Can I get rid of extinction with a new cut?

[innerkitten]

I have these two spinels. I''d call them a raspberry red. They look beautiful in bright light and sun light but they both have really bad extinction

Do you think that could be changed with something like concave cutting? They are only about a carat and a half each. Here is a photo. I wasn''t really able to capture the shadows. So this is what they look like under indoor lighting.

 

[innerkitten]

You can kind of see a shadow creeping in on one of them.

 

[colormyworld]

Innerkitten, the hue and saturation of those spinels looks great! In diffused lighting (outside on a cloudy day )when viewed at arms length away from your eye do you still the dark spots?

 

[innerkitten]

Hi CMW, It''s already getting dark here so I can''t get a good idea but I''ll check tomorrow and post back.

 

[colormyworld]

I think a lot of what some call extinction is actualy a shadow caused by the person viewing the stone. Incandescent lighting and undiffused single point lighting will make a stone show more extinction than is actualy there. Tone is also a factor as darker stones will show more darker areas.

 

[chrono]

I have to agree with CMW and say that the earrings look pretty good. Not a whole lot of darkness.

Also, concave cuts are very deep stones. I fear that you will lose a lot of face up size. Concave faceting is also very different from traditional flat faceting; they tend to look more "static" in my opinion, thus I''m not crazy about them in earrings where they don''t get much attention in the first place.

 

[innerkitten]

It''s raining today but I brought them into the yard anyway. Our back yard is so shady with buildings on all sides. Thats city life for you. I was able to capture the extinction better in one pic though. My camera is old though and when I don''t use a flash it gets blurry unless I have something to lean it on which I didn''t.

Anyway I''m thinking the darkness is probably a combo of the material itself and the cutting. Thats probably why these were dirt cheap.

 

[innerkitten]

extinction pic

 

[innerkitten]

the security light went on and lit them up. Oops couldn''t post that one for some reason.

 

[innerkitten]

There is goes.

 

[colormyworld]

Innerkitten the color I see on my moniter look good. Not to dark at all. Is the photo pretty much what they look like IRL? I see one pic with what looks like a "bow tie" effect. This could just be a shadow from the camera though. When you looked at the stones outside held out at arms length could you see extinction? If you feel a recut would help please follow your instinct. For me IMO whem fine color stones are cut to perfect I always think faux.

 

[innerkitten]

Well the color in the pics is spot on. The extinction photo is usually how the stones look. No matter which way you turn them about a third goes dark. So if I move the stone around some facets are very red and others are dark.
I have a spessarite and an aqua that never have any dark areas. I wish these two spinel looked like that. I might see what some cutters say. But it might be possible that in the end they will just have to stay as is. Again they were very inexpensive.

 

[colormyworld]

Would care to share where you bought them?

 

[innerkitten]

I bought them from an American gem dealer when I first joined Pricescope in 2003 ( spinel was cheaper in those days). I can''t remember her name anymore though

They are from Sri Lanka, there were four of them and they were super cheap! I think I paid less then $125.00 for the four of them. Some little inclusions but nothing that really bugs me.

 

[colormyworld]

Ah the good old days.

 

[innerkitten]

I know....sigh.

 

[marcy]

I think the color is really pretty. Do they sparkle a lot on your ears?

 

[FrekeChild]

They look like cherries. I

them just as they are.

 

[chrono]

The extinction doesn''t appear so terrible and at their current size, I probably wouldn''t recut them. You definitely paid a very good price for them. There''s no way to get those prices today unless they are brown.