Ah, the challenges of photographing gems! I will say that the colours of your garnet and your spinel are beautiful. No doubt the amethyst is lovely too, but it has been said that the colour of amethyst is difficult to capture in photography.
Don''t give up, Rosetta. Keep on trying and your photography skills will improve. Based only on the pictures, I love the Mahenge and zircon best but I''m sure the others look far better in person.
Rosetta,
Thanks for the pictures. The second Mahenge picture is great, and so is the second one of the amethyst. It takes lots of patience and practice to get great photos of gems.
Pears for pendants in my opinion is a good option.
Pears look good as accent stone to me, but everyone has their preference.
The Amethyst I would set in a ring which has thin elegant lines and surround the stone with smaller melee diamonds
to provide depth, and contrast to the piece. If you want to get real fancy you can add engraving to the ring for that vintage look.
Your garnet would look great set sideways with a halfbezel type head. Maybe do the head in yellow gold and the rest of the ring in white gold with channel set diamonds running down the sides of the shank.
Set the Golden tourmaline with two cushion sapphires one on each side flanking the center stone with a thin band and claw type prongs in yelow gold.
What are some styles your interested in and what type of metal do you prefer?