Show off your little gemstones

[Arkteia]

Kismet, the demantoid is wonderful! Having seen and looked through trays of demantoids from one Russian company, I can imagine how it sparkles! I also happened to see a pendant from Pala that dated back to the beginning of the XXth century. The stones were not apple-green like most Russian demantoids are, although they were from Russia, they were bluish and they sparkled like no tomorrow. Your stone must sparkle like crazy!


And this is my "spessie" from Gary Braun. Too sad it is too small, around 0.8 ct. The color is what I would call mandarin, and the cut is wonderful. Too bad it is so small, perhaps it might work in a combination with one of his sapphires...

and a topazolite which I once bought from TheGemTrader. I do not remember the size, and bought the stone more for an andradite collection, but it is rare...

 

[whatmeworry]

0.90 pink sapphire. Had a nice discussion with the vendor whether the Burmese would consider this a ruby.

 

[whatmeworry]

0.10 ct diamond. Sold as HTHP treated.

 

[whatmeworry]

0.32 ct "rhodolite" garnet. I wish I could find a larger stone with this nice bright pink color.

 

[Arkteia]

a pair of spinels I bought a long time ago, pink Mahenges. They are light-pink and extremely shiny. Around 0.8 ct each. (At the time I was buying them, the price appeared too high to me, and I consulted TL, who said she felt the prices would get up in a year or two, so I should probably keep them. Thank you, TL!)

 

[Arkteia]

two spinels, 1 ct each

a matching pair of unheated sapphires, total 3.02 ct weight, but they look small

a small spinel around 0.8 ct

 

[Starzin]

Arkteia those pairs are gorgeous!!! The pink spinels look amazing Please start setting them so that you can enjoy them! Perhaps a pair of earrings that you can interchange the drops and get one pair doing triple duty?

ETA: Gorgeous gems from all of you actually - I think I have serious envy

 

[Arkteia]

Thank you, Starzin! The sapphires were bought as side stones, but now I am thinking of a pair of dangles, with three threads of tiny diamonds, and the sapphires oriented E-W and serving as "bows" for the threads. But the idea is vague, I have little experience with setting anything in diamonds and do not know jewelers too well. The square spinels could be haloed, and the trilliants may eventually be used as side stones.

And since I started posting... here is my smallest stone, 0.5 mm, I like it very much, it is a very clean pezzottaite. Even the name is fascinating, sounds like mezzo-soprano to me ... The picture is out of focus, sorry, I was mostly afraid to drop it and lose in the carpet. I would never find it!

 

[Catmom]

.92 ct TW heated pink sapphires...........

 

[chrono]

Lots of little beauties that speak very loudly. This proof that size doesn't matter.....well, perhaps let's leave it as in this case only.

Let's see what I have sitting around. I have quite a few little ones here and there. Some are meant to be sidestones and some are just sitting around until an idea comes to mind.

I think I accidentally erased my file with pictures of all my pink spinels. Guess I cannot post my little Mahenge trillions. I have two pairs that are around 5 mm and 6 mm each.

 

[Enerchi]

This is my eBay "live and learn" mistake. A .79 CC untreated sapphire that is too shallow, has a window you need blinds for, and was smaller in size than posted on line. Ah.... learning curve, right??

It is pretty tho - goes from a greenish brown to a lovely purply pink and DD loves the colour and size so along with this little error, I also have a WG bypass setting I bought but don't like, that she loves. This week are her final exams after her first year in college, so I think I'll set it for her.

I've learned a bit from other mistakes and recently purchased a lovely 2.07 rhodolite garnet in an asscher cut. That is a beautiful raspberry colour that has me thinking halo!!

Anyhow - here's the little sapphire

 

[Arkteia]

Catmom, where, oh where, do you find such lovely settings?

Chrono, I love your stones. The sapphire is so blue, what is the origin? And the diamonds... oh.

Enerchi, that is how we all started... Good that you found better stones now!

 

[Catmom]

Catmom, where, oh where, do you find such lovely settings?

Thank you Arkteia. My hubby had them made for me so I'm not sure if these settings are Parade settings.

Here are my Tsav earrings each tsav is approx .94ct. The one photo is blurry but it shows the color better.

 

[Kim Bruun]

Too many tiny pretties to praise them all!

One thing, though: VapidLapid, is that CC granet that saturate IRL? Because most I've seen have had a grayish cast to them and yours would give a good amethyst a run for its money by the looks of it! It looks gorgeous!

Anyways, here a few of mine (on the lower pic, a cloud suddenly blocked out the sun):



From left to right: A .72 spinel, a .76 rubellite, a .68 colourshift sapphire, a .91 tsavorite, and finally, a .57 Colombian emerald.

 

[minousbijoux]

Kim I really like all those shapes and colors together. Also, your emerald glows

 

[Kim Bruun]

Thank you, minous! I'd love to one day incorporate several vibrant colours into one piece of jewelry for myself.

The emerald is one of my earlist aquisitions (bought it in my early twenties), and I still love it. I could have gone a step larger perhaps, but it is a nice little stone. It actually has good clarity, but it takes on a sort of hazy appearance when I try to photograph it (I have actually read on at least two vendor sites that emeralds are difficult to photograph). It also seems slightly deeper in colour and slightly less blue in person.

 

[ChrisA222]

Ive always tended to go for the bigger is better as far as collecting gems...but I'm starting to appreciate the little guys more. I recently aquired a CC garnet...it goes from blue to red...amazing. It was a windowy .78ct stone. I sent it to Dan Stair who fixed it for me (he is awesome) and while it did go down in weight (now .58cts) it faces the same size and now it is brilliant instead of dead in the center. Gosh, it amazes me that with material this valuable, that someone would just cut it so poorly. I know..its to save weight, but still...before and after pics!

