"padparadscha" spinels?

[velouriaL]

Anyone ever seen a spinel the orange-pink color of a padparadscha sapphire? I''ve seen a couple online lately and I''m curious.

 

[rubydick]

I''ve never seen one. The spinels I''ve seen with a real pink-orange color always turn out to be pink with orange stains in the cracks. Not really the same thing as what you get in a sapphire.

 

[velouriaL]

Thanks for the reply. I was just reading Spinel Compounds: Background & Historical Perspective! Great article so far-- I'm not done yet.

What do you mean by "orange stains in the cracks"? (I'm still learning!)

 

[rubydick]

Lana,

The orange stains are generally naturally occuring iron oxide, although cases of dyed stones are also known.

You might also be interested in this article, which has a spinel buying guide at the bottom:

Two Large Spinel Rubies

 

[velouriaL]

Thanks for the link! I really enjoyed reading that.

So can stones be cut to look nice (even if not padparadscha-like), or are they just blotchy?

 

[spinel]

Hello Rubydick,

In case of padparadscha sapphire, does the rough have to have a matured ripening papaya colour? Possibility of other colours? Thank you, spinel.

The photo is from ruby-sapphire.com

 

[mogok]

Hi,

I agree with Richard, this is exactly what is happening in the following stone:

Spinel that are sometimes called by some people in the trade "padparadsha" are in fact hot pink, but with the stone dispersion and the way the stone is cut you can see a lot of "orange flashes" in the stone. You can see that on the following photo (representing 3 spinels from Namya, Burma)

Depending of the light used and the way you orientate the gem you will see more or less of these "orange flashes".

Some other spinels are more orange and red... "Flame" as they are sometimes called.

In fact we have to remember that terms like "padparadsha" does not have a very precise definitions and depending if somebody is buying or selling a stone, he might or moght not use the term... These topics remind me all the time the answer that was given by my Burmese gemology teacher about stone that are border line between ruby and pink sapphire: "You have to buy the stone as "pink Sapphire" and sell it as "ruby"..."

All the best,

 

[widget]

Hi, all...This is my first post...I just discovered this site. What a great colored gemstone forum!

Here''s my contribution: .92cttw spinel pair, said to be sort of padparadscha color. Pretty sad next to Mogok''s yummies!

Well, my picture didn''t upload. Oh, well.

Hello, anyway!

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[velouriaL]

Hi Widget!

Yeah, isn''t pricescope great?

I REALLY wanna see your pad-looking spinels!

 

[valeria101]

 

[widget]

Yep, there they are....

Thanks, Valeria!

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[widget]

Here's one more attempt to upload a picture...home grown photo of the spinels posted by Valeria:

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(edited to add AAAACH!!!

(Kat..I'm going to check out your suggestion

)

 

[imperial Jewels]

Hi there,

I have seen quite a few are beautiful orange-pinks from both Tanzania and Burma with very good orangish-pink flourescence that is remarkably similar to Padparadscha. Many of them include a milkiness that create a simlar " soft glowing" effect to silk in Burmese that disperses the light to close an any extinction gaps too. Here are a few examples:

 

[widget]

Here's the picture of my spinel pair that I failed to post before... In real liife they most resemble Tunduru's pear shaped stone above:

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[velouriaL]

Those are really nice! Do you they look as good in real life?

 

[widget]

Hi, Velourial...

They look a little better in real life than my picture, but not as spectacular as they look in the seller''s pic above...

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[spinel]

I showed this stone to Pala staff and was told it is a "padparadscha" spinel.
5.15 ct custom cut.

 

[BWise]

Sorry to post to this old topic, but thought it would be better to carry on with it sine the interest here is similar.

I''ve been fascinated by the look of spinels and bought a few small ones recently. One of them is a padparadscha color. It may have a little too much orange tone, but the pink is still there. Cut is not so good with a window, but just for the fun of color...

 

[BWise]

Next to a pink, and a red spinel. The pink is a nice pure pink, the orange flash on it is only because it was taken in daylight at 6:30pm when the sun was setting.

 

[BWise]

A lone shot of the red spinel to be fair. It is a very pretty stone that the pictures did not do justice.