A Family Sapphire Finds Its Setting
This commission began with a social media milestone. When Sara's studio reached 500 followers on Instagram, she ran her first competition — a $500 jewellery voucher for one lucky winner. The winner was a woman from the Southern Highlands who arrived with something far more valuable than any voucher: a Ceylon sapphire that had belonged to her grandmother, purchased overseas many years earlier and carried across oceans in a jewellery box ever since.
The stone had never been set. It was a cushion-shaped cornflower blue sapphire, the characteristic warm, vivid blue that Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) has produced for over two and a half millennia. The client wanted it given a home. She wanted it worn, celebrated, and seen, not kept in a box for another generation.
Have an heirloom stone waiting to be set? Sara specialises in designing around precious family gems. Complimentary consultation in Kiama or online.
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The heirloom Ceylon sapphire alongside the two GIA-certified emerald-cut diamonds sourced for the commission — three stones that would become one extraordinary ring.
A Trilogy Setting for a Stone With a Story
The trilogy ring was the natural choice — three stones representing past, present, and future, with the sapphire as the heart and two diamonds as its guardians. The client had initially pictured white gold, but Sara proposed something better suited to the stone's exceptional provenance: platinum.
Platinum's naturally white tone would allow the sapphire's colour to read at its truest — without the slight warmth that even rhodium-plated white gold introduces. Its superior density would hold the prong settings more securely over decades of wear. And its rarity added a layer of significance appropriate to a stone with such a personal history.
The diamonds presented a challenge: Sara initially targeted 0.45ct emerald-cut stones within the budget parameters, but was able to source a matched pair of 0.50ct GIA-certified diamonds with excellent clarity — exceeding the original specification at the same price point. This is the advantage of sourcing with an extensive supplier network and a gemmologist's eye for opportunity.
The side profile of the completed ring: platinum prong settings crafted to secure each stone at the ideal angle, with the gallery open enough to allow light through the sapphire from beneath.
Why Ceylon Origin Matters
Sri Lanka — formerly Ceylon — has produced extraordinary sapphires for over 2,500 years. The island's gem-rich soils yield stones with a characteristic vivid blue that ranges from a delicate cornflower to a deep royal hue, often with exceptional natural clarity and, uniquely, frequently without heat treatment.
An unheated Ceylon sapphire carries a premium not just for rarity but for purity: the colour you see is the colour the earth made, unaltered. Sara stocks and sources Ceylon sapphires regularly and can source GIA or Gübelin certified stones for clients who require documented provenance.
