I arrived in San Diego, CA, on Friday, 13th, picked up my rental car, then immediately headed to the Carlsbad, GIA campus. Greeted at the admin’s office by a lovely young woman who had me fill out paperwork. Just reading the orientation questions was a long laborious process, almost as lengthy as buying a home. I met instructor, Tim, in room #207, where my class will be held Monday. He showed me which desk would be mine. There was another student in the room at the
time, Derek, who it turns out, is also from Southwest Florida. His family owns a jewelry store in Cape Coral. I noticed the 3 HUGE 3 ring binders and many other spiral notebooks on my desk. I asked Tim what these were, and to my surprise, this was the course material. Wow, I thought, they aren’t joking here. At that moment I realized I had not prepared myself for what I was actually embarking on. Truly I thought I would breeze into school, learn a little, meet new people, look at some gems and be on my merry way…..
Tim reviewed the course expectations, probation, homework for Monday & campus rules. I realized this journey is more serious than I anticipated. Thank God I had the weekend to get myself prepared and mentally ready for the experience.
Monday morning I arrive at campus, got to class and what a lovely surprise; my instructor is Lea, who I previously had as an instructor two years ago in Pearl Grading. At the end of my Pearl Grading course in 2014, Lea & I spoke about my getting my GG. Last I knew, she was going to the GIA Thailand campus to teach over there for several years. Lea is a dynamic woman, an amazing instructor and previously, a professional skydiver in Florida. So what a total treat to reconnect and have the opportunity to be in her class again.
At GIA, the courses are run in a methodical and structured way, easing the sometimes tedious process of learning, for a creative mind like myself. We were informed that by the end of the 4 months we would have completed a grading for 1,860 stones. That to me sounds daunting, but I keep telling myself, “Maryann you only have to do this one day at a time”. In the first week we completed 20 stones, learning about hue, tone & saturation. Hue is the first impression of a gem’s body color. Tone means degree of darkness or lightness of color. Saturation is the strength or intensity of color. These are technical terms to describe a stone’s color accurately. There were many interesting colors, shapes & sizes throughout the week. This is the part I enjoy the most, because I get to see, touch & feel the stones.
My favorite stone of the week was a rectangular step cut bi-colored tourmaline. Bi color means it has two different colors in the same stone, a technical term to describe it would be intentional color zoning. I fell in love with the stone from the moment I saw her. She was long, slender in length with a gradual color change. The body color was pure and rich in hue, a beautiful green with the perfect color pink. Her tone was medium to dark consistently distributed throughout the stone. Then finally, the saturation was just yummy, both colors being strong and intense. This is a stone I would love to have, designing with it would be a thrill.
Below is a ring from the Provident Jewelry Collection that is in the Tourmaline family that I thought you all might like to see.
This 18k yellow gold estate Tourmaline totaling 3.00 carats and Diamond weight is 2.40 carats ring. She is absolutely stunning in my book when it comes to rings. The color of this tourmaline is so vibrant and eye catching and believe me, everyone will notice this on your hand! Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information about this fabulous ring.
What a lovely, tiring and exciting week. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and until next week!
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