Stop Calling TREATED STONES REAL.

[FarmMom]

Anyone watch last night's show at about 9/10pm EST> Cheryl was on by herself, and presenting this yellow quartz, "Ouro Verde" quartz, saying it was natural and came from Tony and his mine, and was super rare and only found there.

Here's the problem, Ouro verde was found to be FAKE. It HAD been claimed to be rare and from one location, but the miners were in fact using a different type of irradiation to turn regular ole quartz into a different color. No one bothered to TEST the stones (same issue with the "unknown" stones I have been mass collecting and currently being tested by GIA), but someone from IGS thought to test them and found out their sneaky secret.

NOW, there is a BIG difference between HEAT treatment and irradiation. Heat treatment is more or less accepted for many (not all) gemstones. It's been done for hundreds is not thousands of years. irradiation however, is NEW, only since the 1960's and is NOT accepted as a valid treatment for natural stones since it actually changes the chemical composition but adding extra elements in - While SLC listed "heated" as a treatment for the quartz, they did NOT list irradiation, which is what it IS.

So, SHAME on Tony for promoting such a farce, and this lends SERIOUS credibility issues to ANYTHING solicited by him or other staff.

Right after Cheryl promoted another Modani ring, which my husband fell in love with and was threatening to get, but I twisted him back pointing out "if SLC can promote one item as "real" how do you know those diamonds REALLY ARE "real" in that Modani ring?" My suspicion is they are also irradiated, which lends a lower overall value to the ring.

he finally gave up after they showed the ring on Cheryl's finger and it looked far less impressive.

BUT, the moral of the story is, very often things are NOT as they claim.

For more info on Verde Quartz you can google it and find it on the IGS website or gemsociety

[Sea]

Totally agree, when they say all natural I always look up the product and find the majority of the time it’s not natural. It’s just a way to try and sell everything they present. You really have to be good actors to work there, I get tired of the oh this is the first time we presented this , no I’ve seen this many time and I know exactly what the price is. I prefer buying natural gems so when they say natural take a minute
Iike I do and check the specs on the product first.

[FarmMom]

Totally agree, when they say all natural I always look up the product and find the majority of the time it’s not natural. It’s just a way to try and sell everything they present. You really have to be good actors to work there, I get tired of the oh this is the first time we presented this , no I’ve seen this many time and I know exactly what the price is. I prefer buying natural gems so when they say natural take a minute
Iike I do and check the specs on the product first.

I was so mad the day I bought a "neon appatite" that was listed as naturally blue and "that's how it comes out of the ground!", only to discover it was heated, and heating them produced large cracks. It's heavily included and cloudy and just YUCK. Now, they present apatite that's NOT included, but at the time they insisted all neon appatite is included. Irony is, I can buy the same, UNTREATED stuff for next to nothing online and it's CLEAN.

Whatever they have to sell, they will convince you it's the best.

[Catwoman48]

FarmMom, I have some Ouro Verde quartz jewelry, purchased from another shopping network in the late 90’s. Forget what their trade name was, but the same stone, set in 14K. None of mine has ever changed color to this day. We all knew even back in the day that London blue topaz was irradiated. However, none of my topaz of any color has suffered from color change or fading.

So do we now have to avoid stones that are “heat treated”? That would eliminate most of what is on the market. I am just astounded to find out now that heat treating should not be considered permanent. I guess I was just lucky in my purchases. I will say, however, that the same shopping channel - a long-time one - sold me jewelry with chipped stones that had been turned over in the setting to hide the chip. And every single ring I have bought that lost stones came from that network. I no longer buy their jewelry, and their prices now are ridiculous.

[Bella]

I do know that Ouro Verde is irradiated with cobalt 60 (Gamma) at a very low dose and dissipates quickly when it enters the stone and is then heat treated. (This was the choice for cancer treatments back in the 50s as well.) I love Ouro Verde and have an extensive collection of it. The favorite in my collection is a 90 carat marquis shape pendant surround by a halo of Chrome Diopside. I got it for a steal! Years ago when I lived in New Mexico and managed a cattle ranch with my then fiancé’ we had several ranch hands from South America. One day I struck up a conversation with one of the workers about where he lived and what he did for a living before he came to the states and to make a long story short he and his family worked in the quartz mines in southern Brazil! Well that did it for me. I kept telling him about my love of gemstones and asked him sometime later about if he would be able to secure me some large stones. He told me no problem and weeks later I had my 90 carat stone! He had probably 30 or 40 very large stones to pick from, not all were Ouro Verde but I was like a kid in a candy store and also purchased a huge honey colored citrine for a pendant as well along with some beautiful pink opals. Don’t get me started on Ouro Verde I could go on and on. I always describe the stones’ color as if a peridot and a citrine had a child it would be Ouro Verde!

[Lanai]

Agree. Sick of Tony telling everyone how wonderful he is and now tagged teamed up with Michele stroking his ego is unbearable. Also all the "Modani" pieces look the same just different stones and Cheryl has stated 3 different Manufacturer Initials that are supposed to verify that the item was his. If he won't do business with you if your not a Millionaire or he personally knows you, then why would he speak with a Jeweler he didn't know. *. I purchased the Modani Sapphire Ring during the 1st airing prior to it now being labeled as Beryllium Treated, which is glossed over when aired and the price keeps going lower . Tired if the lies and theatrics. Think they financially overextended buying things during COVID shut down and now just same old recycled junk with them acting as if its new. The Item numbers tell you there not new items.

[FarmMom]

I'm certainly not knocking treated gemstones, certainly many gemstoens these days are heated and many irradiated. But it should never be declared as "mined that way". I hear quartz can be turned nearly any color, and be quite lovely. The reason they are not colored so often by radiation however is expense. It just doesn't have a good foothold in the market. if I could post links, I'd post a link on a gentleman who discovered how to turn quartz different colors, and found out how Braziallian miners are able to do it in a much simpler fashion, but only a handful at a time. he said he could sell them for exactly what it cost him to produce them, no more.

personally I'd rather have that over a doublet (like Shop LC does). I have a peacock blue quartz ShopLC doublet it's very pretty but turn it just right and you can see it's a sandwich I'd prefer a solid stone in that same color even if it was "cooked".

I have heard certain gems and certain mines can fade in sunlight, and any colored gem really should be stored away from direct sunlight. There are even a handful of natural ones that fade instantly as soon as they are exposed, and will fade back to original when put away in the dark.

Going back again to my neon appatite ring. I likely would NOT have bought it had I known it was treated. I wanted to be able to tell people "it came from the mine this blue!" which is WHAT the host had claimed. Certainly there ARE some that DO come from the mine that way, but not the ones SLC has. I would have looked an idiot to anyone who knows a thing or two about gemstones. But I did buy the quartz knowing it wasn't really that color, because it looked tropical and fun (and it was dirt cheap, lol).

[Bella]

Agree FarmMom, I’m not a real fan of the doublet myself. Almost all of my Quartz jewelry is not in doublet form. I do have some of the “fun”quartz jewelry that I have purchased from Shop LC and to me I consider those pieces more like higher grade costume jewelry. They are fun to have but Shop LC should disclose when it is a doublet and the process.

[MayFlowers]

Farmmom, thank you so much for posting this about ouro verde quartz, and also your other post about Kunzite fading in sunlight. I had no idea! You are doing the Lord’s work by educating me. I’ve also heard some morganite in the market might just be goshenite that’s irradiated, have you found this to be the case?

[MayFlowers]

It could be my age (30), but I really enjoy Tony and Michele. Tony could probably sell paper to a tree~ he’s pretty smooth. I haven’t gotten tired of them yet, in fact I drop other things to watch them.