Dagny Solheim 
I remember sitting in a cramped, fluorescent-lit grading lab in London, staring through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were full of sand. A dealer had just pushed a stone toward me, swearing it came from a legendary Mogok mine, but the color looked wrong—it had that dull, flat quality of a stone … Read more
I spent six years hunched over a bench in a grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes burned, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people love to wrap simple chemistry in layers of expensive, mystical nonsense. You’ll see shops online claiming that mercury and the stones tied to it … Read more
I spent six years hunched over a bench in a grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were filled with sand. I’ve seen it all: people paying hundreds of dollars for a piece of glass because a shopkeeper told them it had “mystical energy,” and others who can’t tell the … Read more
I spent six years in a grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were full of sand, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the jewelry industry loves to overcomplicate the simple things. You’ll see people spending a fortune on “bespoke” gold mounts for a sapphire, only … Read more
I spent six years in a windowless grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes burned, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people love to wrap a bit of iron-rich dust in a layer of expensive mysticism. You’ll see shops claiming that certain red minerals possess some cosmic, high-vibrational link … Read more
I spent six years hunched over a microscope in a grading lab, and if there is one thing that gets under my skin, it’s the way people treat signet rings and the tradition of carved stones like they’re some sort of mystical gateway to ancient bloodlines. You’ll walk into a shop and see a piece … Read more
I spent six years hunched over a bench in a grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were full of sand. I’ve seen it all: people paying a premium for “mystical” violet stones that are actually just dyed glass or low-grade quartz. It’s frustrating because the market is saturated with … Read more