Re: LARIMAR or NOT LARIMAR (that is the question)

LarimarAndSilver · ‎01-16-2013

Larimar is rare. Larimar is scarce. Larimar is still mysterious for an important part of professionals and even more for the public…

Rare, scarce, mysterious: this is the perfect background for imitation, forgery and fraud. Welcome into the “NOT LARIMAR BUSINESS” reality, where unscrupulous scammers move more millions worldwide than the money produced by the only Larimar mine in the world…!

This tread is NOT a crusade about the bad guys. We don’t have time and power to do that. But we can sketch a MAP to help everybody draw their own conclusions and not be fooled…

LarimarAndSilver · ‎01-16-2013

“NOT LARIMAR” LEXICON

All of these words or tags (spotted on Etsy) are used to describe something that is NOT Larimar (but another stone or a simple resin imitation).

Always keep in mind that the use of “confusing words” is part of the scammer equipment…

- Larimar (blue) crazy lace
- (green) Larimar quartz
- Chinese Larimar (Hemimorphite)
- Larimar (blue) jasper
- Larimar agate
- Larimar jade

- Pink Larimar
- Green Larimar
- Mint Larimar
- Dyed Larimar blue

- Tru Stone (Larimar)
- Composite Larimar
- Stabilized Larimar
- Reconstituted Larimar
- Reconstructed Larimar
- Larimar look-a-likes

And if these words are used in a “Larimar description”, be simply careful: it’s probably NOT Larimar… unless the seller is clearly located in the Dominican Republic!

- (extremely) rare
- Dominican Larimar

LarimarAndSilver · ‎01-17-2013

The “confusion” around Larimar is mostly done in the case of beads.

CHEAP beads can NEVER be made in LARIMAR.

First of all: simply because the cost of raw material shipped everywhere (usually China, India, Thailand) from Dominican Republic will automatically increase the price…

2nd reason: a production of beads means to lose double (or more) quantity of material than the making of cabochons. Something round requires more material than something flat. Of course, the biggest the bead, the more material “wasted”…

3rd reason: it’s mostly impossible to produce Larimar beads automatically. Automated shaping, grinding and polishing machines can’t sort the defects, avoid inclusions and make the difference between the different hardness of the stone… The result: ugly beads, broken beads, or half oval/half round ones, but nothing very lovely…

4rth reason: the REAL genuine Dominican beads are made by hands from A to Z. This production process (who takes approximately 1 week and more than 10 different operations) is so long that even a low professional cost (compare to US or European salary) ends in a pricy result.

Larimar look-a-like stones tagged as cheap (or not so cheap, when used in jewelry) Larimar beads:
- Quartz
- Moonstone
- Amazonite
- Hemimorphite (also called Chinese larimar)
- Chalcedony
- Agate (crazy lace, and so on…)
- All sort of resins (blue of course)

FantaSeaJewelry · ‎02-15-2013

This is a great post. We even have fake larimar sold here on St. Coix, a neighbooring island of the Dominican Republic. I often have customers who come to me and my shop to verify if they purchased real or fake from other vendors in my area. I try to tell them if its very cheap it either has to be bad low end quality, ie, white chalky, green and not blue,and with flaws on the surface, or it looks practically like dyed resin or plastic, or even another type of more common stone that can be dyed easily. It's easy to spot if you know what to look for. Unfortunately many tourists have no idea and are getting scammed. And then running around bragging about how cheap they bought it for. Sometimes arguing with me insisting it's real and misinforming other potential customers. Byer beware! It happens all the time!

Former_Member · ‎11-15-2013

I have now got 3 Larimar cabochons and I am among a few here in Sweden who have seen it cabbed and ready to be put in a silver pedant. Now I have also seen that there are some Larimar at Auctions and even in Etsy so the stone seems to have been a while around in jeweley business. First of all it is important to have some form of nomenclature I have seen and spoke to a gemolog here in Swedenlong ago. How told me about the problems they have with precious opals until they managed to get a numenclature for that stones. Now you can even by boulderopal with a high second value.
So try to get a nomenclature even at this blue pectolite Larimar. Pectolite are found in my country but it is useally gray with no value in jewelery.