Buying a loose tanzanite and having it set
Every setting operation puts pressure on a stone with a plane it can split along. Buying loose and commissioning means setting it once.
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What is tanzanite? The stone, the source, the colour
Tanzanite is the violet-blue variety of zoisite, mined commercially in one place on Earth. Its colour is decided as much by the cutter as by the crystal.
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Tanzanite against sapphire and diamond
Tanzanite is geologically rarer than diamond and usually costs less. Both are true, and why they do not contradict each other is the useful part.
READThe other gem from Merelani: tanzanite and tsavorite
One hillside produced two new gemstones in 1967. Both are coloured by vanadium, and one of them is never treated.
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What decides the price of a tanzanite
Colour saturation carries most of the price, size is tangled up in it, and treatment barely moves it. What a quote is really made of, and why this one has none.
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Why tanzanite is found in only one place on Earth
One deposit, about eight square miles, and a formation sequence that had to happen in a particular order. The geology is remarkable without the sales argument.
READCarat or colour in tanzanite: which matters more?
Colour wins, nearly always. But in tanzanite colour deepens with size, so the real question is the smallest stone showing the colour you want. How to judge it.
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What does tanzanite go with? Metals, colours and sets
The one decision that matters is whether your stone reads blue or violet. The rest is preference, and it is offered here as preference.
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Can you wear tanzanite every day? The honest care answer
Tanzanite is 6 to 7 on the Mohs scale with a cleavage plane. That is a specific weakness, not a general fragility, and it can be worked around.
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