What are your preferences?

[gingercurls]

Hi, everyone!
I have been thinking a lot about individual preferences after having the pleasure of attending one of Roger Dery's round table events back in October. During the event Roger mentioned how he always tries to bring a little bit of everything to his events because the preferences of his customers vary so greatly. For example, one person was only interested in large stones with fantasy cuts. Another was looking solely at Sapphires. I went to the event being interested in looking for Garnets and Spinels. I was wondering what everyone's preferences are. Do you have a favorite type of gem? A preferred shape? A color family that you seem to always be looking for? I personally prefer Spinels, Garnets, and Sapphires over other gem varieties like Tourmaline and gems in the Beryl family. I also love red, pink, purple, blue, and orange and I tend to stay away from green in particular.

 

[SparkliesLuver]

I'm pretty new to the CS world, so I'm still figuring out some of these things, but right now I'm primarily interested in sapphire, spinel and tourmaline. The colors I gravitate toward are blues, greens, and reds, and I prefer cushion, round, asscher, emerald, and pear shapes. That's really neat that you attended one of his round table events. Lucky you!

 

[T L]

My preferences change a lot. In the beginning of my time on this forum, I was a tourmaline addict, and hence my initials for this forum, "TL" stand for "tourmaline lover." I'm not longer enamored with tourmaline, and then I went to garnets, and spinel. Now I'm enamored with various cabochons, and always looking for interesting ones, no matter the gem species. I would love to have a gorgeous black opal, but they're too pricey, which has kept me from being too enamored with them.

Much much earlier on, before there was even an internet, I used to collect various beryls and quartz, like aquamarine (my birthstone), morganite and amethyst. I still love fine amethyst, but I don't care much for beryl anymore, except for emerald ($$$$).

I'm also a rose gold addict, having acquired many gems that I decided to set in that metal. I just love it.

 

[iLander]

I am focusing on interesting colors in sapphires, but length and width measurements must both be at very close to 7 mm. Don't care for yellows or oranges.

The only other things I'm looking for is a super red spinel or a great emerald.

Throw in my price range, and yeah, that narrows it down quite a bit.

 

[Acinom]

I am fairly new to CS and still learning. I am drawn to bright saturated colors as I love them best with my skintone. Yellow and orange does not go to well with my skintone. I have a huge preference for blue, greens and blue-greens.
I also love larger stones. In general I love the following shapes: cushions, Asschers, rounds, chubby ovals. I am drawn to cabs as well.

I love emeralds (still looking for one), Paraiba and Rubellite tourmalines and other tourmalines as well . and I'm drawn to sapphires, zircons and Mahenge spinels.

What a fun thread!

 

[EvangelineG]

This is an interesting question. Being new to gemstones, my collecting has not been at all focused. Mostly it has been a matter of seeing some amazing example of a certain stone here, falling down a rabbit hole of gem photo **** and research, and then having an ever-increasing itch to buy one too!

I am mostly drawn to cool colours...purples, blues, greens, but there are exceptions at every turn.

Many of my itches I have scratched with the right purchase, but others are more elusive on a small budget (I'm looking at you, emerald!).

The only shape I find myself avoiding is oval, since I already have three oval stones I'd like to set and only so many oval settings I like. And I find myself oddly drawn to pears (especially fat ones!) even though pear cuts have never been a favourite of mine. Luckily for my pocketbook, I am ok with small stones, and although I want some stones to be super bright and saturated (would love a bright chrome demantoid!), I enjoy other more neutral or pale stones too (love sapphs and spinels with some grey). I am trying to constantly reality check myself about what I will actually set and wear, and what I personally want in a collection.

 

[LoversKites]

Well, I'm new to CS as well, so I'm sure my preferences will change. However, I think I'll always love demantoid, I really want to buy a fine one one day, if it'll be possible. Sphalerite has also been a favourite of mine since I got into CS. Chrysoberyl has interested me for a while. I do think that when I see high quality rubies and emeralds IRL I'll be drawn to those.

I gravitate towards asschers and emerald cuts but in general I'm not fussy about shape or cut as long as it is not badly done.

Nice thread idea.

 

[GliderPoss]

Great thread! I've been very slowly collecting for many years now (but with a rather small budget )

I am now starting to see I am definitely drawn to vivid jewel-like colours - reds, greens, blues and purples. So this usually leads me to spinel, tourmaline, sapphires and amethysts. This suits my very pale skin tone best.

I also clearly prefer step cuts - asscher, emerald cut and any step cut variation. I like bright crisp stones, not too big (6mm-10mm) showing all those lovely mirror steps...

Unfortunately these specifications do seem quite hard to find...

 

[ElleK]

I'm really into fancy shapes right now. Honestly, there is not much that grabs my eye anymore, so when something sticks in my mind for a while, I pay attention to it. I don't necessarily go to shop for gems looking for particular type/color/shape, just something interesting. Having said that, I'm drawn to green in general at the moment!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

I like spinels, cushion shapes being my favorite. Lately I have been moving on to sapphires. I prefer cooler colors over warmer colors.

 

[dk168]

I am still an infant in the world of CS and learning. I have very strong colour and style preferences and only wear white metal.

I like my CSs to be vibrant or icy pale, even greys (I am collect grey round spinels for a multi-stone ring). Don't like orange, brown or yellow as they do not suit my skin tone (I am a "Winter" according to colour analysis).

Amethyst is my birthstone, however, I made a decision about 8 years ago only to wear pink red stones such as rubies, as they would go well with diamonds and pearls. That went out of the window a year ago when I started to venture into the wonderful world of CS!

As for shapes, my preference in diamonds is step cuts especially EC. However, when it comes to CS, I am up for almost anything except the really fancy ones like horse head etc...

As for cuts, any cut as long as it is a good cut, including concave faceting.

DK

 

[chrono]

Although spinel and garnet are my general favourites, I am open to other gem types as well. Intense colouration is strongly preferred but I don't mind some lighter pastels once a while. Cabochon and flat faceted are all welcome. I'm not crazy about tourmaline or beryl though. I enjoy looking at yellow and orange CS but they do not suit my skin tone so I don't buy these two colours.

 

[markus71]

Looking at my extensive collection, I seem to favor secondary colors over primary. I prefer blue-green tourmalines, red-orange-pink mahenge spinels, and orange-yellow spessartites for example, as opposed to the colors of the 'big three' red, blue and green.
Cut has to be perfect. Period. Opposite of Hot Pozzum, I don't like step cuts at all. So plain they show every speck of dirt!
For me the shape has to be curvy and substantial, no marquis or skinny pears; I love cushions, fat ovals, rounds or fat trilliants.
White or yellow gold depending on the stone color, I cringe at the red gold trend just because it reminds me of the old communist-era Russian jewelery of my inlaws -not exactly Faberge.
Great thread, keep em coming!

 

[NKOTB]

My favourites are sapphires, spinels, and garnets, though I have a few tourmalines as well. I'm all about medium tones that are vivid, in all colours except yellow - I like that one pale (but not golden). I also like grey spinels.

 

[pregcurious]

My preference is for durable stones that come in saturated colors, or stones that have some kind of phenomenon like adularescence. For saturated colors, I have tend to collect sapphire, spinel and jadeite. The exception is amethyst, which I think does purple the best. In softer stones (e.g. moonstone, opal, amethyst) I prefer cabochons because they show less wear.

I have some stones that are lighter colored without showing a special phenomenon. I may sell these, or just keep them in a box as they get lost on my skin. My skin tone is olive, but it can look reddish or yellowish, depending on the light and weather conditions. The only colors I don't like are yellowish-green, and yellowish orange. I like stones that tend towards blue or red.