more questions...

[Arkteia]

I wonder if anyone knows a good source of calibrated bright-orange spessartites? Namibians could be fine, but the one I saw on Thegemtrader's December website (sold) came from Nigeria and appeared very bright-orange. I am looking for either very saturated yellow-orange, or, better, red (not brown) orange. I plan to mount them in a halo around a very saturated stone, so they have to be saturated as well. A pair of small (4-5 mm) orange spessartines could work as well. Clarity is not an issue.

 

[chrono]

If you are looking for something very saturated, you are more likely to find a pair of matched spessartites for sidestones rather than an entire parcel of small matching melees. It is difficult to find small melees with good saturation because the light path is so short.

 

[Treenbean]

I have never purchased from them but I know others have and they like the results.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-24CT-Lovely-P...emstones_1&hash=item43a422e576#ht_1976wt_1060

 

[VapidLapid]

http://www.multicolour.com/detail/?/details/calibrated/spessartite/yse264aa/&1244716636

 

[Arkteia]

Yes, I was browsing multicolour website; I just do not know if the lot you have marked is orange or brownish-orange. I never bought from them.

What do you fellows think of these ones? Imagine that they are not meant for sidestones. Would you buy them in general?

http://www.multicolour.com/detail/?/details/pair/spessartite/yse257ai/&780618695

 

[chrono]

For that price, I might buy them for fun earring stones since the cutting will allow for a lot of sparkle even though the stones are yellow.

 

[Arkteia]

Well, I guess I have to post the stone + all spessartites I have in stock and let you fellows advise me what to do with the project.

 

[alene]

Bob Kast had a pair recently but it's been sold. May be contact him to see if he has more?
http://diamondbistro.com/category/239/Garnet/listings/17989/Bob-Kast-*On-Hold*-155ctw-Spessartite-Pair.html

 

[Arkteia]

OK since I am lazy I am posting a link to my previous thread - a small sapphire cut by Gary Brown.

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/sapphires.149439/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/sapphires.149439/[/URL]

My pics are bad, and the light is wrong, but trust me, it has gorgeous, velvety, saturated color, on the darker side but it doesn't "leak" in the evening. And since I like dark-blue sapphires, to me it is "just what the doctor has prescribed".

I wanted to make a yellow-orange halo. In hindsight, I think that a saturated yellow-orange may be even better than orange since the stone is on the darker side and I do not want a darker orange + a darker sapphire.

It is small, only 2 + cts, so to halo it would optically look better than to mount with two stones on the sides, but if I do not find calibrated spessartites, two stones are still an option.

The best choice would be Lloliondos, and the best Lloliondo I have (color-wise) is the one I bought from Weblorn, but it is oval, and it is a single stone. I pulled out all my spessies, there is a pair of nice Lloliondos, but they are oval, too.

I spoke to my jeweler, and he said that a halo would require at least 20 stones; the largest lot at Multicolour has only 11.

Gemfix has nicely cut yellow-orange pairs, maybe a little bit out of the budget for the project but then the whole idea is out of the budget.

Any other ideas/recommendations? I am really sold on this project, and I want spessartites. Yellow calibrated sapphires are usually not so saturated, unless they are Be-treated.