The Laings Journal
At the end of April this year I was lucky enough to attend the Scottish Gemmological Association (SGA) annual conference which really is the conference for gemmologists and gemstone lovers alike! As a valuer, I find the workshops incredibly useful for keeping my knowledge up-to-date. The conference was held at the Stirling Court hotel, situated next to the Wallace Monument and delegates travelled from around the globe to be there.
Friday
To kick-start the conference I enjoyed a welcome drink with friends old and new. After this, we had a fascinating talk by David Callaghan on the life and work of Andrew Grima – a designer of unique and highly sought-after jewellery - who joined the trade just after WWII. We were privileged to be able to view designs which only a few people have ever seen. We learned how Andrew took simple objects and turned them into jaw-dropping pieces of jewellery through wax casting.
Saturday
Our Saturday seminars started with a very passionate talk by Ken Scarrett – President of the CIBJO Pearl Commission with a career spanning decades working with AGS and GIA - on natural pearls and their rarity. Did you know that divers in Bahrain have to open more than 1000 oysters to find just one natural pearl?! Even then it is likely to be a baroque, or uneven, shape. Imagine how long it takes to make just one strand of round natural pearls!
The afternoon had a great array of topics; from the fluctuations in the gemstone market, to the use of gemmological instruments like the spectroscope 
which shows us how light travels through a gem material and then to the identification of synthetic diamonds and how technology is helping us distinguish these diamonds more easily when faced with a parcel of hundreds of small melee stones.
We finished with a workshop from the intrepid field gemmologist Vincent Pardieu – who is a hero of mine. We learned about the new deposit of sapphires in Madagascar which is providing some beautiful gem quality material. Learning how the mines actually affect the areas and those who live there was fascinating.
After a full day of learning, we were piped into the ballroom for our Gala Dinner – which was a delicious menu - followed by a Ceilidh where all the participants danced into the wee hours…
Sunday
We started the next day with another great talk from Ken Scarrett, this time on the challenges in identifying rubies and their treatments. This was hugely interesting and informative. As a valuer, I often face the challenge of identifying treatments within coloured stones. Whilst around 95% of the rubies and sapphires we see are heat treated to improve their colour, there are more invasive and unstable treatments which can dramatically affect the value of a stone.
Later on we were all fascinated to hear the lecture by Dr Henrietta Lidchi, who was Keeper of the Department of World Cultures, National Museums Scotland, on the innovation of Native American jewellery.
Then came the GemSet competition winners. These students were all tasked with making a piece of jewellery to suit the stones assigned to 
them by the SGA. The entries were fantastic and I know the committee must have had a hard time to choose their winners!
I began the afternoon workshops with ‘Green Stones’ by Alan Hodgkinson, a long-time friend of Laings and Honorary President of the SGA, amongst many other accolades. I was like a child in a sweet shop in this room filled with amazing gemstone specimens, many of which I am unlikely to see again. We had a variety of testing equipment and were let loose on Alan’s collection. My favourites were these synthetic emerald/red beryl and ‘watermelon’ tourmaline.
My final workshop was the ‘Beyond the Normal’ by Andrew Fellows. Andrew has a great sense of humour and like me, enjoys looking at stones with unusual inclusions. There were too many fantastic specimens here for me to pick a favourite, however, the quartz crystals with three-phase inclusions containing a liquid, gas and a crystal which moved as the gemstone was rotated was just mesmerising!
I would like to thank the SGA for holding such a wonderful and educational conference. I would also like to thank my Directors at Laings who allow me to expand my knowledge through these trips. I’m already excited for next year!
Thank you for taking the time to read about our valuers trip to The Scottish Gemmological Conference! Follow our latest news on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, or if you have any questions please pop us an email at [email protected].
Til next time, Laings xXx