What makes a stone a gem?
Beauty, rarity and durability.
Consider what stone you’re using for the type of jewellery you’re making. i.e. harder stones for rings
When using a weaker stone, consider their cut and how they’re set.
Toughness = internal / hardness = external = resistance to wear and tear
Less harder stones are not likely to have sharp and aligned facets.
Harder stones tend to be more reflective.
It’s not a typical practice to disclose oiling and glass filling to customers.
Straight colour bending = natural / curved = artificial

Inform your buyers about the appropriate care from water, oil from skin, heat, etc.

Diamond
Once they exhaust the land they leave the site behind.
You loose more than 50 percent of the rough diamond in the cutting process which then are not wasted but used by other industries. i.e. diagrit
Light reflection should come out through the top.
Modern round brilliant cut is the most popular.
Colour grading and clarity grading
Growing demands for synthetic diamonds.
You can artificially enhance the colour of mined diamonds.
All diamonds coming in to the uk are meant to be ethical but that could be a superficial marketing tactic.
All synthetic diamonds should be laser etched on the girdle.

Lecturer prefers mined stones to lab grown ones.

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