Star sapphire...thoughts please!

[viridian]

Hi all!
I'm thinking about making a turtle motif ring with a star sapphire as the center stone!
After some research I found that it is quite difficult to find a stone that has good clarity and strong asterism at the same time. Some were just too included, while others were too transparent that they barely had a star
I found a stone that fits my budget and the qualities I wanted- a 3.84ct unheated purple star sapphire.
I asked for indoor photos (the darker lighted ones) of the stone and the vendor sent me some. Here is also a video he sent of the stone showing asterism.

It seems to have a strong star but I am a bit worried since I've never owned a star sapphire before.
What do you guys think? I would really like your opinions on this
Thanks!

 

[Starstruck8]

It has a bright star and a good glow.

It's not as transparent as it could be. Granted, transparency and star brightness compete (the inclusions that cause the star also reduce transparency), but there are stones that do better than this in both.

The alignment seems a bit off - the 'vertical' ray seems to be tilted a bit anticlockwise. This may be an illusion - it's hard to tell unless you look square-on. This may or may not worry you, but if it does, you should check it.

The body colour is not as saturated as it could be. Of course, what matters is that you like it. You no doubt know that in soft light (i.e., most of the time) the star won't be visible and the body colour will be less saturated. Make sure to ask for a picture, or to check this yourself in person.

I'd call this a good star sapphire and I'd be happy to own it. There are better ones out there, but they may not be easy to find. It's all matter of whether you like it at the price. To see some other PSer's stones, check out this long thread: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/show-your-star-sapphires-and-rubies.231433/

Are you buying the stone in the setting? If so, are you planning to reuse or re-sell the setting? I'm thinking that it must be contributing to the asking price.

 

[Crimson]

Ooh! It is an attractive colour, @viridian. @Starstruck8 is the expert here and I agree with him it is worth checking the stone under different light intensities.

 

[viridian]

It has a bright star and a good glow.

It's not as transparent as it could be. Granted, transparency and star brightness compete (the inclusions that cause the star also reduce transparency), but there are stones that do better than this in both.

The alignment seems a bit off - the 'vertical' ray seems to be tilted a bit anticlockwise. This may be an illusion - it's hard to tell unless you look square-on. This may or may not worry you, but if it does, you should check it.

The body colour is not as saturated as it could be. Of course, what matters is that you like it. You no doubt know that in soft light (i.e., most of the time) the star won't be visible and the body colour will be less saturated. Make sure to ask for a picture, or to check this yourself in person.

I'd call this a good star sapphire and I'd be happy to own it. There are better ones out there, but they may not be easy to find. It's all matter of whether you like it at the price. To see some other PSer's stones, check out this long thread: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/show-your-star-sapphires-and-rubies.231433/

Are you buying the stone in the setting? If so, are you planning to reuse or re-sell the setting? I'm thinking that it must be contributing to the asking price.

Wow, thank you so much for your super detailed reply! I truly appreciate it!
I've checked that thread and oh boy, some of these stars work wonders!

Following your advice, I asked for more pictures in normal, soft light conditions as well as the side view of the cab and the vendor sent me two videos. The vendor claims that the white particles near the prongs are just dust, not dents/chips.
side view
front view
As for the setting, I won't be buying the ring setting and the stone and because of it, the vendor offered a discount Do you think around $350 for the stone is at a good price?

 

[Starstruck8]

Following your advice, I asked for more pictures in normal, soft light conditions as well as the side view of the cab and the vendor sent me two videos.

The stone looks wonderfully glowy in the videos.

The videos seem to confirm that the alignment of the star is off - this is regarded as a fault by conventional standards, but, as I said, that may not worry you.

I may be misunderstanding, but the videos (and the pics posted earlier), aren't taken in what I mean by soft light. I mean soft diffuse light. For example, under a cloudy sky, in shadow under a sunny sky, indoors near a window, or under overhead strip lights. In these conditions the star won't be visible and the body colour will be less saturated. It's very important to check this, because that's how the stone will look for much of the time. This is nothing to do with the quality of the stone, it's just how star stones work.

With the caveat that I haven't looked at pricing for a while, I think $350 is a good price. I'd absolutely buy it for that.

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

I think it's super pretty and a good price!

I'm not exactly sure if pricing but that pricing doesn't seem hokey to me (sometimes you get people quoting ridiculous prices)!

 

[icy_jade]

I’ll like to see how it looks without a strong light ie cab when star is not visible. Assuming the color looks good and inclusion isn’t awful or distracting, will grab it at $350.

 

[viridian]

Thank you @Starstruck8 , @mellowyellowgirl ,@icy_jade !
Following your advices, I'll ask the vendor for more pictures of it in diffused lighting.
Will be back soon!

 

[LilAlex]

I agree it's pretty.

