32. Causes of Gemstone Colour: Dispersed Metal Ions

This episode explores the science behind gemstone colours, focusing on dispersed metal ions, valency states, atomic environments, and their effects on colour and luminescence. Hosted by Lucinda and Simon, it combines scientific insights with personal reflections and industry tips.


Dispersed metal ions and their role in gemstone colour
Valency states of transition metals and their effects
Atomic environment and its influence on gemstone hue
Luminescence and fluorescence in gemstones
Energy transfer and electron excitation in gemology


Energy transfer in electrons
Valency and atomic environment influence on colour
Colour change effect in gemstones


Review the valency states of transition metals in your gemstone collection
Use a spectroscope to observe absorption bands and fluorescence
Experiment with heating and irradiation to alter gemstone colors


The Science of Gemstone Color: Dispersed Metal Ions and Atomic Environments
Unlocking Gem Colors: Valency, Atomic Environment, and Light


"Light as packets of energy excite electrons."
"Atomic arrangement affects gemstone colour."
"Chromium electrons jump, causing fluorescence."


Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Colour in Gemmology
02:50 Philosophical Reflections on Energy and Colour
05:31 Understanding Ions and Their Role in Colour
08:03 The Impact of Valency State on Gemstone Colour
10:47 Atomic Environment and Colour Variations
13:30 The Role of Chromium in Colour Change
16:16 Luminescence and Its Connection to Colour
18:56 Fluorescence and Crystal Defects
21:25 Conclusion and Future Topics

resources

Gem-A (Gemological Association of Great Britain) - https://gem-a.com
Spectroscope and Light Source Information - https://www.gemologyonline.com
Simon and Lucinda's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/facetnationgemmology/

gemmology, gemstone colour, dispersed metal ions, valency, atomic environment, luminescence, gemstone spectroscopy, Alexandrite, ruby, emerald

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Hi everybody, welcome to Fascination a Gemology Podcast. We are your hosts. I'm Lucinda.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And I am Simon. Hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

And today we are covering a very exciting topic. We are still on the causes of color. And today we are going to be talking about ions. And this has actually made Simon quite philosophical. So, Simon, why don't you tell us, tell us a little of what this has brought up for you, this topic?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah, I have been getting, I've been feeling quite philosophical and also getting quite philosophical. So I thought I'd put it in the podcast, you know.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Basically, it's important, it's a reflection of where we're at in life.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Well, yeah. I mean, like, this is literally like, yeah, I don't know how to be any other way. So I might as well just, you know, roll with it.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

It's your USP. All right. What are your thoughts? Your deep thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yeah. So this week we are talking about causes of colour. We're still on the colour train and we're talking specifically about dispersed metal ions. That includes the valency state, the atomic environment, all of this shit. It's getting real now. We're getting scientific. This is this is good. This is nice. This is stuff you need to know. This is stuff that makes you sound clever. So, in order to understand this, we need to shift our focus. Now, obviously, we're still thinking about light, and we're thinking about light, incoming light, and that's what causes colour. Because without light, there is no colour. We had this conversation previously.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

We did indeed.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

So but instead of thinking of light as we have been up until now, mostly as a wave, we now didn't need to think of it as packets of energy. So we were telling you about, you know, corpuscular theory and all of that in our in our light and wave debate episode. So yes, very much thinking of light as an energy source and packets of energy capable of exciting electrons and donating its energy to others. Yeah? So we're talking about energy. It's like so this is where I got a bit philosophical. It's like if you're running the London Marathon. Now I haven't done this.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Nor I. Not an experience I'm familiar with.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

So it's not this is not us speaking from experience. Or or let's say you're playing in the World Cup final. Also something I've not done. Don't about you.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Not I. Not I, no.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Okay, fine. But you get you get you put yourself in the position of someone running the London Marathon or playing in the World Cup final. And what I'm getting at here is that a football player or someone doing the London Marathon gets an energy from the crowd, from the atmosphere, from the person that's gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

