Dear Calla – Is My Scratched Tanzanite Ring Salvageable?

By Calla Gold

Dear Calla,

Scratched Tsavorite

This tsavorite belonged to a client of mine. Like her tsavorite, your tanzanite can probably be polished.

My purple and blue tanzanite ring was looking really dirty, so I took it to the mall jewelers for a cleaning. They ultrasonic cleaned it, but I wasn’t happy with the results. I was told that it was the best they can do and that the ring is too scratched. Maybe I wasn’t careful enough with it?

Do I just replace it or is there any way I can salvage it? I love its color and it took me plenty of searching the find that exact one.

Thank you,

Scratched and sad looking

Dear Scratched,

First off, tanzanites are fragile little gems and they do scratch easily, so don’t think this is a result of you not treating it well. Next, I would definitely recommend having it polished by a lapidary specialist.

If the scratches are only on the top flat area it may be able to be polished in the setting. If the scratching goes below the center flat area your tanzanite should be removed from the mounting to have the polishing work done.

By all means polish it so you can keep it in all its colorful beauty in its pretty setting that you love.

~ Calla Gold

Tsavorite Before and After

Who Doesn’t Love Before and Afters? This Scratched Tsavorite is an Excellent Example of the Restorative Powers of Gem Polishing.

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About Calla Gold

Calla Gold is a Personal Jeweler and Author who takes pride in working with clients one-on-one to integrate their personal sense of style and taste into custom designed jewelry and repaired jewelry pieces.   Unlike typical Santa Barbara jewelry businesses, Calla Gold has no brick-and-mortar location. Calla Gold comes to you, bringing you the jewelry collection you want to see and collaborating with you to create unique custom jewelry. Calla also works with at-a-distance clients.

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Santa Barbara Matchmaking
Santa Barbara Matchmaking
7 years ago

I love your Dear Calla’s. Will this be an on-going thing?
Seeing that scratched tsavorite before and after was illuminating. I have a scratched gem that is blue. I’m not sure what it is. I am sure that it is scratched. It’s been unworn for years. You’ve given me an idea and I’m sure you know what it is.
This is an extremely helpful blog post idea, great advice! I look forward to your next Dear Calla.

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Calla Gold
Calla Gold
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Reply to  Santa Barbara Matchmaking
7 years ago

Dear Jillian, I’m pleased to get your feedback on the Dear Calla’s. The plan is to do them on Wednesday’s or Thursdays. For a little over a year I did definitions from my jewelry glossary which is available in full on my site under education, but then I ran out of definitions. All these little questions were stacking up. One of my client’s called me the Dear Abby of jewelry and Dear Calla was born. One of my favorite things is seeing before and afters. It’s wonderful when I can show them in the context of illustrating the point of… Read more »

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