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Loves2Laugh

Loves2Laugh

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
214
I''m looking for a little help. I''ve always lurked over here and admired all the beautiful pieces and now I''m looking to start a project of my own. My son''s birthstone is a Garnet and I''ve seen some that I LOVE! I''m amazed at all the different colors they come in and just how pretty they are. I''m not sure where to start looking for a stone. I''ve been to a few vendors sites but wanted to see if you all had suggestions as to where to start. I do want a RB stone, 1.5-2 ct, so I can easily find a setting for it. I love some of the orange/red colors and even some of the red/purple-pinkish ones too. I just really want a nice clean stone that will really pop all on it''s own. Thanks for any input you can offer. I''m really excited!! I haven''t had a project like this since looking for my ER and WB.
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Dana at Mastercut gems has a nice red/orange one right now.

Dan stair may have some rough that he can use to cut you a stone, his style is very sparkly.

Barry Bridgestock also has alot of rough in his safe. His style uses chunkier facets.

I just love my garnet
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HTH!!
 
From what you are describing I would contact Barry. I have bought a garnet suite off of him and I love the cut of them.
 
Date: 5/3/2010 9:26:56 PM
Author: Stone Hunter
Dana at Mastercut gems has a nice red/orange one right now.

Dan stair may have some rough that he can use to cut you a stone, his style is very sparkly.

Barry Bridgestock also has alot of rough in his safe. His style uses chunkier facets.

I just love my garnet
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HTH!!
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Barry has some beautiful RB garnets right now, I have a pair of RB amethysts from him and they''re beautiful.

http://www.acstones.com/productcart/pc/viewCat_h.asp?idCategory=57

Ditto to Dana, Eric from Swala has beautiful tsavorites, and I think Rick from Art Cut Gems has a few RB garnets available right now.
 
I love Barry''s cutting! He is also incredibly sweet.

Other than that, Dan Stair, and Mastercutgems both have garnets available, and Peter Torraca as well. Peter has a nice red garnet that got a funky tri-point type cut that reminds me of a precision rosecut.

Oddeyseygem and Gemburionline on Ebay are also great if you''ve got a tight budget.
 
Thanks so much for all the help! Now the fun part is going to be checking all these stones out!

Stone- Your Garnet is georgous!
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It looks like a fireball! Do you have it in a setting now? I bet you get a ton of compliments. So pretty!
 
I thritto/quatro Barry! I absolutely love my new Barry garnet and can't wait to set it :)
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And this is my other Barry garnet, which I also adore to death!

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Making- Your stones are awesome! The colors are so pretty. What kind of setting do you have in mind for your stone?
 
I''m putting it in a simple setting from logr.
 
just showing garnet in the orange color-just to give u a look c as a good example of color-hope this helps a little....

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I like the way Barry of www.acstones.com cuts his round gemstones. Looking through his inventory and even emailing him if you don’t see anything you like is a good start. Sometimes, a cutter has rough available he can cut for you that is unlisted.
 
m76- Thank you for the example!

Some of the orange colored Garnets I''ve seen seem to either have the really fire-burst of color like Stone''s, which I adore, and then I''m seeing some that have more of a dull brownish orange. Is it simply just lighting or a better cut? How do I know from pictures that I''m seeing and how would I describe to Barry or any of the other cutters exactly what I''m looking for to make sure that the first type is what I''d end up with. Sorry to sound so naive...
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The fire-burst of orange in garnets is predominantly from the colour of the rough itself. The material has to have good colour to begin with, while precision cutting brings that flash and sparkle to life. When shopping for coloured stones, many people prefer the stronger fiery colours over the dull brownish/grayish variety and pricing follows accordingly as well. Lighting or a good cut can help a lesser stone look better, but not by a lot. Good colour needs to be there for cutters to work their magic. If you have a particular shade of orange or style of cut you like, save pictures of those and send them to Barry or whoever else you are dealing with. As they say, pictures mean a thousand words.

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Date: 5/4/2010 5:48:01 AM
Author: Loves2Laugh
Thanks so much for all the help! Now the fun part is going to be checking all these stones out!

Stone- Your Garnet is georgous!
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It looks like a fireball! Do you have it in a setting now? I bet you get a ton of compliments. So pretty!
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THANKS. People do stare at it and once they've seen it a few times they ask about it.

It was cut by Barry Bridgestock so if you like the facet pattern on mine, chunky then you like Barry's round stones. See now narrowing things down isn't all that hard.
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ETA: Color is the hard part. Take a look on PS at all the lovely garnets and then pick your favorite shade. Many vendor's photos are a bit lighter than what you see IRL -- check out the "Vendor pictures and owner pictures of PS stones" thread on this one. It's near the top of the colored stones forum. Barry's photos are VERY VERY close to what you see IRL.
 
Love2Laugh - if you want to see some phenomenal examples of Spess Garnets have a look at Tourmaline Lovers. They are sunburst orange with no hint of brown. Of course, they are also the most sought after colour and so if you find one, buy it quick and don''t even think twice about the price because somebody else will jump in if you don''t!!!!

