Lilac Blue Iolite. Iolite is one of those gemstones to display a different colour depending on its orientation of the light around. It has been called “Water Sapphire” but as a gemstone is much less hard, less tough than Sapphire, one of nature’s very hardest gemstones.
The Gold settings of the above Lilac Blue Iolite are of solid 9ct Gold, the Gold weight in the pair 2.5grams. The third image in the gallery above shows a rear view of one of the settings, and the solidity of the walls of the gemstone settings. The design, simply a setting edge within a recessed frame, is as old as metal-work itself, and when made well, as are the above Sydney created and crafted pair, can rightly be described as beautiful, simple and solid and beautiful.
The worth of the 9ct Gold in these earrings, as “scrap” at world Gold prices as of March 2025, represents 20% of the retail of the above earrings, and note: the word “scrap” means just that: a blob of 9ct Gold.
On top of the worth of that 2.5gram “blob” of 9ct Gold: the cost of the making and fashioning and preparing for the gemstone setter, the cost of the fine Iolite gemstones, the cost of professional setting of the gemstones, the cost of the final AGrade polishing of the metal, and finally profit and G.S.T.