My gemstone links .. add your favorites please

[strmrdr]

www.preciousgemstones.com
www.ajsgems.com
www.jyotishgem.com
www.burmarubies.com
www.sapphires.ca
www.walterarnstein.com
www.cherrypicked.com
www.israel-diamonds.com
www.palagems.com
www.Africagems.com
www.Multicolour.com
www.creativegems.com
www.jewelryexpert.com
ruby-sapphire.com
www.gemcuts.com
www.qualitygemcutting.com
www.concavegems.com
www.customgemstones.com
lapilia.com/gemstones.htm
www.minerals.net
www.yourgemologist.com
mineralminers.com/html/indxgems.htm
atggems.homestead.com
www.walterarnstein.com
www.gemstone.org
www.szul.com

Those are the ones I have bookmarked so far.

 

[Mara]

strm...which ones sell natural? I want to find a natural pale bluish-green aquamarine. Don't know a thing about the cuts!

 

[strmrdr]

A lot of them do.
Iv been hearing good things about this place and they have them.
click me

www.Multicolour.com has them also but some of them are pretty gross looking but cheap their higher priced stuff looks better.
click here

www.africagems.com has them also:
click me

Those are 3 that I have heard good things about.
I havent purchased anything from them.

 

[strmrdr]

Since you mentioned cut Im starting a new thread on my understanding of it.
Hopefully the experts will chime in and correct any errors.

 

[DiamondExpert]

Here are a few more...some are fun, all are interesting...from a list of about 200 I keep an eye on.

http://www.awesomegems.com/
http://www.acstones.com/default.html
http://www.rarestone.com/index.html
http://www.jrparry.com/home.htm
http://www.steveperrygems.com/
http://www.customgemstones.com/
http://www.ammolite-guaranteed.com/
http://www.mineralminers.com/

 

[Matata]

Some of these are great, some average, some have great eye candy.

acstones.com
djraregems.com
faceters.com
finegems.com
zavagems.com
free-form.com

 

[Patty]

Thanks for getting these all together in one place!

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

on this thread...

Let's not forget Garry at www.diamondexpert.com & Palagems also has a lot of quality goods..

www.kashmirblue.com
www.planetarygems.com

 

[strmrdr]

Thanks everyone
keep them coming.
DiamondExpert would you be willing to post more of those 200?

 

[DiamondExpert]

OK, I got a few minutes for some more - these without looking to see if duplications are present...no guarantees about quality/reputation and I'm not endorsing nor am I affiliated in any way with any of these sites...!

http://simplysapphires.com/
http://shahgems.com/
http://www.gems-afghan.com/
http://www.bmbturquoise.com/index.shtml
http://www.gemfix.com/index.html
http://www.gemtec.com/
http://www.gmrcorp.com/index2.html
http://gemscape.com/
http://grk-gems.com/
http://www.gemtraders.com/
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/gemshow7/index.html
http://newgems.com/
http://www.rcgems.com/

And here's a list of 50 - http://www.topsitelists.com/run/shamrokxls/topsites.html

Gotta go!

 

[adept]

Anybody ever purchase anything from Multicolour.com? Quality?

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 12/16/2003 1:57:34 AM adept wrote:

Anybody ever purchase anything from Multicolour.com? Quality?----------------

I did: a few green garnets. They are great! I had a detailed discussion about the grading and pricing of the goods prior to purchase (very friendly), extra pictures and lightning fast delivery. Way to go!

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 12/10/2003 12:46:09 PM Mara wrote:


strm...which ones sell natural? I want to find a natural pale bluish-green aquamarine. Don't know a thing about the cuts!
----------------

For custom cuts www.customgemstones.com would be the best on that list. Multicolor recuts gems on order (they offer the service in some cases letting te buyer decide wether they want the larger weight or a better cut for some rather rare material0. Cherrypicked would be the best place, but it seems that the site is not working to give you an idea what that store is about: there were a few awesome, world-class aquas there, including a couple of smaller ones of rare color.

