Gemstones have remained a favorite amongst people since the beginning of time. History records several interesting facts about prominent individuals who have donned themselves with their favorite gemstones across the centuries.
Currently, lab-grown gemstones are increasing in popularity and preference among gemstone lovers. But what are lab-grown gemstones?
What Are Lab Grown Gemstones?
Lab-grown gemstones, as their name implies, are gemstones that are grown in a laboratory.
Lab grown gemstones are not imitations of natural gemstones; neither are they synthetic fabrications from lower-quality materials. They are similar in physical, chemical, and optical attributes to natural gemstones.
Why Lab-Grown Gemstones?
Gemstones are mined from deep within the earth’s crust. Different gemstones have different properties depending on the location.
Some gemstones such as peridot and turquoise, do not require deep mining, however, the process remains undeniably rigorous, expensive, and time-consuming. Nevertheless, naturally occurring gemstones take time to form.
Apart from the length of time taken in formation, these naturally occurring gemstones can form with major flaws that make them of very little value. Hence, it requires plenty of modification to achieve that excellent look fit for gemstones.
How Are Lab Grown Gemstones Made?
The raw materials for the gemstones are grown in conditions that mimic the complex processes that occur within the earth. However, this process is hastened and is more controlled to ensure a fast and flawless turnout.
There are also several methods for manufacturing gemstones in a laboratory. Some methods can be used to manufacture more than one gemstone, but under different temperature and pressure conditions and different raw materials, while some gemstones can be manufactured using more than one procedure.
Are Lab-Grown Gemstones even Real?
Lab-created gemstones are very real, authentic and original. They are optically, chemically, and physically the same as their natural gemstone counterparts and will possess all the exact same characteristics.
For example, a natural and a lab-grown diamond will both have a Moh’s scale hardness of 10, a refractive index of 4.2, and a cubic crystal structural formation alongside certain other exact chemical and optical properties.
However, lab-grown gemstones are not the same as synthetic gemstones, which are those that have been made from other materials that closely mimic the properties of real gemstones.
Such synthetic gemstones are not designed to last and will never attain the luster and shine of real gemstones.
Lab gemstones, on the other hand, are made from the same raw materials as natural gemstones and in the exact proportions.
It is also important to mention that how a real gemstone has been manufactured cannot be determined just by staring at it. Even an experienced jeweler is not able to determine how a gemstone was sourced.
Jewelers rely on the gemstone’s grading information that accompanies each gemstone to deduce such information as the lab where it was produced or the location it was mined from.
