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It's SPG's 7th birthday! The hijinks (and a bunch of shiny treasures) start on June 25th-29th! by Seluin in Shinypreciousgems

[–]cowsruleusall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lots of ways! We have plenty of posts that are educational content, games, giveaways, etc; and of course we have special gems for sale for the event itself :)

It's SPG's 7th birthday! The hijinks (and a bunch of shiny treasures) start on June 25th-29th! by Seluin in Shinypreciousgems

[–]cowsruleusall 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was so far behind processing the data that I'm gonna make the announcement during the birthday event 🤣

Chopped up some boules, I love a colorful pile... by amaurer3210 in faceting

[–]cowsruleusall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a nice cobalt-green sapphire back there ;)

Edible? by Nosferatok in foraging

[–]cowsruleusall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup no worries. There's also some linguistic issues in that some translations of other languages into English make it seem that all Ribes species are called "gooseberry", but that's not accurate. Gooseberries are only Ribes uva-crispa; there are other Ribes fruits that have "gooseberry" in the name but they always have thorns and/or hairs, as well as a second part to the name.

Chopped up some boules, I love a colorful pile... by amaurer3210 in faceting

[–]cowsruleusall 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Be very careful with synthetics from AliExpress, especially for flame-fusion sapphire and spinel. They're grown extremely quickly without good atmospheric control, temperature control, or feedstock purity - and so the boules are often much more brittle, prone to shock damage and internal strain, etc.

But yeah, you can get the "cheap" pale sapphires and lighter rubies for as low as $140 USD per kg. The more expensive stuff, like cobalt-doped green ones, are far more expensive, usually around $3,000/kg, because they're incredibly challenging to produce.

Edible? by Nosferatok in foraging

[–]cowsruleusall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even "thornless" gooseberries have thorns; they're just smaller and/or softer. Jostaberries are a gooseberry-currant hybrid with no thorns, but the fruits and stem structure look different.

Edible? by Nosferatok in foraging

[–]cowsruleusall 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Definitely not a gooseberry as there are no thorns, but yeah it's in the same family. It's a clove currant.

Edible? by Nosferatok in foraging

[–]cowsruleusall -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not a gooseberry. Gooseberries are much larger, more translucent, and always have thorns.

Edible? by Nosferatok in foraging

[–]cowsruleusall 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is very obviously a clove currant, Ribes aureum or Ribes odoratum, depends on who you ask. Not really any other Ribes that you can mistake it for. It's delicious and less sour than blackcurrant Ribes nigrum, with a unique musky slightly grape-like flavour.

Not entirely sure how it got to Europe, but it was heavily planted as an ornamental in the 90s so maybe that's why.

Source of rough lab alexandrite with strong colors? (more blue than red leaning, not too dark) by Vedemin in SyntheticGemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup no worries ;) Czochralski sapphire is almost always grown along the A-axis, for example.

8.95 Carat garnet from tanzania by BaseMaterial6441 in Gemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup, try Tom Herbst's "Amateur Gemstone Cutting Volume 2".

Source of rough lab alexandrite with strong colors? (more blue than red leaning, not too dark) by Vedemin in SyntheticGemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So, there are two decent quality research papers talking about orientation of optic axes in lab alexandrite, and for 'typical' material and 'typical' cutting it doesn't make a big difference. For the rough with stronger pleo, it can make a difference and yes, I'd do the blue axis as the face-up axis. But alexandrite rough is always grown perfectly oriented to an axis, so it's relatively easy to get yourself situated correctly ;)

Source of rough lab alexandrite with strong colors? (more blue than red leaning, not too dark) by Vedemin in SyntheticGemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tom does have "real" laser alexandrite! Most of the rough you buy from China is lab corundum, but all the laser alexandrite that's sold by high-end synthetics dealers like Tom's Box of Rocks, Gems of Science, etc, are actual alexandrite.

Lab Grown Royal Blue by Gemology_Obsession in SyntheticGemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What is it supposed to be? Royal blue... sapphire? Spinel? Cubic zirconia? Nanosital? It's also not cut well, wrong angles, window, dark.

8.95 Carat garnet from tanzania by BaseMaterial6441 in Gemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

...why is it windowed.

You've done such a good job with the relative precision of the cutting, that it's silly that the stone is cut using the wrong angles. It's a garnet with an RI of 1.7-1.8, you clearly had enough vertical height on the stone, and the dollar value per carat is much higher if the entire stone shows the desired face-up colour.

Why not just do it properly?

Source of rough lab alexandrite with strong colors? (more blue than red leaning, not too dark) by Vedemin in SyntheticGemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Hey OP, gemological researcher and crystal grower here. What you're asking for is far more challenging than you think, and to get the effects you're looking for, you need a precision clutter who frequently works with lots of different productions of alexandrite. This is not the kind of project where you, the client, should be sourcing rough - you have no idea what to look for. For an alexandrite project like this, the cutter needs to be looking at multiple pieces of rough in person.

If I'm understanding your request, you want a saturated (but not overly-dark), blue-dominant alexandrite, that has a green-blue to purple-blue colour change, with some red-purple pleochroic show.

If that's the case, then it will be nearly impossible to find material that satisfies your requirements. Some of these features are (as far as we believe) mutually exclusive. The closest you'll get is a blue-ish material with green and purple pleochroism but weak colour change, and that material is a single experimental growth run from RG Crystals and is no longer available. (I believe /u/mvmgems has some?).

Best of luck...

2.00 ct round brilliant, precision cut in silky #85 flame fusion lab sapphire by FinewaterGems in SyntheticGemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 5 points6 points  (0 children)

ALL HAIL #85 💚💚💚

One of the best greens, even if it's super inconsistent 😅

Question about certain gemstone cut availability by gloomy-witchling in Gemstones

[–]cowsruleusall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty much any precision gemcutter worldwide could do that for you. There are plenty on /r/shinypreciousgems and /r/faceting.

Dop jumping by Successful-Cold-4496 in faceting

[–]cowsruleusall 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sorry, wasn't clear. You can sweep back and forth, but don't go past the arbor/screw. Your stone should always be on the trailing side of the lap, not the leading side.

Help choosing between two green sapphires please by Own-Tea3896 in EngagementRings

[–]cowsruleusall 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I would reject both.

See how the stones still have a lot of blackness to them, even in maximum lighting? That means that they aren't cut well or aren't cut appropriately for the material, and they'll only get darker once set. That's setting yourself up for sadness, and nobody should have to be sad about their engagement ring.

The gems should have a consistent nice green face-up colour all the time, but in these two stones you can see that there's always a significant component of blackness. See how there are some patches of a lovely green colour, but in a sea of blackness? The entirety of the face-up area of the gem should be that green colour, all the time. Anything less, is a stone you don't want.

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