Chrysophrase or chalcedony lovers: need your help!

[Pinkmartini87]

Hi, I’m wondering why the difference in price between these two sets of chrysophrase and chalcedony earrings by the same vendor? Am I missing something about the quality of the stones?

Chrysophrase earrings first pair $3400:

Chrysoprase Drops — Ted Muehling

One of a kind, hand cut. Chrysoprase Drops measure approximately 3/4” x 1/4”. When hanging, the earrings measure approximately 1 1/4” from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the earrings. Ear wires are made of 14k Yellow Gold. Due to the value of these earrings please choose the FedE

tedmuehling.com

Chrysophrase earrings second pair $1600:

Chrysoprase Drops — Ted Muehling

One of a kind, hand cut. Chrysoprase Drops measure approximately 1 3/4” x 1/4”. When hanging, the earrings measure approximately 2” from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the earrings. Ear wires are made of 14k Yellow Gold. Due to the value of these earrings please choose the FedEx

tedmuehling.com

Chalcedony earrings first pair $1200:

Blue Chalcedony Drops — Ted Muehling

One of a kind, hand cut. Blue Chalcedony Drops measure approximately 1” x 1/2”. When hanging, the earrings measure approximately 1 1/2” from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the earrings. Ear wires are made of 14k Yellow Gold. Due to the value of these earrings please choose the Fed

tedmuehling.com

Chalcedony earrings second pair $200 (select the blue chalcedony option)

Berries — Ted Muehling

Available in Amethyst, Aventurine, Rose Quartz, Chrysoprase, Lemon Chrysoprase, Crystal, Frosted Crystal, Turquoise, Onyx, Frosted Serpentine, Carnelian, Lemon Citrine, Agate, and Blue Chalcedony. Berries measure 1/2″ x 1/4″. When hanging, the earrings measure approximately 1″ from the top of the

tedmuehling.com

 

[Pinkmartini87]

Just to add, I see both chalcedony and Chrysophrase drop earrings on Etsy for much less ($100 and under), so for the above am I just paying for the designer name?

What’s the normal price range of these stones?

 

[Autumn in New England]

Just to add, I see both chalcedony and Chrysophrase drop earrings on Etsy for much less ($100 and under), so for the above am I just paying for the designer name?

What’s the normal price range of these stones?

Hi there! Major chrysoprase lover here. So, as you know, chrysoprase is a variety of chalcedony, which is a member of the quartz family (microcrystalline). Chrysoprase gets its vibrant green color from trace amounts of nickel. Depending on the quality, the prices can vary quite a bit. But the dramatic difference you're seeing in pricing could be due to low quality chalcedony being dyed to resemble genuine chrysoprase.

 

[Diamondbug]

Look what you made me do!! I don't know anything about these stones so I googled it! Lookie what I found!

This item is unavailable - Etsy

Find the perfect handmade gift, vintage & on-trend clothes, unique jewelry, and more… lots more.

www.etsy.com

 

[Pinkmartini87]

@Autumn in New England Thanks for your knowledge! Unfortunately the Ted Muehling site does not stipulate if the stones are dyed or not, but I did a quick google search for secondhand Ted Muehling pieces and found a few on the RealReal website, which supposedly have gemologists authenticate stones and such, and it did say for one of the Ted Muehling pieces that the chalcedony is dyed. I want to ping the staff at Muehling an email asking, but I get the sense that maybe their usual clientele buys the pieces more for the look than the value of the stones. Aesthetically I love the Ted Muehling minimalistic design but it is literally 12-30x the price of chalcedony earrings elsewhere, so I have a hard time biting the bullet.

@Diamondbug Sorry for the temptation! The green/blue combo is quite striking!

 

[Autumn in New England]

@Autumn in New England Thanks for your knowledge! Unfortunately the Ted Muehling site does not stipulate if the stones are dyed or not, but I did a quick google search for secondhand Ted Muehling pieces and found a few on the RealReal website, which supposedly have gemologists authenticate stones and such, and it did say for one of the Ted Muehling pieces that the chalcedony is dyed. I want to ping the staff at Muehling an email asking, but I get the sense that maybe their usual clientele buys the pieces more for the look than the value of the stones. Aesthetically I love the Ted Muehling minimalistic design but it is literally 12-30x the price of chalcedony earrings elsewhere, so I have a hard time biting the bullet.

@Diamondbug Sorry for the temptation! The green/blue combo is quite striking!

