Should a jewelry designer be required to reveal if stones are real or synthetic?

No

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by Suzy Charnas

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I think the answer depends on what you have in your jewelry box: is it fine gold, delicately worked into wreathes and vines or sleek, modernist shapes and set with diamonds and rubies? If so, you know where that comes from: you bought it (or it was bought for you) at an established jeweler's shop, where you trust the staff when they tell you that a diamond is a diamond, not a piece of glass (although I confess that I once bought a little amethyst ring at such a place, and discovered later that the stone was rather grossly flawed - not enough for my unpracticed eye to catch, however). This is the same sort of place that sells good Swiss watches with intricate inlaid faces and chunky metal bands. Everything is commercial product, turned out in a factory setting and all looking very smooth and shiny and pretty much alike (yes, this is my personal taste speaking, but go take a look and see if you disagree).

At a higher level still, if you buy at top of the line jewelers modeled on Tiffany's, everything is simply presumed to be top quality, no synthetics permitted, even though here pieces will be individually designed and crafted, with much more - and more expensive - originality on offer. Insuring it costs a lot, but if you find yourself pressed to re-sell it, unless it's an antique or bears the mark of some really famous designer you'll find to your dismay that your gold-emerald-necklac e, is somehow worth a lot less when you sell it than when you bought it. Meanwhile, if you are like some wealthy people I know, you keep your really "good" stuff in a vault and walk around in excellent paste imitations, for safety's sake.

This is the area of set standards, where it's accepted on all sides that the true nature of precious stones is just what it is claimed to be, and the question of admitting that a stone is synthetic just doesn't come up.

But most of us can't afford either of these kinds of jewelry, or maybe one or two such pieces and that's all. For the rest, we buy less expensive work, hand made of semi-precious stones and exotic beads and metal elements to make colorful, striking ornaments often with an ethnic look - and a manageable price (that is still not "cheap" in the way that throw-away mass produced work on - not inside - the showcase counters in department stores or, for that matter, K-Mart).

That's my situation. Here's what's in my jewelry box: several Indian-made bracelets of silver and turquoise and a necklace of silver Indian beads; a string of brilliantly shiny black jet beads each cut with many facets, from Sicily; a much coarser string of scarlet beads each the size of a pistachio nut, apparently made of glazed clay, from (I was told) Tibet; a gold-washed (plated) pot-metal chain of links made in the shapes of an interlocking Greek key design, from a little shop in Florence; and a necklace of small carved parrots in gleaming black and turquoise blue that my daughter-in-law sent me from Hawaii (its birds and beads are carved wood, very light to wear, and so skillfully painted that people always admire it, taking it for polished stone). My most expensive piece is a necklace of silver and black coins and long spiky shells, a designer piece, which isn't "worth" half of what my husband paid for it but looks very classy in a dressy setting.

You get the picture, I'm sure; I prefer jewelry that looks handmade in someone's private workshop, bought for the most part at modest prices and covered by the ordinary household insurance. The designer-pieces, created and made by the hands of a craftsperson with good taste (that is, taste like mine, which is taste that gets a lot of compliments for me and sales for the craftsperson), were bought on the word of the seller that the bits that are supposed to be semi-precious stones really are that, and not synthetic imitations. At this level, it all works on trust; and there are good reasons for this.

My sister has recently begun making jewelry an an effort to supplement her meager social security income, by using her excellent design and color sense to create beautiful wearable ornaments. We've gone shopping together several times at local gem and bead shops, where items are contained in little cardboard or plastic boxes, with the description of what kind of stone or bead is being displayed in each container inked in on a label stuck into the box. I've seen no certificates of authenticity in these supply shops, which serve the local handmade jewelry trade - a very strong contributor to the tourist economy (we live in the Southwest, in Indian country).

The traveling gem and jewelry shows that we've attended, looking for more unusual elements for necklaces and bracelets, are even more casual about this sort of thing. You walk up to a table loaded with strings of colorful beads, and when you ask for a description of this or that string, the merchant - many of whom are Asians from large import companies in New York and California, or so say their business cards - will tell you very cheerfully that this is Chinese turquoise, and that's Tiger Eye from Burma, and those are Thai silver from the hill tribes around Chang Mai, and those very beautiful lozenge-shaped beads are acrylic; but nobody has documentation for any of this, and no one asks for any, not even in the case of silver. The merchant's word is taken as reliable, on the assumption that anyone who gets a reputation for selling fakes will be driven out of business.

These local jewelry designers and makers are primarily concerned about the prices of the items they buy, since your costs for a single item can mount up very quickly, possibly far beyond the price that you can successfully put on the finished piece. At this level - not factory workshops with dozens of specialist employees, but cottage industry work rooms with one pair of hands doing all or most of the work - it's pretty much a given that the value of each piece is in the beauty of its assemblage more than the quality of its stones. If makers like my sister had to vet every element used in a necklace in order to be able to swear to its true nature, they would be out of work. It's just not feasible for the individual jewelry maker to do this (although many will point out synthetic beads if you ask).

The truth is, they often don't actually know themselves what a beautiful bead is made of. They'll tell you what the wholesaler of stones and beads told them. For the most part at the point of sale to you, the consumer, there is no way to insure the truth anyway.

If you worry about this - if you think of your jewelry as an investment, so that you need it to hold as much cash value as possible - do your buying in high-end, established jewelers' shops that specialize in expensive work that they probably don't make themselves but must stand behind as to origins, quality, and so forth, if they are to stay in business. They are the only sellers who should be required to reveal and attest to the true nature of the stones in their jewelry.

Another option is to study and learn until you become as knowledgeable as any wholesaler, and can spot a synthetic for yourself.

My own feeling is, if you're shopping in the kasbah - any kasbah anywhere in the world - don't worry about it. Stick to your budget, and buy for beauty, buy for pleasure, buy for the joy of discovery, and don't let these issues spoil your fun. In such settings, value is in the eye of the beholder.

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