A Blue Sapphire Journey

[DauphineMucha]

Blue sapphire is colored by iron and titanium.

I love that it’s from Madagascar too, Kashmir look without the Kashmiri price tag!! Smart!

So that isn’t the same glow spinel or ruby has? Or is it specific to Madagascar sapphires? I read somewhere here that blue sapphire doesn’t glow...I could be wrong.

 

[Acinom]

What a colour and what a great size with such an amazing colour. Love the glow.
I also loooooove your setting idea. Who will set it for you?

 

[T L]

So that isn’t the same glow spinel or ruby has? Or is it specific to Madagascar sapphires? I read somewhere here that blue sapphire doesn’t glow...I could be wrong.

Well Kashmir sapphire is famous for its vivid saturation of color and its silk, which in combination can be glowy.

Rubies and red spinels glow because of UV fluorescence. Vivid color adds to this and some microscopic silk. You don’t want too much silk though as it impedes light transmission. A stone should still be transparent, not translucent. The sapphire here has fine silk, like a Kashmir, and that vivid saturation of blue color, medium tone.

 

[Rad_Fan]

Well Kashmir sapphire is famous for its vivid saturation of color and its silk, which in combination can be glowy.

Rubies and red spinels glow because of UV fluorescence. Vivid color adds to this and some microscopic silk. You don’t want too much silk though as it impedes light transmission. A stone should still be transparent, not translucent. The sapphire here has fine silk, like a Kashmir, and that vivid saturation of blue color, medium tone.

Thanks.

 

[Rad_Fan]

What a colour and what a great size with such an amazing colour. Love the glow.
I also loooooove your setting idea. Who will set it for you?

Your blue sapphire and @slksapphire's are also 2 of my favorites.

 

[T L]

Your blue sapphire and @slksapphire's are also 2 of my favorites.

I was thinking of slksapphie’s when I saw this one. I wish she posted more pictures of it. These two sapphires are up there as my favorites as well.

 

[Rad_Fan]

I was thinking of slksapphie’s when I saw this one. I wish she posted more pictures of it. These two sapphires are up there as my favorites as well.

Totally! Saved all hers (3 in total) for reference that I could find on PS. Does hers looks just a bit more violet'ish' or just the pictures?

 

[T L]

Totally! Saved all hers (3 in total) for reference that I could find on PS. Does hers looks just a bit more violet'ish' or just the pictures?

It does, and it’s darker in tone. The saturation is amazing though. I think Richard Hughes helped her pick it out.

 

[mpc]

Glad you guys enjoyed the glow - I am not an expert on the chemical properties so thank you @T L for the information and lesson! Inken first described the stone as a Kashmir-like stone from Madagascar. She mentioned the stone appeared to exhibit the fine silk while maintaining good clarity and crystal and definitely eye clean. I hadn’t realized that there are Madagascar sapphires that look Kashmiri, always believing the hierarchy went something like: Kashmir, Burmese, Ceylon, Madagascar, the rest (or at least the pricing did). Personally, I didn’t care too much for provenance and wouldn’t pay the premium for the ‘pedigree’ if color didn’t match. On the other hand, I knew if this stone were actually from Kashmir, I wouldn’t be able to afford it so the fact it was a relative bargain really piqued my interest. @Rad_Fan Inken was able to take pictures outdoors for me and posted them on IG. Perhaps because she knew the vendor very well, she was able to borrow it for several hours to take pictures. She also arranged for me (through her) to have a 7 day inspection window. I paid for the stone in full as a deposit but it was 100% refundable if I didn’t want it. So again, no risk. I actually thought the color was my ideal in her IG videos, but she wrote that she was disappointed she wasn’t able to capture the glow properly outside. It wasn’t until I was playing with the stone in the sunlight that I really appreciated what she meant.

I actually have always admired @slksapphire’s stone too and many others. I think I scoured PS and read every sapphire post to try to learn how different blues looked in different lighting to see what I liked best (some people prefer darker versus lighter tones). Even then, it really was a trial and error process for me as I had to see the stone in person. If I had time/access to a trade show, I could have also narrowed in on what I was looking for instead of having to buy/return stones. Anyways I am happy to take more pics in other lights to try to help others learn as I did from previous PS posts.

@Acinom the stone will be sent to David Klass next week for setting. Will have to take more pics before it ships out!
@DauphineMucha the stone measures 9.9x8.35x5.65 mm so not as deep as some of the other stones I had seen, which was helpful from a setting standpoint.

