fact that the diamond sits on the pinnacle is not.

This is due to many factors:

1. Diamonds are beautiful to the eye.
2. Diamonds tend to last.
3. There are enough to go around. Well sort of…..
4. They are well promoted.

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Birthstone Spotlight: March Aquamarine

AquamarineAquamarine is one of my favorite gems. Of course with me, talking about my favorite gemstones is like asking a parent about their favorite child—whichever one I’m thinking about or talking about at the moment is the favorite. Still, aquamarine is right up there in my true favorites.

Aquamarine—one of the many faces of beryl

One of the interesting things about aquamarine is its true rarity—due to the unique trace minerals that have combined with its underlying base mineral, Beryl, to produce its beautiful blue tone…

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Birthstone Spotlight: February Amethyst

AmethystIn past blogs about birthstones we have been talking about gems that have their gemstone “label” in common with their mineral names. Gems like Garnet, Topaz, and Tourmaline are also the mineral name. In contrast, Amethyst is a color name for quartz, which is a mineral. Amethyst is the quartz in its purple color.

Quartz itself comes in at least several colors: citrine (yellow, orange and red), amethyst (varying shades of purple), ouro Verde (a chartreuse color), whisky quartz (brownish), smoky quartz (brownish gray), prasiolite (light bluish green), and Ametrine (naturally occurring mix of purple and yellowish gold. Some of the colors occur in nature and some are induced by man. Amethyst occurs naturally in nature.

If quartz itself were a birthstone we would be talking about all of the foregoing colors. But amethyst is plenty wonderful all by itself…

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