Looking for a 2ct+ spessartite garnet in a pear shape

[nararabbit]

Hi all!

I am a big orange lover (in fact, I had an orange/yellow wedding and I'd like to find a well-cut, pear shaped spess in a juicy orange color. I'd rather it fall more on the yellow/red side of the spectrum than brown if possible. 2ct+, I am asking you guys because I am a novice to gem buying and have a hard time looking at cuts with the eagle eyes that some of you have! Have you seen any? I found a ton on ebay but I've no idea how to tell what's real, and what's the color I want, rather than waiting 3 weeks to get some ugly brown thing.

Can anyone help me? Thanks so much!

 

[Nashville]

Richard Wise has a few for sale...

http://www.rwwise.com/products/category|106

Wild Fish has one that's over 3 carats...

http://www.wildfishgems.com/spessartite_garnet?b=1

 

[movie zombie]

the best of spess is not cheap. i personally would not buy off eBay, especially if this is a special ring for you. there are others that might. judging a stone by pictures is almost impossible. at most it will let you know if you're interested enough in having it sent to you.

spess is a particular fav of mine. i've seen windowed spess for $2500 in about the 4-5 carat range. i'd encourage you to see as many as you can and avoid eBay, especially as you want to avoid brown and want more yellow than red.

Mo-Zo

ps the spess in my avatar is 8.18 carats.

 

[Nashville]

Someone on PS had an engagement ring that I think was a spess... and it was insanely cool. It looked like fire. I wish I could find it and direct you there, because it had some good information.

 

[Jim Rentfrow]

There are still some rough suppliers who have larger rough spessartite around. You might be able to contact one of the custom cutters from this forum and arrange for them to cut a piece for you.

 

[chrono]

I don’t know what your budget is or your expectation of how intense you want the colour to be. Add to the fact that you want a pear definitely adds to the challenge. If anything, I find that finding the right orange hue is a challenge in itself. Like you, I prefer to live with a yellow modifier rather than brown. AJS has quite a lot of spessartites of various sizes and shapes but I don't know if anything fits your requirements.

 

[T L]

the best of spess is not cheap. i personally would not buy off eBay, especially if this is a special ring for you. there are others that might. judging a stone by pictures is almost impossible. at most it will let you know if you're interested enough in having it sent to you.

spess is a particular fav of mine. i've seen windowed spess for $2500 in about the 4-5 carat range. i'd encourage you to see as many as you can and avoid eBay, especially as you want to avoid brown and want more yellow than red.

Mo-Zo

ps the spess in my avatar is 8.18 carats.

At least she's buying a size which is more affordable than a stone above 4 carats, where they go up exponentially per carat, but yes, they can be pricey.

Many spessartite on the market today are very included too, but some have nice color, and are more affordable options if you don't mind inclusions too much. Much of the fine materai that is clean is mined out at the moment, or being hoarded by people waiting for prices to rise. Ebay does have many photoshopped gems, you do have to be careful you might end up with some "brown thing."

I own three nice size spessartites, and they are a favorite gem of mine as well as MZ's. Unfortunately, many are plagued with too much yellow, brown or both, the latter giving them an unattractive yellow ocre color. I just checked my two favorite sites for spessatite garnet, paraibainternational.com and ajsgems.com, and almost everything in that size has dried up in a fine color. I see lots of yellow ocre stones.

To get a decent stone, you might have to give a bit on the shape, clarity and/or the quality of the cutting if you want to find something. It's difficult to order up a gem with all the requirements if the color is not readily available on the market.

 

[movie zombie]

oddly, inclusions wouldn't bother me for the right color. windowing and extinction would drive me insane. stone shape: i'd be open to whatever shape my budget would allow to get the very best color.

take your time and learn as much as you can.....and please Please PLEASE do not limit your viewing of these beautiful orange stones to ebay.

Mo-Zo

ps yes, the "good stuff" has apparently been mined out....for now. that could change but who knows when.

 

[Largosmom]

Try Dana at Mastercutgems I know he has/had some Loliondo spess, but not sure of the size of the rough, or if it was all native cut...but that is more yellowish in color. I would try contacting the other favorites around here too...the tuscon gemshow wasn't all that long ago, so people may have some rough. Yes it will be pricey in that color, but if you can handle it I say go for it, I love the orange spess too. Reds/browns not so much.

Laura

 

[T L]

This is clean stone with decent cutting (not precision cutting, but at least it has nice proportions) and it's in your size range. Not sure of your budget though. Pretty color. Not top color, but at least it's not brown and it is definitely orange. It's Nigerian, and they tend to be cleaner and less yellow than the Tanzanian material.

http://www.ajsgem.com/garnet/spessartite-garnet/mandarin-garnet-spessartite-2.58-carats.html-0

 

[Largosmom]

Very nice stone...

 

[nararabbit]

I'm also fine with some inclusions for the right size and color and a good cut. Not amazing cut or color, but good. Our budget isn't huge (less than $1k for sure) but I think it's reasonable so long as I'm willing to wait to find just the right stone. I appreciate all the links, the last stone is the most like what I want. I wasn't expecting to find it TODAY so I gotta talk to the husband and see if it's too soon.. if you know what I mean! LOL

 

[chrono]

TL,
That’s a good find (AJS stone) which seems to fit all the OP’s requirements as to colour, carat weight, shape, budget and etc. I’m still on a lookout for more spessartites myself as it feels as if one is never enough and it’s been difficult. Prices are going up while the quality of material is going down.

 

[T L]

I'm also fine with some inclusions for the right size and color and a good cut. Not amazing cut or color, but good. Our budget isn't huge (less than $1k for sure) but I think it's reasonable so long as I'm willing to wait to find just the right stone. I appreciate all the links, the last stone is the most like what I want. I wasn't expecting to find it TODAY so I gotta talk to the husband and see if it's too soon.. if you know what I mean! LOL

Well, the good news is that it would fit in a stock 9 x 7 pear shape mounting too, so you might save a bit on the cost of a mounting by purchasing a stock sized one, instead of going custom.

 

[nararabbit]

Yes, and lord of the gem rings on ebay has just the setting I want... sigh!

After talking to the hubster, he feels I need to wait a month or so. We don't use credit cards unless it's an emergency, (that is, without the $ in the bank to pay it off right away) and that's what this would come to. I'm going to bookmark the stone and just cross my fingers that it's still around. If it's not... well, it's not like it's a heart transplant, I'll live without it.

Seriously, we live in a nice paid-for house and drive two paid-for older cars, so living debt free has its benefits, but right now I'm feeling kinda grumpy about it. LOL!