We are proudly to be a member of ICA (The International Colored Gemstone Association) and provide you with ethically sourced sapphires under sustainability guidelines. Nowadays the main sources of sapphires are Thailand, Cambodia, Australia, Madagascar and Montana in the U.S.A. Mines that have yielded the finest sapphires in colour and clarity are located in Kashmir, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The former change colour when seen under a daylight equivalent light source and under incandescent lighting and the latter are cabochon-cut stones that display a whitish star created by fine intersecting needle inclusions. Two of the most important types of phenomenal sapphires are colour-change sapphires and star sapphires. Some sapphires can display what is called in gemmological terms, a “phenomenon”. One interesting thing that you might find in sapphires is an inclusion also known as “silk” consisting of fine rutile needles that give a velvety-milky look to the stone.
The stone is found in Sri Lanka and has a vivid orangey pink to pinkish orange stiking colour which is caused by iron and chromium trace elements or by colour centres.
Within the fancy sapphire range the rarest and most prized colour is the padparadscha which means “lotus flower” in Sinhalese. Any other colour, besides red which would make it a ruby, is considered a fancy sapphire such as yellow sapphire, green sapphire and pink sapphire. The most valuable colour of sapphire is what is known as the “cornflower blue” or “Kashmir” which is a strong pure blue to violetish blue and sometimes has a velvety look. “Sapphire” always refers to stones that vary from violetish blue to slightly greenish blue and it’s primarily the presence of iron and titanium trace elements that produce these beautiful blues. The name “sapphire” derives from the word “sappheiros” in ancient Greek and is a variety of corundum species.
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