Although she had colour in mind

During Caesar's last visit 18 months ago, I shadowed one of Mindham's clients - let's call her Margaret - one morning as she perused hundreds of raw stones. She was considering a custom cocktail ring that would incorporate diamonds from an unworn bangle bracelet inherited from her mother, and looking for the main gemstone.cheap Whisky stonesTrays are stacked around a table, fanned out by colour and type a few at a time. A pale blue gem skids Margaret's knuckles and off her fingertips like a droplet of water and with a hushed thunk, nestles back into its black velvet compartment. In the orderly rows below, more glinting ovals of loose gemstones in shades of pistachio and sage green. Another tray, polka-dotted with spessartite garnets in varieties of vivid mandarin hues that recall organic carrots and below it, tsavorite garnets like robust leafy greens.Margaret runs her fingers over the next group of stones, all in purplish violet-blue. Although she's browsing for herself, she asks me to make a fist and nests a faceted slate blue stone the size of a quail egg in the groove of my index finger, to see how it looks. It is a "very, very rare" aquamarine from the south of India. As I gingerly allow my hand to sway we watch the stone glisten, in silence.

"I just am having a real 'oh' moment," Margaret admits. (So am I.) "I now understand why Elizabeth Taylor was a jewellery addict! I never got it before, but now," she pauses, then sighs. "You start with 'Oh, would be lovely as a ring,' and pretty soon it's 'I could see this one as a necklace …"Caesar plucks a stone from the next tray, cheap Soapstone Whisky Stones manufacturersa range of bottle-green peridots from Pakistan, and lightly polishes it. In the light, it has minty, feminine seafoam green facets. Although she had colour in mind, he also suggests Margaret try a few of the muted watery grey-greens he calls "no-colour" tourmalines. We linger on this tray as she tries various carat sizes out on the tops of her hands.But every couple of years, Mindham also invites the German gemstone wholesaler to his Toronto atelier to meet directly with clients. These select few get to experience selecting gemstones from the dealer for inspiration on custom designs, just as Mindham himself does several times a year.During Caesar's last visit 18 months ago, I shadowed one of Mindham's clients - let's call her Margaret - one morning as she perused hundreds of raw stones. She was considering a custom cocktail ring that would incorporate diamonds from an unworn bangle bracelet inherited from her mother, and looking for the main gemstone.