I agree with you... that first pair of earrings is lovely, but the price is exorbitant, IMO. I think you can find a high-quality pair in the same gem grade chryso and gold for a quarter of the price. Good luck!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

@Autumn in New England Thanks for your knowledge! Unfortunately the Ted Muehling site does not stipulate if the stones are dyed or not, but I did a quick google search for secondhand Ted Muehling pieces and found a few on the RealReal website, which supposedly have gemologists authenticate stones and such, and it did say for one of the Ted Muehling pieces that the chalcedony is dyed. I want to ping the staff at Muehling an email asking, but I get the sense that maybe their usual clientele buys the pieces more for the look than the value of the stones. Aesthetically I love the Ted Muehling minimalistic design but it is literally 12-30x the price of chalcedony earrings elsewhere, so I have a hard time biting the bullet.

@Diamondbug Sorry for the temptation! The green/blue combo is quite striking!

i recenlty brought something that turned out to be dyed quartz
i would never have known but the die rubbed off onto my cap that i had the beads sitting in as i admired them
i have found it is now 100% not mind clean for me (mind dirty??
)
thankfully it did not cost a lot and i have put it down to a learning exsperience (the vendor definatly was misleading) but it had definatly left a bad taste in my mouth
i think because i just adored the colour when they first arrived and the colour was just prefect for my little project i am still having a bit of trouble letting this issue go, i wish on reflection they had been some butt ugly colour

good luck to you, @Pinkmartini87 please keep us posted

 

[woweezowee]

Fellow chrysoprase lover here! I have chrysoprase from Tanzania and Australia (the most common source) which are the two major places it's mined. Australian chryso commands a premium although I have seen Tanzanian just as beautiful.

I looked over the artist's site quite a bit, and he even has a chryso pair for $280! He doesn't state the origin or treatment status, and mentions that the stones are "hand cut." Not even sure what that means. Does that mean "cut by the artist" or "cut without machinery"? "No robots involved"?? My guess is that perhaps he cut the chryso and because it took him a long time, when he applied a pricing formula to the earrings, the price skyrocketed way past the value of the actual stone itself. Generally, artisans have pricing formulas that includes markup on materials plus an hourly labor rate.

Having said all this, cabochons are a dime a dozen and an amateur with access to the right equipment can cut something pretty damn decent, so I absolutely do not think the price is worth it ... for me. But perhaps his NYC boutique browsers think otherwise?

You can find much better prices although the hardest part will be finding exactly the shape and design you want. Another suggestion: buy the rough yourself and commission the stones to be cut from a lapidary and then hire a jeweler to make the earrings. If you want just the stones themselves hanging from your ears (a beautiful option, btw), you could have the gem cutter drill holes in them when he/she shapes the material. Then, you could buy pre-made earring wires in a a gorgeous high karat gold from Rio Grande and pop those babies right in!

Good luck and be sure to post anything you find!

 

[Pinkmartini87]

@woweezowee

Thanks so much for the wealth of knowledge! Yes, I’ll be sure to come back and update once I’ve decided, but I’ve started to look elsewhere for sure.

 

[woweezowee]

@woweezowee

Thanks so much for the wealth of knowledge! Yes, I’ll be sure to come back and update once I’ve decided, but I’ve started to look elsewhere for sure.

Awesome! Can't wait to see what you find! <3

 

[landscape]

The quality of chalcedony (including agate) varies greatly in price. The first one should be Australian chalcedony, and the second one may be from Africa or Australian . the difference between 1and 2 is the degree of jadeization， The second one is closer to jasper. The third may be Turkish blue chalcedony, which is very cheap.
Natural untreated green and red chalcedony (agate) is very rare. The cheap green and red chalcedony we see everyday are basically dyed or heated, so the price of natural untreated red and green is relatively high, Australian green Chalcedony 、 red agate from Yunnan of China (Southern red agate)、blue chalcedony from taiwan are all relatively expensive chalcedony (agate)

 

[landscape]

Most of the southern red agate has cracks, so most of the southern red agate beads are treated with glue, and the untreated southern red agate is very expensive, but the beads treated with glue are very cheap.
All in all, the price of untreated red, green and blue chalcedony (agate) will exceed our usual impression of the price of chalcedony. The color of Turkish blue chalcedony is actually blue-gray, not really blue chalcedony

 

[landscape]

Green chalcedony（Australian chalcedony） 、 blue chalcedony（Another name is gem silica or chrysocolla chaledony）、Red chalcedony (southern red agate)

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[Pinkmartini87]

@landscape

Really honored that you took the time to stop by and share your amazing trove of treasures and expertise. Thank you for enriching my experience and those of so many others on PS!

I’ll send a msg to the NYC boutique to clarify type of chalcedony. Will keep all informed if I hear back!