Lavender spinel melee

[Lilith112]

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I posted here, but I've been thinking about getting a bracelet made with lavender spinel melees. I'm thinking the bracelet will include about 35-40 melees, perhaps 2-3mm wide. Out of curiosity, who could I chat to about procuring them? Also, what should I be looking for while shopping for melees? What price range should I expect? Thank you!

 

[voce]

Out of curiosity, why spinel, not sapphire? Sapphire is more available imo, cheaper, and more durable. For 35-40 melee, I think an important question is how well matched in color you want them to be. Do you want them the exact same color, or can there be variation for a variegated effect? If the former, I'd expect $150/ct-$250/ct depending on the exact shade of color (vividness, how much blue or pink you want), and if the latter, no more than $100/ct.

Now, it's also not clear to me the size of the melee you are looking for. If the bracelet itself is to be 2mm wide, the melee size should be 1.5mm. if the bracelet is 3mm wide, you should be looking for 2.5mm melee. There is quite a ct weight difference between 1.5mm and 2.5mm in ct. To arrive at a final ballpark figure, estimate the ct weight per melee gem by multiplying the ct from a diamond chart and the density ratio (spinel density/diamond density) to arrive at ct weight per melee, then multiply by 35 or 40, then multiply by the $/ct based on how exacting you are about the color/match.

Honestly, sapphire in a lavender color is 20% cheaper, so unless there's a very specific reason you want to go spinel, such as if you want a more periwinkle color that's harder to match in sapphire, it's worth looking at lavender sapphire. Beside cobalt blue and neon red/pink, lavender is the most expensive spinel color.

 

[Polyhex]

You can also get lavender sapphire melee even less expensively by buying from Asia vs. a western dealer. Some vendor examples at the end of this post.

Here are some examples of lavender sapphire melee. These were inexpensive but very imperfectly matched in color so I had to buy more than I needed and there will still be some variation in the finished piece. You can see how some are pinkish and some have more blue tones.



You can see here how the color compares to blue sapphires:



In sunlight next to spessartite:



I can't really recommend the vendor I bought these from because they use ridiculous studio photos that make what you get a crapshoot, but I have had good experiences with these vendors for melee and they might be able to find lavender sapphire or lavender spinel. On IG:

dsdthai
stellamarisgems2
inoochampoo
haydenfred_gems (she was most expensive but the melee was extraordinary)

You will also be able to get high priced but perfect melee from Cecile Raley designs on etsy.

And the crapshoot vendor I actually bought the above lavender melee from was AsherGems.com. Very inexpensive but very random with terrible photography. I have varied from incredibly happy to super disappointed in the results.

 

[Lilith112]

Honestly, sapphire in a lavender color is 20% cheaper, so unless there's a very specific reason you want to go spinel, such as if you want a more periwinkle color that's harder to match in sapphire, it's worth looking at lavender sapphire. Beside cobalt blue and neon red/pink, lavender is the most expensive spinel color.

You can also get lavender sapphire melee even less expensively by buying from Asia vs. a western dealer. Some vendor examples at the end of this post.

Thank you both! I'll keep that in mind-- when I asked around, a lot vendors said sapphire is cheaper than spinel though? Idk, maybe I'm talking to the wrong vendors lol. Is there anyone you'd recommend for sapphire melees?

 

[Polyhex]

Thank you both! I'll keep that in mind-- when I asked around, a lot vendors said sapphire is cheaper than spinel though? Idk, maybe I'm talking to the wrong vendors lol. Is there anyone you'd recommend for sapphire melees?

Yes, sorry if I was confusing, but I was agreeing lavender sapphire will be cheaper, and that you can further reduce the price by getting it from a close-to-source vendor. The vendor list I put in my post above are vendors that I have been happy buying melee from, either sapphire melee, or another kind of melee but I see them posting sapphire from time to time. Good luck, it sounds like a fun project!!

 

[voce]

I usually have Yvonne Raley or Inken at Enhoerning Jewelry source my melee, since I personally can get quite picky with matching melee (often sorting them myself). Yvonne and Inken can and have, upon request, matched melee gems for me meticulously. I've had good experience with Haydenfred but I'm not on Instagram much so I'm not aware of what she has at present. Other than that, I've bought melee gems from dandt on LoupeTroop (her trade store is Jasmine Jade Boutique), from other PriceScope members, and from Mastercut Gems when they had a sale.

I don't know if any of these jewelers would make sense for you, since I'm in the US and don't have to pay import duties, while you're in Asia.

 

[femmemannequin]

i love the lavender spinel color tho. worth a splurge imho