Color Change Garnets

[Addlepated]

Anyone have a nice color change garnet? I just sent some funds to Richard Homer to find a rough gemstone at the Tucson show and cut it for me. I can''t wait; I hope he''s able to find something spectacular. I''d love to see some eye candy to whet my appetite!

 

[valeria101]

Multicolor has... this:

and

among others. Either looks pretty good to me assuming the picture is representative (link). Since the shop work proved very candide about their merchandise and provides AIGS lab reports on request, I have no reason to believe otherwise.

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 1/18/2005 10:41:50 PM
Author:Addlepated
I hope he''s able to find something spectacular.

Can you describe what you consider "spectacular?" There are all sorts of color change garnets depending on their origin. What size are you looking for and what type of color change? Red/green, pink/yellow, magenta/purple or???

 

[Addlepated]

Author: Richard M.
Can you describe what you consider ''spectacular?'' There are all sorts of color change garnets depending on their origin. What size are you looking for and what type of color change? Red/green, pink/yellow, magenta/purple or???

I asked him to look for something with an alexandrite-type change, red to green. I''ve done all the browsing on Multicolour.com and Cherrypicked, etc. Just wondering if anyone had any real-life stones I could feast my eyes on.

 

[chantal990]

Hi,

I have a green to purple stone but it''s very small (0.15ct or 3.5mm). It has a good change to it. i haven''t had it set in anything as yet as I haven''t thought of anything for it (aside from a multi gem ring I want kind of in the Bulgari Allegra style)

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/18/2005 11:59:58 PM
Author: Addlepated

Just wondering if anyone had any real-life stones I could feast my eyes on.

You are very right to ask for that, ''cause I don''t think the color change gets that spectacular unless the alternative light conditions are really particular. There is better than those two but haven''t heard of any in years... I wish I had bought one when the opportunity turned out

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Date: 1/18/2005 10:41:50 PM
Author:Addlepated
Anyone have a nice color change garnet? I just sent some funds to Richard Homer to find a rough gemstone at the Tucson show and cut it for me. I can't wait; I hope he's able to find something spectacular. I'd love to see some eye candy to whet my appetite!

Addle,

Homer has a good eye and keen sense of what will make a good stone out of the best rough, and the show should provide a good selection. I will follow with a little bit of background info on color change garnet, some of the finedst material can be rare. There has been talks in the past of some of the fine Madagascar material being played out and the optimum color change is now playing second fiddle to stones which change from pink/brown-brown.

There is other fine material available coming out of Tundura, Tanzania and Ceylon which will hopefully be abundant at the Tucson Gem show to quench your thirst. I really hope you get a good color change. The rough from these regions produces a color change from reddish purple in incandescent light to green, blue, gray in daylight. More of a steely blue seen in the color change rather than the characteristic pure blue hue seen in the finest sapphires.

What light source you will be viewing the color change in is also important. Ideally the change should display a medium tone and intense color. The reddish , purple color side of the change seems to be the dominant color with the latter being the least dominant colors in the change. (I hope I am making sense?) Stones with a moderate color change will have a lighter tone & stones with a stronger color change will characteristically have a darker tone. It is a balancing act which a happy medium should prevail. Some of these garnets with too dark

of a tone will black out which can affect transparency.
It will be exciting too see what Richard uncovers at the show. Keep us updated…

Warm Regards-Josh

 

[Addlepated]

EmeraldGirl, that''s a lovely stone! I had not seen them in that color purple before.

Ana, a local jeweler here has a tennis bracelet with channel-set color change garnets, very dark and murky and not all calibrated. For this he''s asking $9700!

He''s been sitting on it for the past two years at this price. He also has some other stones which have an incomplete change and are around $550/carat or more.

Josh, thanks for the good information! It seems to me that the concave faceting helps to bring out the color even in darker stones. I''m hoping that if he''s able to find a good color change, even if it''s a bit dark, the cut will help offset it. I''m very confident in him to pick out a good one. He said if he would only buy a stone if he thought it was a good one.

I also wanted to say that I love your avatar. You have a devilish little leprechaun twinkle in your eyes.

 

[Camellia]

Date: 1/18/2005 11:14:45 PM
Author: valeria101
Multicolor has... this:

and

among others. Either looks pretty good to me assuming the picture is representative (link). Since the shop work proved very candide about their merchandise and provides AIGS lab reports on request, I have no reason to believe otherwise.

