I will be traveling to Afghanistan in the next few days to help train gemstone faceting to a few Afghani students.  I am excited to help develop the internal infrastructure in Afghanistan and help the people of the country harness their vast gemstone resources.  Afghanistan has a rich history of gemstone mining with gemstones such as: emerald, ruby, spinel, tourmaline, kunzite, morganite and lapis lazuli.  Until recently the country has had to send almost all of the rough gemstones to other cutting centers around the world.

By developing cutting houses in-country the Afghan government is hoping to develop jobs and a stable income for its people.  Many of the country’s population live on less than $1000 a year so providing any sort of long term job growth will assist the population greatly.

I have wanted to travel to Afghanistan since I was very young.  The country has many natural
wonders, but at the same time, 30 years of warfare have taken a devastating toll on its people.

While in Afghanistan I will be looking for a few things to bring back for myself and anyone who wants me to locate rough or cut gemstones.  I will also be researching projects that could benefit the gemstone industry in Afghanistan to implement with Green Gem Foundation.  For anyone who is not familiar with Green Gem Foundation please read my previous post here.  If you have not already done so, please sign up for my newsletter on the right hand side, to receive updates during the trip.

To contact me to reserve a piece of rough or a cut gemstone, please contact me here.

I will have access to email, skype, cell phone and paypal during my trip so feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

Jim Rentfrow

“The Green Gem Foundation is a new non-profit organization established to promote the development of ethical gemstones. Green Gem promotes community and economic development in gem producing regions with the primary goal of keeping as much wealth as possible in the source country. The communities are built by establishing direct connections between the purchaser and retailer to the miner and gem brokers in the country of origin. Green Gem Foundation does not directly carry or promote gems or gem rough that have been processed in intermediate countries. This represents an actual break from traditional supply lines.

In our rapidly shrinking world and developing global economies, and especially with the advent of social media, personal connections enhance the romance the stone. Each stone has a story, a tale to tell, and that story – the romance is the direct connection to social responsibility. It is important to be able to tell that story. A gem without a story, well, it’s just a gemstone.

The commercial outsourcing of gems to cutting houses in China, Thailand, and Sri Lanka is the industry standard. These lower cost gems, with increasing quality of cut and design permit sorely needed profit, to the jewelry industry in the US. This industry standard will be slow to change, but as our world shrinks, and more consumers insist on ethically sourced gems, Green Gem Foundation will help to provide that link and alternative to this rapidly growing segment of the consumer market.

Our current focus: We are a non-profit, soon to be tax-deductible organization. 85% of all donations support projects on the ground in gem producing countries. Only 15% goes towards overhead. We are already funding two women’s groups in Tanzania and a fresh water well project through MSABI. We will soon be funding a cutting school in Madagascar. To prove success, it is important to focus on specific projects. We are currently concentrating on Kenya and Tanzania. Gemstone market education and supporting local industry wherever we can is the main goal – and where possible always keeping the cash in country.

There are several levels of funding support for jewelry stores, jewelry designers, gemstone faceters, miners and rough dealers – plus the general public. Jewelry stores, for example, we provide in-store display materials, arrange for promotional presentations, and may provide showcase gemstones for short periods of time. The support donations go directly to one of the projects we are funding and the store can then sell their own inventory – while being able to show first hand the direct support of specific grass roots projects in gem producing countries. The store will be featured with a page on our Green Gem website, if desired. This frees up the store inventory while doing a whole lot of good in the process. Gorgeous photos by Jeffrey Hunt will also be available for in-store display or promotion – or online too. Our hope is to identify miners, faceters, and brokers at point of sale when the Green Gem stones are sold. It tells the story and completely answers questions customers may have who are concerned about ethical practices – and what the store is doing about it. The specific projects may even be targeted.

We currently have 30-40 gems that are branded specifically as Green Gem Stones, that number will grow slowly. All the stones have been directly sourced by Lisa Elser or Jeffrey Hunt or by prior arrangement with a known ethical miner – Doug Menadue of Australia for instance. All these gems have been faceted by donation. 100% of the eventual sale will go to the foundation. They are quite valuable as show case pieces right now though, and although for sale we are not currently concentrating on that aspect. The donation of faceting time from faceters has been humbling.

What will Green Gem look like on the ground in Africa? We hope the Foundation will become a readily approachable organization where a miner, or broker can be provided the best option to sell stones – or at least an important additional option. Many times the miners have only one choice – export to China or Thailand at low sale costs. Stepping back and looking at the whole project it’s easy to see that what we are really doing is building community. Highlighting that direct connection between the buyer and the source will strengthen and expand this community – simply by insisting to tell the story.

Jeffrey Hunt
Lisa Elser

End Quote”

You can make donations to the organization by using the button below.  I have donated some time to cut gems for the foundation.  In the future I will be taking a more active role in the foundation as well, because of my belief in what GGF is trying to accomplish.

I recently found a lot of contact forms stuck in my spam folder.  If you have been trying to get in touch with me recently and have not heard from me I apologize for the delay. I have responded to all emails and will check my spam folder daily from now on just in case any other email goes there.   Thanks for visiting and sending me questions on rough and cut gems!

Sincerely,

Jim Rentfrow

The piece is from the 1960′s and is made up or rose, white and yellow 14k gold. There are 15.80 carats of diamonds in the necklace which have colors ranging from F to G and clarity grades of VS to I.

Condition: Restored Estate
Metal: 14K Tricolor 55.0 grams
Stones: Diamonds 15.80cts
Clarity:VS to I – A great majority probably 80% SI with 19% VS
The estimated retail price for this estate piece is $19,000, it is for sale for $3500.00

Close up View of Flower

So this is the design I will be using which showcases a ribbon design that is used by the ACS.  Darians color of ribbon, for his type of cancer, is Orange so the stone will be a madeira citrine with the ribbon remaining frosted or unpolished.  The design that will be used is shown below.  The finished gem will be 10+ carats and in the 30-40 dollars per carat range.  Cutting on this stone will occur in the next few days.

If you would like to reserve this stone while helping Darian and his team , contact me here!

The inventory can be found here.

Also check out the gemstone of the month club here.

A special thanks to the Jewelry Connection show, I had a great time today and I hope I helped everyone further their knowledge of gemstone cutting.  Please do not hesitate to contact me here with any questions.

If you have any questions listen in and send them my way during the show.  Here is the link to the event.

http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/The-Jewelry-Connection

I have worked with two goldsmiths in the last five years who deal exclusively with colored gemstones.  These gold smiths have experience with normal colored gems like; sapphire, ruby, spinel, tourmaline, garnet and emerald.  However, they also have experience with lesser known colored gems such as; climohumite, sphene, demantoid garnet and other rare colored gems.  They understand how to properly set colored gemstones to not only fully protect the stone, but to not harm the gem during the setting process.  So if working with goldsmiths who understand colored gemstones is what you have been looking for contact me to arrange for setting of your gemstones.