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WE
HAVE HAD EXCELLENT REVIEWS IN GEM & GEMOLOGY, NATIONAL JEWELER,
AMERICAN GEMCUTTER, PROFESSIONAL JEWELER, JCK, JEMKEY, ETC., MAGAZINES:
| By
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Associate
Editor. Spring, 1995 |
"MORE
RUSSIAN SYNTHETIC …
A number of synthetic gem materials from
Russia were available. A firm new to the show this year, the Morion
Company offered both rough and cabochon-cut synthetic opals. This
material was available in both black and white body colors; it showed
great variation in both color and distribution of play-of- color,
ranging of multicolored pinpoint patterns to broad flashes of a single
hue. Morion also offered rough Czochralski-pulled synthetic alexandrite,
hydrothermal synthetic emerald, and flux synthetic spinel (both red
and blue). Synthetic quartz and split boules of flame-fusion synthetic
corundum were available in a broad range of colors as well. Among
the imitations gem materials being offered by Morion was cubic zirconia
(CZ) in a wide range of colors, including a color-change type. Other
manufactured materials offered by Morion included pink yttrium aluminum
garnet (YAG) and gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) in several colors…"
By
Mary L. Johnson, Editor. Spring, 1996
"SYNTHETIC
DIAMONDS ARE IN THE MARKETPLACE …The
Morion Company had synthetic diamond crystals on display and for sale.
I looked at three crystals at their booth. The crystals were yellow
octahedra with one truncated pyramidal corner. Gray to somewhat blue
color zoning was eye-visible in the center of each crystal…"
By
Mary L. Johnson and John Koivula, Editors. Fall, 1997
"GGG FROM RUSSIA …These
materials being offered by the Morion Company. The material was being
sold primarily as unpolished disks about 80 mm in diameter by 5 and
up mm thick. In September 1997 rough was available in intense pink,
pink, light pink, almandine (red?), green-blue, aquamarine blue, sky
blue, intense blue, raspberry and lilac. The Morion Co. also has had
a small number of faceted samples available at the annual Tucson shows;
five of these were obtained for characterization…"
By
Deborah A. Catalano, Senior Associate Editor. March, 1996
"SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS MATERIALIZE IN TUCSON …Synthetic
diamonds were seen at this year's Tucson gem shows - in small quantity,
but they were there. "For the first time ever, we brought Russian
lab-drown diamond crystals on the U.S. market," said Leonid Pride,
President of Morion Co. This distributor had among its lot of lab-grown
gems, some Russian created Diamond crystals…The stones were yellow…According
to Pride, it will be a long time before anyone will produce affordable
white synthetic diamond crystals in significant quality…"
By
Peggy Swisher, Associate Editor, September, 1999 (2)
"RETAILERS
PREPARE AS SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS BECOME MORE PREVALENT …
In May, Morion Co….released a sales list of what it calls colorless
and near-colorless synthetic rough diamonds from Ukraine. The company
is also selling synthetic fancy-yellow and blue rough diamonds. It
was the first time the company sold colorless and near-colorless synthetic
diamonds to the U.S. market, although it has been selling synthetic
fancy yellows in the United States for the past three years…"
By
Teresa Novellino, Associate Editor, November, 1999 (2)
"TANZANITE
IMITATOR ON THE MARKET…
A new, laboratory created gem that looks like the popular but hard
to find tanzanite is on the market for about a tenth of the cost.
One of the companies selling the cut stones is Morion Co. of Brighton,
Mass., which markets the stones as tanzanion … Tanzanion is similar
to tanzanite in color and in main physical properties, but it has
a higher hardness and is less fragile...It comes in blue, violet and
purple…"
By
Gerald L. Wykoff, the former President of the American Society of
Gemcutters
September,
1994
"The Morion Company is introducing a new fine
synthetic white opal. A sample of the material was sent to ASG and
tested. The opal shows lovely colors, about what you'd expect from
high commercial grade Australian opal. These opals are legitimate
synthetic minerals and the fire is rather extraordinary for a man-made
stone. It cuts and polishes about the same as natural opal…"
November, 1994
"Two Russian firms are now producing excellent
black opal which is very difficult to distinguish from Australia's
natural black. American Society of Gemcutters members, through ASG
member Morion Company already have access to the fine Russian black
synthetic opal…"
January,
1995
"THE REMARKABLE CRYSTAL …
The crystal material was awesome. An inexpensive synthetic cubic zirconia,
it dazzled and sparkled like no other CZ. When the Pinnacle Award
judges took a look at the traditional faceting entry - and which won
the 1994 Pinnacle Award - submitted by Ewing Evans of Austin, TX,
they could hardly believe their eyes. ASG immediately contact Ewing
who graciously conceded that he had purchased the material from ASG
supporter, Morion Company."
