Colored Stones in Engagement Rings? #idsayYES Interview with Bashinski’s

Believe it or not, Princess Diana was not the first lady to take a colored stone as her promise of marriage, nor is she the last.

Colored stones are quite the rage these days, especially in style are Sapphires and Emeralds. Emerald green happens to be Pantone’s “Color of the Year” for 2013. (Pantone has been declaring a color for the following year since 1999.)

So, my interview with Don of Bashinski’s also turned in to a bit of an education on buying stones and how to make sure you are buying from a reputable dealer and how really, the consumer doesn’t have a way to tell the difference between authentic and synthetic stones- scary!

Make It Work Molly: “So, is this [colored stones for engagement rings] more of a trend because of royal wedding?”

Don of Bashinski’s: “IT’s an influence but it’s really more because of price. 2 carats sapphire for price of 1/3^rd carat diamond. Several aristocrats bought colored stones not just Diana.”

Another bonus- You can get big bling for your bucks.

Don: “An emerald is rarer than a diamond, not that they aren’t rare but a really good quality emerad is 10 times more rare than a diamond.”

MIWM: Making sure you have a good quality stone- how do you do that?

Don: ” The average person can’t, you have to know the stores. I do appraisals and you see a lot of people buying synthetics. You see a lot of that when people come back from the Caribbeans buying these large stones. A good example is someone will buy a egg sized stone. In Mexico they’re told it’s genuine Alexandrite but it’s actually Corundum. That’s worth .50/carat- if it were real Alexandrite it would be $50,000/carat. I’ll ask people how much they paid and they pay $2,000. That size, if it were real Alexandrite, would be worth $200,000.”

I also learned from Don that many times jewelry stores don’t have a gemologist on staff and they buy from a vendor who tells them it’s “x” stone but vendor got it from a supplier who tells them it’s whatever stone and it’s not.

MIWM: So the best bet is to buy from a store that has a trained gemologist on staff?

Don: “ Yes. Most of the people who really take the time to know their stones are also the highest fashion people- they keep up with the fashions. They’re the ones I see at jewelry shows wandering around seeing what’s hot and whats not. Like this year is the year of the Emerald. The fashion industry is really using a lot of the Emerald Green and I bet half of the mall stores won’t know this. They buy their jewelry from a manufacturer and that manufacturer might or might not help them with keeping up with the fashion.”

Luckily for me, I was speaking with the expert. Don is the trained gemologist at Bashinski’s. I also learned from him that it takes 4-6 years to become  trained gemologist. It’s like getting a Master’s Degree, to put in layman’s terms. Don is a graduate gemologist and to be this you have to spend about a month at labs in NYC or LA. There is also NO LICENSING required to do appraisals or to sell jewelry or anything like that.  Holy Jesus.

Well, back to our original topic… colored stones for engagement rings.

Don: “We have sold a LOT of sapphires as center stones, and you can get them in all colors.”

So, we have learned that it’s best to buy from a jewelry store that has a trained gemologist- which honestly I would have thought it’s obvious but how many times have you walked in to a jewelry store and said “hey do you have a trained gemonolist on staff?” Yeah, exactly.

We have also learned that colored stones for engagement rings are HUGE this season, and my prediction is they will stay huge for a while. Not just because of the economy and because of the royals but because they are so pretty!!! I mean really, they’re simply gorgeous. One local young lady I spoke to, Amanda Hagerman, also said “yes” to a colored stone from Bashinski’s. She showed her fiancé, local restauranteur Cesare Mammarella, a picture of a yellow stone engagement ring that she loved two years ago. He took the picture to Bashinski’s and they created a custom designed ring for her of yellow topaz.

Would YOU say yes to a colored stone? I know I sure would! How could you say “no” to something like this?