Do you find yourself coming back to the same CS types..

[Indylady]

over and over? Or do you 'branch out'? I keep meaning to expand my collection, but I find myself to the same few gem types. Mostly because I really like them, and also somewhat because I feel well-versed enough to find a nice one. I also keep buying rounds, though I really love cushions and ovals more--its just not as much of a priority as a few other factors like color or treatment, so I end up having to a sacrifice a preferred shape to meet my other gem buying criteria.

What about you? Is your collection diverse? Is there a clear theme (whether it be stone type, color, shape, or cut) that runs through? Looking forward to your answers!

 

[chrono]

No particular theme but I do have a tendency to purchase a few types more than others for reasons that include high RI, durability, and lack of treatment. I also do my best to avoid ovals but sometimes it becomes unavoidable for rarer material. Where the opportunity presents itself, I branch out if the stone is meets my usual criteria of good saturation, size, collectability and etc. Even though I dislike the colour orange and green, I still purchased many orange and green gemstones.

 

[minousbijoux]

I have a thing about certain shades of blue, so I have ended collecting quite a few sapphires and a few tourmalines. Trying to keep up with treatments (I like mine untreated so I tend to go for unheated) has made me leery - actually, I know I can't keep up. This means I avoid things like emeralds, rubies, topaz and I think I'll have to add paraiba-type tourmalines to the list (does anyone know if they're treating all tourms or just paraiba-types?).

Then, I also have purchased from the precision cutting crowd a number of garnets and tourmalines - mostly round and supernova ovals - mainly because it seems like that is what they offer which catches my eye. Now, when I buy from them, I am trying to find beautifully cut stones in different shapes like asschers, or emerald cuts, rather than a certain CS type.

I am still searching for the elusive teal blue tourm (like AJ's) and find that over and over I gravitate back to sapphires in my search. I'm also searching for good blue spinels. Why? I don't know, Probably because they mimic sapphires!

 

[chrono]

MB,
I know that rubellite and pink tourmalines are mostly heated, then nuked. Indicolites are also irradiated, and many blue greens and greens are heated to lighten the tone. Some are now fracture filled with either resins or oil.

 

[Pandora II]

My study collection is pretty comprehensive but for my personal collection I pretty much only buy garnets.

I have a little Christmas present on its way from Japan right now... finally after a long search I have an 8.5ct rainbow garnet. It's a polished crystal - I still haven't found a faceted example, but at that weight I might have it cut depending on quality when I get it. The guy I bought it from is also getting me a rough crystal when he can.

I'd like one of the Mexican rainbows as well but they're also tough to find.

 

[ruffysdad]

I'll admit it. I'm a garnet junkie ! I love the little suckers! So much variety, so much flash when they're cut, and they're honest too. By that I mean that they're pretty unlikely to have been treated, enhanced or doctored to mess with their appearance. Tourmaline's a close second but it doesn't have the high RI of a garnet and spinels come in third with that flash thing again .

Pete

 

[chrono]

I am afraid that garnets are not safe from treatment; I have read of fracture filled garnets but fortunately, with the right tools and well trained eye, this can be spotted.

 

[ruffysdad]

Yes, I've read about fracture filling. Haven't seen one yet though and that's fine with me. I think that there are so many of the reds out there that, as yet, it isn't worth the trouble or time to mess with them. Hope it stays that way too

Pete

 

[Pandora II]

A lot of the demantoids are heat-treated as well, but on the whole it's a much safer bet than things like corundum that I am personally steering totally clear of unless I already know the dealer.

Ruffysdad - which garnets do you have in your collection?

My current garnets are: spessartites, hessonites, malis, uvarovite, royal rhodolites, rhodolites, almandines, pyropes, grossulars including a few really nice tsavs, melanites, a colour-change and soon my new rainbow.

The main ones I am missing are a nice demantoid, an pale orangy malaia, and a rosolite - a blue garnet would be amazing but not sure it will ever happen.

The Uvarovite piece I have is gorgeous - it was a present from one of the guys on my FGA course who brought it back from Poland for me. I'd lent him a load of my books, he knew I was looking for a nice one and brought it back as a thank-you. Even though it isn't facetable - it's a drusy - it has some quite big crystals and is the most incredible green.

