Gem Scoop!

[LemonMoonLex]

Yes. I'm waffling. It was around $750. I can't get excited over it in direct sunlight, but it's beautiful in artificial lighting. I'm curious to compare it to real alexandrite from Yvonne. Garnets just don't do well in sunlight no matter what, unless they're top color orange or green,and a lighter color. I wonder what other garnet lovers make of it. @TheGarnetGirl what do you think?

Sorry Im so late! I've been away from home and wanted to wait to snap a few photos; So before I was a lurker on PS and became much more knowledgeable about gemstones I had just learned about Bekily blue garnets and found a small seller online, a family who had a connection to a mine and were selling the gemstones already set in rings direct.

Of course in photos they only showed the two most beautiful colors, which like yours is that yummy greenish-blue teal and a purple-y-pink. When I received it while I loved those two colors and all of the shades in between its always flashed this hot mess of a hodgepodge of dark grey with flashes of blue, purple, and red.

I personally dont regret purchasing this ring because I got it for half of what theyre selling it for now ($450 in solid 14k RG with a .55ct color change Bekily garnet that doesnt have a bad cut either) but sadly I cannot say that I wear it often. To me it's only worth it as a collectors gem and as others have mentioned if you have a rich night life this would be the ring.

So $750 for double the size isnt bad and its a pretty cut and shape but unless youre just dying to own a color change garnet and are fine reserving it as more of a late dinner ring, Id pass.

I always say, If youre not immediately in love and sure then it should not come home with you.

Although to play devil's advocate, if $750 doesn't put a dent into other projects itd be neat to design a "night life" ring.

I know that wasnt clear at all but that's a pretty clear representation of what goes on inside my head.

Lilac pink color that I adore that shimmers so lovely! Im too lazy to take a photo of the teal plus its the same exact shade as yours.


Ugly dark grey mess

 

[Hivona]

Sorry Im so late! I've been away from home and wanted to wait to snap a few photos; So before I was a lurker on PS and became much more knowledgeable about gemstones I had just learned about Bekily blue garnets and found a small seller online, a family who had a connection to a mine and were selling the gemstones already set in rings direct.

Of course in photos they only showed the two most beautiful colors, which like yours is that yummy greenish-blue teal and a purple-y-pink. When I received it while I loved those two colors and all of the shades in between its always flashed this hot mess of a hodgepodge of dark grey with flashes of blue, purple, and red.

I personally dont regret purchasing this ring because I got it for half of what theyre selling it for now ($450 in solid 14k RG with a .55ct color change Bekily garnet that doesnt have a bad cut either) but sadly I cannot say that I wear it often. To me it's only worth it as a collectors gem and as others have mentioned if you have a rich night life this would be the ring.

So $750 for double the size isnt bad and its a pretty cut and shape but unless youre just dying to own a color change garnet and are fine reserving it as more of a late dinner ring, Id pass.

I always say, If youre not immediately in love and sure then it should not come home with you.

Although to play devil's advocate, if $750 doesn't put a dent into other projects itd be neat to design a "night life" ring.

I know that wasnt clear at all but that's a pretty clear representation of what goes on inside my head.

Lilac pink color that I adore that shimmers so lovely! Im too lazy to take a photo of the teal plus its the same exact shade as yours.


Ugly dark grey mess

I actually think this is really pretty and even like the grey mess!

 

[deorwine]

OK, I am back home and got my small CC garnet out. I will try to snap a few photos later but can't right now. It is darker than @TheGarnetGirl garnet but I thiiiink not as dark as yours, @voce

In direct sunlight it is predominantly dark grey (slightly purple) with flashes of teal and purple. Noon sunlight is actually worse than morning sunlight for making it dark. I really like it but it's definitely an off-the-beaten-path sort of look. Also I can imagine that any larger and that dark grey would turn to black. Also also mine is round brilliant cut and I would think an emerald cut would downplay the sparkliness, which is a lot of what I like about it.

In shade (but still outside) it is a green-very-slightly-blue color that can shift to blue-grey. This is the part I love, that it's so very different from incandescent. @voce, what does yours look like in outside shade?

In natural light coming from my window it's sort of a weird mix of purple and teal that averages out to sort of a greyish purple. Not black though. I like it but probably not for everyone. Not too different from your third and fourth pics but again the round brilliant cut I think helps it (it looks kinda dull in your pics) and also a little lighter than your pics look. I don't know why sunlight through the window looks so different from shaded sunlight outside -- this isn't the case for e.g. my sapphires. The glass may filter out a particular frequency of light?

In incandescent it is a lovely purple, not too much grey.

In my awful work fluorescents where all stones look like crap, it is a greyish-purple-mauve. Again, a color I like (I used to have a couple of grey spinels but sold them) but not for everyone.

