CC garnets

[Arkteia]

I want to buy one but never saw them in real life. I know some people like them, some don''t, but is the color change really strong? Can you see it if it is bezel-set? Or is it masked by the setting?

 

[chrono]

The strength of the colour change can be weak or strong, depending on the individual stone. The change is also better when prong set as opposed to bezel set by allowing maximum light play.

 

[LD]

Unfortunately any colour change gemstone is a nightmare to photograph so you''ll have to take my word for this post! I have a number of cc garnets and the colours range from:-

Brown to Red
Champagne to Rose Pink
Green to Purple (like an Alex)
Blue to Purple

I''m sure there are other colourways but I can''t remember them just now.

Is the colour change/shift strong? As Chrono says it depends on the stone. Would I bezel one? No. I''m pretty sure that would affect the colour change/shift but I have nothing to base that on apart from a gut feel (none of mine are bezelled).

Here''s a brown to red. The daylight colour is a conker brown and not very exciting (unless you like conkers) but in incandescent lighting this is phenomenal, it''s a striking pure blood red - like a wonderful glass of red wine!

 

[Arkteia]

Beautiful. It seems that we both like color-changes - maybe you''ll show me where to dig? Any chance that something is left there? Very small?

Chrono and LD, both of you seem to have magic spades!

 

[packrat]

I like donkey brown! (I liked the cc garnets in Gary''s new drop too!) I''d like to see a picture of the champagne to pink if you have one, LD.

 

[innerkitten]

I have one that goes from peach to pink. It''s from Bekily Madgascar. It''s not set yet but I don''t plan on a bezel.

 

[RevolutionGems]

I have some small cut and uncut Malaya garnet that goes from pink to peach. The saturation is on the light side which I find to be quite nice in this material. It has pretty high dispersion so it throws a lot of color in addition to the body color change.

Interestingly enough, there are some color change garnets out there that actually turn blue. Yep. You heard me right. BLUE garnet. There is also one variety that does a really good impression of alex going from green to red.

Pretty pricey stuff for the most part.

 

[LD]

Ok - please bear in mind I am NOT a photographer and taking photos of these is like chasing a feather in a storm! Crasru, it''s taken me years to amass my colour changers and I''ve bought them from everywhere. The only piece of advice I can give you is keep looking and if you see one that you think has potential BUY IT, don''t hesitate (or I''ll have got in there first

). Be warned though, you often find that when these are being sold the photos are photoshopped just because they are so difficult to accurately depict so I''d suggest you speak to the vendor and ask what he actually sees! Have you seen colour change sapphires? They come in all colour ways and I had great fun about a month ago trying to capture those!

The first one shown below has a true Alexandrite colour change. It''s bottle green during the day (and for some reason I can NEVER capture the daylight green of an Alex or a CC Garnet) and purple in incandescent light. The incandescent picture is pretty accurate.

The second one is (believe it or not) a light champagne colour during the day (it looks lilac in the photo and I can''t capture this one at all) but, again, the incandescent picture is pretty accurate as it goes to a lovely rose pink/lilac.

As with most colour changers/shifters, I always think they look far prettier in incandescent light.

 

[Pandora II]

Here's mine:

Daylight:

Incandescent light:

This stone is a strong colour-changer. I wouldn't bezel it as it's pretty dark in daylight as it is.

I have a teal-green to raspberry cc sapphire in my collection (no pics I'm afraid).

Both of the stones have inclusions - it was the compromise in order to afford the strong change - but since I don't want to set them I'm not too concerned.

 

[LD]

That''s stunning. Lucky you. Wouldn''t you ever set it so you could enjoy it?

I do wish I knew how they took photos that showed the "real" colour change. Presuming those photos are the Vendors? I''ve tried so many different ways. Perhaps I need a new camera!

 

[sleepyspinel]

Here is my humble attempt that this rather difficult photography task! For the first, replicating blue wavelength-rich northern daylight is really hard but this is as close as I could get... the candle light photo was much easier! Hope you all like

Oh and its in a bezel setting!

 

[T L]

Nice ring Sleepy!!

You know, I''ve been debating with myself to get one of these stones for my collection, but I''m terribly worried it will be too dark in certain lighting.

 

[sleepyspinel]

From what I have seen (handled and own several of these stones) that the more dramatic the color change... the darker the tone. And while the incadescent coloration is fairly easy to tease out, its a rare day when the northern daylight conditions are available and bright enough to really enjoy the blue green of the stone.

And forget about "vivid" there seems to a grey mask to all the material I have personally seen. In mixed lighting its like a purple grey. However I will say this, in sunlight, especially direct, this material seems to have an unusually high level of dispersion (not as good as demantoid mind you) but better than other garnets and even spinel (I am not sure how well that is documented).

