Louped: The podcast for the gem and jewellery curious

Happy July from Louped: The Podcast for the Gem and Jewellery Curious! We are officially half way through this year and our first season. We would like to thank all of our loyal listeners as well as those of you who have just recently joined us. This is the first of our ruby episodes where we talk all about the history of these beautiful gemstones. Kate digs more into the names and minutiae and Ce...

Thank you for joining us for our final Alexandrite episode for the month of June! We hope you have enjoyed this look into our first phenomenal birthstone of the year. It has been a little break for Cem and for Kate but they are raring and ready for the next half of this season of birthstones! Resources: https://www.gemdat.org/gem-109.html https://naturalhistory.si.edu/explore/collections/geogaller...

Welcome the month of June! This birthstone is Alexandrite, a very unique and rare variety of chrysoberyl and our first phenomenal gemstone of the year. This episode we talk about not only Alexandrite's origins but we give you some context for chrysoberyl and go into a little detail about just what a phenomenal gemstone is. We would like to wish all of our June babies a very happy birthday and to l...

Thank you for joining us for our last emerald episode of the month! We hope you've enjoyed this science and values chat and we'll catch you in the next episode! Additional Resources: https://emeralds.com/education/understanding-the-concept-of-jardin/?srsltid=AfmBOooljRi8ckL13LGw_f5OPW1t3VT_swJx7XxbY3oZ7dlfBz8pqLPQ https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/a-closer-look-at-the-4-most-expensive-colombian...

Thank you for joining us for our first emerald episode of May! This first episode we start with ancient history; ping-ponging back and forth between Catholic saints and Cleopatra and on to pre-Columbian South America and the civilisations before the Spanish. Resources: https://youtu.be/9FlfinciteA?si=1E1igK7qm95BSFm6 https://youtu.be/BkhKhhamX0I?si=5nyr0zb4hnZXEtTT https://samijewellery.com/blogs/...

Thank you for joining us for this special episode where Kate is accompanied by guest co-host Shaheen! We are delighted to bring you this episode featuring an industry professional actively working in the field. This episode explores the ins and outs of the diamond industry as well as the real scoop on synthetic diamonds. We also discuss some alternatives for those who don't want a diamond but do w...

We are all about science and values for our third diamond episode of April! Last week we left off with South Africa and DeBeers as well as the marketing strategies that got us to where we are today. This week we look at the true costs incurred by the diamond market as well what we consider investment grade diamonds. We are also delighted to tease that our next and last episode of this month is a s...

Thank you for joining us for our second diamond episode of April! We hope you're excited for the continuation of our history episode. Last week we left off with diamond mining in Brazil, this time we pick back up with South Africa and DeBeers. We also address our modern conception of the engagement ring and answer the question 'does my engagement ring have to be a diamond?' We are also delighted t...

Thank you for joining us for our first diamond episode of April! We hope all those who have an April birthday are enjoying yourselves (looking at you Dad!) This month gets a little additional love, as the history of diamonds is such that we need to break it into two parts. We are also delighted to tease a bonus special episode to be released at the end of the month. In this episode we talk about t...

Thank you for joining us for our second aquamarine episode of March! We hope all those who have a March birthday are enjoying yourselves (including Kate and her brother Travis of course). Welcome back to science and values. We've pivoted a little in the episode as we talk about differentiating aquamarine from blue topaz (Kate's nemesis). We discuss the refractive index and the issues that accompan...

Thank you for joining us for our first aquamarine episode of March! We wish all of our March babies a very happy birthday! This episode takes a bit of a turn with a chat about mermaids and the dangers of research in the modern age of computers and AI. Join us as we discuss the talismanic properties of aquamarine and as we ask the question 'what does Pliny have to do with mermaids?' Additional Reso...

Thank you for joining us for our second amethyst episode of February! We hope you all have had a very happy Valentine's day or Galentine's day and that this month has been kind to you. This time it's all about science and the Moh's hardness scale (and Kate's personal issue with this very important and integral measuring scale). As you may hear later on in the episode, we have included our Buy Me A...

Thank you for joining us for our first amethyst episode of February! We wish you all a very happy Valentine's day and hope that you'll send lovely thoughts and kind words to Cem for his birthday. This episode focuses on some fun anecdotes related to amethysts and includes some interesting history. We're back to ancient Egypt and ancient Greece once more! We have of course included some additional...

Thank you for joining us for our final Garnets episode of this season! This one is a bit longer than our previous chats, so make sure you have plenty of drinks and snacks at hand as we dive into the science side of things. We discuss the formation of garnets in this episode as well as what gives them their colour. We discuss value and even go over some auction results for garnets at sale! As alway...

Thank you for joining us for our second episode! We hope this means that you enjoyed our debut and that perhaps we are the podcast for you. This episode focuses on garnet history and includes some anecdotes and fun facts. We go into mythology and superstition and even talk about death and the afterlife! As before, we have supplied some additional resources below for your perusal. Please prepare yo...

Thank you for joining us for our debut podcast episode! We hope you enjoy it here with us and think of our episodes like a little coffee or tea break for your ears. As always, I will include some resources below for any of you curious to do your own deep dives. Resources and helpful links: https://www.gia.edu/birthstones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthstone https://www.gemsociety.org/article/w...