I love the colours of the stone on the right and the shape! Excuse my ignorance but Ana can you explain please under which lighting the stone will change colour. I''m definitely in love with that stone!

 

[belle]

everytime a thread about "color change garnets" comes up, i have to read it! i really (really) want one, but i haven''t yet been brave enough to take the plunge. i found the search for complete information on these stones a little difficult. is there somewhere i can find info about these in one place? preferably with examples of the different cuts, colors and characteristics?? i''m not looking for the rarest stone, just a little something that''s different.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/19/2005 5:26:33 AM
Author: Camellia
can you explain please under which lighting the stone will change colour. I''m definitely in love with that stone!

Well, the color change is supposed to occur between daylight and candle light - at least that''s the likely conditions that made alexandrite famous. But that was a while ago and now indoor lighting is no longer gas lamps... hence problem. If you modify lighting conditions enough, anything might as well change color !
Multicolour explains their lighting conditions (sometimes next to the stone and over e-mail if asked). I was impressed with the candid expositions, ''cause it doesn''t make the merchandise look better than it is.

Here''s what they explain about the rectangular stone (citing their listing)

"Under fluorescent light, this stone is grape purple and under incandescent light the stone clearly pinkish red. In natural daylight the color will depend on the time of day, the weather, and your latitude on earth. Generally, the stone will be more purple in the morning and quite red in the late afternoon or under sunlight. To view the best color change you will need a fluorescent light with the stone held 5 or 6 inches from the light source. Under any incandescent light, the attractive pinkish red color is easy to see. ".

I am not sure if there is any comprehensive low down of all color change gems presented down to slight detail. Since the colors differ quite a bit from one source to the next, that one would be a rather thick book... Usually, the more spectacular finds end up documented in gemology journals and those are rather easy to access. Now, those publications do not come with "buyers beware" - IMO, once some exotic thing makes it into GG it is just getting pinpoint targeted marketing and becomes "collectable" for a while. How long a while ? well, who knows. Color change garnet is pretty famous.

But to know what is new and interesting on the market there is no shortcut I know of - just a matter of keeping some budget in store and waiting for the next lucky find to reach one dealer''s desk or another. Same with wine, only gems do not come one vintage per year

Just the usual 0.2. Obviously there is allot more to the story than I can tell.

 

[Scott Terence]

Hi,

Being that I am a January born person and that garnet is my birthstone, I was floored with the idea that it would be possible to have a new variant of garnet with alexaderite-type duality. I thus took the plunge and purchased like 4 stones ranging from .5-1.2cts.

From the get go i was aware that they would require specific lighting to bring out the mythic color changing and indeed they do change. However, I have noticed that in direct lighting (sunlight) my particular stones tend to show a mix of the "day and night" colors. In bluish fluorescent light i get the "green/blue" side and with the unfrosted incandescent lightbulbs I can get the purple (with red flashes). In mixed lighting that is not intense, the stones either black out or just dont look much different than amythest. Note also that I had mine bezel set which furthered the darkness problem.

I am learning the hard way that because of the predominance of diffuse fluorescent lighting in my work environment, that only a handful of types of stones will look good all the time and CCG is not one of them. To be fair, even my highly saturated Tsavorite tends to darken up (which could perhaps be fixed with a recut). Sadly, it seems as though only my tension set diamond seems to be pleasing in nearly every light environment i find myself.

I will say though that a medium light colored spinel I recently obtained seems to be holding its own with beautiful clarity, brilliance and no blackouts. So there is hope yet for me. This is just my personal experience and opinion and I am in no way dissuading you from your exciting quest for a beautiful CCG. I will say that CCG is a highly dispersive material (strangly I get lil rainbows from a dark stone), so a high crown cut might be beneficial to bringing out the full potential of the material.

Best regards,
Scott

 

[Camellia]

Ana and Scott

From your replies I now really understand the need to see a coloured stone in different lighting conditions. Therefore, if buying sight-unseen the buyer should ensure a good return policy if not happy with the colour when they see it.

A manufacturing jeweller I''ve been to has different lights to show diamonds under different conditions. Would this be useful when viewing coloured stones as well?

Thanks for your info. I''m keen to learn from the experts.