'World first' ruby grown in jewellery setting in lab

A chemical process allows a full-size gemstone to be grown from a tiny fragment

A university lecturer has successfully grown a full-size ruby as it sits in a platinum jewellery setting in what is believed to be a world-first process.

Sofie Boons, who is a senior lecturer and researcher in jewellery design at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, has developed a chemical technique to kickstart the growth process.

It enables a tiny fragment of real ruby to multiply as it sits in its jewellery setting.

The university believes this "in situ process" has not been successfully achieved before.

To grow the gem, Ms Boons started with a ruby "seed" taken from waste gemstone offcuts.

She placed the fragment into a platinum setting, like a ring, and then used a chemical agent called a "flux". This lowers the temperature, which enables growth in the gem.

Unlike gems grown from scratch in a lab, which can be energy-intensive, or gems mined unsustainably from the ground, these gems grow in a furnace from pieces of waste gem material and take just days and only "five hours of energy" to be developed.

It currently takes five to 50 hours to grow a ruby in the furnace, says lecturer-turned-scientist Sofie Boons

"I am experimenting growing them inside the furnace for between five and 50 hours," said Ms Boons. "The longer time means I get crystals which are a little bit cleaner and bigger.

"I'm working to shorten the time process to make it more sustainable."

The method challenges the notion of man-made gemstones being synthetic, she added.

"The slightly unpredictable growth features natural facets, and this I find fascinating as a jewellery maker," she said.

Rebecca Enderby, a Bristol based contemporary jewellery designer who has written articles on lab-grown diamonds, said there was a changing perception of their value.

She said: "These lab-grown gemstones are not artificial. They mimic what grows over thousands of years in the earth, so they are a more affordable alternative to mined stones."

Rebecca Enderby said "lab-grown gemstones" were not artificial

Ms Enderby added the lab-grown gems had the potential to be more "environmentally sound".

"However they use a lot of energy to create, so they should be produced using green energy providers," she added.

The project, which is part of Ms Boons' PhD, has now attracted a second phase of funding from UWE.

The University of Bristol has also come on board so the research can be widened to include other gemstones.