I am a little suspicious that there is no "profile" shot. Often these are over-deep but this one seems very shallow. That could impact the turtle design -- more of a painted turtle than a box turtle. Price seems excellent so I am looking for the fatal flaw. It also could be quite opaque -- it has a very milky look in the brighter-light shots to my eye. @Starstruck8 has a more critical eye than I do, though.

 

[icy_jade]

If the whitish streaks/lines are be visible all the time, it can be a turnoff in some stars that I’ve seen. But need to see how it looks in diffused light to be sure.

 

[viridian]

I agree it's pretty.

I am a little suspicious that there is no "profile" shot. Often these are over-deep but this one seems very shallow. That could impact the turtle design -- more of a painted turtle than a box turtle. Price seems excellent so I am looking for the fatal flaw. It also could be quite opaque -- it has a very milky look in the brighter-light shots to my eye. @Starstruck8 has a more critical eye than I do, though.

Thank you for your reply!

The stone measures 8.82x8.18x5.24mm and the vendor has sent me this video depicting the profile shot of the stone. As you've mentioned, I do think this is pretty shallow compared to other stars, so will have to take this into account.

I'll post more pics of it in diffused lighting once I get a response from the vendor!

 

[viridian]

Hi all!
First of all, thank you @Starstruck8 @LilAlex @icy_jade for your advice! It really helped me in what to look for before buying a star sapphire.

So the vendor sent me(finally) a video of the stone under normal soft light. Video
What do you think? It seems to have the typical star sapphire inclusions but at the same time not too opaque, as I've seen stars that had far more silk inside.
I would appreciate your final thoughts!

 

[Starstruck8]

So the vendor sent me(finally) a video of the stone under normal soft light. Video
What do you think? It seems to have the typical star sapphire inclusions but at the same time not too opaque, as I've seen stars that had far more silk inside.
I would appreciate your final thoughts!

Agreed. It has an unusually bright star with enough translucency to give the appearance of depth. It's fascinating to watch. I like it.

The lighting still isn't really soft. The fact that you can see even a hint of a star proves this. More directly, you can actually see the reflection of the main light source. That's the bright triangle. It's sharp-edged and covers only a small part of the top of the stone. This shows directly that the lighting isn't soft.

The reason this matters is that in truly soft light, the stone won't show a star at all. It will be pretty even all over in tone and colour, maybe with a brighter 'eye' in the middle. The colour and tone will be something like the average of what you see in the video. So it won't have the darker, more saturated areas and the lighter less saturated ones that give it visual interest in the video. This is what you will see for much of the time. It's really important that you understand this and are happy with it. No one should buy a star stone expecting to see the star all the time.

Apologies for not describing 'soft' light more clearly from the beginning. You've probably hassled the vendor more than enough by now, I think it's an excellent star sapphire at the price. Just be aware that in soft lighting (i.e., much of time) you won't see the star and the body colour will be lighter and less saturated.

 

[icy_jade]

If the whitish streaks/lines are be visible all the time, it can be a turnoff in some stars that I’ve seen. But need to see how it looks in diffused light to be sure.

This. It’s a personal thing here on. Personally I don’t like the whitish silk but lots of people don’t mind.

 

[viridian]

Apologies for not describing 'soft' light more clearly from the beginning. You've probably hassled the vendor more than enough by now, I think it's an excellent star sapphire at the price. Just be aware that in soft lighting (i.e., much of time) you won't see the star and the body colour will be lighter and less saturated.

Oh no no!
You've described soft lighting perfectly (in the best possible way I think), it's just that even though I explained to the vendor what light conditions I wanted the photos to be in, he didn't completely understand what it meant there were some miscommunications, but these were never your fault in any way!

I just wanted to make sure that I was getting a good enough stone at a right price, as here in my country star sapphires aren't that popular and there aren't many jewelers who have them in stock either.
Thank you so much for all your help @Starstruck8 and everyone else here in this thread, I'm lucky to be here in the PS community!

++Saturation or whitish silk isn't really a big deal for me, so I think I'll be getting this star Will update once it arrives!

 

[viridian]

Hi all!
The sapphire finally came! Took only about 4 days excluding the weekends
I was able to negotiate the price a lot and got it at a great price. I had bought it without the ring setting but for some reason, the vendor sent it set in its original setting. Planning to have it reset in a different design!

As for the stone, it looks magical in person and it's so interesting and cool to look at. It's translucent and has a very visible star, with sharper legs than I thought!
Somehow the color and the star seems a bit different in the pics, but IRL it's so much better.
It's a mauve-lavender purple with some pinkish overtones that make the star more pinkish than white, and I'm obsessed with its beauty

This is my first-ever star sapphire, and I'm so happy about it. Thank you PSers for helping me pick the right one!
++I'll be back with more sunlight photos tomorrow

 

[voce]

Beautiful star sapphire. Did I read it right in that you bought it unmounted? How do you want to set it?