Introduction and pics of my new Mali Garnet

[whitehotblank]

Hello! I am new to this forum, mostly new to gemstones (I've always loved the coloured sparklies, but it's only recently I've started to learn more about them) and somewhat new to pearls and pearl-obsession. I'm a female graduate student in Montreal Canada and I spend too much money on shiny things. In my past life, I was a magpie. My dream stone would be a colour saturated Padparascha or a Paraiba tourmaline. Or a big, clean, firey demantoid. Oh dear, I could go on.

Here is the Mali garnet I just purchased from Finewatergems. It is 1.10 carat, 6.3x6.3x4.2, S1. Not only do I sometimes not mind inclusions, in certain stones sometimes I *like* the way they look. I have a bit of a thing for natural, very included diamonds, too. Anyway, the pale but striking colour of this gem pushed me over the edge into purchasing, and now I need to think of some way to set it/use it. Here it is (pics are from Finewatergems):

 

[Gailey]

Hi there Whitehotblank - interesting name.

Welcome to Pricescope, may your stay be long. But I warn you, coloured stones are addictive, and as for pearls, well, lets just say you'll be completely lost!

You've picked a very pretty first stone, but you need to give us a bit more information about the piece of jewellery you would like, ring, pendant, navel stud etc. A budget would also be useful.

 

[Arkteia]

I agree, the piece is very pretty - this is exactly the cut that good designers would use these days. It would be interesting to know what your budget is.

 

[whitehotblank]

I am assuming you mean my budget re: a piece to set this stone in? Heh, this was an impulse buy and all I know right now is I want it in a ring, as the main and possibly only stone. If I could find 2 small coloured side stones (I'm sorry, I'm probably getting all kinds of terminology wrong here) that worked well with the colour of the garnet, that would make me happy. I would say a maximum budget for a piece featuring this sparkler is $2500.

Ideas?

And thanks for replying!

 

[iLander]

Hi WHB!

Welcome to the forum. $2500 budget is quite substantial, so you'll get plenty of ideas.

If you want to learn about pearls come on over to the PS Pearls forum, and ask questions, read posts, even start a thread (we call them strands over there ). We are very friendly, and kind of bored over there.

Beautiful stone, BTW!

 

[chrono]

Welcome to the CS section of PS. I am looking forward to seeing your pictures of the mali garnet as I cannot make out any details from Gary’s pictures. I think the exposure is too bright and all I see are just blurry white sections to the point where I can barely make out the facets. Your budget of $2500 is very healthy and should even net you a platinum setting if that’s the route you are going down.

 

[whitehotblank]

Due to Pearl Paradise and its evil hold over me, the budget for this ring has now dropped to around $1400. Ha ha. But yes, I'm serious.

At this stage I am mostly thinking about what 2 small stones to put with this, or even a pave. I found some teeny pale pink natural diamonds on eBay that, if the seller checks out, I may get for this purpose. I like colourful things.

Thank you for your help. I will try to take photos when it arrives but I'm not sure my camera is up to photographing small, detailed things like this. I might start a thread in a different section for camera advice, actually, I really should get a better one, but all my spare $ goes on sparklies.

 

[whitehotblank]

I've had an idea. A design something like this (including the pearl, but one from my own collection):



Any thoughs on pearl colours that would match well with this? Cool pink/blue tones? I am ordering 4 loose 11mm metallic freshwaters from PP, in the silver/pink/lavendar tone (am waiting on photos from PP, will post them when they e-mail me) and 2 in the deep peach/orange. I like the idea of an intense golden SS with these stones, as well.

Thoughts? Should I take this to the pearl thread?

 

[iLander]

Yes, please bring it to us over in pearls!

We are bored over there . . .

 

[chrono]

I think it might be better to have this moved to the Pearls section because the rules are strict about pearls not being discussed or shown outside of that section.

 

[whitehotblank]

Cool, will bring it to the other section!