Monthly Archives: August 2009

Kindle, will the print book go the way of the parchment scroll?

by Richard W. Wise © 2009

Well I just bought a Kindle and I am in love.  For those few sad Luddites who are unfamiliar, kindle is Amazon’s new e.book reader.feat-kindle-store- It about an inch thick, has a 4×6″ screen and using its proprietary software allows you to download and read any one of 270,000 books.  That’s a lot of titles and most are priced lower, sometimes much lower than a paperback.  Yes, it seems that Kindle readers, since they already shelled out 300 bucks for the devise figure that nothing electronic is worth more than 9.99.

What we are looking at here is a revolution.  The most important thing to happen since the invention of movable type.   In its advertising, Amazon brags that you can purchase and download a book in less than a minute and its true.  I made my first purchase sitting in the passenger seat of a car.  The Kindle works using cell phone technology so you don’t even need a computer to download it.   Just access your Amazon account and buy with one click of the little five way doohickey located just to the right of the bottom of the screen.

The French Blue now available on Kindle.

Free Kindle Edition to Amazon Reviewers

Looking for reviews for my new book, The French Blue.  If you are a well rated Amazon reviewer and are willing to review the book in exchange, send me an email with a link to your amazon handle and I will send you a Kindle copy.

For more on The French Blue here is a link to a recent interview I did on local TV.

September’s newsletter focuses on sapphire.  If you are interested in being on the newsletter mailing list, drop me an email:  richard@rwwise.com.  Here is a snippet:

September Is Sapphire

The Legend of Kashmir

Kashmir sapphire was first found on a rocky hillock high in the mountains in the Indian province of Kashmir toward the end of the 19th Century.9072RCSa_NW

Kashmir sapphire is known for its “cornflower” color and as in the image above, it has a soft, velvety glow. The characteristic glow is caused by myriads of tiny sub-microscopic floury particles which occur in hexagonal zones (see below left) within the stones and scatter light as it passes through the gem. These zones are one of the characteristics which make it possible for gemologists to identify sapphire from Kashmir. Kashmir sapphire also lacks chromium, the rare earth Element that lends a purplish hue to sapphire from other sources. kashmir135Thus, Kashmir gems will not “bleed”, or lose color as the light shifts from natural to incandescent. (pictured above right, 5.33 carat Kashmir sapphire set in a platinum ring

Kashmir sapphire was mined out by 1930 and there has been no significant production since. We have several fine Kashmir stones. Give me a call and let’s talk about the legendary sapphire of Kashmir: 800.773.0249 or by email: richard@rwwise.com

Campbell Bridges; The Death of a Lion

Just last night I received word that my good friend, the legendary geologist  Campbell R. Bridges has been murdered by a mob near his Scorpion Mine in Kenya.

I first met Campbell Bridges in 1995.  He  hosted my wife and I when we visited Nairobi on a gem buying trip.  It was my second and my wife Rebekah’s first trip to Kenya.  I was Gemology Columnist for National Jeweler Magazine at the time. I had been referred to him as one of the foremost experts on East African gemstones and I had corresponded with Campbell for several months before the trip.

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Campbell Bridges judging rough ruby. Photo: Tsavorite USA

My first meeting with him tells much about the man; , it was about 8:00am, we had arrived at our Nairobi hotel around 3am.   At 8am the phone rang. Half asleep, I groped for the phone.  A voice boomed out, “welcome to Africa, Richard. We leave for the mine in one hour, I’ll pick you up t your hotel.”

Two hours later, our mouths crammed with greasy samosas, we were careening down a two lane highway in an aging Subaru wagon on our way to Campbell’s Scorpion Mine near Vo i (halfway between Nairobi and Mombasa). We were doing 100km and Campbell was urging his Kikuyu driver to go faster. Weaving from lane to lane, we whizzed past huge lorries with canvas tops like Conestoga wagons and wheels large enough to crush our little Subaru wagon. Road accidents were the number one cause of death in Kenya at that time. More than once, I thought my time had come.

Four and one half hours later we arrived at Campbell s Boma, a primitive mine site, a fort really, surrounded by giant sisal plants. The camp was in an uproar. Zarrurra (bandits), or midnight miners had been poaching on another of Campbell’s mine site called GG3.

Campbell was amazingly charismatic.  As darkness fell, I found myself part of a punitive expedition on our way to surprise the Zarrurra at the mine site a few miles into the hills. Campbell had a panga (machete) and a steel mesh shield, I was armed with an Irish shillelagh.   in the back of the truck several Masaii askaris carried the traditional club and spear. Fire arms were outlawed in Kenya, only the bandits had them. Campbell’s askari’s were required to have a permit to carry a bow and arrow.

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Tree House, The Scorpion Miine, Tsavo National Park, Voi, Kenya. Photo: Tsavorite USA

Well, to my great relief, we encountered no bandits at the mine site. We found nothing but the smoking remains of a cooking fire.  Campbell’s askaris were also no where in evidence.  We returned to our camp at the Scorpion Mine and went off to bed.  That was my first day in Kenya.

Later I found out the just that weekend, Campbell had been robbed, his office broken into and  years of backbreaking work in the form of “millions” of dollars in tsavorite garnet stolen. That was a loss that would have staggered most men, it hardly even slowed Campbell Bridges down. That was the measure of the man.