If you'd like to make a test of an extraordinary faceting - or even
cabochon cutting material, call Morion and order CZ-6, Aquamarine.
It's not costly at all - and does it ever perform!"…
September,
1996
"MORION OFFERS EMERALD … Care
to cut a top quality hydrothermal emerald? Morion Company is now offering
excellent prices for cabbing slabs and faceting grade hydrothermal
emerald. The quality grades for the stones run from A to D. A is eye
clean, D is included, best for cabochons. The sawed slabs run from
4 mm to 8 mm thickness and are seedless, flawless…"
By
Robert Weldon, G.G., Senior Writer/Director of Photography, September,
1999
"BLUE'S
BROTHERS …This
new laboratory-grown material, first shown in the Tucson gem and mineral
shows, comes from the Soviet Union. Forsterite is a form of the mineral
olivine (peridot) and is considered rare in nature. Tom Chatham of
Chatham Created Gems Inc., San Francisco, Ca, says he is considering
distributing the material in the United States. Other potential distributors
include the Morion Co. in Brighton, MA…"
By Garry Roskin, G.G., FGA, Senior Editor, September 1999
"TANZANITE LOOKALIKE … A
new synthetic produced for laser applications imitates tanzanite,
according to research gemologist Martin Huske, owner of Adamas Gemological
Laboratories in Brookline, Mass. Synthetic Forsterite, whose additional
cobalt content imparts the Tanzanite-like blue/purple color, has been
on the market six month…is now available trough the manufacturer,
Morion of Brighton, Mass…"
By Paul E. Holewa, Gemkey Magazine, September-October 1999
"SLINGIN' THE BLUES
IN AMERICA … THE
TANZANITE SIMULANT that has been the talk of the trade since Basel's
GIA GemFest is now available in the U.S. market. The U.S. distributors,
MORION CO. of Massachusetts, are calling it "tanzanion", and in
reality it's synthetic forsterite. The company has an exclusive
manufacturing agreement with the Russian growers…and plans to cut
the material in Sri Lanka…"
SYNTHETIC
DIAMONDS: What You Must Know NOW to
Avoid the Traps -
June 1999
The
diamond registry: http://www.diamondregistry.com/index.htm
The
Diamond Registry Bulletin has been reporting on the synthetics issue
for 29 years, but now it has become more than just a theoretical
problem. The advent of the availability of gem-quality synthetic
diamonds opens two traps for jewelers: the unscrupulous scam artist
and, sadly, the investigative reporter who creates a sensation along
with his story by embarrassing uninformed jewelers…
…One enterprise already turning out high-quality synthetic diamonds
is the Morion Company, based in Brighton, Massachusetts and, again,
scientifically led by Russians. The DRB talked to Leonid Pride,
one of the founders of Morion who now works as a consultant with
the Company. When discussing synthetic diamonds it's important to
remember that they are diamonds, just not naturally occurring stones.
The only difference being that the crystal has been grown in the
laboratory rather than dug out of the earth. Morion supplies rough
synthetics to a number of famous US gem cutters and hopes eventually
to move into the polishing end of the business.
At the moment, Morion has quantities of near
colorless stones of up to 1.25 carats, rough. This means, of course,
that the largest cuttable from these rough are .60-.70. So far Morion
has not moved into producing larger stones but Pride said the Company
hopes to have larger stones available in the near future. Morion
has also managed to produce synthetic GIA type IB fancy-yellow diamonds
and, while only a few blue diamonds have been produced to date,
Morion is working to widen the range of color available. Prices
for the synthetic diamonds are slightly high - $550 for 1 carat
colorless to near-colorless Synthetic diamonds, in case you're wondering,
are easy for a laboratory to discern from natural diamonds by their
metallic-flux inclusions and their non-octahedral faces. Synthetic
diamonds can even be certified by the GIA; the certificate will
read, "Diamond: Synthetic."
By Suzanne Wade
“Lawsuits
Ignite Furor Over Created Opal…NEW
YORK - It's not often that gem terminology is discussed in Southern
New York District Court, but if Gerry Manning of Manning International
in New York City has his way, the question of what constitutes a synthetic
opal may one day become a matter of law. read
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