To get it from the crowd.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Yeah, like it's that there's no point in doing it really unless you're getting this energy, this buzz. This is why people do these things. And it's like that person on the side of the road that's holding a poster that says, You can do this, only 12 miles to go, that sort of thing, or shouting, Go on, mate, bring it home, which is something I like to do at the London Marathon.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

That's very kind of you, Samuel.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I'm a good encouraging shouter, not so good at doing the running. But yeah, so this is this is that extra boost of energy that you need to get you to get you to the finish line, basically, or to get you to to perform. Light and photons are that banner, and they're giving energy over to the electrons which are whizzing around in orbitals surrounding those protons and neutrons. Yeah. Um, this energy is literally invigorating them and it's exciting them to push further out into unexplored territory. Um, that unexplored territory is higher energy orbitals. So when they utilize the energy, they have energy to give back, and it's this energy that causes good things to happen. So once that electron reaches a higher orbital than the one it is naturally in, it becomes unstable and it doesn't like being there so much. Like it's made a big effort to get there from this extra energy it's gone from from the packets of light, from the packets of energy from the light source, but it can't sustain being there. So in order to return back to its stable ground state, it needs to give some of that energy back. So it transmits some of that energy, in some cases, back out in the form of visible light, which then provides colour. And this is selective absorption, and that's something we've spoken about before. But that's basically how it works it's energy, electrons jumping up into a higher orbital, and then as it comes back down, the excess energy it has, dishing it out, and it comes out as various different things. Sometimes it comes out. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it comes out in the visible light range and it causes colour, it lets us see colour. Now, I got really quite philosophical this week.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yeah, I've the I've sensed you getting a little weepy. Carry on.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

And and that's so another really good example of this is this this is a metaphor, if you like, is us doing this podcast. Now, like I'm being serious, we don't get anything for this, not financially. We get a lot from it, but not nothing financially. Um, and it is a lot of hard work, don't get me wrong. It's basically a labor of love, an appreciation for the subject of gemology, for Gem A, who got us, gave us this education, for crazy. Exactly. For Craig, for Gem A, for gemology in general. It's for and basically it's us giving something back to people like you, and yeah, we really enjoy you listening. So basically juggling life and other studies and work and trying to learn how to cut gemstones and not going crazy, burning out, it's difficult. And motivation is hard to find at times, yeah. But last week we had a message from someone who listens to the podcast who is in Melbourne, Australia. Now they only signed their name off as C, so hi C. Thanks for your message. It was really very much appreciated. But the words they said made me literally the next day get my notes out and start preparing this episode. And there was one sentence that they said, and it's I'm not exaggerating, you both have helped me in a profound way. Now that gives me energy. That me too. Like just whatever's changed. That's the that's the reason we're doing this, because people appreciate it and we want to give something back to the subject of gemology. So yeah. Um we also posted on our Instagram during our sort of week a um a quote from Alan Hodgkinson's book Gem Testing Techniques, and I'm just gonna read it to you now. It says If gemology does indeed fill you with wonderment, I would ask you a favour that you in turn share your experience with others from among whom will come tomorrow's gemologists and thus help keep open a window which helps reveal in its own small way the wonderful universe we inhabit. The rewards are seldom financial, don't we know it? But who can put a value on the friendships formed? So, yes, Alan, you also gave us energy. Thank you so much. That's my philosophical rant over.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

That was so beautiful, Simon. Thank you. And just to echo what Simon says, you know, when these messages come in, I send them to my mom, like they mean the world to us. Yeah, like we love gemology and we love this community. It's been so exciting to be a part of it and to sit and just chat about gems with everybody. It's been such a blessing. So thank you for being here. And and let's talk about some dispersed metal ions. What do you think, Simon? Give the people what they came for.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Okay, right. So Lucinda, what's an ion?