Campbell Bridges was my mentor and my friend. A man of the old school, rough around the edges, tis true but a man of honesty, integrity and honor.   We had many conversations and not a few arguments.  Campbell never really accepted the new political realities of East Africa.  For him, The Raj, the period of British rule during which he grew up, was the greatest time and he mourned its passing.

Campbell loved to quote his favorite author w, the novelist Wilbur Smith.   I remember him telling us, that you had never really understood Africa until you had heard the lion’s roar in the night.  Well, Campbell Bridges was a real life character who would have been an apt subject for one of Smith’s novels.  My wife calls Campbell a lion.  They feared him when he was strong and only dared attack when he was weakened by age.

Campbell Bridges was a true lion of Africa.  He attacked life and tore from it all that it had to give.  His was a hard life but a fulfilling life and he died as he lived with a roar that shook the night. Rest in peace, my friend, there will never be another like you.

My wife Rebekah and I send our sincere condolences to his wife Judy, daughter Laura and son Bruce.

New From our Workshop

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by Richard W. Wise

© 2009

Crystal Opal

It is always exciting to work with a world class gemstone In this case we began with a 12.15 carat crystal opal.  The stone was found a Lightning Ridge and though this Australian field is known as the source of the he finest black opal, it produces crystal as well.  Crystal is one of the accepted opal type descriptions.  It means that the stone has a transparent rather than a white, gray or black body color (Secrets Of The Gem Trade, p.189).  This stone measures 17 x 14mm with a lovely 9.5mm high dome.    A high dome is desirable because it will concentrate create a sense of movement as the stone moves on the finger and provide a “CinemaScope” side view of the play-of -color.  This tone exhibits a confetti like pattern of sapphire blue, orangy-red and a wonderful foresty, slightly bluish green that partners very well with fine tsavorite garnet.  Despite its many colors, opal is a difficult stone to accent. 3mm round tsavorite garnets

The Setting:

The design is that of a blossom opening to reveal the treasure hidden within.  The soft petal like golden lips serve to present and protect the stone at the same time.   Note the shape of the shank, we provide weight at the back to counterbalance the top-heavy center setting.  Four tsavorites bezel set, one at the base of each of the four split petals.

Sketches were prepared and working closely with our client, we chose 18k royal yellow gold for the setting.  Black opal, particularly those with a vivid display of primary h7071RMSCMc_NWues; red-orange, blue, green, often look their best in 22k.  There are no hard and fast rules to the setting of opal; each gem is individual with a distinct personality that must be carefully catered to.  Design and construction by Michael Corneau.

Color-change Garnet from Kenya

by Richard W. Wise, G.G. © 2009

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Mgama Ridge: Probably the source of the alluvial garnets found in the plain below. Photo Raja Shah, Color First

As Raja Shah tells us, it is a story typical of gem strikes from the plains of Kenya to the Australian outback.  While digging an outdoor privy, a ranch hand working in the gem rich region of Taita Tavita happened upon some unusual looking stones just a few feet under the surface and showed them to a local gem dealer.

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Garnet Mining: Photo: Raja Shah, Color First

Late last November I received an email from a budding young gem dealer living in Voi, a town near Tsavo National Park, half way between Nairobi and Mombasa.  He had a copy of my book Secrets and wanted to order more.  Further he wrote excitedly of a find of Alexandrite somewhere nearby.  “It looks just like the picture in your book.”   Well, sometimes where there is smoke, there can be fire.

Once the word got out, thousands of independent miners descended on the area and began excavating private land and even a section of adjacent road where according to Shah a number of fine stones were located.   The material is alluvial and appears to be spread out along a just south of Mgama Ridge (pictured above left)

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1.83 carat color-change garnet sporting its daytime color

The strike turned out to be color change garnet, the best of which is similar to a find in the late 90s near the village of Bekily in southern  Madagascar.  Small amounts of color change garnet of this description has been showing up in East Africa for years.  The first example I saw was in   Kenya in early 1995.  A Nairobi dealer had a 1/2 carat oval that  bore an uncanny resemblance to Brazilian Alexandrite—the same teal blue peacock color that the Brazilian garimpeiros call peacock blue or pavão.

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The same stone by night

Color change garnets have been found previously in Umba and Tunduru, Tanzania and in Embilipitiya and Athiliwewa, Sri Lanka and most recently on the island of Madagascar, in the southern part of the island near  the village of Bekily.

Although some of the garnets from the aforementioned location do have the much desired “Alexandrite like” color change, it was the discovery of the Madagascar location that brought reasonably large amounts of alexandrite like garnet into the marketplace.

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The range of color in garnet rough material from the new Kenya strike. All photos courtesy of Raja Shah, ColorFirst

According to Shah, the material comes in a range of hues with a predomince of brownish stones,  only about 5% of the material has the most desired red/purple to teal blue change and only about 5% of that material is suitable for faceting.

The Madagascar material has been described as pyrope-spessartite with small percentages of almandine and grossular.  This description is not particularly useful, relying as it does on a classification system that has been out of date for years.   Apparently the garnet for the new Kenyan strike, described as pyrope-spessartite with grossular, is chemically similar.  Again, like the Madagacar material, the color change is most likely associated with Chromium/Vanadium.