Ceylon Zircon — Unheated
ENCYCLOPEDIA · SKYJEMS
Ceylon Zircon — Unheated
- Key concepts
- ceylon zircon, sri lanka zircon, unheated zircon, pink zircon, natural zircon
Zircon has been badly served by its name. It is a natural mineral, zirconium silicate, with nothing to do with cubic zirconia — the synthetic diamond simulant that borrowed a similar-sounding word and left a good gem carrying the confusion. Sri Lanka has produced zircon for as long as it has produced sapphire, out of the same gravels.
Heat, and why ours have not had any
Most zircon on the market has been heated. The familiar bright blue is a heat product almost without exception, and much of the colourless material is too. That is ordinary trade practice and openly disclosed.
What comes out of Sri Lanka naturally is different: pinks, oranges and honeyed yellows that were that colour in the ground. Our Ceylon zircon is unheated, and that is the whole point of it — if you want the blue, it will have been heated, and we would rather tell you than let you assume.
Reading the stone
Zircon has exceptionally high dispersion — the fire that made Victorian jewellers reach for it before diamond was widely affordable — and a high refractive index that gives it real brilliance. It is softer than sapphire at around 7.5 on the Mohs scale and can abrade on facet edges, so it suits a pendant or earring better than a ring worn daily, or a ring setting that protects the girdle.
What to look at
(1) colour — how clean the pink or orange reads, without a muddy brown cast; (2) whether the stone is unheated, asked specifically rather than assumed; (3) cut, because zircon's fire is wasted by a lazy one; (4) facet edges, since the material abrades; (5) clarity, which in fine Ceylon zircon is usually very good.
Skyjems inventory snapshot
Browse zircon at /collections/zircon. Skyjems' selection changes as stones are added or sold; review each current listing for its own documentation.
Private viewings
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