When you think of sapphires, deep blue hues likely come to the mind or maybe bright cornflower tones? but shift along the colour scale a little to green and the true depth and variety of sapphires really come into their own.
From deep almost brownish green with flashes of yellow, to pale and bright lime green stones, green sapphires cover a wide range of colours. Paired naturally with rich yellow gold and the sharpness of brilliant white diamonds, green sapphires have shot to prominence in recent years with green sapphire engagement rings, no longer a niche choice.
What sets green sapphires apart from other green stones you might use in an engagement ring (looking at you emeralds), is their hardness, clarity and sparkle. Now there's no doubt that emeralds offer a deep and intense green colour that isn't matched by any other stone but it does come with some trade offs.
Colours of green sapphire vs emerald
Hardness
Most people wear their engagement ring all day everyday and in most cases sapphires can stand up to this daily wear and tear. Sapphires are second only to diamonds when it comes to hardness which compares favourably to emeralds which are notoriously soft and prone to damage.
Sapphires are a 9 on the mohs scale of mineral hardness where as emeralds measure a 7.5 and often include cracks and fishers which mean they can be prone to chipping.
Clarity
All gemstones can have flaws and inclusions, some people enjoy the character they give a stone, but generally the clearer a stone the more desirable it is. Emeralds almost always have large visible inclusions, however you rarely see this with sapphires as only the clearest stones are selected for cutting.
Clarity aids sparkle and makes a stone more durable. It also helps to show off the colour especially if there are subtle colour changes or zoning within a stone.
No oil, easy cleaning
To deal with the inclusions and fissures in emeralds, they are treated with cedar wood oil. This common treatment, if disclosed, is perfectly acceptable however does mean you have to treat your stone with caution when cleaning.
In a workshop setting, jewelers are careful not to clean emeralds in an ultrasonic cleaner as this rapid vibration paired with a degreasing solution can literally shake them apart. When cleaning at home the advise is normally to use warm water, fairy liquid and a tooth brush to clean your jewellery. With emerald you cant use a de-greaer like fairy liquid so its room temperature water and plenty of scrubbing.
Green sapphires can be cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner without such worries.
Colour banding and parti sapphires
One of the most interesting facts about green sapphires, is do to with how they actually get their colour. At a microscopic level, it's possible to see that green sapphires are actually areas of blue and yellow, creating what we see as green at a human scale.
Is green an illusion?
In a way yes, sapphires aren't really green, they are a mixture of blue and yellow mixed together on such a small scale you can't tell them apart. A parti sapphire is when distinct blue or yellow areas are visible alongside the green to create bands of colour. This affect can be subtle or very distinct areas of colour can be visible and this isnt unique tio green sapphires. Blue sapphires can also have banded areas of white.
Where do green sapphires come from?
Madagascar and Australia are probably the best known locations for green sapphires but green can occur anywhere where sapphires are found so you'll come across them in places like Sri Lanka, Tanzania, America and Nigeria too.
Green sapphire price
The price of a green sapphire depends on its size, colour, clarity and cut. With coloured gemstones the colour and size are the most important factors. The clarity isn’t so important as microscopic inclusions, invisible to the naked eye, do not affect the colour of the stone or its sparkle.
Green sapphire cut
The cut and polish make a big difference to how a stone ’performs’. In the last 5 years the way that gemstones are cut, shaped and polished has taken on new significance with experimental lapidarists (a lapidarist being someone who cuts and polishes gemstones) becoming more prominent.
In days gone buy when the only route to market for cutters was via commercial manufacturers who set styles and wanted predictable, calibrated sizes, cutters were very limited. But today, with the ability of cutters to reach a worldwide market through social media this isn't the case and individual cutters are changing the market for coloured stones.
Cutters no longer cut for weight and yield. Commercially, it usually best to get the biggest stone you can from a piece of rough to maximize the yield but they doesn't nessesarlily product the best looking stone.
Pear cut green sapphire engagement ring
Oval green sapphire cluster ring
