Searching for Alexandrite

[AV_]

@cawacawa I wonder if Richard @Sagebrush has completely retired - I would guess that this is his kind of story.

 

[suzanne2]

@cawacawa I wonder if Richard @Sagebrush has completely retired - I would guess that this is his kind of story.

I have a vague memory of him being mildly disgruntled that he couldn't remove the "trade" icon from his posts, despite being retired. We don't see much of him these days. Such a shame.

 

[cawacawa]

Hey guys, here is some new stuff from my search :

I have found a 1.07 ct Brazilian alex that might be it, I would like to have your opinion on it. Here is a link to a picture and a video :

https://imgur.com/a/tcN0VAD

I think it's beautiful but I'm afraid it might be too dark, although the lights seem natural on the video and not cranked up as they are on gem presentations we usually witness on some websites.

Alternatively, I am currently also hesitating between the alexandrite and this 3.06 ct color change sapphire. Here are pictures and videos :

https://imgur.com/a/J7WNKYh

What do you guys think ?

 

[icy_jade]

I’ll go for 3 ct sapphire over the Alex. Color change aside, I think the color and size is quite nice.

 

[AV_]

The skin colour in the alex video is anything but common, but even so, the alex colours could be accurate and worth seeing in person.

The sapphire has allot more presence, sure enough. It is not so easy to choose between the sapphire and the alex in a relatively more substantial setting. If the sapphire has great colour aside colour change, it is also a rarity.

I can more easily see the sapphire on the back of my hand, but - ask me tomorrow!

 

[lovedogs]

I would take the sapphire one million times over. The video of the Alex does not look natural (look at the skin tone), whereas the sapphire has gorgeous color change and much bigger size /better cut

 

[qubitasaurus]

The sapphire looks nice, I think it would be a good choice.

 

[T L]

The video of the alexandrite is taking too long to download for me, so I cannot comment on it except that it looks kind of dark. The sapphire color shifts to a violet purple. Are you okay with that? It’s not really a true color change stone like an alexandrite if it only shifts to the nearest color in a rainbow.

 

[T L]

This was the purple I saw at the Smithsonian of their Russian (Urals) alexandrite. It looked to me like a dark purple red. There was some green in the stone, but my camera failed to capture it. The incandescent lighting mostly showed purple red. It was very dark.

LD, what a fun gem. I’m sure your “average” stone is top quality for many.

 

[LD]

I thought I would try to help you compare videos with vendors. This has no filters or trickery! My hand colour will look different as I walk between lighting conditions. This video "sort of" shows both colourways and how it changes. The colours are better than I've managed to achieve before and you can see how green a stone should be. There is no black in real life but it's an absolute nightmare/impossible to show it correctly. In the video it looks quite blue/green and the incandescent purple is nowhere near as strong as it should be because it's a sunny day and we're still getting natural light where the incandescent lighting is. However, I wanted to show this because it demonstrates how green the stone should be (the flashes of green you see is what the whole stone looks like in daylight so it gives you an idea). It should not be muddy or a black hole in any of the lighting conditions - and in real life never looks like that. I need to add that this is NOT one of my best stones, it's an average/above average stone. I don't know if that's helped me to video it or not!

 

[LD]

This was the purple I saw at the Smithsonian of their Russian (Urals) alexandrite. It looked to me like a dark purple red. There was some green in the stone, but my camera failed to capture it. The incandescent lighting mostly showed purple red. It was very dark.

LD, what a fun gem. I’m sure your “average” stone is top quality for many.

This is exactly the purple/red I see at night time TL. It's impossible with a video though to get daylight and evening colours right! I've just changed the link to the video because I've managed to capture the green a bit better in this one!

 

[cawacawa]

Thank you for your replies guys, it helps me decide.

The video of the alexandrite is taking too long to download for me, so I cannot comment on it except that it looks kind of dark. The sapphire color shifts to a violet purple. Are you okay with that? It’s not really a true color change stone like an alexandrite if it only shifts to the nearest color in a rainbow.

