Chrome Tourmalines and Mandarine Spess

[Largosmom]

Got three chrome tourmalines from my local, and awesome, jewelry shop/goldsmith. They have two G.G.s on staff, one who does a lot of construction, and one who makes jewelry, plus does some lapidary work. Carl spent a couple of hours showing me stones a few months back, what fun! I've brought in some projects in the past few weeks and we were looking for stones to set and he brought some out from his collection. He has a fair number of tourmalines, and quite a few mandarine spess. The spess he sent out for cutting, hoping to get back larger stones, but did not provide detailed instructions so the cutters cut away the inclusions and he lost a lot of weight as a result. He has had some designers come to him for smaller stones, but still has some nice ones. I ended up purchasing 3 tourmalines and two pairs of the spess.

The tourmalines have some windowing which will disappear when set, I think, but the color and sparkle is really nice. Cuts on the smaller pair are quite shallow. I need to go back and get the carat weight...but the sizes are 6.6x4.6 mm on the larger oval, and the smaller pair are 5.1 x 3mm each. I don't usually go for green stones...but these were really nice color and dispersion.

I will post the spess next.

 

[Largosmom]

And now for the spessartite garnets.

The darker two ovals, I purchased at a local gem show. They are nice matched ovals. One stone is more heavily included than the other, but are quite clean to the eye...fun to look at under the loupe. They will go into earring charms.

Sorry the lighting is so bad. It's either dim lights at home, or fluorescents at work. I need to find a safe spot to shoot outdoors. I'm so afraid of losing a stone!

The next photos are of two pair that I got from my local jeweler at the same time as the tourmalines.

The cuts on the yellower stones is very nice, but I can see why he cried..the color would have been much darker had the stones been cut larger. I like both colors though.

 

[oddoneout]

Lovely colours.

 

[chrono]

The last two spessartites show stronger saturation; are those from the gem show as stated in the title of the picture? You really need to take better pictures because they don’t look like the same stones as in the group shot.

 

[Largosmom]

You are right Chrono...the lighting doesn't do any of the stones justice! They look far more muddy than they are to the eye. The darker pair are, indeed from the gemshow. The color is kind of a bright pumpkin/mandarin. They have some bow-tie effect, but will make some nice earring drops.

Not sure what I will do with these...considering an orange/green three stone ring with the larger Tsavorite as the center and two of the spess' as side stones. However, the smaller two spess have nice color...more in the color similar to an orange bell-pepper...more yellow in hue. I might do halo'd studs with the smaller/darker pair of those, if the larger ones are not too large to pair with the oval tourmaline. The smaller tsavorites will go for earring charms, I think. I like the "margarita" studs on this site, and my jeweler has a couple of other sources. Apparently you can order them as semi-mounts for a center stone.

http://www.diamondstudsonly.com/margari ... rrings.cfm

 

[cushioncutnut]

Largos... you are really developing quite the collection! Just lovely!

 

[Largosmom]

Thanks, yes it is slowly growing. I have been putting my little stone boxes into a larger cardboard box and it's slowly filling up.

I have a couple of stones that my jeweler gave me like a strawberry quartz, and a couple of little opal triplets, and that little cats eye moonstone, same guy who sold me the tourmalines and spess...really nice fellow. He has a large personal collection and has pulled it out a couple of times to show me stones since he knows how much I love them. He has more of both stones...all smaller, but very nice colors and on the spess, good cuts.

He told me last night that he was cleaning off a shelf and found a box full of amethyst and citrine and my eyes probably lit up like crazy. I cannot believe I was so lucky to find such a good local shop just a few minutes down the road from my house. The owner, James and his wife Tracey both run the business and the James is also a G.G. and goldsmith...Carl is an employee there and is a jack of all trades...G.G., goldsmith, CAD design, lapidary. I love showing him the precision work as it inspires him to try new things. I am really enjoying the custom work. My first project was a gift for hubby last year...a mariner's crucifix. Next is the to JKT projects you have seen. I have another project with Carl for that hydrophane opal on a pendant/pin shaped like a dogwood blossom. I hope it turns out as nice as I think it will.

Laura