 

[T L]

There are certain gems you don’t forget on PS, this and slksapphire’s are two of them. Is there a link to the Instagram photos? I’m dying to see more!!!

 

[mpc]

Thanks! I’m honored to be in that category! Here is Inken’s IG with videos in different lighting conditions
https://www.instagram.com/enhoerningjewelry/?hl=en

 

[arkieb1]

Beautiful stone, congrats!!!!

 

[mpc]

Some other lighting conditions for comparison:
Fluorescent lights


Normal indoor (kitchen) lighting

I found several of the blue sapphires I considered tended to turn violet or worse, grayish in my kitchen.

 

[Rad_Fan]

I found several of the blue sapphires I considered tended to turn violet or worse, grayish in my kitchen.

You spoke my mind! That was exactly what I saw from pictures. Maybe the warm tone of incandescent light turned that blue hue into funky purple. I am so glad to hear that this doesn't apply to all blue sapphires. Very informative and I just learned something new here again! Thank you and thank PS!

BTW, make sure to take as many photos of your lovely before sending it to DK. I often think that loose stone is like a "toddler", it "grew up" into a glorious piece of jewelry (into adulthood) at boarding school (think jeweler/setter such as DK). I still love it no matter what but loving a "toddler" is different than loving an "adult"...done with my silly talk.

Happy weekend everyone!

 

[DauphineMucha]

Almost 10x8+ mm, nice spread!

Would depth of the cut of a sapphire cause color shifting or it’s strictly based on chemical compositions...I wonder?

 

[T L]

No, it’s how the light reacts with the stone. Certain light wavelengths produce different colors, or fluorescence (not in blue sapphire). With the exception of fluorescence, It the same reason why people with light eyes sometime look more blue, grey or green. The most extreme cases of color change are in stones like alexandrite, but almost all stones color shift. If a stone is dark toned and cut too deep, it will look dark no matter the lighting. Some gems do go darker in various lighting due to color shift though.

 

[qubitasaurus]

I am curious, do you have pictures of the stones you returned? I am just wondering what was weighed up and traded off on in the process (if anything).

 

[Horsegirl76]

Oh my—that stone! I can’t wait to see pictures of it when it’s set.

 

[Rad_Fan]

I am curious, do you have pictures of the stones you returned? I am just wondering what was weighed up and traded off on in the process (if anything).

+1

 

[mpc]

@qubitasaurus sure! I don’t remember all the specifics of the stones other than they were all unheated and ranged from 3.5ct to 5+ct.
As an aside, some of these stones are still available so if someone ends up wanting to purchase the stone, I am not disparaging the stone in any way, just noting why I did not personally choose it.

From the top down:
Stone 1
The first stone was 4.31 ct stone that faced up huge. After seeing that stone, I knew I probably needed at least 4ct to get dimensions I wanted. In the sunlight the stone had a pretty medium blue that was less saturated than the other two ovals. In regular incandescent light, it definitely seemed more faded. I don’t have that many more pictures of it, but it seemed like a good value given the price and finger coverage on an unheated blue sapphire.

Stones 2 and 3
Both were immediately not keepers because they were simply too small. and given the price point (they were roughly same price as stone 1) not the best value. But color wise they were a slight more saturated and deeper in color. (Both of these were from africagems, who accepted the return without any questions asked).

Stone 4
This is one I considered for the longest time. In sunlight, it was beautiful but indoors it shifted the most - sometimes darker, sometimes more violet. This was the greatest value of all 4 stones I evaluated in person. In the end, the performance in my home office (where I spend the majority of my day) is what prompted me to return the stone. (This stone was from JbG who also refunded my money without any issues).

Inken also sent me pictures and videos of several others, which I no longer have, but I think some videos are still on IG for comparison. Ultimately I increased my budget but the process taught me which rooms in my house offered the ‘harshest’ lighting conditions to ‘test drive’ my stones. Hope this helps!

 

[Rad_Fan]

@qubitasaurus

Thank you! I was very attracted to the square cushion from your 1st picture, very sparkling, but then I see what you meant. The flash is MUCH light in tone and only showed up below the lower half under low light.

Your sapphire is much more consistent in terms of saturation, walk to walk blue!

 

[Rad_Fan]

...I meant WALL TO WALL blue!

 

[deorwine]

Wow, this is super helpful! Thanks for posting those.

