looking for a stone suggestion

[manwithnoname]

long time lurker (probably the last 6-8 months), first time poster haha

i have used this site in the past to help me "discover" stones and re-salers for uses in necklaces (for gf) -- so far i have used danburite (came out great), peridot and topaz and had them made into the necklaces below:

danburite necklace (through AJS Gems)
peridot and topaz necklaces (went through ebay)

both look better in person than in the photos lol

that said i am in the process of looking for other stones to get for future projects -- the only limitations are that it needs to be hard enough to be worn in a necklace and non clear/green/bright blue...also i like stones that are moderately priced/not well known by the average person (thats how i found danburite) and are at least/about 7+ mm across (cut isnt that important)

the other colors/stones i am currently looking into are:
-amethyst (also open to stuggestions for resalers! not going the ebay route with this one)
-mexican opal/orange stones
-some kind of red stone (non ruby?)

one more question -- any idea about how much it should cost to have someone create these necklaces? i looked around on etsy and ended up paying a good amount, although it was argentinium -- which is important b/c girlfriend has issues with nickel...

look forward to y''alls requests and thanks ahead of time!

 

[cinnamon013]

This stone would be my favorite and a good suggestion for a necklace since they might not take the every day wear of a ring too well. I LOVE THIS STONE.

Per Gene at Precision Gem:

Gem 862 - Blue Zircon - 1.33 ct. I haven''t seen any good blue zircon rough for sale for a few years now. This is from a parcel I bought about 4 or 5 years ago from Cambodia. All blue zircon is heated to produce the blue color. Cut in one of my favorite cuts. Measures 6.31 x 5.20 mm. There is no brown in the stone, what you see in the top of the picture are just reflections.
$113

http://www.precisiongem.com/html/html/zircon.html

Oh, and Welcome!

 

[LD]

How about Garnet? There have been some stunning ones for sale just recently by our favourite cutters who always get a mention on this board! These come in all shades of red/pink/purple.

For orange how about Citrine. Usually reasonably priced and can look like molten lava!

 

[Barcelona]

Check out Barry www.acstones.com He has a few of each of the stones/colors you''re considering.

 

[chrono]

In that case, you''ll have a blast at Brad''s website: www.thegemtrader.com

He has very unique gemstones that many people have never heard of at reasonable prices. Just check the gems for cleavage and hardness and you''ll be fine.

 

[ma re]

While durability should be a serious consideration when choosing a ring stone, you can go with almost anything when it comes to pendants, earrings or brooches. And what I''d suggest is doing a bit of a research to find stones which are not the most durable i.e. not durable enough for rings, since that reason alone keeps their prices lower - so you can get a lot of bang for the buck. Something like apatite, kyanite or chrome diopside for example. Of course, there are also stones which are just plain cheap for other reasons like ametrine, and there are always cabochons, which can be very beautiful eventhough (when talking about transparent gems) they''re usually cut out of "lower quality rough" i.e. rough of lower transparency; I''d check things like tourmaline cabs.