Poor Blues
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Saphires and aquamarine are the first blues that most would mention... Blue zircon is nut just the same blue and true-blue spinel a rare encounter. But how about the other blues? Like those below ?
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We should get together and compare our blue stone collections!
 I'd have guessed the 2nd pic to be either apatite (not neon enough!) or flourite (but not dark enough!). Nice kyanite, though.. I'd have guessed it to be a sapphire or a cobalt blue spinel due to minimal striations. As a side, you just convinced me to get a digital camera, now, AnA. I have a faceted color change flourite in my collection -- teal blue to purplish blue (tanzanite-like) in incandescent lighting. I'd love to see what you think of it!  |
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Valeria, what about blue topaz like this one from Leslie&Co.
 Then there's iolite from artwork-inform Then there's manmade blue quartz like this  from gemcutterAnother manmade one is machinite  from customgems. |
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whats wrong with teal blue zircon (blueish/green)??
http://www.ajsgems.com/ZBL/ZBL-00134.htm yummy!! http://www.ajsgems.com/ZBL/ZBL-00159.htm double yummy! how bout this blue? http://www.ajsgems.com/ZBL/ZBL-00097.htm |
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Yes, sure!
Actually, the story of poor Iolite is downright sad: look what a decent cut could do to this gem  No... they do not have to be drab, dull and windowed Katbadness. I got the idea to post this from an unusual piece of jewelry: a ring with a small (a tad under one carat) but of the very finest blue round stone. The jeweler believed that the estate piece contains an unknown artificial stone. It (almost certainly) is Hauyine. Not usual at all in such huge size. Also, fun, summer jewelry has to be thought this time of the year, right  ? So... here's the thread about the forgotten bues PS: the Artwork Inform webite (where the sqyare Iolite comes from) is such a charmer. Never passed by before... at my loss. Thanks! |
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Hahaha... And could you believe that image actually came from AGTA site (hence the big AGTA in the middle of the pic).. I didn't doctor up the color of the picture, though I did shrink it. The original picture looks *BIG*... You can find it here.
A Hauyne almost 1 carat set in a jewelry? As I understand, it's not easy to find Hauyne in sizes larger than 0.30 ct? Or maybe I'm mistaken. And I always thought Hauyne is generally too soft to be set into jewelry? But then again, apatite has been known to be set into jewelry. So, true, why not Hauyne? Check out Hauynes on the site of this German dealer. And here's the link to the main page. An eye candy from his site:  |
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Katbadness, the color on that hauyne is awesome. Speaking of apatite, was watching acntv and they were showing a peacock blue apatite, so went on a search and found this.
 from this site facetIt. I admire the electric, cobalt blue color so much, that I'm contemplating going with a hydrothermal sapphire or flame fusion spinel for a ring. MichaelE posted a site morion where you can get them in rough or faceted in varying shades of blue.
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Nice color...
 I L  VE blue stones (actually all intense colored stones... but esp. blue!).I'm partial to natural stones myself. Have you checked out Cobalt Blue Spinels? I come across DJ Rare Gems a long time ago, and they have some. They also have some other reasonably priced stones. And for more eye candy -- how about this set of blue stones from the Pala Gems site?   They're a set of paraiba tourmalines. Ohhh... what I'd do to have a big one of those!!
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Don't forget that tanzanite, being trichroic, has a direction of incredible sapphire blue in some high quality stones, as in this image of a 31+ carat tansy from Pala Gems. Most crystals are cut to show the purple-violet because yields are higher.
If I was as computer-savvy as the rest of you I'd post multiple images of several other blue gems that haven't been mentioned yet. Any suggestions? Do you have to do a layout in PhotoShop or some other utility and post it as a single image? Richard M.
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