Peter Torraca prasiolite asscher...and a question

[jstarfireb]

I've been chronicling my progress at buying and setting gemstones in my projects thread, but this baby deserves its own thread. A few weeks ago Peter Torraca listed a new set of gemstones, and I inquired about a light green grossular garnet Asscher right away, but sadly someone else got to it first. Peter didn't have any more of the green grossular rough, but he offered to cut me a prasiolite Asscher from a particular new piece of rough with minimal gray. Then last week I got an email from him with this gorgeous photo:

The pic is very true to the color; there's maybe a little more yellow in real life, but it's a lovely soft minty green as you can see. I tried taking a few of my own pics tonight, but none of them came out very well.

Now for a question...which color gold do you think would be best? I'm not really a yellow gold person, unless I did a 2-tone ring like my alexandrite lotus. I'm waffling between rose and white gold...I have a chance to get a really pretty white gold setting for a good price, but I think rose gold might bring out the green in a better way. What do you guys think?

 

[chrono]

Since you are having trouble trying to photograph it, you''ll have to test it yourself. Place it next to a yellow piece of jewellery and also a copper penny to see the overall effect. My gut feel is white gold will not do the stone justice.

 

[Barrett]

Look at the cut on that puppy..sweet stuff..once again peter has done a fantastic job!!

 

[jstarfireb]

Date: 3/9/2010 10:27:42 PM
Author: Chrono
My gut feel is white gold will not do the stone justice.

As is mine, Chrono. Which disappoints me because I''m looking at a beautiful vintage white gold setting right now that''s available to me for a more than reasonable price. But I think rose gold may do the stone more justice.

 

[jstarfireb]

Date: 3/9/2010 10:37:19 PM
Author: amethystguy
Look at the cut on that puppy..sweet stuff..once again peter has done a fantastic job!!

I know, he always continues to outdo himself!

 

[Arcadian]

Thats an amazing cut, white gold may not do it justice at all. rose gold might.


-A

 

[Kunzite]

Rose gold all the way. I have a stone that is about the same color (goes more towards blue than yellow though) and it looked awful in the white gold setting I got it. BUT when I put it in my empty rose gold setting it looks amazing! I cannot wait to put it in rose gold

 

[Arkteia]

Date: 3/9/2010 10:20:37 PM
Author:jstarfireb
I''ve been chronicling my progress at buying and setting gemstones in my projects thread, but this baby deserves its own thread. A few weeks ago Peter Torraca listed a new set of gemstones, and I inquired about a light green grossular garnet Asscher right away, but sadly someone else got to it first. Peter didn''t have any more of the green grossular rough, but he offered to cut me a prasiolite Asscher from a particular new piece of rough with minimal gray. Then last week I got an email from him with this gorgeous photo:

The pic is very true to the color; there''s maybe a little more yellow in real life, but it''s a lovely soft minty green as you can see. I tried taking a few of my own pics tonight, but none of them came out very well.

Now for a question...which color gold do you think would be best? I''m not really a yellow gold person, unless I did a 2-tone ring like my alexandrite lotus. I''m waffling between rose and white gold...I have a chance to get a really pretty white gold setting for a good price, but I think rose gold might bring out the green in a better way. What do you guys think?

Usually I am a YG person but I think since it is so clear WG would be better. Rose is more suitable for red-orange-yellow spectrum - JMO.

 

[loriken214]

What a beauty!!!

Lori

 

[DistinctionJewelry]

Gorgeous! I snagged a couple of prasiolites from him and they are stunning. Personally I think they''d look best with white metals, but then again I''m not partial to rose gold. What about green gold?

 

[oddoneout]

I think yellow gold is best. With white gold it would be kind of blah.

 

[jstarfireb]

Haha, looks like we''re pretty much evenly divided on the gold color issue.

Seeing a few votes for WG, I think I''ll pick up that vintage WG setting I mentioned. There''s a return policy if necessary. Plus, when I hold up the stone next to my single piece of RG jewelry, I actually don''t love what it does for the color.

 

[chrono]

Sounds like this stone is going to be a challenge in deciding which metal colour to use. Jstar, how does it look next to a white metal setting?

 

[jstarfireb]

I actually think it looks best next to WG, but may be better with unplated WG instead of rhodium. I will try to get some pics later but have been working a lot these days...

 

[Catmom]

I think prasiolite looks better with white gold myself. I love your stone, it''s gorgeous and I can''t wait to see the vintage setting it may go in!

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Personally I''m a WG person, but I also think the cool green color would go nicely in white metal anyway. I also love the idea of unplated WG - that could be really interesting and pretty.

But then again, RG would look great too.

Sorry, I''m no help at all!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Hmmm I think rg would be interesting.

I wanna see it in person!!

 

[T L]

Date: 3/9/2010 10:27:42 PM
Author: Chrono
Since you are having trouble trying to photograph it, you'll have to test it yourself. Place it next to a yellow piece of jewellery and also a copper penny to see the overall effect. My gut feel is white gold will not do the stone justice.

I agree, in fact I think the rose gold will overpower the stone.

Jstar,
In your photo, the stone is almost colorless, is that true? If that were the case, I would probably do yellow gold to help bring out what little color it has. If it's minty, the yellow gold will help it out a little bit. White gold will just wash it out. I have a few minty stones, and I can tell you that white gold really doesn't bring out the blue in them like yellow gold does.

 

[jstarfireb]

Well I actually think both RG and YG overpower the subtle color of the stone now, which is why I say WG may be best...

 

[jstarfireb]

Ok guys, the vintage WG setting didn't work out, so I'm still wide open.

So...when I really think about it, here's how things stand. Plated white gold does wash the stone out a bit, but yellow and rose gold both seem to overpower the subtle color. Unplated WG or lower-karat (10-14k) YG may be good options.

Someone mentioned green gold earlier. I don't know much at all about it. I've only seen the one chrysoberyl ring in green gold on here (I think it's Mochi's?). Do any of you have examples you could show me? Would it work with the tone of my prasiolite? Do you know any vendors who will work with it? My budget is very limited, so I doubt I could go with Whiteflash like the chrysoberyl ring, but maybe one of the Etsy vendors would use it?

ETA: This is my prasiolite in WG...I think it looks great, but the new asscher is definitely a bit lighter in saturation:

 

[jstarfireb]

Any more thoughts on the gold color, guys? Julia works with green gold, so I could in theory give that a try. I was thinking of having Julia make a setting like Mochi''s chrysoberyl in green gold and started this photoshop thread:

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/photoshop-help.138655/

...but for some reason the stone look really gray in the pics. Any thoughts?

In the meantime, I tried my best to get half-decent pictures...here it is on a penny:

 

[jstarfireb]

Penny again...

 

[jstarfireb]

...

 

[jstarfireb]

With my rose gold ring...

 

[jstarfireb]

Rose gold again...

 

[jstarfireb]

Yellow gold...

 

[jstarfireb]

White gold...

 

[jstarfireb]

And finally, unplated white gold.

 

[T L]

On my monitor, the rose gold ring you placed it next too looks totally like yellow gold, and it looks terrible on the penny (the penny is too brownish). Therefore, I think the mint color really pops in yellow metal. I don''t like it in white gold, it''s too washed out. I saw a very similar colored prasiolite asscher at a jewelry store the other day. It was in white gold, and it looked very grey and dull.

 

[jstarfireb]

Thanks TL! Did you have any thoughts on green gold? I've never actually seen green gold in person, but I hear it's just a slightly greenish-leaning yellow gold, so it may fit the bill.

ETA: Your thoughts on rose gold mean a lot because I know you're normally a big fan of it. Good to know that it honestly doesn't work.