 

[Harriet]

Not intentionally. If a stone speaks to me and is fairly priced, I pick it up. With gems, I've learnt to let them come to me rather than to specify the parameters. Colour is a given, of course. Coincidentally, I happen to have a number of garnets.

 

[LD]

When I started collecting I decided to have one of every gemstone (I had a very limited knowledge back then)! Then I realised I actually liked some gems more than others and so I extended my wish to one of every cut in each gemstone. Somewhere along the way, that went wrong and I just ended up collecting what called to me! I have some favourites (Alexandrite being one) that I find difficult to pass by but other than that, a gem has to speak to me in order for me to buy it and of course I've got fussier over the years. So, do I come back to a particular gem? No, I don't think I do!

 

[kenny]

Re: Do you find yourself coming back to the same CS types..

The niche I love is small FCDs with strong color.
Any money I spend on other gems could have gone towards another FCD for my tiny collection.

I don't see myself buying any other types of gems in the future, but . . . never say never.

 

[Indylady]

Chrono, you don't like orange and green?! *covers the imaginary ears on your spess, tsav, and emerald*

I find myself always looking for rubies and emeralds. If there's a ruby/corundum or an emerald/beryl tab on a site, I will always always click it. My 'nexts' are a nice spess, a blue or red spinel, and a nice plum colored stone (of no specific gem type).

 

[chrono]

IndyLady,
It just goes to show to never say you’d never purchase a particular colour. When one sees the right stone, it is difficult to pass up on it, even if it’s not a well liked colour. Or maybe….it’s the PS enabling.

 

[ruffysdad]

A lot of the demantoids are heat-treated as well, but on the whole it's a much safer bet than things like corundum that I am personally steering totally clear of unless I already know the dealer.

Ruffysdad - which garnets do you have in your collection?

My current garnets are: spessartites, hessonites, malis, uvarovite, royal rhodolites, rhodolites, almandines, pyropes, grossulars including a few really nice tsavs, melanites, a colour-change and soon my new rainbow.

The main ones I am missing are a nice demantoid, an pale orangy malaia, and a rosolite - a blue garnet would be amazing but not sure it will ever happen.

The Uvarovite piece I have is gorgeous - it was a present from one of the guys on my FGA course who brought it back from Poland for me. I'd lent him a load of my books, he knew I was looking for a nice one and brought it back as a thank-you. Even though it isn't facetable - it's a drusy - it has some quite big crystals and is the most incredible green.

Most all in my personal stash including a .33ct Russian demantoid w/a perfect horsetail right under the table. Public stuff though I've gotten pretty thin on. Always looking for good sources for rough but finding them at reasonable prices is getting tough. The internet has made the world smaller and the miners see prices over here and want all of it for themselves. Still, every time I see a new garnet I go barking after it , if not for the biz, then for my personal stash. The goal is to have a garnet of every shade and color. Now that's about as big of a pipe dream as I can think of

Pete

 

[Pandora II]

A lot of the demantoids are heat-treated as well, but on the whole it's a much safer bet than things like corundum that I am personally steering totally clear of unless I already know the dealer.

Ruffysdad - which garnets do you have in your collection?

My current garnets are: spessartites, hessonites, malis, uvarovite, royal rhodolites, rhodolites, almandines, pyropes, grossulars including a few really nice tsavs, melanites, a colour-change and soon my new rainbow.

The main ones I am missing are a nice demantoid, an pale orangy malaia, and a rosolite - a blue garnet would be amazing but not sure it will ever happen.

The Uvarovite piece I have is gorgeous - it was a present from one of the guys on my FGA course who brought it back from Poland for me. I'd lent him a load of my books, he knew I was looking for a nice one and brought it back as a thank-you. Even though it isn't facetable - it's a drusy - it has some quite big crystals and is the most incredible green.

Most all in my personal stash including a .33ct Russian demantoid w/a perfect horsetail right under the table. Public stuff though I've gotten pretty thin on. Always looking for good sources for rough but finding them at reasonable prices is getting tough. The internet has made the world smaller and the miners see prices over here and want all of it for themselves. Still, every time I see a new garnet I go barking after it , if not for the biz, then for my personal stash. The goal is to have a garnet of every shade and color. Now that's about as big of a pipe dream as I can think of

Pete

Ditto - although if I ever achieve that I will then decide I want something like every shade and colour in a cushion cut of over 2cts or something equally stoopid!

