Med-dark pear withOUT a dark tip?

[DecoDaze]

Hello all, I could use your collective wisdom. I have in my possession a green tourmaline pear, and I'd like your thoughts on it. I only have a couple of photos from inside, but while I like the color, the tip seems to be always off. Actually, it's more than the tip that's dark, almost half/half a lot of the time. If I want a darker color pear, is this inevitable? Or do some darker toned pears not exhibit this phenomenon? Is it possible that I'm seeing the dark tip consistently just because the lighting in my house sucks? The vendor's hand shots are perhaps a more accurate representation of the color, since they were taken in diffuse sunlight, and they show the opposite, with a darker round end (taken in daylight). What's up with that?

More generally, if you have comments on the color of this stone, I'd love to hear them! My photos look more yellow than I think the stone actually is from seeing it in the late afternoon overcast light today--lots of yellow in my indoor light.

Finally, can anyone give me an idea of a price range for this color? It's not quite 4 carats. Assume no cuprian or chrome (stone has not been tested).

Thank you, colored stone lovers.

Mine, inside at night:





Vendor's, diffuse daylight:

 

[crescentgems]

Hi DecoDaze,

Not all pear cuts have darker side. Its because its a tourmaline that the stone has a darker side.

Tourmaline's have two colors , one on the C axis ( normally darker ) and another color on the Y axis ( Lighter ). Normally the tourmaline crystal is long and the common type of cut we use is Rectangular step cut , on the shorter side we make the angle steep so that the black color from the C axis does not show.

When you cut a pear the Longer Side has shallower angles and the black from the C axis will be visible. thats why you see more black on your pear shaped tourmaline.

I hope I made myself clear,

Ahmed shareek

 

[DecoDaze]

Thanks for your response--I think I understand. This particular piece has an open c-axis, though, so if you mean that it's dark because of a closed c, that's not it. Or can it still darken like that with an open c?

 

[minousbijoux]

Deco: unfortunately, you have hit upon the downside of pears and other elongated shapes - that unless their pavilions are cut in a certain, precision way (very few are), the majority exhibit the bowtie and or half shadowing phenomenon. In other words, it comes with the territory of those cuts, and darker in tone, more saturated colors tend to exacerbate the effect. The color looks lovely, but I agree - you are losing so much of the stone to extinction that it makes it questionable whether to keep it.

Oh, and of course, Happy New Year!

 

[chrono]

You can see the "half-ness" even in the vendor's hand shots, if you look carefully. In this case, it is the function of the cut.

 

[lambskin]

I never knew about the dark side of tourmalines. I learn everyday! Thanks PS!

 

[DecoDaze]

Thanks so much, minou and Chrono. It's such a bummer! I love the color, I love the shape, I love the size. I keep looking at it and *willing* the dark parts to light up. I suppose that, by itself, means it should go back. I can get the whole thing to light up, but only when it's at a particular angle under particular lighting conditions--not the way I'll be looking at it in a ring. I knew that pears were prone to this, but I thought that a bit of color concentration on the tip wouldn't bother me. I still don't think it would, but this is, to my eyes, and apparently to the eyes of those more experienced than I, pretty significant extinction. Boo! Oh well, just gotta keep trying, I suppose.

ETA: Happy New Year to you, too, minou! And to all PSers.

 

[arabella]

Sorry it didn't work out for you DecoDaze I love pears, but don't own any because I just can't stand the half-half thing or the darker tips. I would have sent it back too if I were in your shoes. It's a shame because it is such a pretty color and a great size!!

 

[Michael_E]

I love pears, but don't own any because I just can't stand the half-half thing or the darker tips.

The best answer for many pears is to, "Clip the Tip"! Have someone cut or re-cut a pear for you in which the sharpest part of the tip is gone, POOF, no longer there. If you make these with one smaller end and one larger end you have much more leeway in the design and can make the stone look much better from all angles. The attached picture is of a few stones that I did for an Australian jeweler last year. He supplied the stones, all garnets, and chose which designs to use, except for the center stone, which I modified from a barion pear shape. As you can see, the pear no longer shows the half and half thing, and has fairly even reflectivity from both ends, (notice the half and half deal going on in the stone on the right in this image).

A BIG plus, from my perspective as a jeweler, is that a rounded small end is MUCH more durable when the stone is used in a ring. If you've got a cutter and they'd like a GemCad copy of this to look over, just have them e-mail me and I'll send it along to them.

 

[arabella]

It seems like I learn something new all the time here. Thanks Michael_E! That's great info and something I can keep in mind next time I come across a pear shaped stone I fall in love with. [emoji4]