Robert James FGA, GG

The Tucson Gem Shows always amaze me for the wonderful people and gemstones I find every year. One story that...

It is the time that all jewelers dread. You arrive in the morning to open your store and are met...

Opal is a gemological study all its own that can last a lifetime. There are many classifications of opal, far...

It is one of the largest gemstone producing countries in the world: Brazil. Vast fields of gemstone mines spread out...

3d illustration of an ammonite at sea Seventy-nine million years ago (and longer) the earth’s oceans...

Amber. Made famous by the Jurassic Park movie series and a highly prized gem material for centuries. But what is...

It is usually the same scenario: A new ISG Registered Gemologist Appraiser student contacts me and says, “I don’t really...

Abalone (pronounced: a · buh · low · nee) is a large marine gastropod mollusk that has been harvested for...

It is a very complex story to what appears to be a simple gemstone crystal: Quartz. With a chemical equation...

In 1910 a single aquamarine crystal weighing 550,000 carats was found in the Marambaia region of the state of Minas...