Yellow Labradorite?

[VRBeauty]

JTV was selling "yellow labradorite" for around $10 per carat... Does anyone know anything about this stone?

 

[Barbara]

Hi, Minims,

Most likely it is the type of sunstone they mine in Oregon minus the shiller and/or red or green body color that makes it more valuable. $10 is reasonable price for this stuff. A good comparison would be like selling rock crystal gems versus selling amethyst, cat''seye quartz or rose quartz -- same basic mineral species but without color or phenomena, and being quite common, worth very little. The ones I have seen are a very lackluster, pale yellow, not vivid at all, so if these gems are vivid, expect some treatment has been used.

Barbara

 

[bjpayne]

Hi all,

This coud also refer to faceted Orthoclase Feldspar - GIA always required this material to be identified as "Transparent Labradorite". A large majority of material now available comes from Madagascar and the color is always a light straw yellow.

Either way, $10/ct. is still just about right.

Regards,
Brad

 

[VRBeauty]

Barbara and Brad:

Thank you for your responses! I ordered a matched pair of the stones that arrived yesterday. "Light straw" describes the color perfectly! The stones I got are Portugese cut and reflect nicely, but the imnner reflection is much lighter, almost white, if that makes any sense. I have another stone that's only a little darker in color -- a yellow beryl, I think. When I look into that stone the facets reflect more the color of the stone and even a bit deeper, which to me makes the stone look much richer. The long and short of it is that the "yellow labradorite" will be making a return trip to Tennessee.

Hmm... I'm thinking I that if I'm going to be conversing in this forum, I'll need to learn a bit of the native tongue. I'll have to go look for a gem-speak phrasebook!