 

[qubitasaurus]

@qubitasaurus sure! I don’t remember all the specifics of the stones other than they were all unheated and ranged from 3.5ct to 5+ct.
As an aside, some of these stones are still available so if someone ends up wanting to purchase the stone, I am not disparaging the stone in any way, just noting why I did not personally choose it.

From the top down:
Stone 1
The first stone was 4.31 ct stone that faced up huge. After seeing that stone, I knew I probably needed at least 4ct to get dimensions I wanted. In the sunlight the stone had a pretty medium blue that was less saturated than the other two ovals. In regular incandescent light, it definitely seemed more faded. I don’t have that many more pictures of it, but it seemed like a good value given the price and finger coverage on an unheated blue sapphire.

Stones 2 and 3
Both were immediately not keepers because they were simply too small. and given the price point (they were roughly same price as stone 1) not the best value. But color wise they were a slight more saturated and deeper in color. (Both of these were from africagems, who accepted the return without any questions asked).

Stone 4
This is one I considered for the longest time. In sunlight, it was beautiful but indoors it shifted the most - sometimes darker, sometimes more violet. This was the greatest value of all 4 stones I evaluated in person. In the end, the performance in my home office (where I spend the majority of my day) is what prompted me to return the stone. (This stone was from JbG who also refunded my money without any issues).

Inken also sent me pictures and videos of several others, which I no longer have, but I think some videos are still on IG for comparison. Ultimately I increased my budget but the process taught me which rooms in my house offered the ‘harshest’ lighting conditions to ‘test drive’ my stones. Hope this helps!

You definitely made the right choice. The last looked gorgeous in the sunlight photo, it is a shame that it shifts so much indoors. I think this makes buying sapphires super hard, as the outdoor pictures in gem tweezers can be a really poor representation of what is going to look like in the office where I spend most of my day.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Oh I can’t wait to see it set! What a stunning blue!

 

[Anne111]

Extraordinaire! Congrats.

 

[Rad_Fan]

To @mpc & other experienced PSers, I wonder if observing the pavilion of the sapphire might help to determine how good the saturation is when shopping online? For example, Stone #4 looks outdoor but does it have color zoning under the pavilion that causes the unevenness indoor? Did you remember seeing that when you had #4?

I randomly selected these pictures from WWW for reference. The face up looks very saturated but the pavilion has zoning. So I wonder if this one might have the same issue as that of stone #4.

This is the lighter tone and less saturated one.


When you look at the pavilion of yours, does it look pretty even through out? Yours just looks so even.

I know that we need to see the gems in person but seeing color zoning from the back of the chosen stone might not be great? I haven't found back shots of many blue sapphires of PSers so I am curious.

 

[deorwine]

My sense is that zoning is less likely to cause unevenness indoor than the absence of silk (or possibly unevenness of silk). Low lighting means very inconsistent lighting as well, and can mean light is entering the stone primarily from odd angles, leading to dark patches as in OP's stone #4. A little silk, as in OP's final stone, can nicely and evenly spread the light around even in very low lighting conditions or light entering from odd angles.

In my experience, zoning can sometimes cause unevenness in color when the stone is tilted (because gemstones are usually cut to look great face up but not necessarily at tilt angles) but it's not the driver of outside/inside inconsistency.

 

[Rad_Fan]

My sense is that zoning is less likely to cause unevenness indoor than the absence of silk (or possibly unevenness of silk). Low lighting means very inconsistent lighting as well, and can mean light is entering the stone primarily from odd angles, leading to dark patches as in OP's stone #4. A little silk, as in OP's final stone, can nicely and evenly spread the light around even in very low lighting conditions or light entering from odd angles.

In my experience, zoning can sometimes cause unevenness in color when the stone is tilted (because gemstones are usually cut to look great face up but not necessarily at tilt angles) but it's not the driver of outside/inside inconsistency.

...yes, silk! I forgot about that.

I think stone #4 is cut pretty deep too, so possible more odd angles as well?

 

[T L]

In my experience, zoning can sometimes cause unevenness in color when the stone is tilted (because gemstones are usually cut to look great face up but not necessarily at tilt angles) but it's not the driver of outside/inside inconsistency.

When I evaluate a sapphire, this is precisely why I look at it from all angles. I find zoning to be distracting, because you’re not always going to look at the stone face up. However, when I look for amethyst, I purposely look for some zoning, as the synthetic material, as far as I know, is even in color.