Oct 2009
Spinel for a Cause
26/10/09 21:37 Filed in: Spinel
Help Break the
Chain of Cruelty
. . . and get a fantastic doing it
As many of you know who have purchased stones from me there is a return address sticker creating awareness to the Puppy Mill problem. I moved to PA last year, and found out that it's the Puppy Mill Capital of the US, and maybe the world! I have volunteered with United Against Puppy Mills to help bring a stop to this cruel "business".
There are 1667 puppy mills in Lancaster Co. PA alone, some with over 200 dogs as full time breading prisoners. These dogs spend their entire life in rabbet hutch type cages breeding puppies that are then sold to pet stores on online. The conditions are horrendous that these dogs live in, the dogs are often sick, injured and diseased with no medical attention. When they can no longer breed they are often either starved to death or drown, then thrown in the corn field for fertilizer.
You can help
There has been a great demand for the Spinel from Mahenge Morogoro, and I have a rather long list of people wanting one. So here your chance to own one, and help out the dogs. The stone will be offered to everyone on the list, and anyone else who visits the website. It's going to be like a sim-silent auction. The stone will be on sale until Friday October 30th at 6:00 pm EST. Each night until then I'll post the high bid here. You will be able to bid again up until Friday night.
The starting bid will be $679 - proceeds will be donated to United Against Puppy Mills to help stop this terrible cruelty.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CURRENT HIGH BID
Here's the details of the stone:
The United Against Puppy Mill bracelet is included with the stone.
. . . and get a fantastic doing it
As many of you know who have purchased stones from me there is a return address sticker creating awareness to the Puppy Mill problem. I moved to PA last year, and found out that it's the Puppy Mill Capital of the US, and maybe the world! I have volunteered with United Against Puppy Mills to help bring a stop to this cruel "business".
There are 1667 puppy mills in Lancaster Co. PA alone, some with over 200 dogs as full time breading prisoners. These dogs spend their entire life in rabbet hutch type cages breeding puppies that are then sold to pet stores on online. The conditions are horrendous that these dogs live in, the dogs are often sick, injured and diseased with no medical attention. When they can no longer breed they are often either starved to death or drown, then thrown in the corn field for fertilizer.
You can help
- Don't buy a dog from a pet stone (99% come from Puppy Mills)
- Don't buy dog's Online
- Do buy a rescue dog
- Go to the website www.unitedagainstpuppymills.org and tell everyone you know
- Google Puppy Mills - you will be shocked at what you see!
There has been a great demand for the Spinel from Mahenge Morogoro, and I have a rather long list of people wanting one. So here your chance to own one, and help out the dogs. The stone will be offered to everyone on the list, and anyone else who visits the website. It's going to be like a sim-silent auction. The stone will be on sale until Friday October 30th at 6:00 pm EST. Each night until then I'll post the high bid here. You will be able to bid again up until Friday night.
The starting bid will be $679 - proceeds will be donated to United Against Puppy Mills to help stop this terrible cruelty.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CURRENT HIGH BID
Here's the details of the stone:
- 1.43 ct.
- 6.42 mm. cushon cut
- Color: 10, Clarity: 9, Brilliance: 5, Total Quality Rating: 9.7
The United Against Puppy Mill bracelet is included with the stone.
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New Photos
25/10/09 23:25 Filed in: Latest Cut
Gems
Two
new stones tonight, and a new surface to photograph
the stones on. I was in the Dollar Store the other
day, and picked up this small mirror. Let me know
if you like this surface better for the pictures
than what I was using before. This will let you see
the girdle thickness, and a bit of the pavilion all
in the same photo.
First up is a new Tsavorite Garnet. A very intense chrome green colored stone from Lemshuko Tsavorite Mine in Tanzania.
Next is a "Change Color Garnet". The stone is 3.14 cts. This color is about the half way point of the color change, with the stone going more red in incandescent light, and more purple/blue in daylight.
First up is a new Tsavorite Garnet. A very intense chrome green colored stone from Lemshuko Tsavorite Mine in Tanzania.
Next is a "Change Color Garnet". The stone is 3.14 cts. This color is about the half way point of the color change, with the stone going more red in incandescent light, and more purple/blue in daylight.
Mid October New stones
19/10/09 20:37 Filed in: Latest Cut
Gems
4
New Stones Tonight
A mixed bag of stones for today. The first one is a Zircon from Tanzania. When these stones are found, they are a rootbeer brown color. They are often heated right at the mining area as all that is needed is a candle. I heat mine after cutting, and do it in an oven so I can control the temperature better. The color on this one is a very nice yellow, and in person has a lot of dispersion... looks like a yellow diamond. (No you are not crosseyed! Zircon is double refractive, so each facet shows up 2 times. This effect is more pronounced in photo's than in real life however)
This next stone is a Lake Baringo Ruby from Kenya. These are fantastic stones, but are always very small. Any thing over 1 ct is very very rare. I had made friends over the internet with a fellow in Kenya, and had told him I was going to visit Arusha Tanzania. I get a knock on my door one night, and there he is with 3 friends. They had a small bag of these rubies and one very large tsavorite. The tsavorite was too dark, and included, and the rubies were too small for me to work with. I felt bad since they had traveled so far, so I picked out the 3 largest stones, and then gave them money for a room and a bus ride back home the next day. So here is the first of the 3 stones.
Call it a ruby or call it sapphire, the color is unique and you will never see this in a jewerly store around your house.
