Tsavorite, grey-blue spinel, blue montana sapphire

[deorwine]

I can never get any gems set because I keep buying more! I bought the Montana sapphire from Finewatergems before Christmas, the tsavorite at Dana's sale in January, and the grey-blue spinel when it popped up on his site about a month ago. (Freke, I blame you for that one. I've been ogling your lovely grey spinels for much too long.) It took me that whole time to get pictures, yes. I took pics (FINALLY) last weekend and it's taken me since then to get this post up.

Here is the tsavorite (others to follow). 1.38 carat, native cut. (Poor Dana was kind of sad that I didn't order his own cutting, I think! But that was remedied later... see next posts ) It has to my eye maybe just barely the slightest bit of yellow in direct sunlight, but in all other lighting is pure lovely intense green, though I don't know that the pics reflect that (I see a bit more yellow in the pics than is really there in real life)... it really is hard to photograph green.


Yeah, it has a window. But man, I just love tsavorites... it is so sparkly!


Showing the green sparkle!


With aluminum foil in back to simulate closing the window.

More to come...

 

[deorwine]

Blue montana sapphire from finewatergems (ETA: 0.85 ct, 5.1mm). This thing is unreal, especially for a Montana sapphire. And it doesn't shift to violet in my work crappy fluorescents. I adore it. And it's a hexagon! Apparently the rough was hexagonal shape and that dictated a cut. I am a sucker for cool-looking cuts

This is the one I don't know how to set (HA! If I don't keep buying stones!), and I would love suggestions. I want something simple to set off the stone; a simple solitaire would be fine. When I say I don't know how to set, it's more along the lines of... do I need to protect the corners? Who would be the best person to set something like this?


It really is this intense color in real life.

 

[deorwine]

And I finally did get a stone cut by Dana. All I have to say is... the man cuts AMAZING stones. (So does Gary, I think I forgot to say that in the sapphire post bc I was so blown away all over again by the color.) Color-shifting blue-grey spinel, inspired of course by Freke's spinel beauties! I've been lusting after one of these for a while. The cut is a "fancy" round brilliant with 96 pavilion facets instead of 72 and it just throws off brilliance and dispersion like crazy.

Unfortunately it is a BEAR to take pics of. I even tried mild photoshopping and I still couldn't make it come out like it does in real life. Here's my best shot, but it really doesn't look anything like this. It's much brighter, for one thing, due to all the brilliance coming off of it, if there's any light in the area at all.


It is this color sometimes (indirect shade) -- it's kind of a cool color, almost a greenish blue, but not my favorite.


To show off the brilliance and dispersion.


Here's the one I tried to photoshop and i still couldn't quite get what my eyes saw. What I see is something that looks like a greyish aquamarine. What the camera sees is darker and more purpley, somehow, than what my eyes see. Interestingly, the camera pic is also more saturated -- I had to turn the saturation waaaaay down to get what my eyes see, even somewhat.


Here's how it looks in fluorescent light. This is a pretty accurate picture, color-wise. The brightness comes across a little better although it is definitely brighter than that in person. It looks like a completely different stone. Dana and I were joking that color shifters are like getting 2 for the price of 1!

OK, that's it! Until I buy more, anyway.

 

[anythingorange]

Wow! I like all of them, but that tsavorite is something else!

(By the way, who is Dana? Sorry...I'm new here.)

 

[GemFever]

Sweet! Love the sapphire especially. Really curious how you're going to end up setting it! I have a couple octagonal plum spinels lying around

 

[chrono]

The Montana sapphire is quite the beauty; who will notice the small size when it is unusually blue for its type and also the fancy outline!

 

[NKOTB]

Nice stones! I also picked up a blue-grey spinel from Dana recently, so I know exactly what you mean, on all points! The cutting is amazing, and I finally understand what "dispersion" means. Yet every picture I take makes it look like a lifeless, charcoal blob. The best representation I could get was on video. I wonder if Freke knew what a following she would start with the intriguing, somewhat "moody" spinels.
Loving the colour and the cut on the sapphire.

