All About Sapphires

Sapphire, the “Gem of the Heavens” is the birthstone for September, and the zodiac gem for Taurus. Sapphire comes in every color of the rainbow except red (see Ruby). It is a gem variety of corundum and a 9 on the hardness scale. Sapphires graduate in color from light pastel blues all the way to the depths of midnight blue. Sapphires that generate the highest value sit in the middle of the blue-color range. While the pale blues and darker midnight blues offer the best value.

Sapphire is also available in fancy colors, such as shades of pink, purple, yellow, green, orange and Padparadsha (orange-pink). A favorite of ours here in sunny Hawaii is the star sapphire. A star sapphire is when rutile needles or inclusions in the stone align in such a way that when exposed to direct light a star will form in the center of the sapphire. Sapphires have been found on virtually every continent. Some popular sources are Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Australia, Cambodia, Nigeria, Tanzania and even the U.S.A. Most Sapphire is heated to burn out the silk in the stone, which improves the clarity. 

Some of our One of a Kind Sapphire Pieces: