Mason County Natural Blue Topaz

My experience in the jewelry business in long and deep.  I've worked wholesale and retail, with diamonds, colored gems and pearls since the '80's.  Got my Graduate Gemologist degree in 1999 from the Gemological Institute of America.  Started faceting gems in 2006.  With my husband, Brad Hodges, and the help of some other brave Texans, we created Gems of the Hill Country and sent Texas topaz from Mason County all over the country.

It has taken a lot of native Texan topaz rough and luckily my Texas rockhound friends have helped.  I have learned a lot about our topaz.  I've learned that the vast majority of our topaz in colorless, and it looks spectacular when properly faceted.  The Texas resolution designating Mason topaz as the Texas state gem states "blue topaz."  However, the blue is rare.  I estimate no more than 10% of Texas topaz is blue.  Pink and brown are extremely rare.  Blue is the result of the topaz being exposed to natural radiation while it is underground.  Most native topaz is pale in color saturation, because it is natural.  The more the saturation of color, the more rare.

The blue topaz seen in jewelry stores is almost always color treated, usually by heat, exposure to radiation, or a combination of both.  Because man creates these colors, there are millions of them available for sale.  Our fancy color topaz from Texas is never treated- we only facet them.  That makes every fancy color topaz from Texas a very rare gem.