 

[Arkteia]

Jeff,

Are you on the vendor''s list? I remember you tried putting yourself on it.

 

[Arkteia]

Date: 1/19/2010 4:54:39 PM
Author: LovingDiamonds
Ok - please bear in mind I am NOT a photographer and taking photos of these is like chasing a feather in a storm! Crasru, it''s taken me years to amass my colour changers and I''ve bought them from everywhere. The only piece of advice I can give you is keep looking and if you see one that you think has potential BUY IT, don''t hesitate (or I''ll have got in there first

). Be warned though, you often find that when these are being sold the photos are photoshopped just because they are so difficult to accurately depict so I''d suggest you speak to the vendor and ask what he actually sees! Have you seen colour change sapphires? They come in all colour ways and I had great fun about a month ago trying to capture those!

The first one shown below has a true Alexandrite colour change. It''s bottle green during the day (and for some reason I can NEVER capture the daylight green of an Alex or a CC Garnet) and purple in incandescent light. The incandescent picture is pretty accurate.

The second one is (believe it or not) a light champagne colour during the day (it looks lilac in the photo and I can''t capture this one at all) but, again, the incandescent picture is pretty accurate as it goes to a lovely rose pink/lilac.

As with most colour changers/shifters, I always think they look far prettier in incandescent light.

They are stunning. For some reason I, too, can not capture green of my alex in daylight. I see the green, and it turns out washed-out blue in my photograph. I turned it, tilted it, virtually shook it. Now I think there is something wrong with my camera. But it seems you have the same problem.

 

[T L]

Date: 1/19/2010 11:28:55 PM
Author: sleepyspinel
From what I have seen (handled and own several of these stones) that the more dramatic the color change... the darker the tone. And while the incadescent coloration is fairly easy to tease out, its a rare day when the northern daylight conditions are available and bright enough to really enjoy the blue green of the stone.

And forget about 'vivid' there seems to a grey mask to all the material I have personally seen. In mixed lighting its like a purple grey. However I will say this, in sunlight, especially direct, this material seems to have an unusually high level of dispersion (not as good as demantoid mind you) but better than other garnets and even spinel (I am not sure how well that is documented).

I saw one that goes from purple (a dark purple) to pinkish red, and I thought that was attractive, but if the purple is too dark, and too grey, that would ruin it for me I'm afraid.

Thanks for the info SS.

 

[chictomato]

Must it be a cc garnet? I thought CC spinel are cool too, not to mention its harder I am still on my look out for CC gems .... its has been a while, not esy to get a nice one Good Luck!

 

[chrono]

I currently have 3 cc garnets:
0.63 ct rich pink to golden (brown) orange barion cut (Dan Stair)
Just under 1 ct forest green to purplish red cushion (Mineral Miner)
Just over 1 ct greenish blue to purplish red pear (Multicolour)

All these seem to do excellent incandescent colour easily and well with good saturation, but their other change seems to be muddier and darker. I made the mistake of bezeling the 1 ct cc garnet pear; it got even darker so I’ve taken it out of the setting and will leave it unset until I think up a better design.

 

[RevolutionGems]

Crasu,
Not yet but I am hoping to be soon. I am trying to get everything together, get more stones cut and get a website put together. Then there''s the merchant account for accepting credit cards, figuring out how to take good pics of the stones and all the other little details.

Look for the launch around the middle of March. I think if I get on the vendor list I will be able to put the web address in my sig but I have to clear that with Ali.

 

[Arkteia]

Date: 1/20/2010 9:23:15 AM
Author: Revolution
Crasu,
Not yet but I am hoping to be soon. I am trying to get everything together, get more stones cut and get a website put together. Then there''s the merchant account for accepting credit cards, figuring out how to take good pics of the stones and all the other little details.

Look for the launch around the middle of March. I think if I get on the vendor list I will be able to put the web address in my sig but I have to clear that with Ali.

Jeff,

Pardon my curionsity, but what is in your avatar? To me it resembles the head of a figure from Durer''s "Apocalypse". (Saw it IRL - amazing!).

 

[partgypsy]

I agree with the post, often the color change garnets are very dark. I have a very small cc garnet that changes from bluegreen (outside) to reddish purple (inside), but it is hard to see because it is so dark. Still a cool stone. I keep on meaning to get a lighter cc garnet, but am afraid to pick one based on pics because I think the vendors photograph them with very strong lights.

 

[partgypsy]

- re the avatar is it a Giger?

 

[Arkteia]

A Giger or a Geiger? (Sorry, Jeff, could not help myself).

 

[RevolutionGems]

It is indeed a GIGER. For whatever reason, I have always been drawn (no pun intended) to his work. It tends to be very dark and intense. There is something very ominous about his integration of the biological with the mechanical. A warning perhaps?

Besides, the alien is possibly the most frightening creature ever envisioned.