Did you see any tempting aquamarine yet, Mara?

 

[valeria101]

Aquas' value is so sensitive to color... what do you have in mind?

 

[adept]

Great! thanks for the reply. I am new to collecting and have reservations about reputable places to buy.

 

[strmrdr]

I love the color of the second from the left top row.
The bottom right is showing a bad window in that picture.

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 12/17/2003 12:07:12 AM strmrdr wrote:

I love the color of the second from the left top row.
The bottom right is showing a bad window in that picture.
----------------

Lucky you!
The color you like is usually on a big discount (that's the center stone on the top row, right?) since that's farr more green than aquaas are suposed to be. This discount can be down to 1/3 of what a blue tone stone with the same other characteristics fatches.

Window... that stone is tilted in the picture: in this position any stone will show a window, so I don't know wether that piece would have had a window face-up. I dounbt it though, sice the EC cut is deep with that small table. We get to see through one of the large side facets near the bottom facet joint.

Those two ovals have windows, somewhat, the right stone on the top rough is all a huge window (and have just seen a pair of diamonds just like it, delightfully transparent and non-sparkly... that is). The bottom-left piece has a huge window, but with THAT color, who cares?

 

[strmrdr]

Thats kewl that it is cheaper.
I know with gemstones color is suppose to be everything but Id take a lesser colored but fewer windows one any day.
To me if it is a color I enjoy its fine if its not what is considered ideal but a window that is visible from a common viewing angle would drive me nuts.
Im not much of a collector of things if I keep something around it has to "speak" to me anything else is irrelevant.
Not that there is anything wrong with collecting what is considered the ideal I fully understand it im just not into it.

For example I would take several of the darker honey zircons here:

http://www.ajsgems.com/ZHN/ZHN.htm

over the blue ones here:

http://www.ajsgems.com/ZBL/ZBL-1-3.99.htm

And there are several of the blues that Id like to have too but the honeys "speak" to me.

But for someone to not like the honeys because they arent the ideal is fine too.

 

[Mara]

I love the first and second in the top row.....




and the lighter for me is the right bottom.




But when it comes down to cut and online, what to buy? What is a Portuguese cut and how do I know if the color will be really rich?

 

[valeria101]

cuts are readily available, ut this will probably not tell you exactly what the stone is like. There is a color grading system for colored gems (actually more than one) but it is very unlikely that you actually get a color certed stone uness is a real wooper. There is nothing as good as a good repolacement policy, I am afraid. Pictures are good too, esp. to check for windows and blatand oddities (such as extra deap stones, a common trich to improve the appearence of color).

The stones on the top row are from Multicolour (some of their best) and I would really not expect any bad surprises from these guys. Another show where I had no trouble returning stones and getting the appropriate refund no Qs askes is Thaigem (actually, I was a terrible, but well served customer to them a few times).

The two stones from the bottom are from a shop called mineralminers: I bought from hem (aqua rough, actually) but never returned anything. I enjoyed preatty darn good service there to. I should say that the difference in price between the two on the top rough and the bottom right is 100 fold! And color accounts for most of it. The first stone (top left) should be close to what I believe you want: top cut, clarity, light greenish-blue. It is, however, huge!

In absence of clear-cut color grades and stats for cutting, I am afraid all remains for buyers of colored gems are those two eyes. Which is not too bad: actually, even the official clarity gems for colored gems are based on theie appearence (eg, VVS means 'clean to the naked eye' for the stones like aquas which are suposed to be clean, but slightly included for emerals which are almost never clean). SO, as long as you see the stone, you have all the tools needed for grading!

I should say that I have a particular weakness for aquamarine... and at some point, when faced with the same dilema (what do those colors look like?) I just went through a bunch of samples (rough and cut) from most major deposits (Africa, Brazil, Central and South Asia and the US included). it took me about four years to learn what aqua colors look like. However, I would not say that these are good shopping habits: just some kind of DESEASE!