 

[Amys Bling]

Lovely!!

 

[FrekeChild]

Muah hahahahaha!!!!!!! My plan to take over the world with moody spinels is succeeding! I shall make all of you my minions!

(Love all of your new acquisitions!)

 

[Arkteia]

Your thread just proves what I have known for a long, long time. Gary Braun has a good eye for color blue. His sapphire is lovely, and having bought a couple from him myself, I can only imagine how well yours looks in real life. All stones are beautiful, but the sapphire is something very, very special. Congratulations!

 

[Pandora II]

Very nice - especially the sapphire, it's a lovely colour for a montana.

Btw, you are making me cringe and feel very nervous seeing that stone holder - it's horribly easy to chip stones with those!

 

[T L]

Very nice Deor. I also like the Montana very much.

Pandora is right about those stone holders, and the fact that they make shooting targets out of gems in it's not perfectly sitting in there (I learned the hard way), so be careful.

 

[colorluvr]

Love your stones, but I'm like the others.... love the color of that sapphire!

 

[deorwine]

Thanks everyone! I've been tickled to read your responses!

anythingorange, Dana is the vendor at mastercutgems.com. I'd been eyeing his stones for several years (and had even emailed him about a couple) but had never taken the plunge. Let me just say that he is really really nice on top of cutting awesome stones!

GemFever and Chrono, thanks! I do love the hexagonal outline, and even more that it came about because of the shape of the rough.

NKOTB, were YOU the one who picked up the previous blue-grey-silver round Dana had? That one looked quite delicious, and when I bought the tsavorite I asked Dana if he had any more like that... he didn't respond directly, but I think that must have been part of why the one I bought went on the site Do you have the video? I'd love to see it!

FrekeChild, I was hoping you would see this thread! I BLAME YOU! Actually, I thank you, because I love my spinel, and I would never have thought I wanted one that color before seeing all your spinels!

Arkteia, thanks for the kind words! You know, my holy grail of sapphire longing is the bright blue one you got from Gary... this one is much darker than yours (it doesn't "black" out, it's too blue for that, but it definitely goes much too dark in non-direct lighting) but I love it anyway. You're right, he does have an eye for color! One day, when I save up the money, I'll ask him for a stone like yours...

Pandora and TL, OMG thank you for the warning. It looks okay (I'll have to loupe it when I get home), whew, but that had not even occurred to me. ...This may also explain why one of my other sapphires has a chip in it, which I was informed of when I went to get it set. BLEAH. I had no idea it was the stone holder that might be at fault. GRR. Thanks again for that.

 

[Pandora II]

Yup, those things are lethal - I won't even have one in the house. I think Harriet chipped a VERY nice (and expensive) spinel once with one of them.

I'm also not keen on locking tweezer - I prefer the old fashioned kind... less likely to damage the stone or to ping it across the room.

 

[T L]

Yup, those things are lethal - I won't even have one in the house. I think Harriet chipped a VERY nice (and expensive) spinel once with one of them.

I'm also not keen on locking tweezer - I prefer the old fashioned kind... less likely to damage the stone or to ping it across the room.

And for soft stones, tweezers with rubber covered tips. I cringe every time someone picks up a tanzanite with a steel tipped tweezer. Sorry for the thread jack, but I think Pandora has brought up some good points.

 

[deorwine]

I don't mind the thread jack at all! On the contrary -- I'm taking notes Anything else I should watch out for?

ETA: I had a mishap with locking tweezers and a stone -- fortunately a 2mm diamond, so nothing irreplaceable or even all that precious, but it did teach me a lesson!

 

[NKOTB]

Yep, that was me. I can't post personal videos on here, but will try to get some better photos, and maybe do a thread on my recent haul from Dana.