Chrono's Tsavorite, my Merelani, and so on...

[ChrisA222]

I was going to respond to Chronos pic of her Tsavorite in the Tsavorite setting-thread, but I didnt want to thread-jack so here is a new thread...


Chrono, is that what a Tsavorite is supposed to look like? LOL. Ya know, I was all set with my Chrome Tourmalines...now, I am definately going to have to (eventually) own a Tsavorite. And I have some very nice Chrome T's. I can't wait to post the newest one, but its still with the vendor being paid off, LOL. I went a little above my normal budget with the latest one....

But wow, I love that color Chrono. I also like the OP's stone, but the two almost look nothing alike. My Chrome T's look very similar to the OP's Tsavorite...

I just got my first Merelani Mint, and I think its a pretty good example (I don't know much about them other than what I've read) and I'm struggling to really appreciate it considering the prices, value, and 'hype' they are getting in the market. My stone has very nice glow, has a slight blue component and slight yellow depending on the lighting, but I dont see much of the yellow or it would have been returned. I hate yellowish green. It has nice sparkle in lower lighting, but does not have great sparkle in bright lighting. It caused me to wonder if its either not a great stone, or if they are all like that, or if its the cut and I am inclined to go with it is a product of the cut.

It is going to be recut by Dan Stair (just the pavillion) and then I will post pics. I tried to take a couple snapshots, but my new camera is worse than my old one with color representation. Ugh. Actually, on second thought, I will post the best pic my camera could come up with. It has excellent glow, and I like the color...its just the brilliance/sparkle in brighter lighting that is discouraging. Lower lighting its perfectly fine....

 

[ChrisA222]

Here's the vendor pic, which is much more accurate for color..as I said, the color is good...(I think)

 

[chrono]

Hey Chris,
Like all gemstones, there is going to be variations in colouration so some tsavorites could be darker or lighter, greener or yellower or bluer and etc. I'm personally not a fan of the highly trade desired medium dark toned tsavorite, with a strong preference for something medium toned. This way, when lighting is very low, my stone will look like a medium dark and when it is light, my garnet will sparkle like crazy while still showing a strong green. It's definitely not light enough to be mistaken for a mint garnet.

Your mint gossular garnet is sweet! It looks precision cut so why does it need a touch up?

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Hey Chris,
Like all gemstones, there is going to be variations in colouration so some tsavorites could be darker or lighter, greener or yellower or bluer and etc. I'm personally not a fan of the highly trade desired medium dark toned tsavorite, with a strong preference for something medium toned. This way, when lighting is very low, my stone will look like a medium dark and when it is light, my garnet will sparkle like crazy while still showing a strong green. It's definitely not light enough to be mistaken for a mint garnet.

Your mint gossular garnet is sweet! It looks precision cut so why does it need a touch up?

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Roger Dery]

Chris,
Pardon me for stepping into the dialog, but I'm not sure recutting the pavilion is going to improve the stone in the way you want. If I owned that stone, knowing how truly rare the Merelani Mint's are now, I would leave it alone.

 

[ChrisA222]

Thanks for the input, guys! Please, I love comments....as this is not a gem that I am really knowlegable about as far as light performance and such.

It is not precision-cut. It was native cut in Sri Lanka, and it is not a bad cut at all! It is hard for me to explain how the pavillion is cut. When I get home, I will take some pics and maybe you all can help me make the call. I will admit to being a precision-cutting freak, as I personally think that if all it takes is a little more money to make a gem look its absolute best, I am going to do it. There have been many stones I have bought that looked nice, but when the Pavillion was reworked, were much improved.

It would only be the Pavillion which I'd have worked on, so face-up size would remain the same, and I do not think much weight would be lost....

Im just after better sparkle and light performance. It HAS sparkle when I went home and dimmed the lights in the kitchen...but these were sparkles I did not see all day in my office with overhead flourescents. Now I am second-guessing myself about Sunlight...lol. I will have to look at it tomorrow in the Sun, as I didn't bring it to work today. (don't scold me Gene, if you are reading this!)

Please guys...please chime in again once I post pics of the pavillion....and then if you still think I should not bother with the recut, I will listen

I want to say the Pavillion is made up of a lot of very teeny tiny facets, my guess as to why I am not seeing the nice brilliant sparkle.

Here are some pics for now. The brown stone is what Im thinking is how the pavillion is cut on the Mint. Just lots of facets, not the nice even larger facets of a brilliant cut round or oval.

Make sense?

 

[minousbijoux]

Chris - as you know, ultimately, this will be your call. I think what people are trying to say is that the stone already looks very good in the one vendor pic. If it was the case that it didn't look that good, then maybe by recutting, even if you lost weight, you might increase the value of the stone. But in this case, be prepared for potentially a wash, or maybe a decrease in value, since there already is a premium for good specimens (and yours surely is), which is based on weight.

I have a fetish for certain stones. Mint merelanis are one of them (I will never have enough) and I watch them whereever I can. They really are sold in a fairly tight price band per carat (with a huge premium for super large specimens like that gorgeous honker Roger has). I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I just wanted to reiterate it so that you made the decision on what you want, and not based on what you think will bring the greatest value...

 

[chrono]

The style of cutting the garnet has right now is almost like a Portuguese cut with lots of extra facets. If anything else, these multiple small facets is to maximize sparkle. Seriously, I doubt you will see much improvement. My tsavorite has the same facet pattern in the pavilion as yours. The picture I took earlier today (and posted in the other thread) was taken in my office under the dreaded fluorescent lights or CFLs. I don't have any windows to the outside.