My hard-to-photograph sphene and demantoid ring from Cecile Raley Designs

[voce]

Borrowed DF's phone today to get nicer pictures than my phone camera would take. This sunflower ring also features in my new avatar picture courtesy of DF's phone. The sky is overcast today in Canada where I'm visiting.

 

[Hivona]

It is a really beautiful ring!

 

[voce]

Thanks @Hivona

 

[mayday]

That's a brave and bold color combo, and I love these gems together! Congrats on a lovely ring!

 

[voce]

That's a brave and bold color combo, and I love these gems together! Congrats on a lovely ring!

Thank you very much, mayday.

 

[chatoyancy]

I just started collecting gemstones and rings this year. I joined PS forums and looked up many vendors to see what they have in inventory. When I saw Yvonne's green colored stones, I immediately wanted a green sunflower ring. Demantoid would have been out of my budget for a center stone, so when I found this sphene, which I had heard had even higher dispersion than demantoid and can flash green, in Yvonne's shop, I decided to go for it. I had also wanted to work with Yvonne, since she has a lot of nice designs and was quite nice when I asked her about some other gemstones in her shop before I finally pulled the trigger.

A green sun, to me, is symbolic of my happy childhood. When I went to kindergarten the reports were still hand written, and my teacher had written that I was very mischievous but creative, as I had deliberately colored the sun green in my drawings, even though my favorite color had been red. I don't really know that my coloring the sun green was a true indication of my creativity, but when my mom showed me the report she kept for so many years after I was already an adult, my teacher's comment made me happy. I have been praised here and there on my creative writing, and I want to become a writer of fantasy novels someday after I retire.

Anyway, back to the ring. 14kt yellow gold, sphene center, demantoid garnet for sunflower petals. I think the proportions are excellent, and the setting and milgrain work exquisite.

First off, Yvonne's picture:

I have trouble photographing the ring on my phone camera because all the brilliant flashes of light throws the focus off, I think. This is the best I could do outdoors and indoors:



Note to self: if I am going to spend this much money on jewelry/gemstones, I should really consider upgrading my cell phone so I can have a better camera to photograph them with.

Yay!! I like e spend and demantoid. Yours is fun and lovely!

 

[Sparkle_ruckle]

Lovely ring, sunny and befitting for a sunflower! And how nice it is that your childhood drawings materialize in the form of jewellery!

 

[Deathspi]

Beautiful ring! I think sphene is definitely a stone that looks so much better irl. On camera they can se easily turn into ugly blobs!
Loved the story of you colouring the sun green. Sounds like a rebel in the making!

 

[MissyBeaucoup]

Thinking of sphene today because a nice one just appeared at the Gem Trader. @voce Your ring design came out beautiful! I hope you are enjoying it as much in the summer light!

 

[briolette]

I love sphene! Congrats! Super easy to facet, but man, it takes skill to set. As much as I'd love to have one in a ring, I would be stressed out because my hands go knocking things all the time. Heck, I feel that way with opal as well. Anyway, I absolutely love the colors (demantoid garnet is another fave of mine) and wear it in good health!

 

[femmemannequin]

oh so gorgeous and bold ! once again adding to your already amazing collection. Congrats @voce! hehe. You make me wanna get some green garnets I bot some peridot melee and they were' not anywhere near vibrant. lol. Also amazing to see the sphene in the ring! hrd its really hard to "set".

 

[voce]

@MissyBeaucoup @briolette @femmemannequin your comments made me think of my sphene again, so I'm wearing this ring today. I still have trouble with photographing it.

 

[T L]

So bright and pretty!

 

[briolette]

@voce The second picture looks great! To get good pics, sometimes it helps hold the phone a little farther away, tap on the ring area in the screen to focus. When you're done taking a picture, crop the image so your ring is the main star

 

[voce]

@voce The second picture looks great! To get good pics, sometimes it helps hold the phone a little farther away, tap on the ring area in the screen to focus. When you're done taking a picture, crop the image so your ring is the main star

The out of focus is because I was trying to capture the sparkles, but the red, green and orange sparkles make it impossible for the camera to focus.

 

[MissyBeaucoup]

@voce The sparkles are amazing! Thanks for the beauty pics. You have pretty hands too!

 

[T L]

The out of focus is because I was trying to capture the sparkles, but the red, green and orange sparkles make it impossible for the camera to focus.

The double refraction also makes sphene very difficult to photograph. Like some doubly refractive zircon, they can photograph quite fuzzy.

 

[Arcadian]

As y'all know (if you didn't you do now...lol) sphene is a stone I absolutely adore. Very hard to photograph, as you need a lot of patience and an extremely good camera. You can get lucky sometimes