You can hold “fire” in the palm of your hand and not be burned.  If you hold a Lake County, Fire Opal, that is. Fire opal is a hottest opal in the gem market.   It isn’t your grandmother’s gemstone.

Lake County Fire Opal™ comes from mines in Oregon, very close to the California state line.. The Sunstone Butte Mine is owned by a coupe named  Dave and Tammy, who use mostly hand tools to mine for the Fire Opal.   They have trained their eyes to take advantage of what is termed ‘float.'” There is so much opal in the ground, that erosion exposes the underlying opal and it “floats” to the surface. The slope is covered with opal rough.

Fire opals display an even, saturated burnt-orange color. The color of fire opal is due to fine traces of iron oxide. This variety does not usually contain the flashes of light and color typical of other opal. Typically, transparent opal rough is faceted/ The opaque opal is cut cabochon style. The 4 x 6 fire opal gems featured in our photograph were cut in Germany in an elongated oval shape using  modified brilliant facets.

Lake County Fire Opal hasn’t been enhanced or treated.  The striking orange/yellow color of the gem is as nature created it.  This opal is 5-6.5 on the MOHS hardness scale. Like all opal, fire opal is soft and breaks easily.  Best suited for earrings and pendants, fire opal creates an eye catching ring none the less.

The Aztec culture held that a stone with this fire and beauty had to have originated in the seas of Paradise. You too could hold “fire’ in the palm of your hand.  Stop in our showroom and see for yourself.  Your jewelry adventure awaits at Sturm Brothers’

Did you know?  Gemstone’s shape isn’t the same as a gemstone’s cut.  Really? Really.

These are gemstone shapes. 1.  round, 2. oval, 3. marquise,or navett , 4.  emerald  and  5.  pear, tear drop or pendeloque.

Let’s name a gemstone.  Most gemstones have two names, a first name which is the shape and the last name which reflects the cut.  The shape of the gem reflects the shadow it leaves.  A round gems casts a round shadow and an oval gem an oval shadow. The second name reflects the cut.  The cut of a gem is the pattern surface facets or the lack of facets altogether.

 This is drawing of a round, brilliant cut gemstone.  The brilliant cut is a round cut of 58 facets, mathematically devised to produce the greatest brilliance.  Other round gems could have rose, old European, mine or cabochon cuts.  So these gems would be called round rose cut or round cabochon.

This picture depicts an oval shaped gemstone with a brilliant oval cut. Because the same term describes both the cut and the shape, we would not call it an oval oval, we just call this an oval.  There are other cuts and treatments for ovals such as oval cabochons or oval checkerboard cuts.

 Just as the oval drawing above, this drawing pictures a marquise shaped gem with a brilliant marquise cut. A marquise is an oval shape gemstone cut with pointed ends.  And just as the oval above, wouldn’t call this a marquise, marquise but just a marquise.

 The pear shape is most often cut with the brilliant pear cut.  This drawing depicts an pear shape and a pear cut, so we call it a pear. 

 This drawing’s title is a bit confusing.  This is a emerald shaped gem with mixed cut.  Most emerald shaped gemstones have an emerald step cut.  There are 58 facets in a typical emerald-step-cut gem. The drawing to the left depicts an emerald stone with a cut that is a mix between a traditional step cut and a brilliant cut, hence the name mixed cut,  The name of this gem: emerald, mixed cut.

If you’re finding these terms, shapes, cuts and details fascinating, drop by the Sturm Brothers youtube page or follow us on instagram @sturmbrothers or on facebook @sturmbros.,  What would you like to learn about next?  The jewelry world is full of unique terms and topics.  It is our favorite subject, so we’re happy to oblige.

Before the sun was up, the Sturm Bros.’ Design Team, was in the air and on our way to Phoenix,AZ. Twice a year, we attend the Independent Jewelers Organization Conference, to keep our motivation high, our skills sharp and our showcases full of extraordinary jewelry and gemstones. We had a view of Downtown Phoenix and the picturesque mountains in the distance. A wonderful breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and some stimulating conversation with our table mates, jewelers from Tahoe and Arkansas, we then headed to training seminars. We studied the legal issues surrounding the growing market of Lab-grown diamonds, body language, and new marketing techniques. Our break for lunch was long enough to set outside and soak up a little sun. We returned to seminars in the afternoon about the similarities of baby boomers and millennials .

