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Gold $3,876.40/oz -0.2% Silver $49.25/oz +0.3% Platinum $1,439.00/oz +0.5% Palladium $1,001.00/oz +0.2%

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Guides and interactive explainers on gemstones, diamonds, metals and making jewellery, written for people in the trade and checked against named sources.

Latest articles

Gemstones & diamonds

Sapphire: properties, treatments and buying checks

Properties, colour, quality, treatments, synthetics, origin reports, weight estimation, setting and care of sapphire: the facts that matter when you buy, set and sell it.

6 Oct 2026

Gemstones & diamonds

Gem lab reports: what each section means

What each section of a diamond grading report and a coloured stone report means, what a report does not tell you, and how to check it matches the stone.

5 Oct 2026

Interactive guides

Turn a stone, change a setting, compare colours: visual guides you can try for yourself.

Diamonds

Six-prong solitaire, taken apart A solitaire ring in 3D: its parts, and how proportions change the cut grade Diamond colour, D to Z One diamond moved along the D-to-Z colour scale, face-up and in the grading tray Diamond clarity map Every clarity characteristic GIA defines, inside a diamond you can turn Diamond fluorescence None to Very Strong under the lamp, and what research found about daylight Fancy shapes and the bow-tie Stretch a fancy shape and see where light leaks and the bow-tie appears Lab-grown, step by step How CVD and HPHT diamonds are grown, step by step, and how labs tell How to read a lab report Each part of a laboratory report explained, on an example report

Gemstones and pearls

Hue, tone and saturation How the trade describes a coloured stone's colour: hue, tone and saturation Birthstones around the world Every month on the American, British, Japanese and nine-gem lists Where gems come from A world map of where each gem is mined, today and historically The 7 pearl value factors GIA's seven pearl value factors, changed one at a time on one pearl Gem treatments explained Usual treatments gem by gem, the trade codes, care and disclosure rules Cutting angles and light Change a stone's cutting angles and follow the light: where it returns and where it leaks Preview

Metals

Precious metal colours, measured Gold colours by karat, with platinum, palladium and silver, from measured data

Making jewellery

From sketch to ring: why it takes weeks, not days The fifteen steps of lost-wax casting and why a ring takes weeks How a stone is held: setting types Twelve ways a setter holds a stone, on one ring you can slice open Prong setting and wear How prongs are cut and sized, and how they wear over the years Jewellery findings Clasps, earring backs, ear wires and bails, drawn and named

Reference

Trade dictionary The words of the gem and jewellery trade in plain English
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