Small stones we love

[NKOTB]

PS is often a place of DSS and CSSS. Let's give a shout out to smaller stones we love!

Here are my four faves. Mahenge spinel, mint garnet, ruby, colourless spinel.

 

[OTL]

How small are we talking about?

 

[NKOTB]

Good question, I guess it's all relative! The biggest of mine above is around 5.5 X 6.5. The colourless is under a carat and 6 mm. I just realized I forgot one! Off to take a pic...

 

[NKOTB]

Here's a little mahenge from Gene. It's 5.4 mm, if I recall correctly. I wear this as an alternate ring when I'm seeing clients and the diamond feels ostentatious.

 

[userangl28212003]

Most of my stones in my rings are small, but I consider my almost 1ct 6mm orangey-pink spinel and my new 1.35ct 6.3mm chrysberyl to be big for me so I will show you the rings/stone I have and have kept that are under a 1ct. In order

heated only montana blue sapphire 4x4mm .36ct
Heated only burmese ruby 4.9x4.9mm .59ct
Untreated cabochon emerald 5x5mm
untreaded cognact diamond 4x4mm .25ct

 

[NKOTB]

Lovely, userang!

 

[deskjockey]

My happy little 4mm demantoid




the 5mm grey spinel that went to my adorable SIL:





And this probably isn't a great picture, but a tiny little topaz I picked up from Jerry Newman. It's a neat golden yellow in person, and apparently came from a large and promising piece of rough that he had to keep whittling down due to internal imperfections until it was, in his words "fish gravel" LOL. I don't even remember the measurements, but I like it a lot and will eventually find something to do with it

 

[OTL]

I do have really small gems...

 

[OTL]

I meant to attach the photo, but hit submit instead..
I'm not finished yet

Now these 2.75mm each mahenge spinels, had them for years, yet still looking for setting ideas.

Well the 1ct canary yellow tourmaline is my favorite small stone. I'd say one of my favorite of all stones. It is just a glowing torch!

 

[lovedogs]

OTL that yellow tourmaline is just....there are no words! It jumps out from the pic and must have an incredible glow in real life!

 

[OTL]

OTL that yellow tourmaline is just....there are no words! It jumps out from the pic and must have an incredible glow in real life!

It is indeed incredible in person. Everytime I look at it, I'm amazed by nature's beauty.

 

[lilmosun]

userangl - I think you win the award for setting little stones so they have a large presence
deskockey-that demantoid is
NKOTB and OTL - with all of your large beauties, do you have plans to set your smaller ones?

These three are the sub-carats that I probably reach for the most:
.77 ct (5.4 mm) unheated ceylon sapphire
.88 ct (6.07mm) red burmese spinel
.95 ct (6.1 mm) tourmaline cut by barry (thanks nkotb for bpth starting the thread and the stone. I loved the color so much that I bought a larger one and then sold it after deciding this one was just perfect for me)




I love collecting small rare stones. I have a backlog that I want to set but here are the first ones (quarter carat give or take each)
greenish paraiba, luc yen cobalt spinel (probably my most prized stone despite being a baby..its amazing irl), diamond and red beryl.

This was supposed to be my temporary sampe mahenge spinel (.55 ct, 5mm) and despite having larger ones, I still love the look of it stacked with this .50 ct sapphire that I bought from the same PSer...so never could give it up as I wear the combo a lot. Funny thing about the mahenge -- Yvonne sourced it from Prima and sold it to the PSer who sold it to me. When Jenna from Prima saw it on me at a gem show, she offered to buy it

 

[userangl28212003]

lllmosun_- Thank you my here is some pics of my emerald in its setting and my current cogac diamond is being set as we speak in the setting below

 

[Sungura]

Thanks NKOTB for starting this fun thread. Many times we can find small stones that pack so much color. I have a lot of small stones. I have some small ones that cost $10 or $25 and have excellent color. Here are my favorites of the bunch



In the group shot from left to right (you should be able to match the stones to the names well enough)(all unheated and untreated) Persian demantoid, a pair of green brazilian paraiba, russian demantoid (1 of a pair) grosular garnet in yellow, winza ruby cushion, willemite from NJ (my state) eye shaped orange sapphire, luc yen cobalt spinel, blue ceylon sapphire, winza ruby round, brazilian bahia apatite, kornerupine, neon mahenge spinel, pinkish natural topaz, vayrynenite, green kornerupine. In the rest of the collage there are some better single shots plus a pic of some really pretty imperial garnet melee (i have 12)shown with a pinkish Aussie zircon and the pink topaz from the group shot and some unheated ruby 2.5mm melee (i have 12)

