Blue or Green stones for every day wear

[AustenNut]

I''ve been lurking around and have finally decided to post.

I''m looking to get a green or blue stone (haven''t decided which) for a ring to be worn every day. Although it may not be too common around here, I actually prefer the lighter colors. From the research I''ve done it seems as though sapphires, spinel, chrysoberyl, and some of the garnets would be my best options.

Looking online I''ve seen prices vary widely, even within the list of recommended vendors here at this site. There''s chrysoberyl for $150-350 and then there''s chrysoberyl for $1300. I''ve seen the same type of pricing differences on spinel, sapphires, etc. Some people around here say you get what you pay for, but then other times you''re paying for a particular designer or a store that just has good publicity and that''s what you''re paying for. Or it could be that different stores photograph differently, and so their price is altering based on the intensity of the color that I can''t see from the picture.

So basically, this brings me to my questions:

#1 Are sapphire, spinel, chrysoberyl, and green garnets good for an everyday ring?

#2 Are there other stones that have similar colors to these that would also work?

#3 What''s a good price range to find a nice specimen of these different varieties of stones? Not talking museum quality, but similar to some of the drool worthy stones y''all keep posting.

P.S. The attached picture shows the kinds of colors I am talking about.

 

[ma re]

You wrote all the necessary information except one - what''s the size you''re looking for? That might influence all the answers greatly. I don''t think you should consider garnets for daily wear as they''re a bit more on the soft side for such uses (especially rings). Prices vary for the variety of reasons, from size, color intensity, cut (to a degree), level of transparency, level of treatments, place where you buy etc. So once you answer some of these questions, you''ll be able to get more specific answers about prices.

 

[chrono]

You have done excellent research on the type of gemstone that would be suitable and the colours expected.

1. Sapphire, spinel and chrysoberyl are all fine. Green garnets are probably too soft for daily wear.
2. Probably not on a daily wear basis.
3. Price range depends upon many factors: size, colour (purity of hue, saturation and tone), clarity, treatment (heating or more for sapphires), fancy cutting or flat faceting and to some degree, the cutting itself.
The purer the green or blue, the more expensive it gets.
You prefer a lighter toned stone, so that should be a plus in the cost department
The greater the saturation or vividness or intensity of colour increases the asking price
The cleaner the stone, the more expensive. Eye clean is good enough.
Spinels and chrysoberyls are not treated. Gentle heat treatment is accepted practice for sapphires but not fillers, BE and others.
Precision cutting or concave cutting will be a little more than the usual flat faceting. A stone cut by a famous cutter like Richard Homer, John Dyer and etc, are priced more for their artistic skills.

 

[chrono]

Stone 1 shows a lot of gray = less expensive
Stone 2 also shows a very light saturation, hence some gray undertones = less expensive
Stone 3 typically don’t come very large and this one shows yellow undertones = less expensive
Stone 4 is very pretty colour wise.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks for the answers so far. Let me try and answer the questions you''ve asked.

Size : Probably 1-2 carats, but of course depends on the type of stone. At least 6mm if I do a round, or up to around 8x6 or slightly larger if I do an oval/rectangular cushion.

Color intensity : The photos in my first post show what I''m looking for.

Cut : I want a cut that really reflects the light well; I definitely want a good cut.

Transparency : I prefer the more transparent stones. And eye clean clarity works for me. By the way, does chrysoberyl qualify as a Type 1, 2, or 3 in terms of the GIA grading scale? Various gem dealers have lists of what types of stones usually fall into which category, but I have yet to see chrysoberyl listed.

Level of treatment : I don''t actually have strong feelings (yet) about treatments. I don''t want something like fillings, or something like that, but does Be treatment or something similar really affect the stability of the stone, or is it just something that hurts resale value? My main requirements is that it looks appealing to me and be stable and durable. Resale doesn''t really enter into the equation for me. But are the treated stones not as well cut because the good cutters won''t work on them?

Where I''ll buy : I''ll probably end up buying online since my local vendors have nothing, and I might be too intimidated to buy something too expensive at a gem show (where they may be little recourse if things go wrong), but if the stone''s not that expensive, then maybe there since I''ll be able to see it in person.

Thanks for the feedback so far. So I guess the garnets are out...too bad because they''re so pretty! But the search continues!!

