Unique Jewelry Weblog

In 2007, UNESCO recognized the 800th anniversary of the passing of Rumi, the great Persian poet. That same year, the writer of the following article received an invitation to a special Rumi celebration, one held on the UCLA campus. The writer has heard lines from Rumi’s poems recited by actors in a number of different Persian movies.

While working on the following article, the writer enjoyed reading the Persian legends surrounding the blue sapphire gemstone.

The writer noted how the observant Persians had picked-up on the similarities between the blue in a sapphire and the blue in a clear, cloudless sky.

While the Persain poet, Rumi did not pen any verse about expensive engagement rings, he did write about a gemstone that is found in expensive engagement rings. His poems include mention of the blue sapphire. Yet those same poems give rise to a puzzling question: Why would the yellow sapphire engagement rings appear blue?

Apparently jewelers pay closer attention to the golden band in any ring, than to the gemstone in that same ring. That fact helps to explain why jewelers called their sapphire engagement rings “yellow sapphire engagement rings.” Perhaps, too, jewelers thought it best not to come out and admit that those same rings were expensive engagement rings.

Where do the jewelers get the blue stones in their more expensive rings? The sapphire mines of Asia can be found in Sir Lanka, Burma and Thailand. Within the continents of North America, Australia and Africa, there is only a single spot from which miners extract blue sapphires. The gemstones from those six different locations do not all have the same identical features.

Some of the sapphires are beautiful enough to appear alone in a ring. Jewelers seldom put other gemstones with a simple, round sapphire. Smaller sapphires might go next to tiny diamond “partners.” A large sapphire that lacked a perfect roundness might be made to rest on raised metal at the top of a ring.

Yellow sapphire engagement rings have long appealed to young future bides. Perhaps it is the popularity of those same rings that has caused them to be categorized as expensive engagement rings. Because so many different women search for such rings, jewelers have chosen to put their sapphire gemstones on an array of metal shapes.

Some future brides like to wear an engagement ring that has flower-like objects at the top of the ring. Some future brides prefer to have a lace-like metal structure surrounding the ring’s gemstone. A third group of future brides has indicated a preference for a ring with filigreeing. When a jeweler demonstrates skill at filigreeing, that jeweler can create a ring with twisted metal wires, and those metal wires form a delicate metal network.

A skilled jeweler knows how to polish a golden ring, and to cause that polished metal to contrast with a striking gemstone, such as a blue sapphire. The skilled jeweler can make the sort of engagement rings that any young girl would want to display to friends and family. Today, an engaged couple does not need to drive from store to store, in order to find the ideal engagement ring. They can just go online and select a great-looking ring.