Next are 2 garnets, both from Tanzania, one Spessartite, and one Rhodolite. No boring story with these...
A mixed bag of stones for today. The first one is a Zircon from Tanzania. When these stones are found, they are a rootbeer brown color. They are often heated right at the mining area as all that is needed is a candle. I heat mine after cutting, and do it in an oven so I can control the temperature better. The color on this one is a very nice yellow, and in person has a lot of dispersion... looks like a yellow diamond. (No you are not crosseyed! Zircon is double refractive, so each facet shows up 2 times. This effect is more pronounced in photo's than in real life however)
This next stone is a Lake Baringo Ruby from Kenya. These are fantastic stones, but are always very small. Any thing over 1 ct is very very rare. I had made friends over the internet with a fellow in Kenya, and had told him I was going to visit Arusha Tanzania. I get a knock on my door one night, and there he is with 3 friends. They had a small bag of these rubies and one very large tsavorite. The tsavorite was too dark, and included, and the rubies were too small for me to work with. I felt bad since they had traveled so far, so I picked out the 3 largest stones, and then gave them money for a room and a bus ride back home the next day. So here is the first of the 3 stones.
Call it a ruby or call it sapphire, the color is unique and you will never see this in a jewerly store around your house.
Next are 2 garnets, both from Tanzania, one Spessartite, and one Rhodolite. No boring story with these...
Green Binge
10/10/09 17:19 Filed in: Latest Cut
Gems
I
went on a short green binge, cutting my favorite
stone; Tsavorite
Garnet.
Both these stones are from Tanzania, and are from rought I bought while in Arusha this summer. The first one is a smaller stone thats very affordable, cut in a square step design.
This next one is from the Swala Gem Traders mine in Tanania. Excellenct color and crystal and size. It's rare to obtain fine tsavorite over 1 ct, well this one is 2.33 cts.
Both these stones are from Tanzania, and are from rought I bought while in Arusha this summer. The first one is a smaller stone thats very affordable, cut in a square step design.
This next one is from the Swala Gem Traders mine in Tanania. Excellenct color and crystal and size. It's rare to obtain fine tsavorite over 1 ct, well this one is 2.33 cts.
Latest News
08/10/09 22:56 Filed in: Latest Cut
Gems
There seems to be some confusion with my new
grading system. Since the early spring of 2009 I
have moved to this new system based on Color,
Clarity and Brilliance. Not all three are a 1-10
scale. This is all explained on the information page, but
I think a lot of people never "read the fine
print", so I'm expaining the grading system
here again.
Color is the most important and complex to grade. Color is made up of three components, hue, saturation and tone. Color will be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 taking these three factors into consideration.
Clarity is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being loop clean under a 10X loop.
10 = Loop Clean
8 = Eye Clean
6 = Slightly Included
4 = Moderately Included
2 = Heavily Included
Values between are used when the stone is either a bit cleaner or less clean. It's very rare to find any stone score a 10 for clarity. 7 and higher makes for a very nice stone.
Brilliance - will be a combination of Cut, Sparkle, light return, Proportion and Crystal.
Graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Total Quality Rating - Is the combined score of these 3 with a possible best score of 10
1-5: Low end commercial
6-7: Better quality commercial
8-8.5: Fine quality
8.5-9.5: Very fine quality
9.5-10: What the trade calls "gem"
One new stone tonight, this is a mint green tourmaline for a new find in Nigeria. Nigeria is pretty famous for producing a variety of colors of tourmaline, but this is first I have seen this color. Hopefully this is just the start of these stones.
Color is the most important and complex to grade. Color is made up of three components, hue, saturation and tone. Color will be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 taking these three factors into consideration.
Clarity is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being loop clean under a 10X loop.
10 = Loop Clean
8 = Eye Clean
6 = Slightly Included
4 = Moderately Included
2 = Heavily Included
Values between are used when the stone is either a bit cleaner or less clean. It's very rare to find any stone score a 10 for clarity. 7 and higher makes for a very nice stone.
Brilliance - will be a combination of Cut, Sparkle, light return, Proportion and Crystal.
Graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Total Quality Rating - Is the combined score of these 3 with a possible best score of 10
1-5: Low end commercial
6-7: Better quality commercial
8-8.5: Fine quality
8.5-9.5: Very fine quality
9.5-10: What the trade calls "gem"
One new stone tonight, this is a mint green tourmaline for a new find in Nigeria. Nigeria is pretty famous for producing a variety of colors of tourmaline, but this is first I have seen this color. Hopefully this is just the start of these stones.
Tanzanian Garnet
05/10/09 22:09 Filed in: Latest Cut
Gems
Here's a new garnet, form a small parcel I bought
in Tanzania. These were very different from any
other garnet I have had. The color is a lighter
pink with lavender, and has a softness to it. The
shapes of the stones were add, and there were not
many, nor very large, but I couldn't pass on the
color.
I'm not sure how to classify the stone, the Refractive index is 1.738, which would indicate pyrope, but the color is too light and pink. The spectra is similar to Almandine, but then the RI is too low. Tanzania is know for many type of garnets, and mixes of them, and this is another odd one.
I'm not sure how to classify the stone, the Refractive index is 1.738, which would indicate pyrope, but the color is too light and pink. The spectra is similar to Almandine, but then the RI is too low. Tanzania is know for many type of garnets, and mixes of them, and this is another odd one.