What color stone should I pick????

[Stone Hunter]

I wear alot of neon green and orange and khaki and turquoise blues.

I am attracted to Peridot but decided it''s too soft for me. I wanted it to "go with" a pair of Amyth. and Peridot Earrings I have. But mostly I want to "try out" a local jeweler by having him set a stone for me. I''m thinking of future projects here!!

Right now I only want to buy 1 RB stone and set it in a swirled solitaire setting. BUT I have found 3 stones I like all with good hardness. One is an Orange Spess Garnet, one a Violet/Blue Spinel, and one Green Tourmaline.

The Spess and Spinel are my top two choices. Any suggestions?

 

[twodoor2]

The spess and the spinel are a lot more durable than the tourmaline, but color is everything in colored stones. Most green tourmalines have a lot of extinction and look black, same thing with some spessartites (unless it''s a neon mandarin which can be costly), and spinel is a very pretty and extrememly durable stone for the money, but many have a grey mask that I don''t care for, again, unless you want to spend the dollars. I guess it''s a matter of what you like and what your budget will allow.

 

[Stone Hunter]

THANKS.

I've been off researching Spinels. The online photos look good, but so does the Spess.

ETA: I really don't know whethor the prices I'm looking at are average or high...I'm checking many different sites to get an idea of this. I want a nice stone but not over the top $$$

 

[twodoor2]

It depends on your budget. You can get some awesome mandarin garnets (a type of spess with orange neon color) for a decent price in the 2 carat and below range. Once you start going past two carats, and then three and five, they''re much more expensive. Regular spessartites that are not in the mandarin subfamily, are a lot less money, but very reddish brown to me. Spinels come in all kinds of colors, so there''s a lot of options.

 

[Stone Hunter]

Date: 6/18/2007 9:13:59 PM
Author: twodoor2
It depends on your budget. You can get some awesome mandarin garnets (a type of spess with orange neon color) for a decent price in the 2 carat and below range. Once you start going past two carats, and then three and five, they''re much more expensive. Regular spessartites that are not in the mandarin subfamily, are a lot less money, but very reddish brown to me. Spinels come in all kinds of colors, so there''s a lot of options.

THANKS

I''ve seen some spinels for 20 or 30 dollars but they look very bad to me. I''m thinking 200 or 300 dollars is more what I''d like for color and clarity to be where I want it in a 1.5 to 2ct spinel.

Does that sound right? I know that a Richard Homer cut can be much more but I''m not ready for that yet. Just pleasing color clarity and a very good cut. Part of spinel''s appeal is the many color options and the hardness. But I like that orange the some spess have.