Peridot
We are oftened asked where in the world the best peridot material comes from. Usually we get these questions around this time of year since Peridot is the birthstone for August. The most amazing colors of peridot come from a region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. If you have been watching or reading the news in, oh let's say, the last 10 years, you will say, "that's not a destination too high on the bucket list, especially now." With war and tribal conflicts in this re
Orange
We've always liked orange here at Zoma Color. Our favorite orange is captured in Spessartite Garnet. Spessartite is a brillian gem that has an even higher refractive index than ruby and sapphire. With a hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale, Spessartite strikes you with its fiery orange and lacks the brownish tones that you may see in other garnet specimens. Material comes mostly from Africa, primarily Namibia and Mozambique. We love to design around these stones and hav
Jedi Spinel
Recently we read an article about a relatively new spinel find in Myanmar. These red spinels are dubbed "jedi" spinels via a Star Wars reference that they have not been touched by "the dark side." Spinels sometimes have a dark tone within the gemstone that lessens the color and value. These jedi spinels lack the dark tone, as evidenced by their almost translucent appearance. These parcels consist of bright neon red spinels from Man Sin (left) and classic red Mogok spinels
Brasil
With the World Cup in Brazil, we thought we would focus on a beautiful stone that comes from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Bi-color tourmaline is unique in that it has zones of color, very often greens with pinks. It's also known as watermelon tourmaline. This fancy-cut watermelon tourmaline is surrounded by diamonds in 18K yellow gold. We made the mounting to fit around this uniquely-cut gemstone. This one sure is one-of-a-kind. I'd like to be able to say that we
