By Jaime Kautsky

Bob Silverman is no stranger to business challenges. Since he founded Lannyte, a synthetic and simulated gem wholesale company in 1985, he's faced his share of skeptics. But he knows that challenging an established mindset involves overcoming roadblocks and said there's an emerging market hungry for his product.

The South Africa native recently visited GIA's world headquarters in Carlsbad to share his insights with students and staff in a lecture titled, "Gems Made by Man."

"Everything we do in life involves putting our best presentation forward, and it's a fact of life that things are going to be improved," Silverman said, noting that cars and clothing also undergo alterations and upgrades. "The same goes for gemstones. I strive to produce the best possible article made by the best possible products."

Silverman, who immigrated to the United States in 1978 after careers in finance and real estate, provided a brief history of synthetic gem research and production for attendees, and recounted how far the industry has evolved since he entered it more than 20 years ago.

The wholesaler said he always received a warm reception at jewelry stores in the mid-1980s – until the moment retailers heard the word "man-made."

"When I first started in this business, people said, 'If it's not natural, forget it,'" he said. "It took me a long time to get established in this market, but now it's a completely different story. They bring me right in."

Silverman, who said his business grew 50 percent in 2005, credited a changing business environment with opening new doors for suppliers of synthetic and simulated gem material.

"The world is changing. People are looking everywhere for a market with lots of material," he said.

He named a surprising customer base – the wealthy and elite – as new consumers of synthetic gems.

"They don't have to prove anything," he said. "It matters more who you are than what it is." Some of the materials that the Houston, Texas-based wholesaler provides to manufacturers and retailers include simulated diamond, tanzanite and opal, as well as synthetic emerald, alexandrite and ruby. Silverman distributed many samples of the gems during his lecture and fielded questions from the audience as they examined them.

One stone of particular interest was what Silverman calls "re-crystallized ruby," a gem whose nomenclature he said is admittedly controversial. The material is created when natural ruby is ground into a powder, melted and then used in its molten state to grow a new ruby crystal. While Silverman posits the material's beginnings should merit its status as simply "re-crystallized," the GIA Laboratory's stance is that it is synthetic.

The Laboratory's dedication to identifying and disclosing natural and synthetic stones is something Silverman said he is grateful for.

"Thank goodness for GIA," he said. "It's very important that they teach you how to tell the difference between man-made and natural stones. Somebody has to keep the playing field level."

Silverman also shared a large collection of glass opal simulants – commonly known in the trade as "Slocum stone" – that was developed by the late John Slocum and given to Lannyte. Silverman recently donated a set of the simulants in their entire color range, along with hand-written documentation of their creation, to GIA Education for student use.

Mark Johnson, manager of Resident Gemology at GIA's Carlsbad campus, said the gift's historical significance is compounded by its value to students.

"Our students will be able to recognize 'Slocum stone' when they see it in the future, and it's nice that we can now show them all the colors and looks of this gem-like material," he said.

Silverman also showed samples of synthetic alexandrite and other materials that Lannyte has not yet begun to market.

Patrick Ball, director of Education Training for GIA, said Silverman's presentation allowed students to see a different perspective from within the trade.

"Some students don't believe there is much synthetic material out there, but there's a ton of it and they need to understand that anything is possible," he said. "Bob's enlightening lecture was part of our ongoing effort to expose students to the realities of the trade."