Umbalite Garnet in new home

[LD]

I bought this Umbalite from Gene about a year ago and loved it immediately. It has so many different personalities and changes amazingly in different lighting conditions. I see flashes of red, pink, purple. grape and even blue!

So, this is her in her new setting. The setting is white sapphires (a departure for me as I normally use diamonds but this was lying around so ......) and I'm surprised by how much I like them. The setting had to be changed slightly to accommodate the stone but I love it.

 

[LD]

A few more to show you her different personalities:

 

[cellentani]

Utterly fantastic! I love seeing the many nuances of your garnet, and the setting looks like it was custom made for it. And frankly, sapphires, with their lower RI, will play more of a supporting role instead of out-blinging the center stone. Nicely done!

 

[minousbijoux]

LD, it is absolutely gorgeous. I like her chameleon tendencies especially the fact that every color she turns is a pure, saturated color. I love the fact that you *happened* to have that setting lying around! It is really beautiful. I probably should know this from reading other threads, but do you work with one jeweler whom you trust?

 

[packrat]

She looks wonderful in her new sapphire home!

 

[Largosmom]

Gorgeous! I love the setting and the stone is stunning.

 

[Aoife]

Gorgeous! I love the grape colour so much that I'd be tempted to stand around in the sun all the time if that were my ring. Thanks for posting the photos.

 

[JewelFreak]

I'll join the chorus -- what a beauty she is! Great in the sapphires. I'd walk around staring at my hand all day long in every kind of light!

--- Laurie

 

[T L]

That's one of my all time favorite red family garnets that Gene, or anyone actually, ever cut. It is absolutely gorgeous in the new setting. Between all your new threads today, I am sitting in a giant pool of drooooool!!

I remember you bought that stone from him a long time ago, and it's really a one of a kind and one of the best rhodolite family garnets I have ever seen.

 

[baby nurse]

OH wow! Fantastic stone! As everyone else said, it looks amazing in that setting. What are the stats on the stone?

 

[luv2sparkle]

ok, I LOVE it!!! Who is Gene, and where can I get a stone like that?

 

[T L]

BTW,
When you go to Gene's Garnet page, I believe that's the same garnet he has up to designate the "Red Garnets." You know it's really a special stone if Gene still uses it to represent the red garnets page. You can see his vendor photo. I believe It's the one all the way to the left, and I swear you bought that stone at least two years ago. Has it only been a year?

 

[PrecisionGem]

This is kind of along the lines of this thread... I was in SAM's Club the other day, and they had a bunch or rings with the halo look that were white sapphires. The setting looked very nice, and had center stones that were either a lab created ruby, or lab created sapphire. The rings were only $150 to $175. I thought they would make a nice setting taking the lab stone out, and a substitute for buying these LOGR rings. Workman ship looked good and the white sapphires were very bright. I almost bought one, they looked very similar to the setting in this thread.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

That's beautiful - amazing color!

 

[Fly Girl]

Great photos of a stunning stone!! Looks wonderful in the new setting. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of wearing that pretty.

And, I have to agree with TL. After seeing Babyblue's Umbalite from Gene, I purchased one myself. I love it when mine does the grape look. I first saw it during a meeting in a conference room at work, and it was most distracting.

 

[chictomato]

Pretty stone+pretty setting=PRETTY RING

 

[oddoneout]

Beautiful. The colour change is really interesting.

 

[chrono]

Oh, that stone HAS to be special if Gene used it as a front page header leading in to his inventory. Love the cut AND the colour, plus even the colour change on both are great! Now you’ve got me looking around for umbalites too.

 

[T L]

Oh, that stone HAS to be special if Gene used it as a front page header leading in to his inventory. Love the cut AND the colour, plus even the colour change on both are great! Now you’ve got me looking around for umbalites too.

Good luck Chrono,
Finding an umbalite or rhodolite like that is like finding a needle in a haystack. I know because I've been looking too!

 

[virgoruby]

It's sooooo beautiful!
I kind of noticed that energy saving lights are not very flattering on (my) red garnets, but I bet yours would look gorgeous even in the worst lighting conditions...

 

[Kismet]

Ooh, that umbalite is to die for!

 

[Arkteia]

I must admit I never saw an umbalite IRL and have very vague idea of what it is but it looks gorgeous!

 

[T L]

An umbalite is just a marketing name derived from the umba valley in Tanzania origin where these pinkish purple rhodolites are found.

 

[LD]

High praise - thank you TL.

Actually I agree with you in that I've never seen a Rhodolite Garnet that is quite so beautiful. I do believe that the cutting really does show this beautiful gem to it's finest potential. I have always thought that this was the one that Gene used on his Garnet page but wasn't 100% sure. It was for sale for quite some time before I bought it and I could never understand why it hadn't been snapped up before. I really can't remember how long ago I bought it but it may have been nearer to 2 years ago. I was originally going to have an antique ring copied (that my Grandmother had given me) to fit this stone but it involved having claws like leaves that folded over the top of the stone and I was worried it would mask the cutting. I'm glad I didn't in restrospect because setting it has darkened it slightly.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but the Rhodolites from the Umba region are prized for their colour? I'm pretty sure that's right but hey ho I seem to retain tons of useless information and the bits I want to recall escape me!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Gorgeous new ring! I really want to get a garnet from Gene one of these days but they just get scooped up so darn fast!!

 

[platinumrock]

Very pretty LD!! Now you got me thinking about grape soda. Mmmmm....

I guess someone's been busy!! Beautiful collection!!

 

[Arkteia]

OK it reminded me an old nursery rhyme and I tried to make mine:

This is the house LD built
This is the stone that lies in the house LD built
This is THE Gene that cut the rough and made the stone that lies in the house LD built
This is the LOGR embracing the stone that came from the rough cut by THE Gene to make the stone that lies in the house LD built
These are PS-ers admiring the LOGR embracing the stone that came from the rough cut by THE Gene to make the stone that lies in the house LD built

I ran out of ideas... there is spinel and other stones... whoever has imagination can continue

 

[cellentani]

This is kind of along the lines of this thread... I was in SAM's Club the other day, and they had a bunch or rings with the halo look that were white sapphires. The setting looked very nice, and had center stones that were either a lab created ruby, or lab created sapphire. The rings were only $150 to $175. I thought they would make a nice setting taking the lab stone out, and a substitute for buying these LOGR rings. Workman ship looked good and the white sapphires were very bright. I almost bought one, they looked very similar to the setting in this thread.

I had to rub my eyes and read this twice - Gene, you almost bought a halo??!! I know people have bought jewelry from Sam's Club and Costco before; I really need to get there and check it out!

 

[PrecisionGem]

Yes, but the word was ALMSOT. I bought a new iPhone 4 instead.

Actually I thought the setting was rather nice, a bit more delicate than most of the LORG's I see posted here. The idea of not having diamonds in it was appealing to me too.

 

[LD]

Just want to clarify. This setting is not an LOGR.