Beautiful, beautiful earrings Michi.  I love them.
Joia

This thread is just about breaking my heart! I had briolette diamond earrings, but they were stolen. They were very old, I think they belonged to my great grandmother's sister in law or something and I loved them. They were set with a wire through the top and I had them because I don't think anyone in my family thought for a moment they were real diamond. I got them when I was about 14! I only found out they were diamond when I took them to have the wire repaired a few years ago.

Made me wonder about our family history, too - on that side of the family, it's a long line of paupers!

Jen

Oh Jen! My heart is broken for you.  How sad.  I had some jewelry stolen from me about 7 years ago and I've never gotten over it.  I had stupidly left some jewelry out on my dresser - too busy to put it away safely - and that's what our burglers took.  I especially miss my yellow sapphire and diamond flower ring those freaks took.  May your thieves have the worst karma all the rest of their lives! 

Thanks everyone for the compliments.  I love brios and beads and I'm so happy Snooper started this thread and David produced some brios!  GL - I wear these earrings probably more often than any earring I own, at least once a week.  I like the movement - slightly sassy, but in a very understated way.     STCI - I don't remember how big the RB and the bead are, but the briolettes are ~ 2.6 ctw. 

I was so sorry to hear that you lost your lovely briolettes and other keepsakes.  Family jewels are impossible to replace,  I hope the burglars do get what they deserve. 
I know what I would like to happen to them.....   
Joia

Black diamond briolette - now there's an idea. I've always fancied a black diamond, but I've never seen anything just that little bit different - that's really nice. I'd like it hanging from a white rb stud, I think.

Jen

Jen that's horrible!
I'm glad to hear you've taken appropriate "Counter measures"

Awestruck- the price of the piece should not be all that great- because those are Irradiated diamonds.
We've never carried them, but I've seen them many times- that orange is a perfect example- they look nothing like a real fancy colored diamond.....

The black stone is surely irradiated too.......

Oh, I have friends who breed and show whippets and deerhounds!  I  just love those guys-- I keep saying I'll have one someday, but they're not really my "type"-- I love my herding dogs.  But all the deerhounds and wolfhounds I know are perfect cupcakes... not that the average burglar would know that ;-).

--Robin

I love those enormous Irish wolfhounds.  I haven´t seen that many though.  There was an enormous Great Dane here in Cascais, it lived near the beach and I can remember him lifting his leg on a sunbather once and I can tell you his bladder must have been an appropriate size. But  I am digressing -  sorry.  I love sparkle so that is why I like the white diamond briolettes best but the colour scheme of black, orange and white is really cool.  Irradiated!  perhaps cool isn´t the way to describe them.
Joia

Very nice AZ!

Oh dear DL I hope not.  I hope that someone can answer you soon.  I once put an old piece of mixed silver and gold jewellery with diamonds in a cleaning solution and the silver became very much like aluminium, I panicked, looked in a book and found that by putting silver in bleach you can get back the darker look of antique silver.  I did and it worked, it isn´t like the old patine that it had before but it is better.  I hope that you can do something about your lovely briolettes.
Joia

Vinegar is a relatively weak solution of a so-called 'weak acid' (pure glacial acetic acid is pretty nasty, though!).

It works good as a cleaner because the acetic acid helps to solvate oils and especially soap scum.  This might be a bad thing for gems that need to retain internal moisture, like opals.  Also, vinegar is good on hard water stains because carbonate minerals will dissolve in acid. I have no idea about how topaz, peridot and citrines react to acid, so I can't give an answer there... but it's possible the vinegar did some damage.

Actually, looking at citrine, it's a quartz mineral.  I doubt that one could damage this with vinegar (essentially it's similar in composition to glass).  Is it possible that some old dirt got dissolved in the vinegar and deposited elsewhere on the stones? 

Thanks, Tea. Where have you been - haven't seen you in ages!

Jen

Thanks I like them

AZ-have you been wearing yours???