Sunday morning started early with a Church service, continental breakfast and opening session. Our key note speaker was Mark Shulman, a professional drummer, author, and speaker. Currently, Mark plays for Pink. He has drummed for Cher and Billy Idol in his long career. The Sturm Brothers, Jordan and Joseph, had an opportunity for a press photo. Mark emphasized the need for an extraordinary attitude to be successful, “Attitudes guides your destiny.” We ate lunch at TGI Friday’s, which was located inside the Arizona Diamond Backs’ stadium. #baseballdiamonds We sat by the window and watched them prepare the field for baseball season. Sunday was opening day for the buying room. The buying room is an expansive room the size of a football field. We walked and looked for the rest of the day. Our evening ended soaking our feet and bodies in the hot tub under a clear Arizona sky.

These pictures don’t do the buying room floor justice. This place is awash with chatter and clamor. It’s a sea of diamonds, gold and just plain old, “Wow!”

Meet Yosef, our diamond dealer. Yosef purchased new cuff links just for the show, two carrot cuff links. we enjoyed the pun. Yosef sells diamonds of all shapes and sizes. All of his diamonds are earth mined diamonds. Some might be heat/pressure treated but these beauties are dug from the earth. Diamonds come in sizes so small they’re called flea flickers because breathing on them can knock them to the floor and much, much larger like the one pictured with my thumb. Yes, that is an earth mined diamond as large as my thumb. It was over 4 carats. The weight of a carob seed was the original measure for 1 carat of diamond weight. Now, jewelers use .20 grams as the standard weight of 1 carat. #loosediamonds

Below are the men’s jewelry brands we investigated before we left Phoenix. Inox is a preeminent men’s line. Sturm Bros.’ will be expanding their showcase collection over the summer. Inox jewelry is stainless steel, silver and gold with elements of wood, Italian rubber, and enameled elements mixed in. The entire collection is rugged, masculine, and built for real-life wear. The last photo is taken inside the TGI Friday’s before we boarded the light rail back to the airport. We left in the dark and we returned in the dark, for it was after midnight when we boarded the shuttle in Kansas City. #inoxjewelry

I encourage you to look back in every week or so for additional blog posts about our trip. Later posts will be full of details about diamond, gems and jewelry in general. I might even share my experiences with packing cubes. Like the look of what we do? Stop in; we’d be happy to show you around and let you experience jewelry the way we do jewelry.

Until next time. —The Sturm Bros.’ Team

Downtown Excelsior Springs, MO merchants are gearing up for the 2019 Chocolate Tour.  400 ticket holding chocolate lovers will fill downtown eating, drinking, smelling and completely basking in the glory that is chocolate.  At Sturm Bros.’ we love chocolate too, chocolate colored gems that is.  This year Sturm Bros.’ will give each ticket holder a genuine 3 mm smoky quartz gemstone.

Smoky quartz is also known as cairngorm after the Scottish mountains where it was first discovered, the Cairngorm Mountains.  Smoky quartz is the national gem of Scotland.  The color range of this gemstone is from smoky-yellow to nearly black.  The nearly black variety of smoky quartz is called morion and was a standard in Scottish mourning jewelry. There is a connection between the amount of radiation in the surrounding rock masses and the intensity and deepness of the color of smoky quartz.

Smoky quartz can be found all over the world with deposits in Sri Lanka, Spain, Switzerland, and the US.  Maine, New Hampshire and the Pike’s Peak region of Colorado each have deposits of smoky quartz. Quartz is the most common single mineral in the earth’s crust and is found in igneous, sedimentary,  and metamorphic rock.  It is usually the last major mineral to crystallize in the molten rock as it cools. Gem quality quartz occurs most commonly in vein or geode deposits.

Extremely facet-able and occurring in a rainbow of colors, quartz is an amazing and versatile gem for jewelry.  Imagination and quartz –nearly limitless.