Synthetic Stones

There are many in the industry with different views on how to describe a synthetic gemstone. I totally agree with Tom Chatham. He has been misunderstood + he has every right to air his views on his product. The world is changing and people are buying Chatham created stones.

Thomas Chatham writes:

Profit is the best test of created gems and over the years of my association with the Chatham emeralds and rubies, I have most often heard the following question: “How can I sell something not real? Or the statement: “I only sell natural gemstones in my store.”

When I hear those declarations of allegiance to natural stones, my reaction is swift, after muttering a silent prayer for the soul of the retailer who has just uttered those fateful words. “It’s not you the retailers lack of understanding,” I tell them, “It’s the marketing philosophy that has been projected to you that is directly opposed to every rule I know about retail store management.”

It can be difficult to comprehend that we actually grow emerald and ruby crystals that are the same as those nature grows. I realize not everybody is an FGA or GIA graduate. After all, to suggest to anyone that you can do exactly what nature does is a little hard to swallow. But that’s exactly what my father did learn how to do over fifty + years ago. However, it was not the equivalent of re-inventing the wheel when his results were emeralds. He only discovered the right door and the right combination to unlock that door through which emeralds would flow. Carroll Chatham discovered not a process which produces emeralds and rubies, but a set of conditions which duplicates the environment in which nature will grow an emerald or ruby crystal for him.

Chatham does not manufacture the emerald or rubies—nature does, under conditions controlled by Chatham. There is nothing artificial about the emeralds or rubies sold by Chatham.

Now back to the retailer who has just told me he sells natural stones only. AS he flicks an imaginary piece of lint from his lapel, I can’t help but see the four carat stone in his pinky ring.

‘Coke bottle,’ I think myself.

‘Aha…beautiful Peridot,’ I purposely misidentify.

‘That’s a natural emerald,’ he immediately retorts. (I look for the aura to form around him.) What has offended my ear is not his lack of chemistry background (why should he have any?) but his lack of business sense. The jewelry industry today is one of the last trades that is struggling through the process of evaluating its purpose and direction.

And it’s not good business for a jewelry store owner or buyer to say that he won’t sell something that should be right in the middle of his inventory. I don’t care what an individual like or dislikes personally. It’s not important whether he’s white or black, French or Chinese. Or if he will only wear 18K gold or insist on chrysoberyl cat’s eye for his personal jewelry. What he should care about is why we’re all in this business. We’re in it to make a profit—not convert to our own personal likes and dislikes. You and I serve the public. Some things they like, some they don’t. That’s the system and the public will decide. Up until now, the public decided it wanted everything you showed them. As a matter of fact, there were so many people out there eager to buy that you could show them only what you liked and still have a good business. But not any more.

Things have changed a little. And they’re still changing. Gold has gone crazy in price, and you can’t profit from it. Diamond prices are momentarily unstable, and the price of decent-looking emeralds not within everyone’s reach and good rubies has skyrocketed out of sight. Discount houses are moving in right and left. Department stores are upgrading their lines.

“How can they do this?” you ask yourself, “Why would anybody buy fine jewelry in a discount house? I have fine jewelry.”

The answer is that discount houses and department stores are into marketing. They’re in the business to make a profit and they have to sell merchandise. They know there is no room in their marketing philosophy for personal preference in products. They feel the public is out. If they see a winner they go all out. Sure, they have their likes and dislikes, but not to the extent of eliminating an entire section of their inventory. It’s that attitude that makes me want to climb the showcase at a trade show. They buyer that announces their store will sell only natural stones is telling me:

“We limit ourselves.”

“We actually turn away business.”

Now, just so you don’t think Chatham is just chewing on sour grapes, I’ll share a little inside information with you.

Please keep this confidential.

Our yield of cut stones, with maximum success in the lab (no goof-ups by Mother Nature—a common occurrence) would only supply three one carat stones to each jewelry store in the US. But we don’t even come close to doing this. We still have set backs in the laboratory and we are constantly short of material.

Expand? Sorry, but we have no more family members available to help in the lab. Anyway, why grow more emeralds when I hear people at trade shows making proclamations of abstaining from purchasing all but the stones found in the ground?

“If Chatham would make a big splash at the public with national advertising in all the major consumer books, a direct campaign four or five times a year, or perhaps sponsor a TV special like the Osmonds, we’d love to handle your stones,” says the retailer.

Well, I couldn’t pay for it. Nor could I justify it in view of our limited supply. It would create a market that I could not supply. Don’t get confused with the idea that selling the finest natural gemstones should mean that’s the only thing you should sell. It’s not so much what you sell that is responsible for building the reputation you seek, but how you sell and represent the products you offer.

The way we live and the consumer goods we consume reflect the highest standard of living in the world. To achieve this luxury we have all had to re-evaluate what is acceptable to give us the overall ‘Best of Life’ conditions. Our clothing is derived all from natural fibers grown in artificial environments or just plain made from scratches with nylon or rayon.

The jewelry industry today is one of the last trades that is struggling through the process of evaluating its purpose and direction. In the beginning, only royalty had the wherewithal to possess jewelry with precious stones. Over the years, spectacular economic growth has led to sales of fine jewelry the average person can afford. However, that progression is now in danger. Due to a multitude of reasons, the cost of the basic materials in jewelry has risen at an unprecedented rate, which, if it continues, will once again put fine jewelry as we know it today, in the reach of only the wealthy. Man-made gemstones may help answer that dilemma, since they do not cost as much as natural gemstones. That lower price means that the beautiful gemstones do not have to move beyond the reach of the middle class.

What will happen to natural stones? Will their value fall? How can the jeweler sell something he may not be able to separate from a stone found in the ground? As with the reaction to other advances in chemistry, those who think they will be adversely affected by these advancements have a natural inclination to mistrust or outright disbelieve the assurances of the ones who made the discoveries.

After all, these discoveries may make them obsolete. But just as there will always be the customer for a Rolls Royce, there will always be that customer for the $50000 per carat emerald or ruby. As for the separation between the stone grown in the ground and the one grown in the laboratory, reputable dealers and gemologists will solve the problem.

I hope man-made gemstones will soon arrive at the same position of prestige in the eyes of both the trade and the general public as cultured pearls enjoy today. There was once a preoccupation with the separation of natural pearls and cultured pearls. By the time the experts determined a method on separation, no one cared. Somebody finally said, “Hey, what’s the big deal?”

Sure some people were hurt in the transition. But, today there are more pearls than ever being sold. Although exclusivity has been traded for volume, natural pearls still command high prices. True synthetic gemstones are an opportunity for everyone to enjoy and possess the original beauty responsible for gemstones becoming so sought after in the first place.