mint – The Gemstone Project

An Engagement Ring for B & S

Posted on September 18, 2017September 16, 2017 by grayspinel

I heard first seen and fallen in love with the creations by The Gemstone Project in 2016, while looking for unique pieces for my personal jewellery collection.

I really enjoyed that even my casual questioning and interest was met with positivity and genuine responses. As an Etsy favourite, when one of the listings jumped out at me, I sent the link to my partner, just stating that I found the ring I wanted.

He immediately inquired as to the possibility of having a ring resized and sent to us in Australia. Elle made it a very simple and comfortable process for him to get my correct ring size, and the ring arrived much faster than anyone expected.

The fit of the ring is perfect, it’s almost weightless and extremely comfortable. Well my newly minted fiance kept frantically checking that it was still on my hand, but I was 100% certain that it wouldn’t fall off accidentally.

The quality of the piece is unmatched, I have had endless compliments on the colour and cut of the stone as well as remarks on the ingenuity of the secret diamonds on the sides. All of my close friends and family members have remarked that it is very much suited to me, as well as the fact that it is very unique.

I have no hesitations in asking Elle to craft matching wedding and eternity rings. – B & S

Congratulations to you on your engagement and I’d be positively delighted to be involved in the wedding ring process!

Elle

Gem Blast: Green Garnet

Posted on August 24, 2015August 21, 2015 by grayspinel

I want to take a post to talk a little bit about this garnet. I had been eyeing it for years from my favorite gemstone supplier, and at a certain point, could no longer resist the temptation and brought it home with me.

Tsavorite/Green Grossular Garnet
Medium Tone
Green
3.28ct
7.2×9.8mm
Elongated Octagon/emerald outline w/ step cut crown
eyeclean
untreated

There was a point where I thought about setting it and selling it as a piece, but I’ve been working so hard at trying to build up my list of prototypes for my jewelry line, that I can no longer justify holding onto it. So, it went up into my etsy store last week, and hopefully it will go to a good home.

However, in the time between going from considering selling it, to listing it to etsy, I sent it to an expert on all things green garnet to get his opinion on it and give me a quote on how much he thought I should list it for. I’ll be mysterious as to that person’s identity for now, but I plan on writing a blog with information from him at a later point in time.

This image and the following 2 images show it with natural light hitting the left side and artificial lighting hitting the right side.

The crystal is actually quite clean, but has some veil inclusions that are pretty evenly distributed throughout the stone.

As you can see, it’s a pretty remarkable gem, a gorgeous bright open medium green that really catches the eye, especially with it’s size.

And a terrible picture of some really gorgeous little tsavorites that I adore and picked up at the same time. I have no idea what I’m going to do with them but I will figure it out sooner or later! They were far too beautiful to leave there.

I just realized that it’s possible to take advantage of my fall sale coupon code with this garnet, making it a really great deal! Of course, I’m always open to offers as well.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post on tsavorite…

Gem Blast: Blue and Green Tourmaline

Posted on June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 by grayspinel

I was asked a while back if I had any indicolite in a specific shape and size. The specification of “indicolite” gave me pause, because what is an indicolite anyway?

Well, it turns out that indicolite just used as a term for the blue varieties of tourmaline, and is also known by the term “indigolite”. I am not a chemist, gemologist or a physicist, as I have reiterated before, so I had never given it any real meaningful thought.

Tourmaline is mostly classified by color, and color is usually an indication of mineral presence. Indicolite is usually but it’s complicated by the fact that paraiba and cuprian tourmalines are colored by copper, while other darker blue tourmalines are colored by iron.

So it seems as though classification of a tourmaline is more of a continuum rather than a linear grouping.

I typically don’t really delve too far into these things because I look at the stone as a piece of art and a medium I have to work with rather than it’s chemical composition. When I do get questions like this, I ask people who are more knowledgeable than I am (a huge thanks to all of you who do their best to explain these things to me!) so I can answer to the best of my ability, or just point them to somewhere else that might have the answers they are looking for.

Now, ask about color, shape and proportion, and then you’ll get a long monologue!

Gem Blast: Merelani Mint

Posted on December 19, 2014October 26, 2014 by grayspinel

Since things are starting to get a bit crazy around these parts, I’m going to take it easy for a post! This little stone is a Merelani Mint Garnet, so named for the Merelani Hills area of Tanzania, where some of the most awesome green garnets come from.

The trade ideal dictates that the more saturated, the better, and the more blue in the green, the better. This one is not deep enough in tone, or saturated enough to be considered the trade ideal, but it a beautiful little gem that’s internally flawless.

You can see in this picture how much more blue the center stone has in it next to it’s two companions, also green garnets. The center stone was a birthday present from my husband, the sides were an anniversary gift.

A lot of people like the set these garnets in rose gold, because of where they sit on the colorwheel, but it just reads as busy to me for most of the pale greens out there.

I plan to eventually set this stone with white diamonds, I just haven’t figured out how I want to do it – especially because I have the two other green garnets to set as well.

This stone was cut by Barry Bridgestock at Artistic Colored Stones. Should you ever see something you like on his website, I highly recommend snapping it up right then and there, his stones tend to fly off the shelves as soon as they are put on them!