I hope TL doesn''t mind, but here are hers (and this is NOT the best photo of them):-

TLorangegems.JPG


Another one to use as a reference point is Chrono''s gorgeous Loliondo - again I hope she doesn''t mind me posting hers:
JWspesscushionA.JPG
 
Thank you LD for the kind words on my spessartites. For the record, the one with the finest color out of the three is the pear. The big trillion is a bit on the yellow side, but in fluorescent lighting and in indirect sun, it can go more orange. The one on the left is more of a reddish orange, but some people might prefer that to the trade preference of pure orange, more like the pear. The one thing I can attest to is that none of these stones have much brown in them, and when orange is desaturated, it becomes brown.
 
This is probably my favorite photo of my spessartite pear, and it looks like this in indirect sun. The spot in the middle is just a surface blemish, and you can see a wispy veil in the upper left hand corner. It looks eye clean to me though. I love Chrono''s Loliondo too, it looks like the sun exploding!!!

TLfantaspessshot.JPG
 
LD,
I am honoured that you think very highly of my spessartite to post it here. You’ve also chosen my favourite picture too.

TL,
Your favourite picture of the pear is no slouch; you are damaging my retinas.
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TL- Your stones are amazing! Chrono- I''ll have to dig through and see if I can find one of yours. Your avator is stunning! I hope to have something half as amazing as all of these beautiful stones. I''m still sifting through the sites recommended and I have a few e-mails out waiting responses. I really appreciate all of your help! I knew when the day came that I finally would have my own project to start, the experts here would come through.
 
L2L,
Thank you for the kind words.

I bought my pear around 8 years ago if I remember correctly. It's really difficult to find that color, especially in sizes above two or three carats. They're just not mining them anymore, and all the ones called "mandarin" or "fanta" on ebay and many lapidary websites tend to be yellowish and/or brownish and/or very included. You have to be very careful when shopping around since orange spessartite garnets tend to be heavily photoshopped and look ten times more orange in most vendor's photos than IRL. You will know it's a good color if you hold it next to a bottle of Fanta orange soda, and it's the same color. They don't call these Fanta garnets for nothing.

For a more affordable garnet, since you like red/purple, try rhodolite, but again, fine ones are rare. This is an example of what I would call a fine rhodolite. You rarely see it so saturated. Most rhodolite is too red, brownish, or extinct.

Good luck!
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Date: 5/4/2010 2:40:11 PM
Author: Chrono
LD,

I am honoured that you think very highly of my spessartite to post it here. You’ve also chosen my favourite picture too.


TL,

Your favourite picture of the pear is no slouch; you are damaging my retinas.
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Thanks Chrono,
I love that photo, it was taken in my car in the evening as the sun was going down. The glow was amazing. It''s one of my favorite gems.
 
If you are open to the purples/pinks Barry has had some very nice Tanga garnets.
 
I tried to reply last night and for some reason I can''t reply on my home PC. I have a couple of stones I wanted to get some of your .02 on. I''m at work this am and can''t post the links. I''ll try again once I get home. I''m really torn about whether to go the orange or purple route. It''s so hard without seeing them in front of me.
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cision! I''m so excited... what do you guys think?

I found it at Daniel Stair at Custom Gemstones and Cindi apparently just cut it:

STONE: Spessartite Garnet
WEIGHT: 1.69 Cts.
CUT: Modified Round Brilliant
DIMENSIONS: 6.74 mm
ORIGIN: Nigeria
COLOR: Brighter Medium Orange
CLARITY: Very Good (Slight Inclusions, Generally Eye Clean)
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And... I really liked this setting at Adwar. I wish I could afford to do a diamond halo like LOGR offers, but that''ll have to wait for now.

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Dan''s spessartites tend to be more brownish and darker than the photos, so I''m keeping my fingers crossed for you that it isn''t. I think it''s more of a burnt orange color, and not a fanta or mandarin, but you might like it darker.
 
TL- Thank you for the head''s up. In my e-mail to Dan I expressed that I wanted NO brown hints so we shall see. I even stated that I''d rather it be a reddish-orange then have any brown tone. I do need to still ask what the return policy is just in case. These stones are really hard to find. I even called my local guy today and he could find nothing in the area. What a learning process this is and thanks again to everyone for helping me out.
 
Date: 5/5/2010 8:35:40 PM
Author: Loves2Laugh
TL- Thank you for the head's up. In my e-mail to Dan I expressed that I wanted NO brown hints so we shall see. I even stated that I'd rather it be a reddish-orange then have any brown tone. I do need to still ask what the return policy is just in case. These stones are really hard to find. I even called my local guy today and he could find nothing in the area. What a learning process this is and thanks again to everyone for helping me out.
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Last I heard, Dan has a good return policy, so if you don't like it, you can always send it back. Check AJSgems.com. They have a nice supply of these gems, and they also have a nice return policy. You do have to spend a little more to get a decent color. Here's a pretty Nigerian stone as an example.

http://www.ajsgems.com/garnet/spessartite-garnet/mandarin-garnet-spessartite-2.18-carats.html

This one is even more saturated, just to give you an idea.

http://www.ajsgems.com/garnet/spessartite-garnet/mandarin-garnet-spessartite-3.02-carats.html

As a gage for comparison, I suspect your stone from Dan will be more like this color, but you might like that.

http://www.ajsgems.com/garnet/spessartite-garnet/mandarin-garnet-spessartite-4.75-carats.html
 
WOW- Those stones are gorgous!
 
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