The Synthetic Controversy

I really like the analogies. The fact of the matter is synthetic gemstones or created gemstones are going to be with us forever.

Thomas Chatham shares his views:

No other recent discovery has been given so many obstacles to overcome as gems made by man. Yet I can think of really few other commodities and contributions to our field that have given so many people so much pleasure than the millions upon millions of stones that are made by man that are used in jewelry.

The controversy really revolves around those in the business of selling natural stones. They are a bit nervous about what the synthetics may mean to their future. Will the bottom fall out? Will the value of their inventory be reduced to pennies? Should they get into this market or let it pass them by? Can natural and quality synthetics be sold side by side effectively?

There was a suggestion to declare an outright ban on the product. It is my opinion that this would only make the product much more desirable to the undesirables. The industry would go underground and the gems would find their way into natural parcels around the world more frequently with no attempt being made to market them as they are being marketed today with full disclosure as to origin.

It’s not the gemstone that cheats people, it’s the people who cheat people.

The next suggestion was to require producers to add a tell-tale element into the crystal growth that would fluoresce under ultraviolet and signal the observer as to the nature of the material. This is noble concept and one which initially satisfied the fairness of disclosure but violates the 50 + years that Chatham spent in accurately reproducing nature. To include a substance deliberately alien to the natural chemistry of that species is to the purist and the Chatham family a sacrilege. To the part time gemologist-jeweler-appraiser it would be a godsend.

Let's compare the cultivation of flowers with cultivation of crystals. The idea is that when man plants seeds and intervenes in the natural process of growing by supplying special food, adequate water, light, and ideal growing conditions in order to achieve the very best possible results and then reaps a harvest of superior flowers, ‘do you then consider these flowers to be man-made? Or are they synthetic? This is the very problem that has faced all of us with man-made gems for the last 50 years.’ What do you think?

My feelings are that the two are the same in essence, but we have other factors to consider. Should flower shows be only for those flowers plucked from the hillsides and meadows where man has not intervened? Do wild natural flowers command a higher price than those grown by the horticulturists? Is man to be denied the artistic endeavor of trying to improve upon nature by making this world a little better place than he found it? Is that not why man was put upon this earth after all? Certainly the Chatham family has come a long way in fulfilling this dream and in an ethical way.