 

[Fly Girl]

How about this green chrysoberyl from Richard Homer? Cutting and sparkle just doesn''t get any better. The price is $1,210, but I would recommend going through one of his associated jewelers, such as Wink Jones, and you might save a bit. Richard''s website is at www. concavegems.com.

 

[chrono]

1 to 2 ct is not going to cost and arm and a leg, especially if you are not going for an unheated sapphire.

How about purity of colour? The first 2 stones show a lot of gray undertones, whereas the last 2 show less gray. This is where I get confused about the colour intensity you are looking for.

You should be able to find many eye clean chrysoberyls quite easily.

I don’t like BE treatment because it is essentially dyeing the stone a different colour. It will not scratch or flake off but I’d prefer the colour to be more natural. I have not heard of it affecting the structural integrity of the stone. The same goes for gentle heat treatment. BE treated sapphires are also extremely inexpensive. Good cutters work in every type of medium from synthetics and treated to non treated, depending on the niche they are in.

 

[Kismet]

Date: 8/4/2009 11:58:33 AM
Author: astphard
Transparency : I prefer the more transparent stones. And eye clean clarity works for me. By the way, does chrysoberyl qualify as a Type 1, 2, or 3 in terms of the GIA grading scale? Various gem dealers have lists of what types of stones usually fall into which category, but I have yet to see chrysoberyl listed.

I believe that chrysoberyl (the yellow/green variety) is type I and alexandrite is type II.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks for the responses!

Sorry for the confusion about my color preferences. I suppose it''s just that I haven''t exactly made up my mind about the color for the stone I want. I''m open to various colors within these ranges, it''s just a matter of finding the one with a color, cut, and size that I like that makes my heart sing. Make sense?

Though that Richard Homer chrysoberyl is lovely, it''s too yellow for my tastes. But it does make me think of another question. How do you really assess the cut from the pictures? Having lurked around a bit I know that some places take great photos, but others say that a store may not take great photos but they''ve loved the stones they''ve received. I prefer the sites that offer video of their stones because it seems like I really can assess the stone better, but very few seem to offer this. I guess what I''m trying to ask, very inarticulately, is how do you tell if it''s just a bad photo or of it''s poorly cut? And I''m not talking about very visually obvious things like the base of the stone being way off center or not coming to a neat point, but rather how well it flashes compared to having big dark holes all through it.

 

[ma re]

Sweet Jebus you have a lot of questions - let me try answer a few

About chrysoberyl''s clarity, it''s type I, as THIS website states.

BE diffusion affects value (greatly) and also limits your chance to ever have the stone recut if that becomes necessary some day.

When I wrote "where you buy" I was talking more about at Tiffany''s vs. a mall-store, rather than online vs. locally

It does make sense what you say about buying what makes you happy, no question about that. Maybe if you''d see some stones in your color range for real or in videos, it''d be easier for you to make a decision.

You judge a cut based on experience i.e. a lot of looking and comparing. And you''re right about videos being better for this learning process than photos. Try to watch some videos on sites of those tv shopping channels (they offer clips they''ve showed on tv to be viewed online) and see how the stone''s liveliness compares to the perception you got about that stone from the photo. You''ll soon start guessing the stone''s liveliness even from the photo, and the same goes for color coverage, extinction etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kismet]

How about a vanadium chrysoberyl? It''s small (5.7 x 5.3) and has a small window but the color is lovely. The stone can be found here.

 

[chrono]

Assessing cut from pictures takes time and experience. Video are a relatively new option which many vendors have not embraced and understandably so when one might have hundreds of gemstones in their inventory. It will take a lot of time for each video shoot, not to mention the uploads, etc.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks for the ideas. I don''t actually have cable (or heck, even a working antenna at the moment), so when you''re talking about jewelry stations is this stuff like the home shopping network?

Also, thanks for showing me the picture of that Vanadium chrysoberyl. It might be a bit too aqua for me, but I do prefer its color to the other one above. It does, however, bring me to another question. (I know I have many, and I thank all of you for your wonderful answers so far!) Two chrysoberyls at two vastly different price points. Admittedly, the Richard Homer is more than twice as large but it''s far more than twice the price. So why is one $1210 while the other is $175? From my understanding chrysoberyl isn''t one of those gems where the larger the stone, the larger the per carat price, because it can come in fairly large stones. Is it the color? The Richard Homer name? The store? Something else? Why is the first worth nearly four times the carat price of the other?

