Color Zoning

[AGBF]

In a current thread on emeralds there is a discussion of color zoning. I have a pair of sapphire earrings for which I overpaid. I love the color (a blue grey), but they were just not worth what I paid. I wasn''t even sure they were sapphires until I sent them to Dave Atlas and he said they were. They looked like glass with paint splashed on it under a loupe. I really thought that that was what they *might* have been! I haven''t looked at them with a loupe in a while, but I will try to do so and explain what I mean.

If I get my camera back in shape I may even be able to photograph the stones and *SHOW* you what I mean. (The stones are now set, though, so that may not work out.)

 

[mogok]

Hello AGBF,
Yep, thanks in advance, it will be nice to see them!
Color zoning is very frequent in sapphires and especially in blue stones...
All the best,

 

[TooMuchInformation]

AGBF,

Thanks for pointing this out. I've seen this before when looking at a stone that I can't recall at the moment (it probably was a saphire), and I'm glad to know that this could infact be color zoning, because it looked quite strange.

 

[valeria101]

I wish this amount of zoning would turn sapphires cheap: the cut would "average out" the color beautifully for a bargain...

There a few more examples on Africagems if you want to try them, TooMuch

Just a question of semantics here: is bicoloring in sapphire called "color zoning" too? I am used to hear this term describing the colored marks of growth zones and twinning planes, but bi-coloring can also come in growth zones... I was just wandering.