One way to go is: get one aqua, see how it is, return if bad... repeat. A better one is to arange to see a selection of stones and choose: most jewelers can provide an aray of aquas for inspection given the rather low price of these stones. I went this way about buying an aqua in Boston this summer (a present) and it worked rather well. Actually, the 4.5 ct portugheze cut oval I bought then had a habit of puttin neighboring CZs to shame with its sparkle: quite an amazing cut.

Hope all goes well with your buy. Would you consider ordering a custom-cut aqua? For precision sake?



Places such as www.customgemstones.com would be great. And you will most likely get extensive explanation about what exactly the cut type you want will achive.

 

[valeria101]

Oh, well, some nice pieces off the shelf just appeared (since my last visit) at lapilia (here). It is very hard to get good color in small stones, and these are really great. Mozambique is one of the more reliable sources for such small, blue pieces. Esp that sweet small square, to be sure.

I call 'good cut' a non-overly deap, think with good symmetry, no window and a decent amount of even color.

 

[strmrdr]

If I was going to get a gem custom cut I would talk to Michael E who is a member here about having it done.
He put together a ring for me and was great to work with.
He has posted several samples of his work on DT and they were well recieved and the owners were real happy with the finished product.
His prices are nice too.

 

[Mara]

Ooh on that link you included Valeria...I love the first one and the last one!! The last one is probably one I'd be very interested in, especially with that awesome looking cut....ahh but have to wait....budget and all

 

[valeria101]

Oh well... there are a couple of new aquas here including a nice round. Best of luck with your future aqua!

 

[mogok]

Here are some interesting websites that you have not presented yet:

Only gemwow.com is a commercial website selling stones, the other ones are very good informatives ones

www.aigsthailand.com: You want to learn about gems? Have a look there!
www.geminterest.com : May be the best gemological website I know (In french... sorry!)
www.corunduminium.com : A great source for corundum!
www.preciousgemstones.com : Including the excellent gemstone forecaster magazine
www.mindat.com : A great ressource about crystals and minerals
www.gemwow.com : Special and rare Burmese crystals and gemstones.
www.gemmology.org : From the Belgium society of gemology... With many links
www.gemology.ru : A russian gemological server, useful to follow what happens there.
www.themelis.com : Website from a Bangkok based expert on treatments and burma.


Have a good visit.

 

[valeria101]

I had to say this somewhere... I recetly bumped into that silli-named "gemwow" thing and got hooked!

After a few years of endulging in gem & minerals and the ocasional financial disaster, this is by no mens common. But this is nothing! This is the ONLY site where I could find a real, water-worn river stone listed for sale in line top Burmese reds and blues... just like one may find in my jewelry box! Oh well, I was almost sure I was the only one to do such things. WOW! as they say around there

 

[mogok]

Well AnA,

The fact is that the gemwow guys are artistic stone lovers and Burmese crazy guys! They are a band of gemologists and gemology students that put on line all the crasy stones they fall in love with. And you looks to know that we can fall in love even for a waterworn piece of iron ore as easy as for a top class red spinel!

I will tell them your words. I think they will really appreciate them!

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 1/23/2004 8:16:47 PM mogok wrote:

Well AnA,

And you looks to know that we can fall in love even for a waterworn piece of iron ore as easy as for a top class red spinel!

----------------

Hard disease, isn't it. Good to know it is an epidemic... Thanks!

 

[strmrdr]

btt for more links :}



http://cresla.com/index.htm

http://mtlilygems.com/

 

[diamondcut]

Some more:

www.multicolour.com ( top site, real dealer, high ratings, respect)

www.icgems.com
( new kid on the block, real dealer, a lot of rare stones, fair prices)

www.gemsuite.com
( real dealer, expensive, but superb quality and customer service )

www.echinastone.com
( I should put it in my signature! )

www.thecolorsource.com
( slick design, but nothing to buy )

http://amber.kaliningrad.net/
( look like a great amber source, but not sure about reputation )

http://www.excelgems.com/
( look like a promising website, looking forward to see their machine-cut stones collection )