Gray stones

[Rube]

I have been admiring (i.e. thinking constantly about...) the gray spinel glitterata posted a little while back. I LOVE that stone. And if it really looks even better than the photo??

My favorite color is actually gray (yeah, yeah, I know... it''s true) and I would love to have something like that made into a ring or pendant or earrings, or whatever. I have asked my husband to keep gray in mind if he wants to buy me any more jewelry.

I thought I might as well do some research for him. What other stones are gray? And I haven''t seen too many of these gray spinels- are they hard to find? I imagine like other colored stones, they must be seen in person to get the full effect.

Does anyone else here own a gray spinal, or something like it?

Thanks!
Rube

 

[valeria101]

Sapphires and diamonds also come in gray.

Gray spinel is actually common and dirt cheap (for all the bad reasons, I agree with you). It may be a td harder to find a large one (thing around 5cts or more) but otherwise there is no shortage. There might be some shortage of cutters and sellers willing to spend time, effort and money on a stone that is not much in demand (for all the bad reasons, again).

Gray might not be flamboyant, but it is among my favorite 'wearable' shades and I would surely like some jewelry to match. If gray pearls are all the rage...

Try Gemcal and Cresla for some and there are a couple of new steel-blue (that's close I think) at Multicolour. And then there is plenty on Ebay called 'blue' or something else only gray not

This one comes with an interesting presentation (movie clip): LINK

And what I was actually looking for was... This Shop I do not know anything about them other than their persistence of selling batch after batch of nicely cut gray spinels! That is some unusual speciality, at least among local jewelers I feel it woud be.

Just a thought

Gray sapphire... to be honest I do not know of any online right now. It looks close to spinel like any sapphire does and I would expect a blueish tint. Light grayish blue is more likely (there might be one still on cherrypick's list - sold a while ago). It is relatively inexpensive among sapphires.

Diamodnsbylauren lusts a couple of gray diamonds right now (a marquise and an emerald cut).

 

[bstraszheim]

Hi Rube,

I have shopped at www.gemsuite.com and bought spinels from them, they were wonderful to deal with, prompt with shipping and gladly accepted returns. I would do business with them again in a heartbeat. Spinel is a wonderful stone with a surprising amount of fire. They have these two is stock. One is almost 5 ct, the other is 3.28ct.

Hope that helps.

I wish you well,

Bridget

 

[bstraszheim]

The other grey spinel.

 

[Rube]

Thank you valeria and bstraszheim! I don''t think I could have received a better clump of information. (That diamondsbylauren ring is INCREDIBLE!

)

I will check all the sites, and post the pictures if I ever decide on one! (or two...)

Thank you again,
Rube

 

[glitterata]

Hi, Rube. I don''t have anything very useful to add, just gray''s my favorite color too, Ana''s a fantastic resource, those links bstraszheim posted are amazing, and whatever you get, post pictures!

Do you think we''ll start a trend?

 

[Cave Keeper]

Date: 8/25/2005 10:29:53 AM
Author: valeria101
Sapphires and diamonds also come in gray.
:
Gray sapphire... to be honest I do not know of any online right now. It looks close to spinel like any sapphire does and I would expect a blueish tint. Light grayish blue is more likely (there might be one still on cherrypick''s list - sold a while ago). It is relatively inexpensive among sapphires.
:

There are blue sapphaires which are sometimes described as blue-gray. I hate receiving them. When they are held under a good spotlight, you can see into the thin layer of sapphire which covers the virtually colorless rock which probably produces the chatoyancy effect. Since the sapphire layer looks so thin, you probably just need to scrape it off to get a nice grey stone that is preferable to the original ugly star sapphire. The original star sapphire prices are quite low, to start with, but I think it''s even cheaper to use cement/concrete (better, still, scrape it off a bare garden wall) to produce a grey-looking blob.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 8/27/2005 10:19:23 PM
Author: Cave Keeper

When they are held under a good spotlight, you can see into the thin layer of sapphire which covers the virtually colorless rock which probably produces the chatoyancy effect.

Could these be star sapphire on which the star effect is induced by treatment ? But then it is the outer layer than produces the star effect, not the base material (which can be natural, for what that matters). These are strong stars and nearly opaque... at least those I have seen.

If the descriptio doe snot matcg, I would be quite interested to know more about the strange stuff.

In the previous post I was actualy thinking about faceted gray sapphire... which do not seem to be comon (maybe because these get treated and no one cares to facet gray material in the first place). But you are surely right to say that stars are more often found gray - because they do not get high temperature treatment and more than the illusive just-right quantity of silk also makes the stone grayish. But they are still nice, especially if relatively transparent. At least to me... Feel free to post an example if you happen to find some

 

[Cave Keeper]

Date: 8/27/2005 10:31:18 PM
Author: valeria101

Date: 8/27/2005 10:19:23 PM

Author: Cave Keeper

When they are held under a good spotlight, you can see into the thin layer of sapphire which covers the virtually colorless rock which probably produces the chatoyancy effect.

Could these be star sapphire on which the star effect is induced by treatment ? But then it is the outer layer than produces the star effect, not the base material (which can be natural, for what that matters). These are strong stars and nearly opaque... at least those I have seen.

If the descriptio doe snot matcg, I would be quite interested to know more about the strange stuff.

In the previous post I was actualy thinking about faceted gray sapphire... which do not seem to be comon (maybe because these get treated and no one cares to facet gray material in the first place). But you are surely right to say that stars are more often found gray - because they do not get high temperature treatment and more than the illusive just-right quantity of silk also makes the stone grayish. But they are still nice, especially if relatively transparent. At least to me... Feel free to post an example if you happen to find some

Oops! Sorry, Val101, a thousand apologies for stirring up your honey pot. It''s actually a Star Ruby that I should be referring to.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 8/28/2005 9:53:56 AM
Author: Cave Keeper

Oops! Sorry, Val101, a thousand apologies for stirring up your honey pot. It's actually a Star Ruby that I should be referring to.

Oh no! I didn't mean to 'hunt down' your posts and you surely have not stirred anything. It must have been my bad day... Please consider this post as an attempt of public apology.

For some reason your post made me think that some new kind of colored coating on star sapphire (or ruby for that matter). may be out there. And treatments make interesting stories