SPEAKER_02 8:03

It's funny that you ask, Simon, actually, because we have discussed this before, but let's recap. So an ion is an atom or group of atoms with an overall electronic charge. So that can be positive or negative. And the reason that this happens is because of an imbalance in the number of positively charged protons, which live in the nucleus, versus the negatively charged electrons, which are all hanging about in the outer orbitals. So positive ions are cations. Simon likes to remember this.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Positive positive, pause cat. Get it, remember it. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Lock it away. And negative ions are anions. And this relates to color and gemstones because of transition metals. Simon, what is this crazy? Titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper, which somehow Simon has shorthanded into the longest Roman numeral in the history of the world. What is it, Simon?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

So yeah, I've always been able to remember those transition metals by just remembering TVC MickNuck, which is obviously the first letter of all of the Excellent. So please again, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Thank you. So we'll say it one more time for the poop.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

TVC MickNook.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

So TVC Micknook, or one more time, titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper, they are capable of absorbing light and transmitting colors. There's a number of ways in which they do this. And Simon is going to tell you about one of them.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Okay, so yeah, the first one to think about is the valence state of the iron. So remember when we spoke about valency, the arrangement of electrons in the outer orbitals, and that's basically how many electrons they have to donate or they need in order to complete that orbital. The valency state of the ion can influence the colour seen in certain gemstones. So let's take iron in beryl as our example. So ferrous ion ions, that's Fe plus, meaning the atom has lost two electrons, i.e., it has an imbalance in favor of the positive protons, and ferric ion ions, that's Fe. Um so to put it simply, Fe3 plus causes yellow, which would be heliodore when we're talking about beryl, and Fe2 plus causes blue, which would be aquamarine when we're talking about beryl. The critical crystal lattice and the atomic environment is the same. The only difference is the valency state of these ions. So it's literally the valency state of the ion ions which is causing either yellow or blue.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Excellent. And natural aquamarine where are we?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Natural aquamarine crystals.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

I was reading it. I was getting excited about atomic environments. So if you think about a natural aquamarine crystal, you probably haven't really seen one. So we see a lot of those kind of clear blue aquamarines. But in nature, aquamarine is often a kind of greenish seawatery color, so much more like the ocean from which it takes its name. And this color comes from the presence of both ferrous and ferric ions together. What happens when you combine blue and yellow? We've talked about the color wheel before. We love it. You get green. And so you can shift the balance by heating to about 450 degrees Celsius in aquamarine crystal. And this will make sure that you're you are gaining electrons and encouraging more Fe2, which is where you get the desirable blue color of that kind of pale blue aquamarine. You can also irradiate it if you want it, which encourages Fe3. And this produces Heliodor, which is that yellow color. Unfortunately, Heliodor, nobody likes it. It's actually kind of hard to buy if you're not like in the trade because everyone thinks it's a bit shit. I like it for its symbolism, but I'm from LA. So take make of that what you will. And it doesn't happen that often because it's very expensive, and also nobody wants fucking Heliodor. So people just don't really do it.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, so it's like a like irradiating green aquamarine crystals is A gonna lose you money and B cost you more money. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Surprisingly, people don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

No, like you'd have to be a bit dumb, wouldn't you, to do that?

SPEAKER_02 12:19

So I mean, like, do you think you're doing it purely for the scientific joy of watching the climate change?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I mean, like, heliodor exists, so yeah, you would imagine some of it's irradiated, but like, yeah, maybe it's because it wasn't gonna make a very nice aqua.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Exactly. I always love these ones that can kind of bounce back and forth. Speaking of which, let's talk about the atomic environment. That is the number type position and arrangement in the lattice that influences how colour is seen. And there's a really good example of this, and it all comes back to iron. Simon, tell us about it.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, so before we say this, we're talking about iron ions again, and they're basically present all over the place because iron is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust, and therefore substance subsequently has a big effect on lots of different gemstones and they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

