Mali Garnet
First new Stones for 2013
13/January/2013 05:36 PM Filed in: Latest Cut stones
A few new stone to start off the new year. For some reason, everything ended up being round this week.
This first one is one of those fantastic colors from Afghanistan. It's a Tourmaline with very pretty green/blue color cut in a round.
Next up is a Mali Garnet. These are getting more and more difficult to find. I rarely see any rough. This one is cut in my Jua round design.
Back to Tanzania, and this Mint Garnet.
I haven't cut a Montana Sapphire in some time. I always like working with these. Here's a small denim blue colored stone.
This first one is one of those fantastic colors from Afghanistan. It's a Tourmaline with very pretty green/blue color cut in a round.
Next up is a Mali Garnet. These are getting more and more difficult to find. I rarely see any rough. This one is cut in my Jua round design.
Back to Tanzania, and this Mint Garnet.
I haven't cut a Montana Sapphire in some time. I always like working with these. Here's a small denim blue colored stone.
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Garnet Varieties
19/February/2012 06:08 PM Filed in: Latest Cut stones
This week I have a variety of different garnets, a new tourmaline and a re-vamped Zircon.
After the discussion on Pricescope about Imperial Garnet, I thought I'd cut one. This is from some material I bought about 5 or 6 years ago. Comparing the refractive index of this stone to some other Malaya I had here, this one is a bit different at 1.756 compared to the more orange stones that have a RI of 1.784. I would think the more orange color is due to a greater amount of spessartite in them, which has a higher RI than other garnet.
This next garnet is a Mali Garnet. I had high hopes for this stone until I got into it, and discovered a few inclusions I couldn't see in the rough. Consequently I listed the price of the stone at below what I paid for the rough. The inclusions in person are not as apparent as they are in the photo which does greatly magnify the stone.
Keeping on the garnet role, I had a very nice Merelani Mint Garnet that I picked up this year in Tucson. This one was a nice fit for the Jua Round design. No yellow in person, just mint green with a touch of blue.
Getting sick of rounds, I wanted to do something different, in both stone, and cut. This little Blue Tourmaline had a natural 5 sided look to the rough, so it was perfect for this design with a frosted star.
Remember that Zircon from last week? Well no one asked about it, so I heated it. As expected turned into a nice yellow. Here's an after heating and a before picture.
A Rubellite Tourmaline from Nigeria, no heat or treatment. The color is a hot red, that holds beautiful in any light. Weighs 3.13 cts, 8.75 mm. Typical inclusions for rubellite.
After the discussion on Pricescope about Imperial Garnet, I thought I'd cut one. This is from some material I bought about 5 or 6 years ago. Comparing the refractive index of this stone to some other Malaya I had here, this one is a bit different at 1.756 compared to the more orange stones that have a RI of 1.784. I would think the more orange color is due to a greater amount of spessartite in them, which has a higher RI than other garnet.
This next garnet is a Mali Garnet. I had high hopes for this stone until I got into it, and discovered a few inclusions I couldn't see in the rough. Consequently I listed the price of the stone at below what I paid for the rough. The inclusions in person are not as apparent as they are in the photo which does greatly magnify the stone.
Keeping on the garnet role, I had a very nice Merelani Mint Garnet that I picked up this year in Tucson. This one was a nice fit for the Jua Round design. No yellow in person, just mint green with a touch of blue.
Getting sick of rounds, I wanted to do something different, in both stone, and cut. This little Blue Tourmaline had a natural 5 sided look to the rough, so it was perfect for this design with a frosted star.
Remember that Zircon from last week? Well no one asked about it, so I heated it. As expected turned into a nice yellow. Here's an after heating and a before picture.
A Rubellite Tourmaline from Nigeria, no heat or treatment. The color is a hot red, that holds beautiful in any light. Weighs 3.13 cts, 8.75 mm. Typical inclusions for rubellite.
Garnets
23/October/2011 08:10 PM Filed in: Latest Cut stones
I cut a few of the lesser known garnets this week. This first one is a Malaya Garnet from Tanzania. Malaya garnet is often miss used to describe off color garnets typically from Nigeria. These Nigerian stones are very dark and area reddish brown color, they are also very inexpensive to buy in the rough. The true Malaya garnets from Tanzania and Kenya are a much different stone, and very attractive. This one is one of the more pink colored stones. The color on Malaya garnets does shift with the lighting going more yellowish flesh color in daylight.
This next stone is a Mali Garnet, from Mali Africa. These are seldom very large, a 1 ct stones is considered a good size. Mali Garnets have more dispersion than a diamond. The photo doesn't do this stone justice at all, in person it's very lively.
This next stone is a Mali Garnet, from Mali Africa. These are seldom very large, a 1 ct stones is considered a good size. Mali Garnets have more dispersion than a diamond. The photo doesn't do this stone justice at all, in person it's very lively.