New spessartite

[Cind11]

After returning the Richard Homer concave cut spess, I talked to Richard Wise about three spessartites he had on his website. He liked this one the best of the three. It is 3.70 cts. and measures 9.5 x 8.2mm. He said it had no yellow or brown secondaries whatsoever. So, I ordered it and it came last Friday. This is his picture.

 

[chrono]

What is your opinion of the stone?

 

[Linda W]

It looks like a bright stone.

 

[CharmyPoo]

Tease! Where is your photo?

 

[Cind11]

Date: 5/10/2009 11:19:09 PM
Author: Chrono
What is your opinion of the stone?

I am quite pleased with it. It is very brilliant and sparkly. Richard said that it was deeper in real life than his picture showed and he was correct. I can''t seem to upload my pictures for some reason. I will have to have my DH help me tomorrow because I can''t seem to figure out the problem.

 

[T L]

What is your opinion of the color?

 

[Cind11]

Date: 5/11/2009
Author: tourmaline_lover
What is your opinion of the color?

The color is really exactly as he described it- a pure pumpkin orange. My pictures (if I could ever get them to post) don''t capture the color well at all. Orange doesn''t seem to photograph accurately.

 

[chrono]

Did you try a shaded outdoor picture? I''m curious to see it.

 

[T L]

To me, a good manadarin spess should be a neon orange color in both incandescent and artificial lighting. Is that what you're seeing? When I hear the terminology "pumpkin orange," it hints at a brown modifier, but you may not have the same meaning as I do. To me, a spessartite should be a pure vivid orange.

 

[chrono]

My spess holds its colour both indoors and outdoors. Does this one do the same? I''m not sure what pumpkin orange is because there''s so many different coloured pumpkins.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

If you are happy with it, than that is all that should. I hope you get your pics working!

 

[T L]

I questioned the color because the RW picture appears to have a strong brown undertone, and the fact that you stated it looks pumpkin colored (pumpkins have strong brown tones). Perhaps it's just a very bad picture.

I was just wanting to give my honest viewpoint since you are probably still in the evaluation period.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 5/11/2009 2:13:28 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
I questioned the color because the RW picture appears to have a strong brown undertone, and the fact that you stated it looks pumpkin colored (pumpkins have strong brown tones). Perhaps it''s just a very bad picture.

I was just wanting to give my honest viewpoint since you are probably still in the evaluation period.

I''m hoping that it''s the photo (although I like what I see in the pic, but don''t know anything about these stones). If you haven''t seen my pad on RW''s site, it''s horrid. Really really bad. Looks gray and I assure you, there is no gray or anything else ick in the stone! I did a much better job capturing the color with my unpro camera.

 

[Cind11]

OK, hopefully this will work. This one was taken outside with my hand cupped around the box the stone was in.

 

[Cind11]

This is in bright sunlight...

 

[T L]

Cindy,
I do see brown undertones in the stone in your pics. I'll go look at it on my other monitor later.

 

[Cind11]

Date: 5/11/2009 5:31:21 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
Cindy,
Do you want opinions on the pictures?

Sure. I willl post more...

 

[T L]

I edited my post to give mine above. I figured you wanted honest opinions, otherwise you wouldn''t be posting pics.

 

[Cind11]

Indoors (I think).

 

[Cind11]

On the Palagems website, Richard refers to this stone as a "gorgeous Nigerian spessartite". This one I definitely see brown in:

 

[T L]

No comment

- and I don''t mean that in a good way.

 

[Cind11]

Date: 5/11/2009 5:54:23 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
No comment

- and I don''t mean that in a good way.

LOL. I figured.

 

[T L]

I''m looking at your stone on my good monitor, and I still see brown. Again, I don''t know if your camera washes out color like mine does, so perhaps it''s much better IRL.

 

[T L]

For comparison sake with the Pala one, this is what I consider to be a gorgeous mandarin spessartite.

 

[chrono]

Cind,
Sometimes it is difficult to take pictures of orange stones so I''ll need some input from you regarding the accuracy of your pictures. How close in colour are your indoor and outdoor pictures compared to the spessartite? I will comment only if the pictures are accurate, otherwise it would be unfair to the stone.