And it helps a lot in gemology.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Yeah, like iron, it gets involved like all over the shop for good and for bad. So, yeah, iron is a big is a big player in the gemstone colour game. We're gonna take Perido and Almondine Garnet as our examples.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Which seem from the off as like very different stones, very opposite stones.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Which in some ways they are, but also their colour is down to iron, yeah. Now we know that Perido is green, and we know that almondine garnet is this sort of brownish red colour. Now, these colours are both caused by ferrous ion ions. So that's the Fe2 plus. Now, if you're struggling to remember the difference between ferric and ferrous ions, I've got one of those weird ways of remembering it. And I've basically remembered the difference between ferrous and ferric ions by taking FER as a given, and that's going to signify ion, right? And then the RIC bit at the end has three letters. So ferric is Fe3 plus. Now, obviously ferrus has like the Rus bit has four letters, and we're not talking about FE4 plus, we're talking about Fe2 plus.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

But as long as you can remember this four is half of two, or four is double two.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

That becomes a connection convoluted there. But but if you if you can remember that Fe two plus and Fe three plus are the two that you're trying to remember, you can remember the three with Rick, because it's got the same number of letters as three. I you know, it helps me, it might help somebody else, probably not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I don't know. I I believe in your in your fun ways of remembering things.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Okay. It's best that we relate things back to American high schools normally. That's the thing that people like.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

That's what we like, but not an option this time. But anyway, moving on. Perido is a magnesium iron silicate. Remember some well, this is kind of related. So Ms. Peridot, the homewrecker. And the Fe2 plus ion is located in an octahedral site with six neighboring oxygen atoms at approximately an equal distance to each other. Whereas in almondine garnet, which is an iron aluminium silicate, the Fe2 plus iron is in a dodecahedral arrangement with eight oxygen neighbors. And this different arrangement, different repulsion with neighboring oxygen produces different colors, which is so wild to think about. These bonds and arrangements affect the energy that's required to jump to the higher orbitals, which in turn affects the energy it gives back. And those wavelengths of returning energy transmit the color. It's just, I love, I just I love gemology. That's so cool, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

It's nuts because you'd think that the same thing would do the same thing in all situations, but it doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

It doesn't. And like these little differences, which we'll touch on in a minute. And another thing to note is oxygen is obviously a major player in all of these. As we've said, it's extremely abundant, fortunately, for all of us oxygen breathers. And it's also an exceptional electron grabber, like this bitch is snapping, snatching your electrons, like hydroelectrons, because oxygen is coming for them. So what this all boils down to is that Peridot requires higher energy for electron transition and causes absorption bands in the violet to blue, whereas almondine garnet requires less energy for electron transition in the same ion. So absorption is mostly in the green and the stone will appear red.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Nuts.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Fucking oxygen snatching everyone's electrons. It's like hungry, hungry hippos, is how I like to think about it.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

It's super good at that. It's the hungriest of all hippos.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Now, up next, we've got my favorite example of this, probably. I this is the one I reel at a cocktail parties. Simon, tell us about chromium.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah, so chromium ions is CR3 plus in um is basically the uh ion arrangement, the valency state that we are uh that we're speaking of. Now we've told you before that chromium is a fickle animal.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Diva.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

