Classic Blue: Pantone's Color of the Year 2020

Transparent vs. Opaque Blue Gemstones

- HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

Pietersite, silver, and gold cuff by Wolfgang Vaatz.

Blue gems comprise a large percentage of colored gemstones, whether transparent or opaque.

Transparent gemstones are commonly faceted, carved, or cut as faceted beads, while opaque gemstones are mostly cut en cabochon, carved, and cut as beads in many shapes and styles. Almost every mineral group contains at least one blue member: corundum (blue sapphire), quartz (chrysocolla in quartz), tourmaline (indicolite), beryl (aquamarine), topaz, spinel, apatite, and zircon, just to name a few.

Blue gemstones came into the spotlight this year, as the Pantone® Color Institute, Inc. announced the 2020 Color of the Year as being Classic Blue. Their description for Classic Blue states, instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which we build as we cross the threshold into a new era, referring, of course, to the new decade of 2020.

In recent years, we’ve seen the colors of jewelry fashion are influenced by fashion color trends in clothing, textiles, furniture and home décor. The ideas flow from the runways to the stores. And a driving engine for this movement has been Pantone.

I love reading, on Pantone’s website, the sophisticated names of the chosen colors along with their concise but elaborate descriptions. The color names exude a luxurious feeling, an exotic or natural sentiment that may add some poetic sensation to our jewelry artwork. Designers can find inspiration for new designs within those few words, or tie in already created artwork and give it a new highlight and marketing focus.