Ooooh!!! There is North Carolina again. Lance??!!!

Thanks, Lucie...just in time for my Birthday - wonder if they would spare a modest sample...!

uh oh, when's your b-day again?

I'll tell you way after June 8th...Ok??? *grin*

ok!

(did i miss it?)

Nope

(May 31st)

thanks!!

Behave ! (force yourself!) Except for tomorrow...*grin*

Why tomorrow Oops - today!)???

*smile* Just being silly.... HOW MUCH SILVER MUST AN ITEM CONTAIN TO BE CONSIDERED STERLING? 92.5 percent.

*grin* um, where does black opal occur the most?

So Marcia, have you gone to North Carolina to get that emerald. These are supposed to be high quality, right? The price will astronomical. Good quality emeralds are rare. Even small ones with good clarity and color command nosebleed prices. Curious Wolfie, is the black opal question a trick question?

cheryl, no, it's not. a friend of mine told me her mother was told that germany was the only place to find black opals. never heard anything about that.

Honestly, I didn't know. I would have said Australia, which a place very associated with opals. So black opals occur only in Germany. That's interesting.

yes, australia is what my books say but it doesn't indicate that they are exclusive to that region. it includes czechoslovakia, usa, brazil, mexico, and south africa.

I have a small opal mined in the United States. It's really quite pretty, albeit, pale and delicate, rather than firey as opals are supposed to be.

According precious black opals come from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia and lesser ones from Tintenbar, also in NSW. Very small quantites also come from from Indonesia.

(My black pearls have arrived, but I'm not supposed to know.)

OoooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo....I had forgotten. Yikes!!! How can you stand to wait??! Almost a whole month!!! I got dinner out. Usual place.

he gave me the bill for his $400 silver belt buckle..........

*frown*

That's ok, I am plotting my revenge. I am custonian of all his credit cards and they will put you in hock forever if I load them. He'd better play straight with me or I'll put his sorry butt in hock and you'd better believe I am getting that angry.

WHAT FAMOUS WOMAN, USING A DIAMOND, SCRATCHED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE ON HER PRISON WINDOW: MUCH SUSPECTED OF ME, NOTHING PROVED CAN BE? England's Queen Elizabeth I, while she was confined at Woodstock in the mid-sixteenth century before she attained the throne.

HOW MANY DIAMONDS ARE THERE ON BRITAIN'S IMPERIAL STATE CROWN, WHICH IS WORN BY THE REIGNING MONARCH ON STATE OCCASIONS? There are 1,783 - including the 309-carat Star of Africa. The crown also has 277 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, and 5 rubies.

WHAT GEM WAS ONCE CONSIDERED A CHARM AGAINST DRUNKENESS? The amethyst - which gets its name from the Greek amethystos - which means "remedy for drunkeness."

Oh dear, just came in here to post my 27th anniversary gift (it's on friday 13th this year)....an amethyst/gold tear drop pendant and earrings ...and look what I find posted above it ...amethyst a remedy for drunkeness!!! oh well ..back to the guiness I guess. Anyway, I was pleased with the pendant and earrings ..nice deep colour amethyst set in a 9 ct gold surround, not huge but looks nice, and stud earrings also set in gold. Bought on the liner to Spain. Oh yeah, I saw I Humungeous emerald ring in Petersfield, Sussex the other day ...couldn't believe the price tag in this sleepy little town shop ..�18,000 ..it was a rather ugly setting though and I can't see them ever selling it. Lots of other emerald rings of varying hues and sizes. For a provincial shop they had some very strange things in the window ...several very large (like 1 1/2") chunks of amber set in brooches, a couple of other very large stones (1" plus) I'd never seen before set in rings ...a sort of watery brownish stone. All with biggish price tags.

Oh, Maggie, how nice your amethysts sound beautiful. Okole Maluna!!! as to those pricey watery-brown stones - not cairngorms? (In which case they should not be all that pricey...) or cannot imagine what else? Notmuch call for dirty sapphires, trashy diamonds or topazes. Next time, go in and ask!!! As to that Emerald, my unfortunate birthstone, never mind! I shall never own one in any case so I have decided I do not like them.

Ooh, Happy Anniversary...and many Many more. Hug T for me and to both of you my love!

Happy Anniversary Maggie! could the watery brown stone be smoky quartz?

From the price tags ..�650 I wasn't sure what they were ...except huge!!! I certainly wouldn't like to wear a stone as big as that! Topaz is quite popular here ..I have a brown topaz ring ..but it is cheap, not in this price bracket ..these stones were 1 1/2" It didn't look like the kind of shop you go in an ask what stones they were ...I'm really not very good at that sort of thing! One of my earlier 'jobs' was in a jewellers in Hatton Garden (the jewellery centre of London) ..so I have seen most precious stones ..this was completely new to me. They had huge hunks of amber too, some in settings.

Thanks for the anniversary greetings ..we are now trying to decide what to do for it ...after the whale cruise it seems a little like an anticlimax!!! I still can't believe 27 years!!!! And I really married young of course ...