Weird that it takes too long to load. Can you try again ? I would love to have your opinion on the alexandrite, whether it's truly too dark or not.
And I like the sapphire shift, from a blue to a violet purple, I think it looks quite nice.

There is no black in real life but it's an absolute nightmare/impossible to show it correctly. It should not be muddy or a black hole in any of the lighting conditions - and in real life never looks like that.

Thank you LD for that video. So you confirm that an alexandrite can show some patches of extinction from the video, but actually look lighter in person ? Which is the case for yours in that video if I understand it correctly ?

So it could also be the case for this alexandrite shown here in my previous message ? That's the only thing worrying me, the darkness of the stone, I don't know if the video is accurate. But I guess it can never be accurate....

 

[LD]

Thank you for your replies guys, it helps me decide.
Thank you LD for that video. So you confirm that an alexandrite can show some patches of extinction from the video, but actually look lighter in person ? Which is the case for yours in that video if I understand it correctly ?

So it could also be the case for this alexandrite shown here in my previous message ? That's the only thing worrying me, the darkness of the stone, I don't know if the video is accurate. But I guess it can never be accurate....

The ring in the video certainly looks like it has quite a bit of extinction but I don't see that. I see an overall green. I think because it's so difficult to video/photograph that the gem is desperately trying to hide the green which causes it to appear like extinction. Don't forget though, I haven't manipulated the video in any way - I can't say the same for anybody else! My best Alex (the one in my avatar) I tried to video and had no luck whatsoever. The incandescent video'd beautifully but the daylight (on video) looked a weird grey, khaki, yellow!!!!! You can see an example of that on my Youtube channel.

So to answer your question - in terms of my gemstone, I see no extinction and the green is an overall green that you can see in the flashes of colour at the beginning of the video. I think if you see something that is dark, you should ask the vendor what colour he sees in real life and whether there's any extinction. I don't think you can ever tell from videos or photographs.

There is such a shortage of Alex that the only way to secure one is to either up your budget or buy a few (suggested by a vendor) and return the ones you don't like. I can't tell you how many I've bought and returned over the years. If I looked at 100 gemstones, I probably only bought 1 or 2. There will be a stone out there for you but you've got to take the plunge and see them in real life.

 

[cawacawa]

Thank you for that advice LD, I will purchase it to see it with my own eyes, then if I don't like it, I will probably purchase the sapphire then.

 

[T L]

I was able to finally see the video. The purple colorway is nice, but the green one seems grayish and dull. Maybe it’s impossible to capture the true color on camera.

 

[cawacawa]

I was able to finally see the video. The purple colorway is nice, but the green one seems grayish and dull. Maybe it’s impossible to capture the true color on camera.

Thanks for your input TL ! And you don't think it is too dark ? The stone is Brazilian after all, so I'm kind of scared about that.

 

[T L]

Thanks for your input TL ! And you don't think it is too dark ? The stone is Brazilian after all, so I'm kind of scared about that.

The green colorway doesn’t look as dark as the red cokorway. However, the stone overall seems lighter in tone than some of the gems you’ve searched before. It may need seeing it in person.

 

[T L]

@LD, off topic, but have you thought about adding additional prongs to your pear? I only say this because I’ve lost pear stones in three pronged settings, and I would absolutely die if I lost that pear of yours.

 

[LilAlex]

I'm usually Debbie Downer but I think that alex is surprisingly attractive! Not too dark for my taste, especially for Brazil! One of the nicer ones I've seen, here or elsewhere. My similar-sized Hematita, with Gubelin report, is less appealing -- sensational by candlelight, but that's not a big part of our lifestyle

The sapphire is also very pretty, although it looks like it's video'ed mostly in "ideal blue sapphire weather" (cloudy mid-day). Is it deep? Faces up a little smaller than I expected.