Question for the red spinel owners

[innerkitten]

How does your spinel look in different types of light? I''ve had mixed luck with the various colors that I do own. But I don''t own any in that beautiful stop light red yet.The closest I have one small pink one from Burma that seems to do well both indoors and outdoors. But the rest have issues. My lavender one looks great indoors but outdoors it turns almost dark blue and looses some of it''s sparkle.

 

[Harriet]

I''ve found that mine performs best in sunlight.

 

[Fly Girl]

I carried mine around for about two weeks in the box, checking it in all kinds of light. It had a lot of sparkle both indoors and outdoors, so I decided to keep it. It held its color well, too, only darkening in very dim light.

 

[stacy]

I want to join the red spinel club soooooooo bad!

I do have a dark purple spinel that really reacts to different lighting situations. It has pink flashes in sunlight that are amazing. Indoors, I see a bit of pink and blue. And it low light, the stone looks almost black with purple flashes. It has multiple personalities!

I have a dark pink/purple spinel that''s a step cut, and it has multiple personalities too.

I know that doesn''t answer your question about reds... I hope to find the answer for myself soon though!

 

[Art Nouveau]

I have a 2.35 ct red spinel that I bought ages ago when nobody wanted them. It is ''stop light red'' under good lighting conditions, but not always. It looks great under bright sunlight, incandescent and halogen, but not so good under fluorescent and dim light. Under jewelry store halogen lights, the stone is bright ruby red and is very brilliant. It looks like a ruby and many sales people at jewelry stores have mistaken it for one. Under dim light, part of the stone looks dark and it looses it''s brilliance.

 

[Sagebrush]

Well Now Folks,

In dim light all gems loose brilliance. Gems are creatures of the light. Direct sunlight will kill almost any gem. The exceptions seem to be East African stones like tsavorite. Anything with iron in it, tourmaline, blue sapphire will wash out. Outdoors the best light is skylight, turn your back to the sun hold the stone perpendicular to the sun and let the light diffuse around your body.

In my book a break all gems down into two categories, daystones and nightstones. Some gems look best in daylight others put their best foot forward in incandescent. Different lamps have different kelvin temperatures and therefore different colors which affects the color you see.

 

[Harriet]

Richard,
Is it true that the Burmese material has some brown in certain lighting?

 

[innerkitten]

Thanks guys!

 

[Sagebrush]

Harriet,

Yes, if the stone is 80% tone or more it will often have a brownish crystal. Darker toned Burmese spinel tend to be murky though the key color may be a true red with less than 10% red as a secondary hue.

 

[Harriet]

Thanks.

 

[Sagebrush]

Opps, meant 10% orange as secondary hue.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Thanks Richard for the replys, always helpful