Show me your lovely, dark, and deep gems

[oncrutchesrightnow]

Not a CS expert but figured this was the right forum to start a thread for people who love deep and dark colored gems. IMHO some of the most beautiful gems are ones that are dark but still have brilliance and fire.


I have a few deep and dark gems already plus a few on the way. Here is a fun one:



Deep yellowish orange FCD. Under sunlight or spotlight, it is an amazing Fanta. Under other lights, it ranges from pumpkin to amber.

Someone else’s turn!

 

[Autumn in New England]

You have the best FCDs! That is the perfect honey color. Here are my black and gray spinels, which I hope to set in a toi et moi eventually.

 

[glitterata]

Back when gray spinels cost like $30 apiece 15 or 20 years ago, I got a couple to put in an old empty platinum fishtail toi-et-moi setting. They're moody and shifty, purpler in artificial light, and very sparkly.

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

I have a few darker spinels. The purple one has the best red and pink flashes and looks like the night sky indoors but I lack the skill to pick them up and have it be in focus.
Also, fingerprints. I'm hopeless.

 

[Autumn in New England]

Back when gray spinels cost like $30 apiece 15 or 20 years ago, I got a couple to put in an old empty platinum fishtail toi-et-moi setting. They're moody and shifty, purpler in artificial light, and very sparkly.

I LOVE that you have two different shades here!! A monochromatic dream, I tell ya...

 

[Autumn in New England]

I have a few darker spinels. The purple one has the best red and pink flashes and looks like the night sky indoors but I lack the skill to pick them up and have it be in focus.
Also, fingerprints. I'm hopeless.

Please tell me more about the first spinel! I've never seen one with such a saturated, pure purple. I thought it was a grape garnet!

 

[Garnet Gimlet]

Back when gray spinels cost like $30 apiece 15 or 20 years ago, I got a couple to put in an old empty platinum fishtail toi-et-moi setting. They're moody and shifty, purpler in artificial light, and very sparkly.

I don't think I have seen grey stones ever look as good as they do in this ring! It is so compelling to look at !

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

@Autumn in New England It was an Ebay win, I think I paid maybe 10-25$ total for it a long time ago. An experiment to see how I liked super dark stones. I can't remember the exact weight(3cts?) but it's 8.5 mm and I want to say maybe 7mm deep or so. It looks like an even deep almost black purple tone/mid purple flashes in sun, but get it inside and it gives the addition of red/pink flashes.
It's the only stone I have that I personally think actually looks better under artificial lighting.

I'm looking to see if I have any sun shots, if I do, I'll post one.

 

[Autumn in New England]

@Autumn in New England It was an Ebay win, I think I paid maybe 10-25$ total for it a long time ago. An experiment to see how I liked super dark stones. I can't remember the exact weight(3cts?) but it's 8.5 mm and I want to say maybe 7mm deep or so. It looks like an even deep almost black purple tone/mid purple flashes in sun, but get it inside and it gives the addition of red/pink flashes.
It's the only stone I have that I personally think actually looks better under artificial lighting.

I'm looking to see if I have any sun shots, if I do, I'll post one.

 

[LilAlex]

Is the thread title an out-of-season Robert Frost reference?

 

[toomuchB]

My brand new ~2ct green zoisite is my darkest gem. It looks like a bluish green tsavorite. Its not very photogenic but here are two new videos that show it in natural lighting.

https://imgur.com/a/iWA5I1i

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

Dark Tsav

 

[glitterata]

Is the thread title an out-of-season Robert Frost reference?

I thought that too.

 

[Matata]

Dark Tsav. Put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Discovered it when I bought another one and just yesterday I bought my third. One of these days I'll decide how to set them.

 

[Matata]

Fire Agate. Was supposed to be a pendant but is still gathering dust in a drawer waiting to be set.

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

You have the best FCDs! That is the perfect honey color. Here are my black and gray spinels, which I hope to set in a toi et moi eventually.

Aw thanks!

Is the thread title an out-of-season Robert Frost reference?

Yes!

Back when gray spinels cost like $30 apiece 15 or 20 years ago, I got a couple to put in an old empty platinum fishtail toi-et-moi setting. They're moody and shifty, purpler in artificial light, and very sparkly.

I love dark spinels. Will post my grey, too.

Dark Tsav. Put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Discovered it when I bought another one and just yesterday I bought my third. One of these days I'll decide how to set them.

It’s so hard to find dark bluish green or true deep forest green. Yours is lovely!

Ok, here is my dark grey spinel. It is hard to photograph because the camera sees a giant window. But my eye does not see it.

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

Is the thread title an out-of-season Robert Frost reference?

I didn't even clock that, I don't care, it counts!

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

I didn't even clock that, I don't care, it counts!

Does anyone else feel like they used to read poems more?

Here’s my dark violet grey diamond. Unset, it looks grey about 75% of the time and violet the rest. Initially it was set with a white diamond halo but the diamond almost always looked grey. Now it is set next to amethysts and they really bring out the violet.

 

[LilAlex]

Does anyone else feel like they used to read poems more?

I actually read some Robert Frost this morning (on my phone, alas) -- because of this thread and because my grade-school exposure failed to capture his evolving range (evidently). And, full disclosure, I had to Google who wrote "lovely, dark, and deep" before making the Frost reference above; some synapse fired but the signal didn't propagate very far.

 

[Autumn in New England]

Does anyone else feel like they used to read poems more?

Here’s my dark violet grey diamond. Unset, it looks grey about 75% of the time and violet the rest. Initially it was set with a white diamond halo but the diamond almost always looked grey. Now it is set next to amethysts and they really bring out the violet.

I feel like I just read less in general... I used to be a voracious reader when I didn't have as many responsibilities. Booooooo!

P.S. This is breathtaking!

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

Does anyone else feel like they used to read poems more?

Yes and yes!

Here's my Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
*A million years ago (before cell phones/dial up times for you younglings) I worked a summer job for a few years (test grading while in school) with some older writers who used to go to his writer's retreats. I vaguely remember they told of what a curmudgeonly ahole Frost could be and how they loved him for it.

@Autumn in New England
Huzzah! I finally found a full sun shot and catching the white sparkle under the umbrella. It's a cool stone. You can see the modifier in the body but you won't get the color flashes.

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

Yes and yes!

Here's my Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
*A million years ago (before cell phones/dial up times for you younglings) I worked a summer job for a few years (test grading while in school) with some older writers who used to go to his writer's retreats. I vaguely remember they told of what a curmudgeonly ahole Frost could be and how they loved him for it.

@Autumn in New England
Huzzah! I finally found a full sun shot and catching the white sparkle under the umbrella. It's a cool stone. You can see the modifier in the body but you won't get the color flashes.

Wow I loooove that color!

Here is another dark violet grey diamond. Unlike the oval, this one looks violet all the time.



I ended up resetting it in my dream 5-stone ring, Coming in at a whopping 0.33 ctw, it has 2 grey-violets, 1 grey blue, and 2 violet greys. They all ended up looking violet when set together, even though when they were not set, I could tell the difference between the grey blue and the others. There is quite the price difference between these tiny diamonds for their slight color variances.



[The deep blue stone is a LGD.]

Here it is with 3 bands: deep teal moissanite, amethyst and dark sapphire band, some kind of plastic pink stone band, and then the 5-stone on the bottom.