Start with the color. Blue is the sapphire found most here, while pink, on only a few pieces, drew more than a fifth of everything bought in the year. A sapphire is just as hard in pink, red or green as in blue, so any color can be worn daily. Take 14K gold for the setting. A cross or a flower makes the easy first piece, the two shapes bought most.
Sapphire colors: blue, pink, red, green and purple sapphire jewelry
Pick the color first, because a sapphire wears the same in any shade. Blue is the color you will meet most, on about three pieces in ten. More than half the rings are blue. Pink was the surprise of the year. It sits on fewer than one piece in ten, yet the pieces bought most were pink, a flower pair first, then a heart and a small cross. Red is the next single color by count. Green and purple turn up less often, and yellow and orange only on a handful.
Several colors: rainbow sapphire tennis bracelets, flower earrings and crosses
Look for rainbow in the title when you want many colors in one piece. These run sapphires of several shades side by side, and mixed pieces come most often as flower earrings, pendants and tennis bracelets. The rainbow cross of small princess cuts was the mixed piece bought most. Titles that say fire lean to warm reds and oranges, and ombre lines shade from one tone into the next. Ask us how the colors fall on a piece before you choose.
Natural or lab: mined and lab-grown sapphire, and what to ask
Ask us before you pay whether a sapphire was mined or grown, because almost no title here says. Two rings do, the same design listed once with natural ruby and sapphire and once with lab stones. Where a title here says lab-grown, it nearly always means the diamonds beside the sapphire. A lab-grown sapphire is still corundum, as hard and as colorful as a mined one. Elsewhere, where a listing names the diamonds' origin, it nearly always says natural.
The piece: sapphire cross pendants, flower necklaces and heart necklaces
Start with a cross or a flower. Each one accounted for over a quarter of all pieces bought in the year. Most crosses stand 1 to 1.25 inches tall. More than half weigh under 3 grams, so a fine chain holds one easily. Of the crosses, only the three sets name a chain. Most flower earrings measure 9 or 11 mm across. The flower necklaces are all 10 mm, most in yellow gold only. The small pink and red hearts sold far more in the year than the blue. Rings fill a big part of the case but were a small part of what sold.
Gold and tennis: 14K yellow, white or rose gold and sapphire tennis bracelets
Take 14K gold. It is the metal on nearly nine pieces in ten, firm enough to keep small prongs closed on the stones. Most gold pieces let you choose yellow, white or rose. White gold keeps a blue cool, while rose or yellow warms a pink or a red. For a tennis bracelet, most here measure 3 to 4 mm across and sit easily beside a watch. Most run 7 or 7.5 inches. In a 10 pointer line, every stone weighs a tenth of a carat. The tennis chains weigh far more, most between 35 and 60 grams.