Married and had your children before grade school, yes?! Talk about child brides!!! Brown "topazes" (called 'smoky topaz' here) are really brown varieties of quartz just as amethyst is purple and citrine is orange/yellow quartz. They should be relatively inexpensive and that is what cairngorms are!!!

?Then this must have been something else! I'm really curious now ...and I won't be back that way for months ...

never be afraid to talk about jewelry with a jeweler. if they are worth they're salt, and you know what you're talking about, you can talk jewelry at tiffany's!i walked into a classy establishment and asked them if they could tighten the setting on my tanzanite. they took one look at my stone and went to the back and tightened it. no questions asked and no strange looks. (it needs it again, unfortunately)

The Tates in Austin make some pretty incredible jewelry, they don't have their own website. from http://www.well.com/user/bratwood/tates.jpg

Oooh....YES!!! I am too tiny for some of that - but tall enough to carry long pendants off well. I discovererd that I do have some emeralds, but they look like jade they are so mily. Ah well, I did not choose them and they are symbloic of my birthstone... Love the pearls in the bottom one... Thanks for the great images. Waiting for the ladies from Drool to find it. Karen??!! Is silver mined in Texas or is it from Mexico? I love silver most especially.

those are some unusual and creative pieces (esp. the bracelet at the bottom). i'm a gold kinda gal!

I'm looking for some silver and amber drop earrings to go with the silver and amber pendant my mum gave me for my birthday ...so far no luck!

Have you looked on the web? I like amber set in gold but you can usually just find it in silver in the USA or on the web. Wolfoe, when you get some silver in your hair you'll start liking silver better - it sparkles amazingly....so I hear...

Never looked on the web for jewellery ...haven't got time to get any now ...going in four days time ...maybe when we return ...I can't afford gold usually

What are those watery dirty-brown stones? Are any diamonds really trashy?

I have seen diamonds on a huge earth drill which makes tunnel-sized holes. They are pretty miserable-looking but no natural stones are trashy. Mountings? The Wearer? Oh yes, but not the stones!

Mayhap I need to take a field trip to Britain to check out those stones?? About those watery-brown stones...go in and ask? You better believe I would and with my patrician nose elevated just enough that they would assume I could afford to purchase one!

Come over when I get back next Spring ..and we'll go in together!!!! GRIN

That should be great. I'm sure between the two of you, it will be determined exactly what that stone is.

Oh yes! I know of no jeweler worth the name who would deny a prospective customer a closer look at a piece of jewelry and a try-on of same. What an excuse to visit that green and fertile land (been listening to Jerusalem.) *sigh* Maggie should be in Africa now. I talked to her by fingers on IM just as she was leaving for Heathrow. I can't wait to hear the bug stories she comes back with this time. Yeesh!!!

Of course, all of you Aglophiles know it was England's green and pleasant land. Oh my, is it ever! In the Poetry conference I have posted the entire poem by William Blake in his very own topic. I was going to post the one about Stonehenge but could not find a copy. Can anyone help me with the title of that poem of Blake's?

lemme do some checking!

Ok!! Remember my idly thinking of all the gems fund in North Carolina and wondering how I could get there to look for some examples for my collection?? Things have been happening - I will be moving to North Carolina permanently in the near future - as soon as possible. I have met something better than the volcano...

I have found what I need instead of an emerald for my birthstone: Dresden Green Diamond Click for larger image From India, the 41-carat Dresden Green Diamond is the world's largest and finest natural green diamond, noted for its exceptional color and clarity. White diamonds (both large and small) in gold and silver settings surround the central gem and sweep up to a bow. The Dresden Green is a fitting exhibit partner for the Hope Diamond; both are similar in size, setting, and natural history, and are fabled in their cultural history. October 13, 2000 through January 10, 2001, Second floor, Winston Gallery, Smithsonian. Larger image http://www.mnh.si.edu/images/exhibits/dresden_big.jpg

Actually, the British Museum of Natural History has an emerald green diamond but it is only about half carat in size. That's ok...I'll be modest about it. They also have a ruby-red one, and all sorts of other wondrously coloured diamonds, any of which I would not turn away.

How rare are colored diamonds? I know that they can be very valuable. Marcia, you really shouldn't turn down a emerald either. As they tend to be rare, at least the good color and clarity ones are. I've seen some emeralds of beautiful green color in estate jewelery, but some of the newer pieces seem to have stones which are a bit pale. The Dresden Green Diamond. Now that is a stone with class.

Apparently, from those I have seen on home shopping jewelry-thons, not all that uncommon in Russia, where all of theirs seem to have come from. I almost wish I had gotten a clear medium turquoise one I saw. Mounted in a most unattractive way, it must have been lovely in person. Deep clear rich colors are rare in any stone. I imagine diamonds are much the same. I would imagine that is why the greatly esteemed British Museum's and the Smithsonian's Gem collections (not to mention the American Museum's) have such tiny examples on display. I rather liked the Dresden Green. I have a tourmaline that exact color set in heavy silver as well as a deep green one set in gold. No, I shall not turn down an emerald. Perhaps, rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind, but this lady hangs onto her specimens.