I think axinite could be the next tanzanite if only they can find a big deposit of clean material of good color. It comes in great hues, pure purples, blues and greens (though always restricted to small irregular zones outside of the wcarce Tanzanian material), it has sufficient hardness, and the name even has a ring to it. It just needs to be available.
Post subject: Re: Discussing the Relationship between Tsavorite and Tanzan
Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 1:53 am
Valued Contributor
Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:16 am Posts: 239 Location: Germany
Hi there, yes we recently got some facetted zoisite from afghanistan. They are not that attractive, colour is a brownishgrey. Enclosed a pic, its not the best, but this one I had at hand.
For the Axinites: Its cool material. Most of them are brown (Afghanistan), but some have cool blue zones in them. From Tansania are coming the orange or lavender pieces which have some kind of color change, which is real nice. Some Pics enclosed
Whoops, I just noticed I revived the wrong thread. I meant to post the clinozoisite in the single-source stone thread. Oh well. Yeah, those grey zoisites are more typical of what I've been able to buy, those and some that lean more green. Not thr most marketable but they're weird and I kind of love them anyway. Their weird sort of shifty color is hard to nail down. The more violet ones are quite unusual. Rob Lavinski of iRocks had a large crystal of this color (zoisite or clinozoisite) which I got to see in person at the Western Look show, but I've only seen them one other place, in the small parcel I selected the rough for that stone from.
I have one of those ferroaxinites with a spot of blue right off-center in the middle of the stone. Ferroaxinite already has great pleochroism, red to gold to purple, it just usually blends to brown if not cut carefully. This one, with the blue mixed in, shows an almost full rainbow of color as it is turned between the pleochroism and the color zoning. I've also seen pictures of crystals with nearly emerald-like green edges.
I love that small round diopside. Every now and then you see one that reminds you how closely chrome diopside and hiddenite are related.
Edit: I pulled out a few more Pakistan zoisites from my collection. Mostly grey-greens which the camera has a lot of trouble picking up. This one shows a nice pleochroic green/brown combo, which I had to boost the saturation on a bit to match what I saw in person (still figuring out my new camera):
More in the epidote direction in hue and pleochroism, so I assume it's mostly an iron-based color, but still kind of nice. The light-toned zoisites also show surprisingly nice dispersion, like this light grey-gold stone:
Post subject: Re: Discussing the Relationship between Tsavorite and Tanzan
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:20 am
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 1:10 pm Posts: 850
I am a bit confused...
Axinite group are Axinite(Fe), Axinite(Mg) and Axinite(Mn).
Many sources like Mindat or Webmineral say that the pink to blue axinites from Merelani are Axinite (Mg).
Cara and Bear Williams indentified them as Axinite (Mn) after examination. My two stones show a moderate to strong reaction to a Neodym Magnet too, show the same LW UV reaction. So I agree that there is def. Mangan part of this material.
( Journal of Gemmology 34/3 2014 page 191-192)
What do you think - maybe a mix of Axinite(Mg) and (Mn) - Fe, Mg and Mn let me think about the Pyralspite group ( Almandine, Pyrop and Spessartine)...
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