I’d have to say that our first taste of gemstones was on our honeymoon. We had taken a 7 day Caribbean cruise which stopped in the Bahamas, San Juan and St Thomas. We did a snorkeling excursion in the Bahamas, so didn’t do much in the way of shopping. But in San Juan and and St Thomas we got to do some shopping. I don’t remember buying any stones in St Thomas, but we did buy a few loose stones in Old San Juan. We bought a large oval shaped amethyst stone, and a couple smaller retangular (emerald cut?) amethyst stones. My wife’s favorite gemstone is amethyst.
Later I had the two smaller stones mounted as earings, and gave them to my wife as a birthday or anniversary gift. The large stone, my had mounted as a pendant with a small diamond accent. Also on this trip, we bought a small teardrop shaped topaz. We bought this in the ship store. I had this mounted as a pendant as well.
On subsequent cruises, we have also bought a few loose stones as well as jewelry. On our last cruise, we bought several pieces of amber jewelry.
Now for anniversarys, birthdays, valentines days, etc, I usually buy her a small piece of jewelry. Not always expensive stuff. She likes a variety of stones. So I have bought piece with amethyst, citrine, peridot, pearl, emerald, and of course diamond.

Posted by Rob in Rockhounding on January 1st, 2007 |