Bumps in the Road

So my year of 'Do more stuff' has turned out to be the complete opposite.
I wont go into too much detail as this blog is about Jewellery and Gemstones but not long after my last post I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 34.
The last few months have been a whirlwind of doctors appointments, surgeries and treatments. This has left ZERO time for anything even remotely creative or fun jewellery or gem wise!
Health wise all will be good. It was caught early, contained and fully removed via surgery. I have finished chemo and just about to start radio therapy. One of the many side effects of treatment has been numbness in my fingers and painful nails (they can actually fall off if I am not careful!!) so while things are calming down now I still have to wait a little longer till my hands are better. Talk about frustrating!

Now. Back on topic...

The jade carving competition I mentioned. I haven't even started my entry and it is due end of October. Unless my fingers improve ASAP I don't think I will be able to submit anything which I am pretty disappointed about.

Yesterday I went to the Glen Waverley Lapidary Clubs exhibition.
I bought some slabs and two cats eye tourmalines which are totally awesome. I got to catch up with some people from my lapidary club which was nice and now itching to get back into things! I have no idea how long it will take to bounce back from all this madness so until then this blog might just be links to interesting things and random photos of gems.

Minor Gemstone rant.....

I used to LOVE scrolling through the loose gemstone category on a popular online auction site but tonight I found it more disheartening than fun.
It has been awhile since I have looked and was surprised (though I guess I shouldn't have been) to see misleading names and descriptions that were more confusing than enlightening. I have nothing against man made gems or natural ones that have been treated but I DO BELIEVE IN FULL DISCLOSURE!
Titles like: Tourmaline quartz druzy, Natural reddish pink labradorite - treated ultra rare, 'Designer' Turquoise....

These are the three stones fitting those descriptions and the only redeeming factor is that anyone duped is only going to loose a couple of dollars not hundreds.

The reason it prompted me to post? It is SO frustrating that these people doing what they are doing they are simply making the gemstone/jewellery trade look bad which hurts EVERYONE.

Countless times I have had customers come in to work thinking that they have bought one thing (usually while on an overseas holiday or online) when it is in fact something completely different. I hate being the one to break the bad news when they ask me about the stone. Sadly it only takes for someone to be burned once by misleading sales tactics to be wary of ALL sales people in the future.

I myself have experienced how easily it could happen. While overseas I went into a wholesale and retail gem merchant. I had a look around and asked if they had any tourmaline cabs. The man working there proceeded to show me fluorite cabs! I said as much and he insisted that they were tourmaline. Needless to say I left without buying a thing!
I still dont know if it was an honest mistake or he was intentionally being misleading but either way if I hadnt of known the difference.....

The below images have been taken from google images:
Fluorite

Tourmaline

Anyway. I would prefer to leave on a happy note.
True and correct listings far out weighed the misleading ones and if you use a little common sense you should be able to avoid getting burned. A super rare stone of massive size is not going to be for sale for a couple of dollars...it would be in a museum!
If you do want to take a chance on something that you are unsure about check their return policies and decide: if it turns out the stone is in fact either man made or a different gemstone - Would you still like it and pay the amount listed?