I'm getting annoyed!

[LD]

Sorry but I just have to write this and get it off my chest!

I am getting increasingly frustrated with the term "half/half" being bandied about like it's a bad thing. It doesn't have to be. Recently somebody posted a photo of a Spinel that had wonderful colourations that were slightly different from one end to the other. It was (in the photo) a lovely gem.

Half/half is only bad when half of the gem blacks out. It doesn't always do that.

Please people, stop with the half/half thing - it's driving me bonkers.

Phew ............. going to lie down in a cool dark room now and wait until somebody undoes the buckles on this jacket I appear to be wearing

 

[FrekeChild]

Are you talking about that pink (?) spinel?

I said:

I noticed that in the above picture that one side looks more purple, and the other side looks more reddish. I had a spinel in hand once upon a time that had half and half - I caught a view of one side getting natural light and the other side getting fluorescent light - the natural side was blue, the fluorescent side was purple. Very cool looking, but it did not appear that way all of the time!

I don't even know where I'd find the pictures of that stone that I was talking about, but the coloring of the stone was a nice soft blue with a hint of gray. In most lighting conditions, half of it appeared black with no light return whatsoever, while the other half was quite bright. It was ONLY due to very specific lighting that I saw the half purple/half blue I described above. If I moved the stone at all, it disappeared and went half blue, half black again.

I've attached a blue spinel that shows said half and half extinction. I love it anyway. Many people have told me not to, specifically because of the half and half.

So?

 

[LD]

Awwwww no honey, my post wasn't meant at anybody in particular. It's just that the blinking phrase "half/half" seems to be everywhere at the minute and people are seeing it when it doesn't exist! Again, I'm not singling ANYBODY out! It was purely an observation. The spinel in the thread I'm referring to (below), I thought was lovely and actually the differing colours appealed to me! It made me sad that the poster was being steered away from it because of this (amongst other issues that were perhaps more of a worry). The think is, there have been tons of other threads recently where the words "half/half" have cropped up. It seems to be a buzz word at the moment!

The thing is and you've highlighted it above, that actually some people love the look and don't mind it at all. Others see it as a distraction. I hate it if it detracts from the stone (ie the black hole syndrome) but it can be attractive also. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder isn't it and if the spinel in the photo below looks like that in real life I would be happy to own it.

Sorry if you felt my thread was aimed at you - it most DEFINITELY wasn't! *blows kiss*

 

[VapidLapid]

Ok LD no more half and half, I dont even like the stuff!
I confess I did say I thought the other pink spinel in that spinel thread might have that dairy creamer, specifically because it is so long but the facets on all four sides, and especially the two long sides seem to have very slight differences, nearly all in one plane, w hich would make it rather dull and unlively except at four vantage points. I wont mention it again.

 

[LD]

Ok LD no more half and half, I dont even like the stuff!
I confess I did say I thought the other pink spinel in that spinel thread might have that dairy creamer, specifically because it is so long but the facets on all four sides, and especially the two long sides seem to have very slight differences, nearly all in one plane, w hich would make it rather dull and unlively except at four vantage points. I wont mention it again.

That's made my day!

 

[GemFever]

MMMmmm half and half

My demantoid does a funky half & half when it's confused about the light source (half daylight, half incandescent). Love it

 

[chrono]

I think it's really cool when they are of two different colours, not one with colour and the other a black hole. I don't like the chemical laden half and half but the one made with real milk and pure cream. Hold the sugar please.

 

[Upgradable]

None of the other forums "get" our CS humor!!

And I'm currently digging Coffeemate's Peppermint Mocha. (runs and hides!)

 

[LD]

.......... and there was me thinking I was the lone voice! Clearly there's others in the padded cell with me!

GemFever - that's one cool stone!

Woohoo! A new trend ............ WE LOVE REAL MILK WITH REAL CREAM (Disclaimer : other versions available, see Uppy's gem beverage of choice above)

 

[chrono]

None of the other forums "get" our CS humor!!
And I'm currently digging Coffeemate's Peppermint Mocha. (runs and hides!)

OMG, Uppy, are those earrings for real or photoshopped? I know they aren't real mints but just the idea of earrings...

 

[minousbijoux]

Yup, your comment was timely. I think I've been one lately saying that I even like the symmetry of what-we-put-in-our-coffee-every-morning in lighter stones, as long as its not too dark. I have a large sapphire in a ring that does it and I really enjoy the perfect symmetry and both colors because its still blue; I can stare at it for hours... OTOH, I have a precision cut spessartite that I couldn't give away if I tried because its dark to begin with and goes into complete black shadow always on one side. Sadly, it was early on in my collecting and I paid waaaaay too much for it. I'll try to dig up pics...

 

[distracts]

As I said in my post in my other thread, my stone exhibits what in PICTURES can look like the annoying feature, but since it moves all over the stone at the slightest of movements I would not actually call it that thing that I don't ever buy because I don't drink coffee and thus have no use for it. Like while my current avatar pic makes it look super noticeable, irl that was med-dark blue and med-blue, and moving as my perspective on the stone changed, it just got frozen where it was and exacerbated by the picture to where it looks like dark blue and light blue. But whatever, I know what it looks like in person. Sparkly is how it looks, and the contrast is part of why it looks sparkly. In my thread on my ring you can see that the areas of contrast are in different places at different times, and that a ton of the time the stone does photograph as a uniform color. It just depends on the lighting. If the lighting is super strong it's more likely to do weird stuff than if the lighting is more normal.

