I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garnet)

[deorwine]

A retired jeweler was having a sale, so of course I wanted to go see it. I thought he was mainly going to have tools, which I was pretty excited about, but as it was I never even got to the tools because I got stuck at the many gem boxes of faceted gems... He had a good eye, and there was some really nice (though small) stuff. Unfortunately, being a jeweler, he also had a good idea what everything cost retail, and so was asking a little more than I thought was reasonable to pay for most of the stuff I thought was nice. (Though I am still wondering if I should have gone for one of the spinels he had -- small but very tasty, and overpriced for the well-priced vendors here but underpriced for a retail vendor.)

Anyway. Then I saw a very slightly purplish-bluish, mostly grey, stone in the middle with all the garnets. "Is that... a color change garnet?" I asked. He said yes. I asked the price, which didn't seem like it would break my bank for a half carat stone. So... I bought it. Sight unseen! I had no idea what it looked like except that in full daylight on a cloudy day it looked bluish-grey. No return policy! This is just about THE stupidest thing I've ever done in my experiences with gemstones, and that's saying something! I didn't look at it in different lights or anything, and this is a COLOR change stone. All I knew was that it had a slight blue tinge, and I've always wanted a blue garnet, so.

...And I'm so happy with it. It's a pretty slightly-reddish purple in incandescent, I found out that evening.

 

[deorwine]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

And then the sun came out a couple of days later and it turned out to be a gorgeous GREEN color in the shade of a sunny day! I loooove this stone!

(Note that I HAVE manipulated the photo to give the hue I actually see -- it came out of the camera still looking purple. I suspect this partially is because the color change isn't total, it just looks that way to my eyes... on the other hand, I didn't do anything funky with just the stone -- I mooshed the hue of the entire pic around, so I suspect some of it is my camera too, because the colors in the pic don't look all that weird to me.)

 

[deorwine]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

This is the closest I can get to the greyish hue it looks in most diffuse lighting conditions, and it's still not very accurate. My camera insists on seeing it as purple even when I see grey, grey, grey. I even manipulated by desaturating a lot and I still can't get it to look right.

Actually, the grey incarnation of my stone looks a LOT more like the left-hand pic in zeolite's picture in this thread:https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/color-change-garnet.94317/ although my garnet isn't as nicely cut as his nor does it have such a beautiful pink tone in incandescent.

 

[deorwine]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

And one last one... a bonus!... this is what I see when I shine my husband's white-LED flashlight on it. BLUE. The pic is exactly what I see. I'm just in love. Too bad no one actually uses LED lights around here for anything but flashlights. Maybe I can come up with some reason why I have to carry around a flashlight all the time

 

[Arkteia]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

Congratulations! What a beautiful, beautiful stone! Both daylight and incandescent colors are wonderful!

 

[sphenequeen]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

That is so pretty! I have a weakness for CC stones.

 

[LD]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

May I make a suggestion? If this is a blue garnet then you need to be sure because there are many many many very good simulants/synthetics on the market with this colour change. I got caught out about 6 years ago buying an Alexandrite with this colour change that turned out to be synthetic. I had a "feeling" it wasn't right so I got a lab to check it out thoroughly because simply testing for RI and SG wasn't enough and the naughty little stone was showing all the characteristics of being natural! Soooooo, get your little one checked out because if it is a genuine natural stone it will be good to know and perhaps you may want to set it differently! I would suggest sending to a lab rather than an appraiser though just to be sure. If it has any inclusions though it may be possible to determine locally without a lab report!

Fingers crossed because it's very pretty and I'm a sucker for cc stones!

 

[jstarfireb]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

That's so cool! I'm also a sucker for color change stones.

 

[Arkteia]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

I sent my cc garnet that I bought from Gary to AGL just because the color change was so improbable. They confirmed it was not synthetic. It looks very much like yours, so I hope yours is real, but I'd agree with LD. I see them growing in price, even from the time I bought it they have become more expensive, so a certificate is always a plus.

 

[pregcurious]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

That's a great change in color!

 

[deorwine]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

Thanks!

I don't find the color change truly improbable -- I do have a synthetic alexandrite to compare against and the synthetic is rather more saturated with a better color change, a brighter green, and in mixed lighting has flashes of both colors instead of the very grey color this one gives me. The blue pic, I think, is more a reflection on the LED lighting (which I think has a much stronger blue component than most lighting situations) than on the actual stone. (I should test it with my other stones...)

But you are right, I should definitely get it tested, especially given the circumstances of buying... watch this space for another topic: "I did something dumb... and it didn't turn out so great either."

 

[marcy]

Re: I did something dumb... and it turned out great (CC Garn

Wow what a great find and beautiful cc garnet. It is very pretty and cool all at the same time.