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 Post subject: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:38 am 
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This will be post number 9, so I guess it's time to introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Claudia! Nice to meetcha!

I'm not a gemologist, thought I probably should have gone that route long ago. But instead, I went to college to get an engineering degree --- electrical engineering, which is very mathy and requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanics of light (including refraction and frequency, known to the layman as "color"). But what I really love is gemstones and jewelry, so while I was going to college I "treated" myself to a year of classes in jewelry fabrication, too.

I've loved gemstones as far back as I can remember -- literally! My first memory is of standing in my crib, which was still kept in my parents' bedroom, tapping a pair of my mother's earrings against my newly-budded baby teeth. I'd reached through the bars of the crib to take them off my parents' dresser; but being a baby, my mouth wasn't well-coordinated yet, and I somehow swallowed and choked on them. Fortunately, my mother heard me choking and ran to the bedroom. She shook me upside down to dislodge the earrings, which she thought I'd tried to eat. (No; I was just trying to figure out what they were made of: stone or glass?)

(Glass. They were rhinestones.)

I was fortunate to have been born the great-granddaughter of the last Governor of Siberia under the Tzar. My grandfather still had several of the pieces of jewelry his parents gave them when he fled to the US during the Bolshevik Revolution, so I was able to see quality gems at a very young age. But unfortunately, my father was fickle, and married many different acquisitive women in his lifetime, each of whom managed to make off with some of the family jewels when he divorced them. So by the time I reached my majority, none were left... c'est la vie. I've collected quite a few lovelies on my own without any help from my ancestors.

I buy and sell gems as a hobby -- mostly buy, but I do sell a few. I don't sell my best anymore, though; I miss them too much when they're gone, and I can't replace them easily.

I really hate to sell my gems, even my second-best... but FIVE large safe-deposit boxes seems a bit excessive even to me, especially considering that I store most of my gems in little baggies, not gem-boxes.

Is there a Gem-aholics Anonymous chapter in Washington state? :?

Guess what this is:


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Last edited by Paravani on Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:42 am 
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Location: the Netherlands
Howya Claudia,

Nice intro :D

As for the guess: andalusite?


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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:52 pm 
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Tim wrote:
Howya Claudia,

Nice intro :D

As for the guess: andalusite?


Hi, Tim!

Your guess is as good as mine! :D

Sorry, I was kinda cheating on this one. It's another one of the gems I wish I hadn't sold, so neither of us will ever be certain what it was. I bought it as a "bicolor" tourmaline, but it wasn't actually two colors. It was a very dark green gem with strong red-orange c-axis dichroism that happily showed up very well on camera. I sold it as "Andalusite-effect Tourmaline", and I believe now that it was indeed dichroic tourmaline with perhaps chrome?

I'm a sucker for dichroic gems of any kind, especially tourmalines. Schumann only talks about tourmalines with similar-hue dichroism -- blue/green, pink/peach, yellow-gold -- but there are a few, somewhat rare, opposite-color dichroic tourmalines out there if you look for them. I love Andalusite too, but gems this large and clean are unspeakably rare. (Whatever possessed me to sell the 9-carat one I once owned? I can't believe I did that! :shock: ) However, I've seen quite a few of these green-red tourmalines, and I buy them whenever I can.

I also like color-shift and color-change gems. One of these days I'll post a photo of my largest Alex (2+ carat), but it's locked away at the bank right now.

Thanks for asking the question! Now I'm up to ten posts! Yay! =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

-- Claudia


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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 2:24 pm 
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Welcome to the forum Claudia, from a fellow Washingtonian.

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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 2:37 pm 
Welcome to the forum Claudia... you'll enjoy here for sure :)


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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 2:48 pm 
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Welcome. :D


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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:37 pm 
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Big HI Claudia. :P

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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:03 pm 
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Claudia Paravani? that sounds familiar 8) :D
BENVENUTA!!!!!!!
ciao
alberto

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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:56 pm 
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Welcome aboard! :D

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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:21 pm 
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Welcome to the forum

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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:37 pm 
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Welcome Claudia!
I agree that your mystery stone looks like Andalusite.
Have fun, Lee

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 Post subject: Re: Hello World!
PostPosted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:26 pm 
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Welcome!!
And for the stone it could very possible have been a Tourmaline. Dravite many times behaves in that manner. They are often strongly dicroic in green and reddish brown.

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