IIRC you're a lapidary? If so, would you by any chance know how big a piece of rough you would need in order to facet a uvarovite? For example to get a .05ct and presuming a crystal with no inclusions and a good even shape... I imagine that being a garnet it won't pose huge issues as far as the actual faceting goes - ie cleavage - even if it is super tiny.

Has there ever been a faceted uvarovite?

 

[LtlFirecracker]

I like gems that tend to have darker, brighter colors.

I have a few pastel gems, and I don't care for them as much.

My favorites are bright pink/red spinels, blue sapphires, rubies (which I don't own), and tsavorite.

 

[risingsun]

I tend to like sapphires, emeralds and tsavorites. I would love to collect some FCD, but my piggy bank refuses to permit it If I started collecting, rather than buying stones to be set, I would definitely branch out.

 

[jstarfireb]

There are a few gems that I come back to...green garnets and tanzanites are the ones that I can think of right away. But in general I like to have as diverse of a collection as possible.

 

[blithesome71]

Hmmm, I like big sizes and untreated gems... like 5ct+ but my biggest addiction is Peridot. Some includes my 7.3ct & 6.7ct cushion Burmese Peridot (forest green) and a whopping 28.8ct red chrome garnet.

 

[Indylady]

28 cts?

Are there any pictures around?

 

[Arcadian]

I like a little of everything. Thats part of the problem! I love green stones and peridot in particular. The largest size I have is 6cts though.

As far as the purple, I do like purple tourmalines. They're unusual in the tourmaline family which is quite cool. And of course, there's also amethyst. I tend to like ammy from unusual places. I have a 3ct JXR ammy. I want a bigger one some day.

My favorite colors are green and purple, so not a big suprise that I tend to get green or greenish stones. Amazingly, I don't own an emerald...yet. I've only seen one emerald that made me in person, and that was my grandmothers.

And then there's the really freakish crazy colored stuff I like. I can't help it, I was born that way...lol


-A

 

[lavatea]

Apparently I mostly like garnets and tourmalines. In theory it's not that way, but in practice I'm drawn to those the most...

I'd like to branch out to spinels and sapphires, too, but we'll see.

 

[blithesome71]

28 cts?

Are there any pictures around?

Indylady, I owe u some pics so here it is My apology for the pic quality as this was taken using my mobile phone... My 28ct Red Chrome Garnet and my 2 burmese peridots (I just looooove its fresh & dark green color. Reminds me of a diopside/tsav)

 

[T L]

Blithsome, nice peridots. Do you know how to use macro mode so we can get clearer images.

 

[blithesome71]

Thanks TL. Unfortunately my camera phones sucks. My digicam's having a glitch so I'm stuck w/ my celphone for now... These peridots have high checkerboard crown w/ step/scissor cut pavillion (& as most of my gems, it's native cut ) I love its rich & classic green color that's why I immediately fell in love w/ it. I learned my lesson before, I'll never have these recut hehe

 

[Indylady]

Wow--very nice! Those will definitely make a statement. I hate to theadjack, but do you have any setting ideas for them?

 

[Arcadian]

blithesome71 Thank you for NOT recutting these. You'd have a mutiny on your hands if you did that again!

-A

 

[chrono]

Wow, those are SOME peridots and I'm not talking about the size!

 

[blithesome71]

Wow--very nice! Those will definitely make a statement. I hate to theadjack, but do you have any setting ideas for them?

Thanks IndyLady For the garnet, hmmm I've no plans yet of setting it. Seriously it's pretty heavy be it a ring or a pendant hehe. I just want to touch it and stare at it every once in a while... For the peridot, I'm considering this similar bezel style but in argentium silver: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-red-zircon-is-set.113234/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-red-zircon-is-set.113234/[/URL] (one of my most favorite pieces here in PS )

blithesome71 Thank you for NOT recutting these. You'd have a mutiny on your hands if you did that again!

-A

hehe you're welcome A I learned my mistake. Now I know that I prefer color over brilliance when it comes to peridot

Wow, those are SOME peridots and I'm not talking about the size!

Thanks Chrono but I still envy most of your lovely stones