Sapphires in every shade
Crystal growers and gem cutters teamed up last year and launched a Kickstarter campaign to build what they call the Gemstone Lab. Led by Arya Akhavan, a surgical fellow at the University of Michigan who moonlights as a gemologist, the group set out to tinker with the chemistry of lab-grown sapphires to produce unusual colors. Their successful campaign raised over $130,000, and the team is now preparing to grow its first crystals.