Of course this is only one stone but my vague expectation is that this is not an uncommon way for color-change stones to be. I personally love them but it's because I think it's so cool that it changes so much, and not because I think both colors are so great, and that's generally going to be the case for these stones. I imagine that's why Jeff likes it too

I have a couple of synthetic alexandrite too, I'll see if I can find them. My vague recollection is that the alexandrite has a more profound color change but direct sunlight still mixes the colors in a way that turns out mostly-grey, but I'll see if I can check that.

 

[voce]

@deorwine I think in other places, the stone may look better in daylight. I live in a very sunny place in California, so even in outside shade there's more sunlight than if I were standing directly under the sun in oh, say, Massachusetts, where I've also lived for part of my life. Even in shade here where I am, it looks dark gray with sparkles only at the corners. Were this a round brilliant and those flashes were all over, I probably would have kept it.

Now, this stone that I just mailed back to Jeff White looks amazing in fluorescent or incandescent, so there are some stones that don't look like crap in fluorescent light. I bought a set of small trillion Brazilian alexandrites from Yvonne, but I'm going out of town so don't expect to receive them until next week. I think I just really have trouble loving garnets with any hint of red, as they black out in the sun. I loved Jeff's pictures, and I loved how it looked in lighting where it looked like that, but it's still a garnet, and I've only found green and orange garnets to be undiminished under sunlight. Since I admire most of my gems during the day, I think that like @TheGarnetGirl I wouldn't wear mine enough to justify keeping it.

 

[deorwine]

Huh! I also live in a very sunny place in CA. (Hey, you don't happen to live in SoCal, do you? )

It also makes a difference which way I'm standing in the shade, I realized later this afternoon -- when it's reflecting mostly skylight it's more likely to pick up the green/teal tone. There's a north-facing window at my building at work where I can see the green, but I can't in my east-facing window. But anyway, yeah, I think the round brilliant cut vs. the not-very-brilliant emerald cut is making a big difference here with the sparkliness if not the color.

I also have a large precision cut lab alexandrite where the color change is as you describe this one. It is not too dark because he picked a nice cut, and quite brilliant, but it is basically usually grey in daylight instead of having a more pronounced green-to-purple color change like my small CC garnet or small lab alexandrite. I assume it has something to do with the way the gem was oriented/cut? (The cutter as far as I know hadn't worked with color-change stones before.) I wonder whether it's the same with this gem?? But this is Jeff White, I would imagine he knows how to do all that. So idk.

My fluorescents really are crappy, though. They're the ancient kind. Some other people in my building have nicer fluorescents and my gems all look much better in those. I sauntered by one office with the nicer fluorescents and I could see a lot more green in my garnet, lol. People at work probably think I'm crazy. One day I will get better fluorescents although I feel weird asking for them given that I mostly just want better lighting for my gems

Argh, I really want to take pics now but I might not be able to until next week, grr.

 

[elle_71125]

Jeff's newest drop is out. I'm loving so many of these babies. Especially the pink and yellow sapphires. That yellow is buttery!

Rhodolite Garnet


Mint Kornerupine


Mahenge Garnet


Pink sapphire


Spessartite garnet


Tanzanite


yellow sapphire


Color-change sapphire

 

[lovedogs]

Jeff's newest drop is out. I'm loving so many of these babies. Especially the pink and yellow sapphires. That yellow is buttery!

Rhodolite Garnet


Mint Kornerupine


Mahenge Garnet


Pink sapphire


Spessartite garnet


Tanzanite


yellow sapphire


Color-change sapphire

Tempted by the red orange spess, but being good and not inquiring about it

 

[elle_71125]

Tempted by the red orange spess, but being good and not inquiring about it

Did you see the one from Finewater. It's just as drool worthy.
https://www.finewatergems.com/store/p619/3.27ctSpessartiteGarnet.html

 

[lovedogs]

Did you see the one from Finewater. It's just as drool worthy.
https://www.finewatergems.com/store/p619/3.27ctSpessartiteGarnet.html

Shhhhh, we dont speak of that one or this one https://www.finewatergems.com/store/p615/3.01ctSpessartiteGarnet.html because I need to stop buying loose stones!

 

[voce]

You know you're a gem addict when, upon seeing this thread pop up on CS forums, you drop everything else you're doing to log into email and check out the Gem Scoop.

 

[elle_71125]

Shhhhh, we dont speak of that one or this one https://www.finewatergems.com/store/p615/3.01ctSpessartiteGarnet.html because I need to stop buying loose stones!

I like that one even better than the round. We shall never speak of this again.

 

[elle_71125]

You know you're a gem addict when, upon seeing this thread pop up on CS forums, you drop everything else you're doing to log into email and check out the Gem Scoop.

Right?! I got the notification and hopped all over it. Who cares that I'm at work...that's irrelevant.

 

[dk168]

Did you see the one from Finewater. It's just as drool worthy.
https://www.finewatergems.com/store/p619/3.27ctSpessartiteGarnet.html

I love the blue green Asscher Tourmaline, however the bling budget has been blown for this year if not the next too, hey ho!

DK