Note: I didnt do my own pics..the "before" are vendor pics, and the "after" is Dan's pic. He didn't do one for me in the red...maybe Ill "attempt" to take one and post it if the camera works with me, and if anyones interested. It is a very cool stone!

 

[Arkteia]

Catmom - the tsavorite earrings are amazing. The stones, the color, the design, everything... It really calls for a long, silky dress with bare shoulders... like they used to wear centuries ago.

 

[Catmom]

Catmom - the tsavorite earrings are amazing. The stones, the color, the design, everything... It really calls for a long, silky dress with bare shoulders... like they used to wear centuries ago.

Thank you so much Arkteia, I love these settings too and as a matter of fact have a matching pendant. The stone in it though is bigger than 1.00ct. so doen't fit the tiny gemstone category.

 

[canuk-gal]

Catmom - the tsavorite earrings are amazing. The stones, the color, the design, everything... It really calls for a long, silky dress with bare shoulders... like they used to wear centuries ago.

Thank you so much Arkteia, I love these settings too and as a matter of fact have a matching pendant. The stone in it though is bigger than 1.00ct. so doen't fit the tiny gemstone category.

Oh Michelle--how wonderful to "see" you again! When I saw you post here (again) I thought I must reconnect--and again admire your pieces. Are those tsav's new?

cheers--Sharon

 

[Catmom]

Catmom - the tsavorite earrings are amazing. The stones, the color, the design, everything... It really calls for a long, silky dress with bare shoulders... like they used to wear centuries ago.

Thank you so much Arkteia, I love these settings too and as a matter of fact have a matching pendant. The stone in it though is bigger than 1.00ct. so doen't fit the tiny gemstone category.

Oh Michelle--how wonderful to "see" you again! When I saw you post here (again) I thought I must reconnect--and again admire your pieces. Are those tsav's new?

cheers--Sharon

Hi Sharon, so nice to "see" you again too!!! Thanks, the earrings are relatively new. It took a while to get close to matching my pendant stone. They're not a perfect match but pretty close. And when are we going to see some of your pretties again? You know I love them!!!

I don't know how long I'll stick around. I'm trying to remain optimistic. I was hoping so much that things had changed but if the sparkly post yesterday was any indication, nothing has changed in CS at all. Oh well.........

 

[canuk-gal]

Catmom - the tsavorite earrings are amazing. The stones, the color, the design, everything... It really calls for a long, silky dress with bare shoulders... like they used to wear centuries ago.

Thank you so much Arkteia, I love these settings too and as a matter of fact have a matching pendant. The stone in it though is bigger than 1.00ct. so doen't fit the tiny gemstone category.

Oh Michelle--how wonderful to "see" you again! When I saw you post here (again) I thought I must reconnect--and again admire your pieces. Are those tsav's new?

cheers--Sharon

Hi Sharon, so nice to "see" you again too!!! Thanks, the earrings are relatively new. It took a while to get close to matching my pendant stone. They're not a perfect match but pretty close. And when are we going to see some of your pretties again? You know I love them!!!

I don't know how long I'll stick around. I'm trying to remain optimistic. I was hoping so much that things had changed but if the sparkly post yesterday was any indication, nothing has changed in CS at all. Oh well.........

Oh, please stay!!! I am optimistic too! Today is a new day.

I bought some oval rubellites and had custom settings made about 6 months ago....I think I have a post here regarding them--they are very simple, but I adore them.

P.S. Michelle--I've found my rubellite earring thread and shamlessly bumped it up for you!

cheers--Sharon

 

[Starzin]

Too many lovely gems to comment on individually but thanks to all for sharing! As someone with size 8.5 fingers, I've always gone for larger stones, maybe I should consider "downsizing" more often

 

[kenny]

Too many lovely gems to comment on individually but thanks to all for sharing! As someone with size 8.5 fingers, I've always gone for larger stones, maybe I should consider "downsizing" more often

+1

Too many to compliment but I've really enjoyed all these tiny miracles too.

 

[Barrett]

Kenny, those were some outstanding photos on the first page!! Well done, Sir!

Okay, small gems. I have everyone beat I think
Although I have had numerous small faceted and cabbed red beryl's I think this was the smallest. I don't recall the exact weight since I sold it over 2 years ago but it was something like .03cts-.04cts. give or take.

Red beryl cab


Same red beryl cab on dime

 

[minousbijoux]

Nice Jason! It looks like one of those dot candies that used to come in a rainbow of different colors stuck on a roll of white paper. Remember those? Pretty intense color for .03 of a carat!

 

[innerkitten]

Too many tiny pretties to praise them all!

One thing, though: VapidLapid, is that CC granet that saturate IRL? Because most I've seen have had a grayish cast to them and yours would give a good amethyst a run for its money by the looks of it! It looks gorgeous!

Anyways, here a few of mine (on the lower pic, a cloud suddenly blocked out the sun):



From left to right: A .72 spinel, a .76 rubellite, a .68 colourshift sapphire, a .91 tsavorite, and finally, a .57 Colombian emerald.

fantastic little rainbow!

 

[innerkitten]

Catmom I haven't seen your beautiful collection around here in a while. Love both pairs of earrings!

 

[innerkitten]

Chrono, Those are pretty nice rhodolites. They look VERY red/magenta. Wouldn't mind a sapphire ring like that myself. So pretty and delicate.

 

[Catmom]

Kenny, those were some outstanding photos on the first page!! Well done, Sir!

Okay, small gems. I have everyone beat I think
Although I have had numerous small faceted and cabbed red beryl's I think this was the smallest. I don't recall the exact weight since I sold it over 2 years ago but it was something like .03cts-.04cts. give or take.

Red beryl cab


Same red beryl cab on dime

Oh I love this tiny cab!!!