I'll comment on all of your beauties in a separate posting

edited to correct spelling

 

[Sungura]

NKOTB I am fascinated by your near colorless spinel and I love your mahenge three stone ring. I am thinking of setting my 5.2mm winza from Gene that way. If you get a chance would you please post a profile shot?

userang (sorry for not typing all the numbers in your name) I have always loved your blue sapphire in the Diamond Zone setting. I love how they modified it and there is milgrain all around the sapphire. Also love that emerald cab in the halo! Looking forward to seeing the cognac diamond set

deskjockey I don't think i have ever seen that demantoid. It has a lot of presence for a 4mm gem

OTL I love your demantoid too. Good demantoids demand attention, even in small sizes. And like the others I love that canary yellow tourmaline WOW. Do you know the origin of the yellow tourmaline. I have heard that there are some spectacular ones from Malawi

lilmosun I've always considered you the queen of smaller, highly saturated gems. I have been thinking of that sapphire with the double halo as an inspiration for my 4mm one. I don't think I have seen the Barry tourmaline. Beautiful. Your stackers are an inspiration as well. Although my little guys would make great stud earrings I want to see them so I am always looking for unusual stacker ideas

theredspinel I'm so glad you bought those grass green kornerupines. I was with Yvonne when she bought them. They pack a lot of color and super rare. Those hayunites look great next to your black opal!

Thanks again for this thread NKOTB

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Such lovely gems posted. All of them dripping with color.

I present to you Kathatrath's lovely (and for sale) 6mm neon purple garnet. I have so much love for this stone and if my finger size was 4.5 instead of 6 this would be mine.

 

[NKOTB]

Some great stones being posted, thank you all for sharing!

Lilmosun, yes, I plan to set these at some point. I realized today that the dim light-of-my-computer-screen shots aren't the greatest, but alas... I'd like to set the Mahenge in the same way I saw a ring at the Tiffany store in NYC - pretty simple halo, but with some yellow gold - the ring at Tiffany (VERY similar spinel, in colour and size) was 13,500 three years ago! The ruby might go in a setting listed in TGP's Etsy store, and the mint, maybe double halo? I don't want to overpower it, though. Can't decide what to do with the colourless...

Sungura, I'll take a profile shot tomorrow. I bought the setting preloved and the diamond sides were my first pair of studs. And starting this thread was my absolute pleasure!

 

[NKOTB]

Such lovely gems posted. All of them dripping with color.

I present to you Kathatrath's lovely (and for sale) 6mm neon purple garnet. I have so much love for this stone and if my finger size was 4.5 instead of 6 this would be mine.

You could totally rock this with a size 6 finger, as I feel has been demonstrated above. Perhaps some coloured melee around it? In Yvonne or Julia B style?

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Such lovely gems posted. All of them dripping with color.

I present to you Kathatrath's lovely (and for sale) 6mm neon purple garnet. I have so much love for this stone and if my finger size was 4.5 instead of 6 this would be mine.

You could totally rock this with a size 6 finger, as I feel has been demonstrated above. Perhaps some coloured melee around it? In Yvonne or Julia B style?

It's a gorgeous stone and I want to rock it. Really I do. But I think the best thing we as colored stone enthusiasts need to realize is what we truly want. For example I just bought a rose/red neon Burma spinel that is just shy of 2 carats. My first thought was "lovely, wish it was bigger." I think the longer we collect, the more particular we become. The neon purple garnet is perfect for someone, almost perfect for me if it was bigger due to my chubby fingers.

 

[lilmosun]

I know my size 8, wish they were size 6 , fingers were meant for bigger stones but I'm afraid of wearing anything really large that is too expensive. Admittedly, part of me is afraid if I start buying larger stones, I won't be happy with my little ones. I seldom venture into the other forums because I know that its dangerous territory.

NKOTB -- I assumed since they were yours, the stones would be gorgeous IRL. I just snap pictures on my cell and always horrified at how bad they look when I come here to post from my desktop...and I've completely given up trying to get a decent picture of my mahenges It's nice to see that owners of some the most incredible large stones, such as yourself and OTL, have small ones you love. Please post updates once set!