 

[ma re]

Yes, I was refering to home shopping networks. There are also videos of gems (and gemstone jewellery) on youtube, just type any of the gemstone names into a search.

About those chrysoberyls - it''s a combination of factors. If we''d be comparing stones of the same quality (same intensity and purity of color, same degree of clarity, both native cut, same degree of treatments etc.) one of them would have to be at least 4 times heavier to justify that price difference. But if you''re comparing something done by RH to a native cut stone you have to understand that these cutters charge more than what you''d usually pay for cutting. For example, chrysoberyls above 5 carats are quite rare, but that isn''t reflected in the prices as much as you''d think, so a native cut 1 ct of fine quality could go for 100$/ct, while a 5 ct one of the same quality would go for around 150$/ct (so the first one would cost 100$ and the other one 750$). But that''s with a native cut, so if you add the price of a well-known cutter''s job, you can, I believe, get to a thousand dollars if not more. BTW, I''m not from the States so don''t take these price guidelines to be absolutely correct, but I don''t think I''m too far off.

 

[chrono]

You are correct that a very small portion of the price increase is due to the size. The colour in this case plays a slight role as well. I believe the bulk of the difference is in the superb cutting and the name of the cutter.

 

[T L]

It looks like you favor "minty colored" stones. The only thing I would caution about stone 4 is that it''s photographed on a black background, which gives the illusion of more saturated color. I love minty stones as well, and good ones are very hard to come by, and when you do find them, they are pretty expensive. It''s one of the most "in demand" colors, and prasiolite (minty colored quartz) is very popular to fill this need for inexpensive minty stones.

Also take a look at some of the lighter toned tsavorites on Multicolour.com. There might be something there as well.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks for the answers! So to clarify (and to get back to my question #3 of "What''s a good price range to find a nice specimen of these different varieties of stones? Not talking museum quality, but similar to some of the drool worthy stones y''all keep posting," would it be fair to say, for chrysoberyl at least, that a native cut stone would run about $175-200/carat while a precision/American cutter would be more in the $500/carat range (and I''ll assume the extra $200 is for the difference in color)? What about prices for sapphires or spinels? Is there a big difference in carat price between a pale blue and a pale green, or would they be priced comparably?

And you''re right that I like the minty greens as well as the light blues. From this thread I thought that the garnets weren''t as hardy for an everyday ring, but is Tsavorite not really considered a garnet in this case?

Thanks again for all of your help, including the tip about the black backgrounds!

 

[ma re]

THIS one is like 150$/ct for a 12 ct stone of very good quality. It''s not precision cut, but in all other aspects it''s great. Just to give you a sense of prices. Blue spinels are priced similarly (although fine ones can cost 1000$/ct and beyond) as well as green sapphires, but blue sapphires can cost a bit more, sometimes up to 500$ct, even in lighter shades (unless severly treated). But if you want something from a famous cutter you can probably multiply those with 1.5, at least. Prasiolite is indeed a nice choice for a light green stone, but not for daily wear, unless you don''t mind replacing it with a new one occasionally (they''re inexpensive so it''s an option).

 

[chrono]

Tsavorites fall into the category of a green grossular garnet.

 

[Kismet]

And here''s a lovely chrysoberyl by Jeff White in the $500/ct range.

 

[AustenNut]

That is a lovely chrysoberyl. Thanks for everybody''s help. Now I''m just going to browse around to see what catches my eye. Y''all are wonderful!

 

[Pandora II]

You can wear garnets everyday IF you only wear them when you are doing nothing with your hands. My e-ring is a tsavorite and while I wear it everyday, I probably only wear it for a few hours each day, otherwise it''s in a box.

So, it''s not what I would call an ''occasional wear'' stone like sphene, but it''s also not a 24/7 stone (IMHO no stone is 24/7 though!)

 

[T L]

Date: 8/5/2009 1:05:00 PM
Author: Kismet
And here's a lovely chrysoberyl by Jeff White in the $500/ct range.

Incredibly overpriced, sorry. I think Mochi has a similar color chrysoberyl from Gene, and it was no where near that price. I'm sure that's why it hasn't sold.