Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:19 pm Posts: 914 Location: California, USA
Hi, Bob, I like the rich orange color in your stone.
This is just a red garnet. I don’t know what species or where it’s from. It is 7.23 carats and 9.5 mm wide x 12.3 mm long x 7.4 mm deep. For its size, it is not dark at all.
Update: Species:'Malaia garnet', a complex mixture of pyrope-spessartine Originn: Lindi, Tanzania
_________________ Best regards, Mitch
I am a slave to cutting a stone completely free of chips and very much enjoying it.
Last edited by mhuynh on Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I like the reddish orange spessartites a lot. Fanta orange is always nice but the intense reddish orange found in some spessartites and pyrope-spessatites is what makes me think of the Carbuncle the glowing coal of the romans.
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
Conny Forsberg wrote:
I like the reddish orange spessartites a lot. Fanta orange is always nice but the intense reddish orange found in some spessartites and pyrope-spessatites is what makes me think of the Carbuncle the glowing coal of the romans.
I think it's interesting to observe gemstone color fashions as they come and go. Prior to the fairly recent Namibian and Nigerian spessartite discoveries, that garnet species was best known for its "aurora red" hues. Maybe gem-grade orange stones weren't abundant enough to popularize although fine orange gems were produced at various mines including the Little 3 in CA and Amelia Courthouse, VA.
I've always been very fond of the fiery red spessartites, and I think the carbuncle reference is just right for them. In some stones it's as if a magma of incandescent brilliance erupts from the brooding red depths with nearly palpable force. Spessartite's high R.I. results in remarkable gems with no equal in my opinion.
Here's the red of an actual aurora borealis in a great image by Michael S. Quinton:
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:00 pm Posts: 461 Location: Washington DC
I'm resurrecting this thread, I went a little crazy on the garnet rough in Tucson and I'm excited to start cutting. Here's an interesting shot I just took of a rhodolite I cut. Natural sunlight, no editing of the picture other than cropping.
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:19 pm Posts: 914 Location: California, USA
Nice purplish red, Bob.
Just off the dop, 3.55 carats, 8.7 mm wide x 8.7 mm long x 6.1 mm deep. Imagine me humming Beatles’ Norwegian Wood. "I…showed you my stone…Isn’t it good, Tanzanian Rhodo." In place of “She…showed me her room…Isn’t it good, Norwegian wood.”
I love garnet.
_________________ Best regards, Mitch
I am a slave to cutting a stone completely free of chips and very much enjoying it.
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:51 am Posts: 12 Location: Mountain Home, Id
Hi, my name is Kelly. Is this the G.A. meeting I heard about? I am a jeweler living in Idaho, and was bitten pretty hard by the garnet bug. I love going to Northern Idaho and digging for Star Garnets at Emerald Creek, and red facet grade garnets up by Lewiston. I have cut and polished these things until my fingers bled. I have about 20lbs of tumble polished star garnet rough, and probably 25lbs of as-mined rough,(my boss thinks I have lost my mind and recommends therapy). So, does this count as therapy? Anyway, when I get a camera and learn how to post pictures, I will do so. I have cut star garnets ranging from 3mm to a 18x23mm 43.5ct monster. Thanks, Kelly, formerly known as Kwillis until I forgot my password and had to make a new account.
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