As to actual half-and-half extinction that just flips from one side of the stone to the other, as long as it's a darker shade of the same color rather than BLACK, I don't mind.

 

[LD]

As I said in my post in my other thread, my stone exhibits what in PICTURES can look like the annoying feature, but since it moves all over the stone at the slightest of movements I would not actually call it that thing that I don't ever buy because I don't drink coffee and thus have no use for it. Like while my current avatar pic makes it look super noticeable, irl that was med-dark blue and med-blue, and moving as my perspective on the stone changed, it just got frozen where it was and exacerbated by the picture to where it looks like dark blue and light blue. But whatever, I know what it looks like in person. Sparkly is how it looks, and the contrast is part of why it looks sparkly. In my thread on my ring you can see that the areas of contrast are in different places at different times, and that a ton of the time the stone does photograph as a uniform color. It just depends on the lighting. If the lighting is super strong it's more likely to do weird stuff than if the lighting is more normal.

As to actual half-and-half extinction that just flips from one side of the stone to the other, as long as it's a darker shade of the same color rather than BLACK, I don't mind.

I apologise but I have no idea what thread you're referring to? You sound like you're defending a stone but the whole point of this thread is that you shouldn't have to. If you love your stone (and if anybody loves their stone) then it REALLY doesn't matter! BTW I don't mean to be rude when I say I can't remember your thread because I very rarely look at names and who starts threads - I concentrate on pictures (shows my mental age!).

I once started a thread because I got fed up with people saying that only inclusion free gems should be bought Seriously? In the end we had some wonderful gemstones posted that had inclusions that people were drooling over.

The thing is that coloured gemstone world doesn't follow diamond world. We are, generally speaking, less hung up on cut and a gem being IF and look for COLOUR. If I can get colour and cut and clarity then it's a big big bonus but I never expect that!

 

[pregcurious]

I'm with you. I have an oval that I love, and it gets darker on one side than another. It's very common in elongated shapes, which I find very attractive in rings.

 

[chrono]

Distracts,
From what you have described, your stone does not sound like it blacks out at all. It definitely sounds like brilliance contrast and in looking at your avatar, it is NOT commercial coffee creamer. There is still a fairly area of bright blue at the very ends, not total darkness. You sound very miffed as though someone here said it shows this feature. I hope it wasn't me, and even if it isn't, I do apologize for that. As LD has said, we all love different things. Some like one colour while another hates it. Some like this feature while some others dislike it greatly.

 

[distracts]

Oh I didn't mean to sound miffed! I was just trying to explain that you can't necessarily judge half and half from pictures, because I've taken many pictures of my stone where imo it kind of looks like it could have it, but in real life it doesn't, so you have to judge that based on real life and not just pictures, and I was trying to explain this because it was something I didn't see previously mentioned in this thread or any other on half/half extinction and I wanted to make sure people who hadn't experienced true half/half extinction realized there could be other stuff going on. Nobody here has ever said anything except nice things about my ring. But since the subject of brilliance contrast had come up in the other thread I thought to point it out. Sorry if I sounded annoyed, I have had rough stuff going on in my personal life lately and I think I'm coming off as overly aggressive in my PS posts as a result.

LD, the previous thread I was referring to was this: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/howd-i-do-on-this-4-28-ct-blue-sapphire.182283/page-2']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/howd-i-do-on-this-4-28-ct-blue-sapphire.182283/page-2[/URL] which I thought was what set this thread off because I always confuse you and Chrono ( it's because your avatar pics are pears on a neutral background ).

 

[chrono]

Sounds like you could do with a virtual hug. (( )). We have those days where it gets pretty rough in our personal lives. Thanks for the clarification and I hope things get better for you soon.

 

[FrekeChild]

I sent pics of the above stone to Barry once upon a time to get his opinion on a recut...he told me to thank my lucky stars that I had a big beautiful blue spinel and to enjoy it as is. So I do. It's a great color and it's fun to play with! I like making the color *roll* from side to side.

No worries LD. I didn't think you were ranting at me, but I felt like I was partly to blame for it making you mad!

 

[LD]

Distracts - no worries. I would never start a thread aimed at a person because that's just plain mean and uncalled for. If I'm going to say something, I say it in the appropriate thread. This thread really was started because there have been so many comments about the words I will now not say(!) that I just got fed up because, like everything else, it can be a good or bad! I hope your personal life gets a little easier and it's very easy when you're feeling a bit down to read into things that honestly aren't there. I do the same so empathise. I'm sending you some Christmas Elf dust to cheer you up xxx *******dust*******

Freke - you very rarely ever post anything that makes me mad! xxx

 

[FrekeChild]

Phrase that must not be named?

LD, good!

 

[VapidLapid]

I think she's gone totally dairy free, not just non-dairy creamer.