What people often miss
5th August 2026 - Customer location: Cairns
One of the first things I need to do before accepting a gem that a customer has sourced elsewhere into my workshop is to inspect it with the customer. The amount of things I usually point out that the customer has not noticed will surprise most people.
Article: The jeweller swapped my diamond
One of the worst examples I have seen
The above 3 gems were purchased overseas by a customer and are meant to match. Not only do they not match in colour, the cuts are off, the polish is very poor and the surface on one the gems has a permanent sweaty type appearance.
This job never happened after these flaws were pointed out and the custom diamonds I ordered in for the job remain with me 6 years later. Lesson learnt!
Now for a much nicer gem sourced by a customer :)
When a gem is natural it usually means it has some flaws, even the really good ones. This is a very nice gem but the customer was not aware of all its characteristics. Professionals note these things as they source gems for customers and should disclose them. Very few gems are perfect.
I get it ……..people like to buy items as they travel and some try to save money in the process. Sadly many do not get the bargain they think.
The design: Trilogy trellis ring
The customer had a design in mind that they were able to sketch and knowing both the gem and finger sizes I recreated the design to scale. The customer approved the images above and the quote. All of this was done via email and it was now time to meet so that I could inspect the gem…..with the customer.
The shape of the gem
The gem is a bit off square with unequal corners.
Please remember we are looking very closely at this gem……and it is a lovely gem. You might consider it nitpicking but it is merely ensuring that as the jeweller I do not get blamed for the condition of a gem I neither sourced nor sold.
The first thing I noticed was the gem was a bit off rectangle in shape. If you concentrate on the corners, especially the bottom right you should notice it. No problem as I should be able to hide this pretty well.
What is below can cause issues for the poor old jeweller/setter
The underneath of the gem both length and width wise was an uneven cut, this would make the gem a bit more difficult to set straight but something that could also be managed.
The gem surface
The gem surface has micro chips in many areas.
Next we get to the cut and polish of the gem. There were a lot of micro chips on the gem and I pointed these out to the customer.
The table of the gem at certain angles showed light scratches and also a flaw coming through the surface, circled in red. This is also visible in the next photo.
The internal flaws in the gem
Brown flaws inside the gem and also breaking the surface.
When viewing the gem at an angle you can see brown inclusions and that flaw in the table was one of those inclusions breaking the surface.
Viewing the gem from the back……all is revealed.
Next if we turn the gem over and view it from the back over a black background, we can clearly see some clouding and banding in the gem. All these characteristics were pointed out to the customer. IIRC he had noticed none of them.
The finished ring
1.05 carat natural yellow sapphire set in 14ct yellow gold.
The customer loves the end result. Most of the flaws were hard to spot with the naked eye and to the customer they proved the gem was a natural one. A beautiful piece of jewellery to mark an overseas trip that he could now gift to his partner.
A tale from the past
With this customer everything went really well. The gem is lovely and they can live with the flaws. That said here is a story where things could have gone very wrong and we may have strayed into “the Jeweller swapped my diamond” area.
A very long time ago a women asked me to repair a 1 carat diamond ring she received at her wedding proposal whilst on holidays in America. She was in Townsville and emailed me photos of the ring showing the issue. The ring was poorly made and the diamond had fallen out just months after purchase. Lucky she found it.
Not the ring but something like it.
Once I quoted her to fix the issue, remake the ring, she arranged for her sister to deliver it to me during a trip to Cairns. When the sister arrived at my workshop to drop the ring and “1 carat” diamond off for me to work on she said she was in a hurry and had to run. I informed her that if she could not wait for me to inspect the ring and diamond in her presence then I would not accept it.
Long story short…she waited……...and the diamond weighed .90 carats, not the 1 carat that the customer stated! What had gone wrong here was not my problem but if I had not checked the diamond before it was left with me it sure could have been.
Have a great week.