attn Chrono

[Tropicmaster]

You replied to my red spinel post that it had too much extinction for you. Please educate me a little on what you see. As I understand it extinction is a place in the stone that reflects or returns limited or no light. I assume the extinction you see in this stone is in the black areas? How can you differentiate between that and the black or dark areas seen in high quality stones? I have seen spessartite garnets with the same areas on photo and knowledgeable people on here are falling all over themselves to get the stone. Is it in the pattern of where the dark areas are located at? Please tell me what you see in that photo. I am very newbie and wish to learn. Here is the stone again so that you dont have to go back and look for it. TIA

 

[chrono]

No, there is no particular pattern to extinction in a stone. Spinels, especially red spinels, are notorious for having a lot of extinction. You are correct that it is the dark areas where the light isn''t reflected back to the eye. Spessartite have higher RI and many show less extinction. For me, even 30% extinction is a lot. But, that''s just me. Most high quality stones do not have large areas of extinction, the colour is even and bright, sometimes intense. This one appears a little muddy as well, but then as you already know, one cannot judge solely on a picture alone. For example, the stone in your avatar is bright and intense. Yes, there is some darkness but it is well spread out, limited, and actually highlights the stone by showing good contrast. I''m probably not making much sense in trying to explain this.

My apologies as I am a novice myself.

 

[Fly Girl]

Here is my red spinel. First the vendor''s photo. Definitely a few dark areas, but lots of bright areas, too.

 

[Fly Girl]

Now here is how it looked under my lighting.

 

[Fly Girl]

And another shot. See all the dark areas in the stone? Compare to the one you are looking at, and you can figure yours would be pretty dark in person, since they generally try to flatter the stone as much as they can in the vendor''s photos.