Over the past few years, we’ve seen some very definite engagement ring trends in South Africa. One of these is salt and pepper diamonds, but tremendously popular at the moment are peacock (or teal) sapphires. Whilst sapphire engagement rings are a well-known jewellery classic, most people still think of sapphires as blue. What many people don’t know is that sapphires come in virtually every colour of the rainbow, but the jewellery industry has always focused on single colour sapphires.

The teal sapphire revolution has brought a new style of sapphires to the fore – sapphires that show shades of two colours. In the case of peacock sapphires, these shades are green and blue. Reminiscent of the colours in a peacock’s feathers (hence the name), these sapphires occur in a huge range of shades and hues. In some cases, the sapphires are teal in colour, an almost perfect balance of blue and green. In other cases, a sapphire will show both green and blue in a pattern of colour zoning or colour gradation.

Like all coloured gemstones, the tones, hues and saturation of the peacock sapphires play a role in determining their beauty. Some of these sapphires are exceptionally dark and show very little life. Others are less dark in tone and show more vivid colours. Simple logic will dictate that you want to be able to see the colours in the sapphire quite easily.

The original teal sapphires were mined in Montana, USA, but demand has led to deposits being mined in other parts of the world, including Australia and Africa. Most of the peacock sapphires sold by Katannuta Diamonds have their origins in East and West Africa, from countries including Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria.