Somebody's Gotta Buy This Stone!

[chrono]

It looks like a cat's face

And not just any cat but Grumpy Cat.

 

[LoversKites]

Based on that photo of Jeff's (nice photo as usual btw), I would say he needs to come down in price as well. It does not appear to have the saturation to warrant that price tag, I'm afraid.

Maybe... Spessarite is pretty expensive.I get what you say about the saturation.

Does anyone see a brown modifier in it? I don't but I'm a noob so it's hard to tell.

 

[VapidLapid]

A really spessed off grumpy cat

 

[LoversKites]

Speaking of spessarite...

And look at the cut! This one is 2.55ct and $1275 from jeffreyhunt.com

It looks like a cat's face

Cannot unsee that now

 

[LoversKites]

Double post. Couldn't get the emoji to work in the last post and editing is a pain on my phone.

 

[chrono]

Orange is an extremely challenging colour to photograph and would be more forgiving of the photography unless I get the opportunity to see it in person.

 

[minousbijoux]

Yes, at the risk of pissing Jeff off, I would say a Grumpy brownish cat...

 

[corundum_conundrum]

Who wouldn't love to acquire a rare cat's eyes spessartite?

 

[minousbijoux]

Who wouldn't love to acquire a rare cat's eyes spessartite?

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay, admittedly, it has been a while since I've posted a stone so I thought I should remediate that. Jim McCormick sells on FB. He sells in many different groups so its easy to find his stones. He tends to focus on garnets and zircons. His material seems to be good quality, he is reputable, and his prices start out higher but he typically drops them. They are not precision cut (the cutting seems rudimentary on most stones) but he has some good buys if you follow him.

This Mali garnet is just shy of 2 cts, and is $170. I love this mix of Grossular and Andradite garnet, as it has such great dispersion. Dimensions are 8.30 mm x 6.90 mm x 4.90 mm. Anyway, someone should buy it.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203443811684375&set=gm.598675473558305&type=1&theater

 

[minousbijoux]

Let me try this again. This photo came out too saturated (I tried to compensate for PS's desaturation but I guess yellow doesn't need it), so trying with a corrected image...

 

[LoversKites]

I must say it's a very pretty thing Minou. Not as saturated as it could be but that's not a big deal in this case. Yellow garnets are difficult gems. If I recall correctly Freke has been looking for one for a long time.

 

[minousbijoux]

I must say it's very pretty thing Minou. Not as saturated as it could be but that's not a big deal in this case. Yellow garnets are difficult gems. If I recall correctly Freke has been looking for one for a long time.

True that, but I have seen very, very few Malis with strong saturation, fwiw. Actually, it is hard to find vivid yellow in any stone type!

 

[chrono]

Make that untreated vivid yellow gemstone.

 

[minousbijoux]

Amen! Oh, and add of high Mohs too

 

[LoversKites]

I must say it's very pretty thing Minou. Not as saturated as it could be but that's not a big deal in this case. Yellow garnets are difficult gems. If I recall correctly Freke has been looking for one for a long time.

True that, but I have seen very, very few Malis with strong saturation, fwiw. Actually, it is hard to find vivid yellow in any stone type!

I've never seen any, actually.

Edit - with the exception of a few, I realise.

Make that untreated vivid yellow gemstone.

Of course. I'd buy a heavily treated stone, eg diffused yellow sapphire, just to see how it compares.

 

[estelle]

Yes, at the risk of pissing Jeff off, I would say a Grumpy brownish cat...

If you think it will piss him off, why say it? It is hardly educational. It just comes off as mean. These cutters toil and present us with a large selection of beautiful gems from which we choose. If it isn't your taste, don't buy it. Why insult it in an attempt at humor? I am an old lady and the older I get, the more I believe we really should treat others as we'd like to be treated.

 

[LoversKites]

I must say it's very pretty thing Minou. Not as saturated as it could be but that's not a big deal in this case. Yellow garnets are difficult gems. If I recall correctly Freke has been looking for one for a long time.

True that, but I have seen very, very few Malis with strong saturation, fwiw. Actually, it is hard to find vivid yellow in any stone type!

Actually, the stone is quite saturated for a Mali Garnet. GIA Gemset of YG 5/4. Moderately strong saturation. Very rarely do they ever attain 5 on the GIA saturation scale, but I've had a few.

Thanks!

Jim McCormick...aka...Elvis Prasiolite.

Honestly the more I look at it the more I like it. It looks better in the vid than the still photo.

 

[VapidLapid]

Estelle, it is just a figure of speech, and it was fitting with the light tone of the discussion. She doesn't really think it would piss him off. He does have a sense of humor.

 

[estelle]

Estelle, it is just a figure of speech, and it was fitting with the light tone of the discussion. She doesn't really think it would piss him off. He does have a sense of humor.

Ok dear. Pardon me. I am not familiar with the gentleman who is selling the stone so I don't have a way to judge his sense of humor. I generally find brown in a spess garnet a negative thing (lack of saturation). If I were selling a spess and it was referred to as a brown grumpy cat, I would be displeased myself.

 

[corundum_conundrum]

Yowza! I like that Mali. I love when yellows stay mostly yellow and resist the temptation to take a trip to Greenland. Its actually sort of rare. An idiosyncratic opinion for this board, I know. (not that chartreuse stones aren't lovely in their own right).

 

[minousbijoux]

Estelle, it is just a figure of speech, and it was fitting with the light tone of the discussion. She doesn't really think it would piss him off. He does have a sense of humor.

Ok dear. Pardon me. I am not familiar with the gentleman who is selling the stone so I don't have a way to judge his sense of humor. I generally find brown in a spess garnet a negative thing (lack of saturation). If I were selling a spess and it was referred to as a brown grumpy cat, I would be displeased myself.

Estelle: first of all, welcome! Please don't let my ill attempts at humor put you off. Yes, it is true that I see a slight brownish cast to Jeff's stone and, as someone had previously asked if anyone could see brown in the stone, I thought I would just answer in a way that added to what others had said about seeing a cat - "grumpy cat" - in the face of the stone. It was a flippant comment meant to be funny. Thank you for your comments, and sorry to have been unclear - or unfunny!

 

[corundum_conundrum]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-53-Carats...499?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338b210e6b

Look at this cheeky chrysoberyl. Where does it think it's from, Merelani? What does it think it's made of, vanadium?

I thought this might be a nice (economical) alternative for those intrigued by Gene's mint garnet posted on this thread recently.

 

[minousbijoux]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-53-Carats...499?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338b210e6b

Look at this cheeky chrysoberyl. Where does it think it's from, Merelani? What does it think it's made of, vanadium?

I thought this might be a nice (economical) alternative for those intrigued by Gene's mint garnet posted on this thread recently.

Very nice and incredibly cheap find, CC! It would be quite the stone if it looked as green in hand as it does here.

 

[JewelFreak]

Cheap is putting it mildly if it's vanadium. I'm afraid the bowtie would bother me, though. If it isn't as apparent IRL or doesn't make you crazy, super buy!

--- Laurie

 

[chrono]

Given the price, colour and size of the chrysoberyl, perhaps a bit of tweaking will make it more attractive and worth it?

 

[corundum_conundrum]

Its sold now. I hope some pictures show up on this board as I thought it was a neat stone and was tempted to scoop it up myself. To be clear: it was not a vanadium chrysoberyl--it was just reminiscent of one to my eye given the blue-green notes visible in the photo.

 

[Lula]

Cat's eye chrysoberyl: looks like someone finally bought it. I kept on going back to look at it, and it's too big for me for a stacker, so I passed. If you bought it, please email us pics. I've never seen one that was so translucent.

I bought this to celebrate a recent major milestone in my life. It is indeed as lovely as Brad describes it. I'll try to get some good photos this weekend.

Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

 

[blingergrrrl]

CC,
Even though the sapphire isn't top colour, it is still heads and shoulders above commercial quality. For someone who wants a nice (but not super) blue sapphire, you cannot beat a $1k/ct price on a 3 carat sapphire. Look at the example pictures below.

http://www.gemfix.com/images/stones/sapphire_blue/sapphire_blue_996_A.jpg

Yeah, too bad GEMFIX won't ship anything over $999 USD to Canada ("Australia and Canada: Maximum purchase price $999USD
U.K. and some EU countries: Maximum purchase price $650USD"). What's up with that? I don't mean to be insulting, but this makes me feel like they can't make an effort when it comes to customer service! Too bad because I would have purchased a few stones of theirs by now...including either one of these that Chrono posted. So someone *AMERICAN* please purchase this one so I can stop lusting. I love me some lighter sapphires!

And there's a colour change sapphire that I would totally post except I REALLY don't want someone else to buy it. But I can't cuz I live Canada??!...WAAAaaahhh! Change your policies, GEMFIX!!! Mama wants!!! I really love some of your stones....

 

[FrekeChild]

Frankly, I'm not a fan of GemFix.