And another great example of how their arrangement can produce different colours. So we told you a few times about chromium that it causes colour in both rubies, which are red, and emeralds, which are green. But how do they do that? So in both cases, they're in an octahedral arrangement, but it's the distance between the chromium ions and the oxygen in the lattice that affects the strength of the crystal field. So the balance is very subtle, and the way that the brain interprets that energy transmission causes these two very distinct colours. So when you're looking at an absorption spectrum for ruby and for emerald, the absorption bands themselves are actually quite similar, but one is slightly shifted in their position, and that shift causes emerald to transmit more green. And the human eye actually has a higher sensitivity to green light energy anyway, which also plays a part. But this this situation with chromium causing green and red becomes even more interesting when we encounter chrysoberyl variety alexandrite.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Exactly. Alexandrite appears both green and red, which makes sense when you start to explain what's going on, you start looking at the spectrum. So the balance doesn't require much to be tipped in one way versus the other. And we've previously told you about the importance of the composition of your light source. So if you go back to our spectroscope episode, we talk about it all the time because these instruments don't work properly when there isn't a whole spectrum present. And there is a difference between light sources, even that do possess the whole spectrum. So Alexandrite has absorption features in similar regions to both Emerald and Ruby, and the CR3 plus chromium exists in a similar arrangement with the same number of neighboring oxygen atoms. So what's the difference, Simon?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

So the difference is the incoming energy. As we said, this episode is all about energy, taking energy, giving it back, and the incoming energy of two white light sources being sunlight or daylight, and then a tungsten incandescent light. Now daylight has a peak of energy in the green part of the spectrum, meaning it's basically strongest in the green. Like a tennis player, let's say. You could be a great tennis player, but your main strength could be your forehand. So green is daylight's forehand. Yeah. Now tungsten light might have a stronger backhand and peaks well, it actually peaks in the infrared, but it's sort of peaking up through the red in the visible red wavelengths. So red would be its backhand. Yeah?

SPEAKER_02 19:46

I always think of the phrase incandescent with rage, which is you are so angry that you are literally turning red. Very nice. A nice way to lock that in for all of my fellow literary geeks like to use those phrases.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

That's actually real good. Why didn't you tell me that before? Sorry, when I needed to remember things. There's me fucking thinking about Greg Rosetsky and Pete Sampras.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

All right.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

And realise he probably isn't a very familiar tennis player to anyone. So basically. Anyway, this is called the colour change effect and can be seen in sapphires, garnets, and most exceptionally and most highly prized in this particular variety of Chrysoberyl, the Alexandrite.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Alright, what is gonna follow is a paid advertisement that Simon's doing for the Chrissobarrel family. It is so blatantly like I don't know if you bought a load of Chrysoberyl or what.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Listen, Chrisoberyl is is a big fucking deal. Like cat's eye alexandrite now, and with like we're really seeing how mmm gnarly this shit is. And then just just normal chrysobaryl. Please God, make it happen. This is this is like you can pick this stuff up relatively inexpensively, and it's sick. So yeah, let's get on the Chrisoberyl hype train.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Guys, the common way of remembering all of this color change in Chris Barrel variety alexandrite, of course, is the old saying, emerald by day, ruby by night. I also like to say emerald at breakfast, ruby at dinner, because I like to eat. Okay. Same stone, same chemistry, but a different light causes a different color. And it's almost like magic.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yes, but magic isn't real, is it?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

So haters gonna hate. Haters gonna hate. Dispersed metal ions can also contribute to a stone emitting light energy. This I find very inspiring. The valence state, the environment, and a different light, a different source of radiation. So white light and sources of higher energy can cause luminescence. This is the electron fucking breaking free. Tell me more, Simon.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, so let's recap what luminescence is. And that is the emission of cold, non-incandescent visible light by a material when excited by a source of radiation of shorter wavelengths. Higher energy. And this also relates to electrons releasing energy as they return back to their ground state following excitation.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

It's the hangover.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

So rubies with good concentration of chromium ions, when the electrons in the Cr3 plus chromium are excited, they jump to a higher energy level, as we call it. Yeah, like but they they like really jump. And in this instance, the electron can't just dump off the extra energy and settle back into its ground state. It first has to drop down into an intermediate level by releasing heat energy and then subsequently drops back to its ground state by emitting visible red light energy. Bright, red, glowing light energy as red fluorescence.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

