A Stone Worth Mentioning

[minousbijoux]

Many of us buy from BB, and focus particularly on his spinels. I recently bought a few stones from John Burleyson and wanted to point out a particular stone he has:

http://gemrite.com/cubecart/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=184

I bought this stone because it was one of those impulse buys, but it wasn't quite the color I was looking for (don't ask me what I was looking for because I don't really know; like I said it was an impulse purchase and I do not plan on buying any more purple spinels).

That said, I wanted to point out what I thought were remarkable features of this particular stone and urge anyone who is in the market for a purple spinel to consider this one. The color was slightly lighter or less saturated than his photo, but it really is pretty accurate. What the photo does not capture is the amazing luster and sparks given off by this stone. I have quite a few spinels and not one is such a show off. Its as if someone told this stone it had to be purple, but it keeps forgetting and showing its true colors. In any bright light condition, especially direct lighting, it has fabulous sparks and flashes of blue, red, pink and peach. It reminded me of a diamond or demantoid because of the sparks.

I looked at it, fell in love and knew I was going to keep it. I slept on it (no, it wasn't under my pillow ), and realized I did not need another purple spinel, despite the great cutting, and that it would just sit in my gem tray. This stone needs to be set as a ring, as it will catch the light and put on its show at every movement of the hand. It needs to go to a good PS home!!!

 

[minousbijoux]

Oh, and if its not there yet, its because its still on its way back to him.

 

[T L]

Thanks for mentioning the luster and sparkle on the spinel. For the longest time during my collecting career I was rather displeased with spinels. I thought they were all super dark in tone, had no sparkle, and poor luster. One of the things about them that drew me in, even more so than color, was the tremendous amount of sparkle and high luster they have. You can't recreate that in another stone the same color. For example, I know I could buy a violet tanzanite, but it just doesn't have that same sparkle and luster like a fine violet spinel. They all look so flat in photos too, so that even when I saw them online, I wasn't that impressed. You really need to see a good one in person to enjoy what fine spinels have to offer.

 

[iLander]

This thread is interesting.

I have a purple color change sapphire that I recently purchased from Gemrite;
http://www.gemrite.com/cubecart/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=268

The color change is pretty dramatic, without any grey tones; a medium sky blue in bright sun light to a medium violet-lavender in bright incandescent. In lower lights, it just tones down to a medium-darkish blue or purple.

In some lights it gives off magenta, blue and green sparkles.

I don't have any other sapphires, so I'm not used to see so many colored sparkles from a sapphire.

 

[jstarfireb]

I've bought 2 stones from John at GemRite. His cutting is very nice, somewhat reminiscent of Barry's (at least the rounds, with their high crowns and faceted girdles). My mint garnet came from him. It's a gorgeous mint green color, but I should mention that his photos of green gems tend to exaggerate the blue and minimize the yellow undertones. It's the only stone I've bought with visible inclusions, and I tolerated those because of the great color and reasonable price (I'm normally a huge clarity buff).

 

[minousbijoux]

I would agree that his is another case where you have to see the stones in person - its just that I have not seen a spinel go crazy like this one! Someone has to get it!!

iLander, it sounds like you are liking your sapphire? I tend to steer clear of color changers because I think one or the other color will suffer (or as others have pointed out, most of the time they'll end up in a muddy middle ground area), so I love to hear success stories!

I believe this was my first purchase from him and yes, he reminds me of Barry's cutting as well. Both end up with highly lusterous stones - is that from the level of polish? I have a mint merelani from him that is beautiful, just beautiful.

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

I bought a nice (lovely, in fact) pink spinel recently from John,
and he is just the nicest guy.
I emailed him about the purple spinel, let's see if it's gone yet !!!

 

[minousbijoux]

I emailed him about the purple spinel, let's see if it's gone yet !!!

Oh goodie! The risk of mentioning it here is that some lurker will jump...