From Randy Bly
I thought it would be fun to talk a little on Color Memory. This is a term we use when grading colored gemstones. In the grading of colored gemstones I was shown five test examples of the gemstone Sapphire numbered 1-5. These sapphires were arranged from light to dark and numbered correspondingly. The shades of blue varied only very slightly. Yes you could see the change in the shade of blue between the light number one and the darker number five. Now the challenge was to recognize the slight color shade change between number 2 and number 3. If you think the Carder color changes are slight I must say it is nothing compared to gemstones. You are then given a new single sample sapphire and must match it to the corresponding shade and number of your samples 1-5. Ok great. Not too hard. Next your grading samples are taken away and you are given one sample at a time and you have to grade them by Color Memory. I tried to burn the shades of the test examples into my subconscious memory along with my conscious memory. I was able to do pretty well at the project of grading by Color Memory.