Enhancing the Stone
Beautiful gemstones don’t emerge from the earth. Typically, gemstones that are mined are unpolished and rough, easily overlooked as mere gravel on the ground.
A key process in the enhancement of a colored gemstone is heat treatment, which has been used for centuries. In effect, heating finishes the process begun in nature. At an extremely high temperature, a stone is heated to reform the stone’s inclusions. The heating improves the color of the gemstone by making it darker, lighter, more intense or a different color.
The heating practice, which is approved by the jewelry industry, polishes and finishes the process for beautiful, colored gemstones. To learn more about enhancement, go to the American Gem Trade Association’s Web site: http://www.agta.org
Almost every gemstone that’s sold has been enhanced. Those that haven’t are rare and extremely expensive.
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