Gems from the Lab
Ah, the romance of the diamond, pressed into existence
by Mother Nature over thousands of years. Its history
is a metaphor for love's endurance, just as its brilliancer
suggests the spark in the beloved's eyes.... But what if
the suitor could give a ring with a brilliance born in a
laboratory?

One of more remarkable feats of technology in the jewelryr
industry is the development of high quality gems in laboratories.
Not only diamonds, but also emeralds, rubies, sapphires, opals
and other popular stones are now synthesized in labs and sold by
jewelers. Although for many people synthetic has a negative
connotation, suggesting that a thing is not genuine, the word
just means "put together". These gems put together in the lab
are real gems. They are not imitation stones, made of a cheap
material that looks like a valuable one--as cubic zirconium
looks like diamond. Synthetic gems are "optically and chemically
identical to their natural counterparts," explains mineralogist
Joel Arem. "The only significant difference is the place of
origin: a laboratory rather than deep within the earth."

Over the last hundred years several of the major gems have been
manufactured from chemical raw materials, but now the technology
is much improved and so is the jewelry market. Synthetic stones
sell for an incredible 5-10% of the price of a natural gem, so
vastly more people can afford them.

Now that you know if it doesn't say "natural" then it probably isn't.
This man made 10mm diamond is sculptured in 26" 22 Ga square dead
soft sterling silver wire. 24" 22Ga half round half hard sterling
silver wire. The sculpture is 1 3/4" x 3/4" including the bail