Coloured stones: which ones stand up to being worn every day

Count the stone options on a gemstone piece of mine and you get 18 choices and 13 different stones. Amethyst, garnet, aquamarine, peridot, rose quartz, moonstone, labradorite, onyx, apatite, jade in 4 colours, jasper, agate in 3 colours and lapis lazuli. Same setting, same price, same hands. They do not wear the same way at all, and nothing on the dropdown tells you that.

I am Anna Lou. I have been making jewellery by hand in London for 22 years, from a stall on Portobello Road to the counters at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. I set these stones myself, so I also see which of them come back.

Hardness is the number nobody looks up

Mineral hardness is scored from 1 to 10. Diamond sits at 10, ruby and sapphire at 9, quartz at about 7. The 7 matters far more than the 10 does, because ordinary household dust is largely quartz. Anything softer than quartz is gently sanded by the room it lives in, by a jumper, a handbag lining, a worktop. The stone goes slightly flat over a few years, and then people decide it was never a very good stone.

It was a good stone. It was in the wrong place.

Where the 13 stones sit

Approximate, because a natural stone is not manufactured.

• Aquamarine, about 7.5 to 8. The hardest here, happy anywhere.
• Garnet, amethyst, rose quartz, jasper, agate, onyx and peridot, about 6.5 to 7.5. Everyday stones. Years of ring wear will put fine scratches on them, years on a chain almost none.
• Jade, about 6 to 7, but tough rather than hard, so it chips less readily than its number suggests.
• Moonstone and labradorite, about 6 to 6.5, and both split along planes inside the stone, so a knock matters more than a scratch.
• Lapis lazuli and apatite, about 5 to 6. The softest here, and I would keep them off a hand.

So the real question is where it goes

A ring lives on the part of you that opens doors, carries bags and washes up. A pendant hangs clear of everything. A badge on a coat is touched roughly never. Put lapis lazuli or moonstone somewhere nothing hits it and it will look the same in 10 years. Want it on your finger anyway? Have it, but choose a setting that stands slightly proud of the stone, check the ring size guide so it is not spinning on your finger, and expect to send it back for a polish in time. That is normal for a soft stone, not a fault.

The piece I would start with

The Gemstone T-Bar Necklace, Second Life holds a stone that spins freely inside the T-bar, so there is something to turn between your fingers. Black onyx or pearlised moonstone. Sterling silver £275, gold vermeil £325, 14kt solid yellow gold £2,200. Onyx sits at about 7 and moonstone at about 6.5, and on a chain, hanging clear, both are in the right home.

In crystal tradition the onyx is worn for steadiness, the moonstone for trusting your own timing. People choose the stone before the metal, every time.

Colour is not clarity

Professional Jeweller reported on the coloured stone market on 17 June 2019, in a piece by Stacey Hailes. That report is 7 years old, so I am not citing it for what anybody is buying now, only for the technical part, which has not changed. In coloured stones, inclusions are expected and accepted, where in a diamond clarity is a large part of what you pay for. It is here.

So a faint cloud inside a moonstone, a gold fleck through lapis lazuli, a pale band across an agate: that is the stone itself, not damage. Old diamonds are judged the other way round, where a chip in the girdle is a real repair question.

More ways in

The More to Me Gemstone Badge is £40 in sterling silver and £50 in gold vermeil, 2.5cm across, with the same stone list. Its own listing says it is chosen for the stone rather than the setting, which is the honest version of this whole post.

The Key To My Heart Gemstone Necklace is £105 in sterling silver and £130 in gold vermeil, a 25mm pendant on a 16in satellite chain. More gemstone pieces sit in Birthstone Jewellery, and the stone and star sign pieces in Astrological Jewellery.

A dull stone is not a finished stone

A stone gone flat can usually be polished. A chipped stone can be lifted and reset into something else. Loose stones in a drawer with no setting left are the easiest job I do. That is what Second Life is for: I take stones out of pieces nobody wears and remake them by hand in the studio. The stones stay, the gold stays, the story stays, and the shape changes. The estimate is free and there is no obligation.

For a remade piece to be ready for Christmas I need your photos by Sunday 1 November. Gold or silver you would rather melt down than reset can go to recycling instead.

The second life is the real one.

Tell me the stone you love and where you want to wear it, and I will tell you whether it will last there. Send a photograph for a free estimate, or write to me at anna@annalouoflondon.com. Anna Lou x.

Questions I get asked

Which coloured stones can I wear every day?

Aquamarine, garnet, peridot and the quartz family, which covers amethyst, rose quartz, agate, jasper and onyx, all sit at about 7 or above on the hardness scale and take daily wear well. Lapis lazuli, apatite, moonstone and labradorite are softer and last far better on a chain or a badge than on a ring.

Is a cloud or a mark inside the stone a fault?

Usually not. Inclusions are normal in coloured stones and are part of how you can tell a stone is natural rather than manufactured. Judge colour, cut and the quality of the polish instead. A hand set stone will also sit very slightly differently from the photograph, which is the nature of the thing.

Can a scratched or chipped stone be saved?

Often, yes. A scratched stone can frequently be re-polished in its setting. A chipped stone usually has to come out, and it is then worth asking whether it wants resetting into something you would actually wear. Send me a photograph through Second Life and I will tell you which it is before you commit to anything.