Cluster 12 of 28. Ideas 236 to 250
The gem chain, from Ratnapura to the certificate
The mechanism
The sapphire is mined here and cut here, and its value is certified in Basel or Lucerne and turned into money in Geneva. Every step of that chain can be built at home, and the first one is the piece of paper.
The 15 ideas
- 236A gem laboratory in Colombo to the standard of the Swiss ones, with a foreign partner if it must, so the origin report is issued where the stone was mined
- 237Jewellery design studios employing the young designers who now leave for Bangkok and Dubai
- 238A Ratnapura mine visit sold as a day, with a licensed dealer and a laboratory report on anything you buy
- 239Gem-cutting apprenticeships, paid, with the graduates employed by the studios above
- 240A Ceylon sapphire brand for engagement rings, sold online to Sri Lankans abroad and beyond, with the stone's story traced from pit to finger
- 241Auction days in Colombo for the trade, with international buyers flown in, the way Geneva does it twice a year
- 242Moonstone from Meetiyagoda as a named origin, sold on the name of the mine and its blue sheen
- 243Gem and jewellery insurance and insured shipping, so that a buyer abroad can pay safely
- 244Ethical-mining certification for the small pits, so that the story sells the stone
- 245Museum-grade replicas of the Star of India and the Logan Sapphire, sold with their true story
- 246Short gemmology courses for foreign buyers and jewellers, taught in Ratnapura with real stones and a microscope
- 247Gem-cutting machinery service and repair, since every cutter's tools are imported
- 248Gem photography and grading videos for online sales, a service to the small dealers
- 249A published price index for Ceylon sapphires by size and grade, so the miner knows what he is selling
- 250Garnet, spinel and the lesser stones marketed as a range, since they are mined anyway and thrown into parcels