Starter Kit. Idea 246 of 500. Cluster 12
Short gemmology courses for foreign buyers and jewellers, taught in Ratnapura with real stones and a microscope
The mechanism, from the book
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 first step
Ask a qualified gemmologist in Ratnapura whether they would teach a 3-day course for foreign buyers: grading by eye, using the microscope and spotting treated stones, with a dealer's real stones on the table. Write the days and a price per student on one page, and send it to 5 jewellers abroad and 2 jewellery schools. Three paid places make the first class.
- Who pays first
- A jeweller abroad who buys Sri Lankan sapphires through others and wants to learn to judge a stone before paying for it.
- What leaves today
- Buyers learn gemmology elsewhere and trust a certificate from Basel; teaching it in Ratnapura brings them to the source and builds trust in the stones and the people who sell them.
Ask first
- National Gem and Jewellery Authority. Ask whether a school teaching gemmology to visitors needs their approval, and which teachers they recognise.
- Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. Ask how a short gemmology course can be registered so its certificate means something.
Check before you spend
That every teacher holds a recognised gemmology qualification, how the stones used in class are kept safe, and insurance for students handling them.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a short gemmology course cost abroad?
- How many jewellers abroad would fly to Ratnapura to learn?
- What do microscopes and teaching stones cost to set up?
A comparison from the book
Switzerland. Chapter Sixteen
"The stone came out of the ground in Ratnapura. Its value was certified in Switzerland"
Teach buyers to judge stones where they are mined, and some of that trust moves to Ratnapura.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.