This is a photo of beautiful Agawa Bay, Ontario:

Do you see that pink beach? It’s not sand. It’s thousands upon millions of rocks- pink and gray granite that has been pounded smooth by the force of Lake Superior. The rocky beach shoreline stretches for miles- rock after rock after rock. And not one of those rocks is worth much.

Our earth is covered in rocks- we cut it out of the ground and shape it and use to build and sculpt and decorate and even worship. We cut stone away to reveal oil, we pile it on the edges of our yards for property boundaries, we pave our driveways with it and let our cars leak oil onto it. Rocks don’t get a lot of respect, generally because they are so common. I can cover my driveway in a ton of crushed stone for a few hundred dollars.

But there are a handful of rocks that command a bit more money for the weight. We call them precious gemstones, semi-precious gemstones, and minerals. They are the rare beauties of the earth,the stones that flash and sparkle and glint…

… and captivate.

Gemstones have captured the fancy of humans for as far back as we know. Rubies are mentioned in historic literature and records from thousands of years ago, carried over the Silk Road from Asia to Arabia. Why are we so fascinated by these stones? I suppose there are many reasons, but I think the main draw is their rarity.

That diamond on your hand? It was retrieved, more than likely, from hundreds of tons of kimberlite. For every hundred diamonds found, most are suitable only for industrial purposes, many more are too small to be a center stone and are cut into tiny accents a millimeter or two across.

That rocky seashore surrounding Agawa Bay? You can walk for miles and gaze at hundreds of pieces of granite, obsidian, and quartz of various kinds. They’re pretty, but generally not pretty enough to put into jewelry. The glistening piece of opal in your jeweler’s case? Those were the rare pieces among the Australian dust and ironstone.

So this is why gemstones can cost so much. And this is why we as a business eschew laboratory created and synthetic gemstones- they’re just not rare enough…

Spessartine, or spessartite garnet. A rare form of garnet, beautiful in color. Set in 10k rose gold. Item 1599.