Tips on buying an emerald ring

After years of planning and saving up, I recently set about to buy an emerald ring for myself. Buying precious gemstone jewellery for oneself can seem startling to many. Unfortunately, in my country and across the world, women don’t buy gemstone jewellery gifts for themselves. It is bought for them or gifted to them by their parents, grandparents, significant other or children. However, buying a gemstone jewellery gift for yourself can be very gratifying. As a beautiful adornment it brings you joy and as an investment self-confidence.

Tips on buying an Emerald ring

While buying gemstone rings, particularly an emerald ring it is better to choose the stone and go for a custom design process. This way, you get to select the stone that you want, check its certification to understand its size, clarity characteristics and treatment done.

Emerald facts

Emerald is a beryl. While Columbian emeralds are considered to be the most precious, emeralds are available in Russia, Brazil, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Price depends upon the 5 C’s – colour of the stone, carat, clarity, cut and even the location (city) where the stone comes from. Emeralds typically have low toughness and measure between 7.5-8 on the Mohz scale for hardness. Furthermore, they have severe clarity characteristics knows as feathers. Some stones may even have fractures which will be routinely filled with oil or colourless resin to improve the appearance. A good quality stone with Natural A or AA rating should have only minor oil filling with no other treatment heating, dyeing and coating. Emerald is referred to as Panna or Maragadam in India and is believed to bring success in intellectual and creative pursuits at education and at work.

4C’s of an Emerald

If you are on a budget like me, then you must rank yours C’s in the order of your preference. Personally, I suggest you rate clarity as number one while buying an emerald. It is a stone that requires you to be gentle with it and is prone to chipping and breaking. Therefore, lesser the feathers in the stone, lesser the chance of the stone breaking. Always insist on a lab report for your gemstones. A GIA report or ITLGR report is a must as it will help you with the valuation, resale and even cleaning as all the clarity characteristics will be mentioned on it. Then come the carat, colour and location. If you go for a custom design process with a company such as GemPundit, they will guide you through every step of the way.

Choose a setting

Once the stone is selected, then you need to select the metal to set it in, its finish and the type of setting that you want. If the gemstone is a hard stone such as a diamond, sapphire, ruby then you can go for any type of setting. Most people either prefer a prong or basket setting for the big four stones. However, since emerald is more delicate, a combination of prong and basket is suitable to reduce the chances of the stone slipping and falling. Believe me when I say this, a bezel setting is not the strongest setting and does not work for all types of stones. Gemstones can fall out from a bezel setting too with regular use.

When I use the word setting, I typically refer to how the gemstone is held on the ring. The term can also be extended to decorative designs as well. For instance, if you want your ring focal to appear big but cannot afford a stone of that size, then you can go for a halo setting. In a halo setting, a circlet of diamonds surround your primary gemstone, framing it. It makes your ring look bigger than it really is.

Emerald ring after-care

As with all gemstone jewellery, emerald rings need to be cleaned regularly using soft liquid soap and water. Fracture filled emeralds are not everyday stones and must not be exposed to light or heat for a long time. Further, any and all exposure to chemicals including perfumes must be avoided. Put on your emerald ring last and take it of first.

While buying and taking care of an emerald ring might seem like work, it is worth it. For an emerald is bold, rare, vibrant, energising, and a little bit of a delicate darling – Just like me!

I hope you enjoyed reading about emeralds and emerald jewellery. You can read more about other gemstones in green colour here.

I hope you found it interesting
Cheers