Sapphire - a drop of immortal drink

Sapphire is one of the most favourite and expensive precious gemstones in jewellery. Sapphire is the symbol of spirituality, honesty, love, wisdom and goodness. It was believed, that you will never feel thirst if you put Sapphire into your mouth; if you carry Sapphire with you, it won't let you tell a lie; it will help you to develop memory, strengthen nerve system; that the three lines in Sapphire, so-called star of Sapphire, are lines of Believe, Hope, and Love and many more stories. However, the biggest true lies in your heart - if you believe in the power of Sapphire, if it "talks" to you when you look at it, it will have an impact on your life.

Sapphires can be found in various places in the world, yet 75% of all Sapphires are mined in Australia. An experienced eye can easily determine the country of origin of the stone. For example, for Sapphires mined in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Myanmar most common colours are from light to dark blue; Kashmir (India) - exceptionally fine quality "cornflower blue". Thailand (greenish colour), Tanzania (the majority of Sapphires have characteristics typical to alexandrite (changes colour depending on light)), Australia, Cambodia produces the largest quantity of Sapphires, but they are not very reliable, usually have secondary colour and "need to be treated to be saleable".About 80% of all mined Sapphire is cut in Bangkok. The best quality stones will travel to Germany, Israel or Japan.

What is inside Sapphire?

Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral (yes, most precious gemstones and semi-precious gemstones are minerals) corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide (α-Al2O3) with traces of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The amount of each of these elements affects the colour of the Sapphire. The most common colour of Sapphire is blue, but you may also see black, colourless, green, yellow, purple, pink or orange. Very surprising is that you will never find gemstone called red Sapphire. A red gemstone with the same scientific structure as Sapphire is the magnificent Ruby.

Sapphires are the most relevant and valuable gemstones on the planet. It’s the second hardest gemstone (9 in Mohs scale) after the diamond. Sapphire, diamond, emerald and ruby – this is the “greatest four precious gemstones”.

What is good quality Sapphire?

There are 4 criteria to define Sapphire’s quality: clarity, cut, carat and the most important - colour. What do you need to look for? Check what is the primary and what is the secondary colour of your Sapphire, how intense the colour is and how dark or light the stone is. The most valuable Sapphires have the only primary colour blue, with moderate to strong saturation and medium to dark tone.  The most legendary Sapphire is The Blue Bella of Asia. Spectacular 392,52 carats weight Sapphire is suspended on a brilliant-cut diamond tassel pendant and mounted on a diamond and white gold necklace. This piece of fine jewellery was sold for more than 17,5 million dollars in 2014 to a private collector. 

Synthetic sapphire

There were always not enough of natural Sapphires in the jewellery industry. At the beginning of the XX century, synthetic Sapphire was started to be grown. How to determine natural from synthetic Sapphire?

• If you have a magnifying glass, try to find air bubbles – practically all synthetic Sapphires have them. Real Sapphires have flaws or inclusions of irregular shapes.
• Breathe on it – on real Sapphires the fog will disappear in just a few seconds, on fake ones – it will stay for a longer time.
• Light your stone with a flashlight – real Sapphires will reflect only the same colour as the Sapphire, but fake ones will reflect many other colours.
• If you are still not sure about the origin of your stone, then you should take it to gemmologists.

In Ami jewel we use only good or high-quality cut, raw or cabochon Sapphires. In our handmade silver and gold jewellery we use different colour Sapphires: blue, colourless, green, yellow, pink and black. 

If you like jewellery with Sapphires, have a look at our collection of silver and gold jewellery with precious gemstone Sapphire. If you wish to create your special piece of jewellery, please contact us for a custom order.