Sungura - Thank you but I think you beat me in the small colored stone department...did you get your cobalt spinel in Springfield too?

 

[theredspinel]

Thank you sungura. I do love the hayunite with the black opal too. How fortunate you are to have personally been with yvonne at that time, I still have to wait another month to receive the kornerupines (they are coming with some other stuff from yvonne), and obviously I've never seen kornerupines before; I'm so excited! Anything else you can tell me about them to keep me going until I receive them lol, I'd be grateful!

 

[SparkliesLuver]

Excellent thread! I must admit my attitude toward small(er) stones has drastically changed over the past few years and I have PS to thank for that. I have three I can add to the thread!

 

[deskjockey]

deskjockey I don't think i have ever seen that demantoid. It has a lot of presence for a 4mm gem

Thanks! I love it I can't imagine what a real, ideal chrome-green one in a bigger size must look like in person.. maybe someday! But pop this little one in the right light and it is a guaranteed smile maker!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Two .25 carat Spessies for a ring project. I love these petite beauties.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Such lovely gems posted. All of them dripping with color.

I present to you Kathatrath's lovely (and for sale) 6mm neon purple garnet. I have so much love for this stone and if my finger size was 4.5 instead of 6 this would be mine.

You could totally rock this with a size 6 finger, as I feel has been demonstrated above. Perhaps some coloured melee around it? In Yvonne or Julia B style?

Oh My goodness when I went back to this thread and read my reply to you I think it may have come across as rude. My apologies. You were trying to be helpful and your suggestion was a very good one.

 

[chrono]

Small but very much loved; 2 spinels and a sapphire.

 

[theredspinel]

Some more thoughts on small stones from me.. I don't always want to make loads of rings so that's probably another reason I'm not too hung up on a stone being a minimum size. I really don't do dainty pendents or earrings so I could happily use smaller gemstones as part of a group in either a pendant or earrings.

For rings, I would ideally like stones a certain size (because I don't really do dainty rings either) and as I'm finding out now; doing things like haloes are expensive! So I can't even imagine a double halo...Hence for specific ring stones I'd try to stick to a minimum size from now on. Thankfully I have a lot of pendants and earrings to do before I want to think about another ring so... I'm safe for now.

 

[katharath]

Hey gang, thanks for the kind words!!


It's funny because I opened this thread shortly after NKOTB started it - I wrote one of my trademark super long, overly detailed posts, added a bunch of pics, commented on everyone's stones who had already posted - then I went to post my comment...and bam, there was an error and I lost the whole thing (and I'd written it on my phone, which really made it worse, lol). SO after that I was too mad to write it all out again. I didn't check back again until just now! Anyway, I appreciate the nice posts directed at me earlier on, thanks ladies.

My previous post was mainly just saying that I love small gems, and most of my gems are small - and I love SO MANY of the beautiful gems in this thread. Here are a few of mine. They've all been posted before, but I wanted to join in.

Pic 1 - untreated emerald ring from Yvonne, 2.5-5 mm range; 6 mm Vietnamese lavender blue spinel; and a ring with two 4 mm color change blue/green to purple garnets. This was one of my very first Yvonne rings and you can see it's very simply made. I never wear that ring anymore but those cc garnets are still the nicest I've seen (they photograph looking purplish blue but it's like trying to photograph Alexandrite, that's not what they look like in daylight at all, they're a lovely tealish color. One day I'll reset them).

Pic 2 - Yvonne camellia ring with center stone 5.3 mm mahenge and I'm crazy about that gem!!!

Pic 3 - untreated sapphires (sourced by Yvonne) and mahenge spinels (sourced and set by Yvonne), each pair about 5 mm - I looove these little studs!

Pic 4 - a suite of Barry cut spinels that I love but still haven't set - @5 mm, 6 mm, 5 mm

 

[katharath]

Desk jockey - love your demantoid, I think I've complimented it before, I remember it!!

Sungura - you know I love your collection, so many lovely stones!!

NKOTB - great thread idea and of course I covet your collection too, lol..,I believe I've said that a time or two

Userangl - that emerald cab is super cute!!

LisaRN - Yvonne used to have a gorgeous 7.5 mm round purple garnet for sale, you might check in with her...it was GORGEOUS!!

Chrono - as always you have excellent taste, your blue gems are stunning.

 

[userangl28212003]

My 4mm .25ct cognac diamond set