source for vietnamese ruby?

[elmo]

No LawGem I'm not being politically correct

(Myanmar trade ban), I'm just being cheap

, or at least relatively so, since I can't see spending the $$$ right now that it would take to acquire a fine Burmese stone. Anyway, my jeweler's primary color source doesn't work with Vietnamese material at all, so I wanted to see if the folks here are aware of anyone who specializes in this and has a good inventory of nicer stones that I could direct my jeweler to. This would need to be someone here in the states, not Asia.

I've seen photos of nice stones from Luc Yen and Quy Chau with saturated red color that appear to have slightly pinkish undertones...a "happy" color; as well as cheaper goods that I'd probably think of more as pink sapphire than ruby. Somewhere across that range I'd like to see if there's a quality/price point that I could be satisfied with.

 

[valeria101]

Maybe ajsgems.com ? They have some nicer African rubies, but I have seen vietnamese things (rubies and very nice, deep, pink sapphires) there too. I know they answer questions fast...

Hope this helps!

 

[elmo]

Ajsgems won't work since they're in Asia, appear to sell retail, and don't seem to carry Vietnamese stones. I'd like to get my jeweler in touch with a US-based gem wholesaler who deals with these goods...if a dealer doesn't want to share the name of their source with me, I could arrange to put them directly in touch with my jeweler.




I realize that Fedex brings the world to your doorstep

, but between paying duty, working out trust with someone overseas, the cost of escrow for returning a multi-thousand dollar item, etc.; the logistics of working with someone in Asia are a little bit tough. This is not the same thing as plunking down $49 for the multicolour special of the day

.

 

[elmo]

Just saw this "Master Set GRS for Rubies" up on the GRS website, a range "from pinkish red to pigeon's blood"...didn't realize that a lab would use a ruby master set for determining a color grade

. Shows that even without the pigeon's blood there still might be a perfectly lovely stone to be had.

 

[innerkitten]

I've never even seen a ruby that red, it seems like they are all sort of on the pinkish or pinkish red side.

 

[elmo]

I've uploaded a representation of "color space" for spectral red from Paint Shop Pro. Saturation increases from left to right; tone increases from top to bottom. The gemologists should correct me, but I think this color set represents pure red for different tones from light to medium-dark (moving along the right side of the image below); therefore pink without a purple modifier is simply a lighter-toned red. It is one reason for wanting to find Vietnamese ruby, as opposed to darker-toned Thai orAfrican material.