Last weekend Colleen (our kick-ass new Director of Ops) and I headed to Las Vegas, for the JCK Vegas gem show. It was our first time at this show, and her first time in Vegas. To say we had fun is a serious understatement. Now that we've returned and have almost recovered, we wanted to update everyone on the new stones and cuts that we discovered. OMG, the whole thing nearly blew our minds. Awesome new stones, diamonds and gems everywhere, TOOLS, oh the tools. Bench jewelers have a thing for tools. (Shh, I actually have more than most guys. lol)
Before I get sidetracked talking about $60 hammers and polishing bits...this is just a quick update on the sexy new stones we found, and then in about a month we plan to roll out a comprehensive stone summary, with all the details you could possibly want (and some you probably don't), to help you decide what diamond alternative is right for you.
NEO Moissanite
First off, we met with Guy Stimpson, our resident moissanite expert and all around good fella, and his right-hand man Steve (who has excellent taste in Fedoras), to check out the new NEO shapes available. The round NEO came out in August 2015. These stones are lookin' sweet! They've been working on fine-tuning their cut - so the NEOs I shared last year are pretty, but the new ones are much more delicious. We checked out rounds, cushions, trillion cuts and others, and they are sending us samples of their stones within the month, so we can dig in and mess around with them. The stones are G-H in color, they are working on E-F color. We will share videos and more info as we get it.
Here is a bit from the NEO website. - "The NEO is a 4H crystalline polytype, allowing for the cleanest and purest colorless rough crystal growth. The NEO outperforms the 6H polytype currently used in the market today." So, in English - lol - the NEO doesn't go as flat in dimmer lighting, so they aren't as moody as some moissanite. Learn morehere. These stones are beautiful, and I'm excited to get my hands on some to do some videos and share them with you. AND, even better, the price on the NEO is excellent. Look for NEO pieces posted in both of our shops coming soon.
Forever One Asscher
At long last, Charles & Colvard has rolled out a beautiful new cut in their Forever One line of moissanite - the asscher, she's quite the beaut! They are available in 3 carat sizes - 1.3, 2.21, and 3.14.
They were having trouble cutting Forever One emeralds, the material still retained some body color, so they attacked the asscher cut instead, and it came out beautifully! These areposted in my Etsy shopas loose stones for now, and we will be whipping up some delicious rings with them in the near future.
