Gemfair 2018 Recap

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! AGTA GemFair™ Tucson is one of my favorite industry events that I attend all year. There is nothing like being inundated by gemstones and cacti for a full week, let alone seeing the international community descend on the desert. As one of the three official AGTA Gembassadors™, along with Becky Stone of Diamonds In The Library and Benjamin Guttery of Third Coast Gems, I had the unique opportunity of covering the AGTA GemFair™ Tucson as an official part of the AGTA team. Being a Gembassador™ does not mean that I have to go to the UN Gem Council meetings nor do I have my own embassy residence, but I do get to explore GemFair™, take a look at every beautiful gemstone I can put my hands on and ask all the nosy questions about gemstone trends you can imagine.

Trends

A selection of purple Spinel from AGTA Member and Exhibitor Kimberly Collins (above). A large red spinel seen at AGTA GemFair from exhibitor Barker & Co. (right).

AGGREGATES

While sometimes the aggregates and rocks can be over-shadowed by their cyrstalline comeptitors at a gem show, AGTA Exhibitors like Rare Earth Mining Company, The Clam Shell, and Azurz were busy throughout the show, sometimes needing to offer up a bit of an education with some of their more unique materials. Buyers were interested in how these rough, cabbed, and sliced stones can provide texture and beauty to their jewelry designs.

A cabochon of Dioptase in Quartz from the Congo as seen at Azurz’ booth at GemFair (Above Left) Fordite, the “gemstone” made from layers upon layer of car paint salvaged from a defunct Ford factory was among the wild and colorful materials offered at The Clam Shell (Above Right).

The Rare Gem chose to highlight a press clipping about Princess Eugenie’s engagement ring as a way to market their collection of Padparadscha Sapphires at their GemFair booth (Above).

SPINEL

The Spinel trend is not going anywhere! Since it was declared one of August’s birthstones in 2016, Spinel has only continued to gain popularity. Designers and the public have started to get to know this gemstone better and are realizing that with a Moh’s hardness of 8 and a complete spectrum color range, the creative possibilities of Spinel can rival Sapphires. While purple Spinel felt particularly popular this year - the Pantone color of the year Ultra Violet might have played a part - the punchy pinks and reds were still in demand, not to mention the harder to find cobalt blue Spinels.

Do you see the mountain range in this slice of landscape agate from Rare Earth Mining Company? This material is dyed to emphasize the formations within the stone. (Above)

PADPARADSCHAS

AND BLUSHY PINKS

Just one week before GemFair began, Princess Eugenie (Queen Elizabeth’s Granddaughter for the non-Monarchy obsessed) and her Padparadscha and Diamond cluster engagement ring sparked hope in the hearts of the jewelry industry that we might once again convince the public that colored gemstones are a gorgeous alternative to Diamond bridal jewelry. It was apparent at GemFair that designers are preparing for an influx of Padparadscha Sapphire requests from their brides to be. The pink prediction isn’t likely to impact only Pads’ popularity as it seemed interest in baby pink Morganites has picked up again as well.

A “geo-cut” Montana Sapphire that is a slice of a Sapphire crystal with light faceting around the edges from AGTA exhibitor Sapphires of Montana (Above). An asymmetrically cut strawberries shortcake colored Tourmaline exhibited by Kaiser Gems (Right).

FANCY CUTS

Move over ovals. Peace out pears! This year more than others I noticed fancy cuts (I’m talking shapes beyond your standard oval, emerald, trillion, pear, etc.) starting to reemerge. These didn’t feel like the fancy cutting styles of the 90s, such as the “throw a checkerboard on it” look. Instead, the fancy cuts I noticed seemed to honor the original crystal structure the gemstone was cut from. While it’s not unusual to cut a fancy shape because of a crystal’s form, it could be that with crystals becoming part of the zeitgeist (look up #crystallove on Instagram and you’ll see) the consumer is starting to understand the beauty of gemstones in their raw form. With designers embracing rough gemstones in their designs, it is not surprising that these refined raw forms are finding homes in designer jewelry. Beyond the refined raw cuts, shield shapes and asymmetrical cuts had a presence at GemFair.

New Find

ARKANSAS TURQUOISE

When you bring a giant hunk of Turquoise the size of aGalapagos tortoise to a gemshow, people talk. When people find out it is the largest nugget of AmericanTurquoise on record, they start to talk even louder. AvantMining set up the beautiful piece of Turquoise along with cabs and beads of the same Arkansas material from theMona Lisa Mine at their booth. Though the large nugget on display was mined in 1982, and the Mona Lisa Mine has been sitting idle for 25 years, Avant Mining LLC has reopened the Mona Lisa Mine and is beginning to test the yields of new material. The Arkansas Turquoise material is pastel robin’s egg blue with gold veining.

A tray of Mona Lisa Mine Turquoise on display at Avant Mining’s GemFair booth (above). Here I am for scale to show you the size of the tremendous Turquoise nugget displayed in Tucson at GemFair (left).

Predictions

While the trends section is based upon buying patterns I directly observed while attending AGTA GemFair™ Tucson, my predictions are based off of calculated guesses and inferences. I’m often pretty great at this, but I’m not a certifieid fortune teller, so perhaps consult your financial advisor as well before reinvesting your kid’s college fund.

A non-fluorescent Fancy White Diamond from Manak Jewels.

CARVINGS

As designer jewelry continues to evolve, innovating new forms and styles, designers will begin to push their needs for customization beyond fancy faceting and into unique gemstone carvings as well. Why say it in gold and pavé when you can carve it into or out of a gemstone? Although there is a long history of gem carving, I believe we will see this form of art borrowing from the past while forging new aesthetics.

FANCY WHITE DIAMONDS

With their opalescent sheen, rainbow fire, and (often) fluorescence, fancy white diamonds have all the magic of the opals and moonstones that have been so on trend the past two years. I think we will start to see a shift away from the included brown and grey diamonds, which have become ubiquitous in the alternative bridal market for the past few years. While I don’t believe that all of the salt and pepper or red/brown diamonds will be replaced by their fancy white counterparts, I do believe the fancy white diamonds will gain popularity in the coming year.

KUNZITE AND IMPERIAL TOPAZ

With the resurfacing popularity of blushy pink stones, and the recent influx of newly treated Kunzite on the market, I believe we will begin to see designers working with the orchid pink Kunzite more this year. In the past designers typically avoided this material because of its color-fading issues. As a more stable material with a Moh’s hardness of8, Imperial Topaz in the pink, orange, and red shades is likely to see more popularity as another option for alternative bridal.

Written by Hannah Becker, Diamondoodles, 2018 in collaboration with AGTA. On-Site photography by Hannah Becker.