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7/1/08
Dear Friends of ACS,
The July Update of the ACS website will be in place by 10 AM, PDT, Thursday, July 3rd. The site will be closed to purchases (and searching) for about an hour during the update, but open in regards to all the educational content.
The Gem of the Month essay will be posted on the 3rd and features Apatite, a somewhat fragile, but beautiful and interesting gem. A new "Ask Barbara" column will also be posted at that time.
The Birthstone for July is Ruby, the most expensive colored stone (in fine quality), in larger sizes, more expensive than equivalent size/quality colorless diamonds! See and read about all the Birthstones here:
http://www.acstones.com/Birthstone.html
Please enjoy my previous Gem of the Month Essay on ruby here:
http://www.acstones.com/gemofmonth/2001/gemofmonth.7.01.html
The Monthly Special for July will be: The entire Q-S category of gemstones (which includes ruby). All gems and jewelry both in the new introductions and in the current inventory that fall into that group will be pre-discounted by 10% (approximately 175 pieces!) . In addition, normal site discounts apply so the total savings (depending on the order total) can be close to 25% off!
What's New for July:
I admit to being woefully behind this month: So, if I am to actually get the update posted by the 3rd, I need to work on it -- not this newsletter so I will just mention a few items, and hope that you will remember my track record and realize that the new collection of 25 pieces will be worth taking a look at!
Not to miss:
Four pieces from Barry Bridgestock: cutter extraordinare! I cannot say enough about how pleased customers have been with Barry's choice of material and his craftsmanship in cutting. A stone marked "BB" on ACS is one you can count on for optical performance, beauty and value. He's submitted a round amethyst, a fiery red Umba garnet, a green tourmaline and, my favorite, a tourmaline that looks like the finest Andalusite (gold in the middle and hot red orange on the ends). There are four new jewelry pieces: a freshwater, American cultured pearl and Tanzanite 14k ring, a pair of carved coral 14k earrings, an antique natural pearl 14k stickpin in a most unusual design, and a large and wonderful 14k GF wire wrap pendant in spectacular Charoite.
The most unusual piece this month is a fossil redwood leaf impression cab. I had one of these before and the customer who returned it irately accused me of "painting" the leaf on the stone. ;-) As in that case, this is all Mother Nature's doing.
I usually try to have a nice specimen of whatever the gem of the month is, and I do: a three piece set of neon blue apatite in square step cuts. Iolite, lapis, spectrolite, cat'seye opal, reverse carved rock crystal, turquoise and bicolor tourmaline are all represented by specimens of fine to top gem quality.
The rarest pieces include a watermelon garnet cab, ones of the nearly unobtainable Mawsitsit and banded fluorite, and an andradite garnet from the Apache reservation at San Carlos Arizona (cut by the famed Larry Woods).
Please forgive my truncated descriptions and visit my site on July 3rd or sometime during July.
Warm regards,
Barbara
Barbara W. Smigel, PhD.
Graduate Gemologist, GIA
Artistic Colored Stones
840 S. Rancho Dr. #4387
Las Vegas, Nevada 89106
(702) 384-4234
commercial website: http://www.acstones.com
email: barbara@acstones.com
educational website: http://www.bwsmigel.info
email: bsmigel@cox.net