 

[chrono]

Date: 5/11/2009 5:49:28 PM
Author: Cind11
On the Palagems website, Richard refers to this stone as a ''gorgeous Nigerian spessartite''. This one I definitely see brown in:

Sure hope that''s a bad picture because I can''t seem to find any orange; just yellow and brown. However, the cutting is very brilliant.

 

[Cind11]

Date: 5/11/2009 10:46:12 PM
Author: Chrono
Cind,
Sometimes it is difficult to take pictures of orange stones so I''ll need some input from you regarding the accuracy of your pictures. How close in colour are your indoor and outdoor pictures compared to the spessartite? I will comment only if the pictures are accurate, otherwise it would be unfair to the stone.

I think my pictures are fairly accurate. They aren''t exact but pretty close. I will admit that now I am rather confused. Richard Wise told me that he "obsesses" over stones so that I (the customer) don''t have to. I wonder why he would even buy this stone if the color wasn''t good. I don''t know if you remember the spess that Icekid recently posted that she bought from Gene. I think I can see brown in that stone. And yet Gene rates that a 5 (his old grading system and the highest for color). I think it is her stone. The measurements she gave and carat weight are the same. He still has it on the website. It''s funny because I showed my DH the picture of Jeff White''s spess that TL posted. My DH said I can see brown in that stone. ??

 

[innerkitten]

I think in your photos the color is a really pretty shade of orange. For some reason the vendors photo looks kind of yellow. Go figure.

 

[T L]

It's not so much the brown, but the vividness of the main body color, in this case, orange. Typically the less vivid orange stones tend to have more brown (if it's darker) or yellow (if it's lighter). A pure orange stone will be just that, pure orange without a brown modifier, or a strong yellow modifier. It's really difficult to describe in words vividness of color, so that is why I posted the JW spess to provide an example. Vivid colored stones almost appear to glow with color when they are saturated and they lack unwanted secondary modifiers. As you can see in the JW picture, the spess looks "electric" and intense in color. However, unless you see one in person, it's really difficult to describe. The brown you're probbaly seeing in the JW spess are probably facet shadows, but if the secondary modifier was truly brown, you would see a duller more muted orange.

Does your spessartite look like a muted orange, or does it look like a really electric intense orange color? The best mandarin spessartites do look like Fanta orange soda color they say. I know one day I was standing in line somewhere, and a guy was drinking a bottle of the fanta orange soda, and I happened to be wearing my spessartite. They were both pretty much the same color - it was funny, and it's something you cannot really truly capture in a 2D picture.

 

[Cind11]

Date: 5/12/2009 1:36:33 AM
Author: tourmaline_lover
It''s not so much the brown, but the vividness of the main body color, in this case, orange. Typically the less vivid orange stones tend to have more brown (if it''s darker) or yellow (if it''s lighter). A pure orange stone will be just that, pure orange without a brown modifier, or a strong yellow modifier. It''s really difficult to describe in words vividness of color, so that is why I posted the JW spess to provide an example. Vivid colored stones almost appear to glow with color when they are saturated and they lack unwanted secondary modifiers. As you can see in the JW picture, the spess looks ''electric'' and intense in color. However, unless you see one in person, it''s really difficult to describe. The brown you''re probbaly seeing in the JW spess are probably facet shadows, but if the secondary modifier was truly brown, you would see a duller more muted orange.

Does your spessartite look like a muted orange, or does it look like a really electric intense orange color? The best mandarin spessartites do look like Fanta orange soda color they say. I know one day I was standing in line somewhere, and a guy was drinking a bottle of the fanta orange soda, and I happened to be wearing my spessartite. They were both pretty much the same color - it was funny, and it''s something you cannot really truly capture in a 2D picture.

I told my DH that I did not see brown in the JW stone. But he was not convinced.

The stone irl is not muted at all. It is a very intense orange. That is probably the frst thing I noticed when I received it. Do you have pictures of your spess on PS?