So cool. So cool. And like one of the most fun things to see. Guys, chromium is a fluorescence activator. So you always know you're going to get good fluorescence if there's chromium present, unless you don't, which we're going to talk about in a little bit. It will show on the spectroscope as that bright emission line we've talked about, and it's best seen under ultraviolet light, but it can also be seen in strong daylight if the chromium is unimpeded by the presence of iron. Iron, in this context, such a drag. It's called a quencher. And when iron is present, basically the energy is transferred to the iron. It like drains the literal life out of these poor like neutron or electrons who are just like trying to have a party, and it's released as heat instead of light. So like much less fun, basically.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Yeah. And like this is literally why. So this exact phenomena is why rubies from marble deposits, like ones found in Magok, Myanmar, without the presence of iron impurities, are brighter, redder, rarer, and indeed more valuable. Whereas basalt-hosted rubies like those found in Thailand, for example, have iron present as an impurity and appear darker with no fluorescent glow.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

So I would always recommend, again, guys, if you go in Hatton, if you're around um antique and vintage jewelry shops, go to the window, look at the rubies, and they if it's a sunny day, you will see some literally fluorescing in front of you. It's incredible. It's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yeah, it really is. That is so some some gemstones are more valuable because of their locality, just because people prefer stones from that locality. There are some gemstones that are literally You can see.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

You can literally see one.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

You can see the difference. I was gonna say like a better version, but but that's everything is subjective. So I'm not gonna say that. But like a yeah, you can see the difference, and you can see the APR. One might be more expensive than the other. It's useful to note that most gemstones actually show little or no fluorescence in UV or visible light. So like when they do, it is actually significant. It's like something worth noting and something you need to note in your exam. But basically, it's generally a good indicator that if ion is idiochromatic to a gemstone like in Perido, for example, like an essential element in its chemical makeup, it typically won't show fluorescence as the energy is, like Lucinda said, dissipated as heat rather than emitted as light.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

That's true. And while we're discussing fluorescence, guys, we should also touch on crystal defects. So, for example, in diamonds where an impurity, so in this case nitrogen, and a vacancy, which is a gap where an atom is missing, in this case carbon, can also cause fluorescence. This is the N3 Vibronic Color Center, which we will expand on in a future episode. It gave me nightmares, but we're here to parse it. We're here to parse through it with you guys, so don't get stressed, just get excited.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah, it's worth mentioning it now because it is we're not gonna we're probably not gonna mention the fluorescence bit. So remember this now fluorescence N3, and we'll talk about the color it causes in another episode.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah. And on that note, guys.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Rapid fire. Rapid fire episode. Quite a lot to take on.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Yeah, dispersed metal ions, valency state, atomic environment.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

The London Marathon.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Big philosophical thank you. As always, it has been a pleasure, guys. We'll be back very soon to build on this with ionic charge transfer. You've got color centers to look forward to, and the band gap. We've been threatening you with the band gap since we very first started, but it is excellent. Of course, we'll be dotting in some amazing interviews with people in the industry. We'll be talking about specific gemstone families. We've got one of my favorites coming up. Remember, guys, color in gemstones is just energy, man. That's the most LA thing I think you might have ever written.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

But it's true.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

How it's absorbed and how it's given back, babe.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

It's just energy. And it teaches us the importance of paying it forward. So when we get energy, we need to give that energy back.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Totally. Guys, thank you so much for listening. Remember, we are always here for you on Instagram at Facet NationGemology. You can email us info at Facet Nation at Facet Nation.co.uk. Thanks so much for listening, guys. And thank you for chatting with us on Instagram. We're always here for it. We love it.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

We're still struggling for like there's a lot going on at the minute, and we're all trying to sort of keep afloat. So do send us messages with encouragement. Do send us messages if you if you want to do and you feel like it, it really does help motivate us and does give us uh give us a little boost. So thanks.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

It also makes our moms think that gemology is a real thing and not just something we made up to get out of Sunday lunch.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

True.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

All right, guys, we will see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Thanks a lot. Adios. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Bye.