topic Re: What Gemstone Is This? in Jewelry

What Gemstone Is This?

gertrudecloset — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 03:16:27 GMT

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Marp — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:55:31 GMT

Maybe Tanzanite or Iolite. Hard to tell from that photo.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

elated — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 01:05:21 GMT

It looks like a purple sapphire.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Kachina624 — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 01:37:40 GMT

Could be an African Amethyst. Horrible photo for identification purposes.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Desertdi — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 01:58:29 GMT

1 page
1 image size
- 480 x 360
  YouTube
  Color Change Tanzanite 2.85 Carats - YouTube | 480 x 360 · 21 kB · jpeg

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Kachina624 — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 02:06:42 GMT

@Desertdi Never heard if a color changing Tanzanite. Must be a synthetic stone.

I have a very large ring that's a synthetic Alexanderite that is similar.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Desertdi — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 02:10:33 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
@Desertdi Never heard if a color changing Tanzanite. Must be a synthetic stone.

I have a very large ring that's a synthetic Alexanderite that is similar.

@Kachina624 I purchased a "bella luce cz tanzanite" line bracelet that looks pretty good to me!! di

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Kachina624 — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 02:28:26 GMT

@Desertdi Here's mine. It must be 25+ct. It's too big to wear but the silver work is exquisite. It changes from teal to deep wine. I got it from a dealer in Bangkok from whom I bought a lot of jewelry. The stone is so big, it doesn't photograph well. Needs good light.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

gertrudecloset — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 03:09:20 GMT

@Marp wrote:
Maybe Tanzanite or Iolite. Hard to tell from that photo.

I've done this quite a few times in this section and we all have fun guessing which stone it is @Marp .

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

gertrudecloset — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 03:22:35 GMT

@Desertdi wrote:
1 page
1 image size
480 x 360
YouTube
Color Change Tanzanite 2.85 Carats - YouTube | 480 x 360 · 21 kB · jpeg

@Desertdiyou got it!

Yepper. I was shocked. I was reading something on Youtube about Tanzania and the Massai people. The men in this village closest to the mine use these various colored pieces of rough tanzanite (zoisite) when playing a local game.

I was watching them go down into the mine and grade them and so on. The mine is near Mt. Kilimanjaro (never knew this). The mineral zoisite comes in more than one color (like diamonds and sapphires and garnets do). They call other colors of Tanzanite "fancy" or pink or orange tanzanite. Some are pleochroic. Many are heat treated as well.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Desertdi — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 15:37:10 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
@Desertdi Here's mine. It must be 25+ct. It's too big to wear but the silver work is exquisite. It changes from teal to deep wine. I got it from a dealer in Bangkok from whom I bought a lot of jewelry. The stone is so big, it doesn't photograph well. Needs good light.

@Kachina624 That IS exquisite craftsmanship! I think I would wear it... di

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

FatCatinCT — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 16:44:02 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
@Desertdi Never heard if a color changing Tanzanite. Must be a synthetic stone.

I have a very large ring that's a synthetic Alexanderite that is similar.

Tanzanite that was first mined is purple/blue/redish. I purchased a Tanzanite 1.80 ring in Aruba ages ago for $1600, it now has an appraised value of over $8k

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

willomenia — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 20:30:18 GMT

Take it to a jeweler would be my advise. I would say based on how long ago you bought it and where you bought it I'm guessing alexandrite. I know it's quite large, but many years ago while at a restaurant bar, the bartender had a ring on that was several colors every time you looked at it (this is before i ever heard of alexandrite) she said it was her husband's grandmother's ring, that was originally in a basket setting that she had reset. It was about 5 carets, and said it was an alexandrite. The ring today would probably be worth a fortune, it went from a brown color, to green, to blue, even red in certain light. That's why I would get it looked at

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

gertrudecloset — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 20:54:50 GMT

@FatCatinCT wrote:
@Kachina624 wrote:
@Desertdi Never heard if a color changing Tanzanite. Must be a synthetic stone.

I have a very large ring that's a synthetic Alexanderite that is similar.
Tanzanite that was first mined is purple/blue/redish. I purchased a Tanzanite 1.80 ring in Aruba ages ago for $1600, it now has an appraised value of over $8k

New veins in the mine have happened upon these beautiful colors. I don't know why not much was ever known about the other colors of the mineral zoisite, but they exist @FatCatinCT . They are not always mined in that color. Fact is, Tanzanite is heat treated in many cases to get the colors that are sought after.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

Enufstuff — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 23:16:36 GMT

@Kachina624

Your Alexandrite ring is beautiful.

I have a synthetic Alexandrite pendant that I got from

an Egyptian jeweler. It is pear shape and it changes from

a reddish purple to dusty or grayish teal.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

qualitygal — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:30:52 GMT

1st one I'd say is Tanzanite.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

patbz — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:53:04 GMT

I have a very similar stone that I bought 50 years ago from Bangkok. Mine is a synthetic Alexanderite, currently valued at over $1000.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

SilleeMee — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 22:02:42 GMT

I have a fairly old Technibond line bracelet with lab Alex stones. It has eighteen 7mm round cut stones set in Technibond gold plate. Color change is 100%. No idea how much the stones are worth. Back in its day Technibond had many kinds of lab stones in their collections.

Re: What Gemstone Is This?

gertrudecloset — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 01:54:12 GMT

Really large Alexandrite does not exist. It doesn't occur in nature very large. So, if you have one that is humongous, it pays to check and make sure that it is not a synthetic (unless of course, you already know it is synthetic).

Alexandrite does not [did not] occur naturally in large stones.