trillion – The Gemstone Project

Viva Las Vegas! JCK 2015 Part 2!

Posted on June 11, 2015June 10, 2015 by grayspinel

Part 2. Or day 2. This is by far the most photo intensive post in this trilogy.

Friday

Naturally, after not getting to sleep until 3am, we slept in a bit, though that was not the plan. The plan was to get to JCK ASAP and start trawling through gemstones as early as we could. Instead we woke up and started looking at gemstones again, this time in daylight, before deciding it was time to eat. Of course I went for the color shifting 6ct violet sapphire first.

None of the other photos came out well, so I’ll skip them in an already picture heavy post.

Meeting with Amy Phillips of David Klass Jewelry

First thing we did after gathering our badges to go into the show was meet with Amy with David Klass Jewelry. She was showing us a wax for a ring David is making with the emerald from the first post. A client had been working with them on a diamond halo design, but had kind of hit a brick wall after a few CADs. I made a couple of tweaks to make the design a little bit more delicate and feminine. Since it’s not complete yet, I’ll keep it to a more boring view. I will say that I am so excited to see this project completed!

AGTA Show: Prima Gems

From seeing the wax, we went downstairs to the AGTA show, otherwise known as colored stones! So you already know I was so excited!

Of course I studied the map and made a beeline for Prima Gems. I browsed for a while, bumping into a few people that I recognized, including Yvonne Raley.

I just want to say that Nattalie Shah is an angel. My companion was seeking out red spinels and green garnets, but in the meantime, I had every single spinel pulled out of the case and had them spread out all over the counter. Not joking:

Here is a 12ct Mahenge Spinel, moderately included.

Same stone, being a show off.

While my companion was digging through red spinels, I was amusing myself going through a massive parcel of smaller red and pink spinels, pulling out stones that talked to me and putting them on a gem sorting tray. Most of these were the largest in there, but there was one that had color that just popped out at me.

The entirety of the parcel I was going through:

Playing with the UV flashlight.

Some of the red spinels that were being scrutinized.

No, really, scrutinized!

At one point, I got tired of red spinels, (though not tired enough to ask them to put them away!) and asked to see this really awesome blue-green tourmaline. This stone needs to be made into a necklace.

From the red spinels, we went to green garnets. Check out these mints!

In the meantime, I had put this little guy to the side for myself. Tiny, but you can see the neon color from across the room.

I’d forgive the shape for this color, the perfect blue-green for a mint.

Then Nattalie pulled out the UV light to play with a 4ct tsavorite. It was like Christmas in one stone!

Doing a mean impression of an emerald. Inclusions didn’t hinder the performance of this stone at all, though magnification makes the inclusions look worse than they are. This is one of those stones that doesn’t show it’s true beauty in photographs.

AGTA Show: Random vendors

At this point, we had spent so much time pouring over Prima stones after our late start, that we had run out of time, so we raced around just a bit looking at a few other booths. I took some photos of items that caught my eye.

A couple little rose cuts.

Colored stone melee, starting at .8mm to 3mm.

Untreated emerald rings.

Brazilian Paraiba. I should have inquired about pricing, but didn’t have time to stop.

Managed to have Gem 2000 pull some larger light pink sapphires to view for a client.

Ogled Gem 2000’s emeralds. The emeralds were everywhere!

And their spinels. Spinels were also everywhere.

I was also on the look out for blue sapphires for another client, so we checked these out with Gem 2000 as well,

The Other Roommate’s Arrival

After hopping on the shuttle and rushing to meet our other bling sister, we found her, and of course helped ourselves to her jewels. I know you’re surprised, but I took a bunch of photos:
Blue zircon.

Green sphene earring drops from Prima Gems.

Tanzanite double halo ring.

Vintage ruby and diamond ring, Love Affair Diamonds.

Ideal cut diamond earrings with ideal cut diamond halo jackets, ID Jewelry.

Mint garnet from Prima Gems

Spessartite garnet from Prima Gems

Ideal cut diamond

Dinner time: Texas de Brazil

So, by this point, it was time to grab dinner. We were picked up in a limo, and taken to Texas de Brazil. I hadn’t had Brazilian in several years, and this Brazilian put THAT Brazilian to shame. If you have the opportunity to go to one of these restaurants, do it. And hit up the salad bar in a major way, because it’s so so so good. Just as good as the meat, which is, of course, the main attraction.

The table in our private room was made of one giant piece of wood, and I loved the contrast with the lucite chairs.

My favorite dinner companion. Diamonds.

And to finish up the night, some random colored stone rings, including a couple of mine.

Yet again, we didn’t end up falling asleep until 2am, and there was no partying involved! The last day was fast approaching and I was determined to get to the show earlier than I had today.

Day 3! Blog post fast approaching! Tomorrow!

Gem Blast: Fancy Yellow Diamond

Posted on April 27, 2015April 27, 2015 by grayspinel

Once upon a time I really wanted a trillion shaped engagement ring. That was back when I was a teenager if I remember correctly. I ended up with a round brilliant that I basically picked out for myself, so obviously teenage dreams of a trillion didn’t exactly happen. But since then, I’ve always been cautious about trillions, because they were asymmetrical and I have weird issues with asymmetry. Until I met this Fancy Light Yellow diamond.

Here is a relatively simple fancy light yellow (FLY) diamond with blue fluorescence. Now, believe it or not, this diamond is only .64cts, but almost seems to face up at the size of a 1 carat diamond (6.5mm for a round).

I had it set in a 18kt yellow gold bezel to enhance the color as much as possible. I wanted something simple, and adding a halo of white diamonds (how I think yellow diamonds are usually set) took attention away from the richness of the color. Plus, for items that end up in my personal collection, I prefer to stay away from halos.

It lights up when sunlight hits it just right!

I’ve never been a huge yellow person, but my bedroom growing up was a pale buttery yellow. It wasn’t until I saw this diamond that I really wanted a yellow gemstone to add to the collection. Diffused sunlight.

Looking almost greenish/brownish, though it doesn’t really look this way in real life. Both of these photos are inside.

Back in January I asked if people on Facebook thought I should do yellow gold or white metal for this particular stone. It was pretty overwhelming for yellow gold. For good reason.

And the stone on a white background before being set:

After setting, on an almost identical background:

The less exciting views:

See, even diamonds show tilt windows!

Really, when it comes down to choosing metal colors, even though I don’t wear a lot of yellow gold, it’s all about doing the best you can to compliment the stone. On this one I wanted to enhance the yellow as much as possible, and I think my goal was accomplished, since it looks far more vibrant now that it’s set than it did before when it was loose.

I haven’t taken this off since I got it, and for me, that’s saying a lot because I actually rarely wear jewelry in general!

This concludes our month of (mostly) diamond posts! I had to go out with a big yellow bang!

Gem Blast: Garnets

Posted on January 26, 2015January 6, 2015 by grayspinel

In honor of my best friend growing up, whose birthday is tomorrow, I’m posting a whole bunch of gemstone pictures of her birthstone: Garnet.

Merelani Mint

Almost Colorless Grossular Garnet

Tsavorites:

Imperial Garnet

Imperial Garnet:

Loliondo Spessartite

Hah! I just realized that I don’t have any pink or red garnet pictures on this computer. I guess I need to take some more pictures!

But check out the variety of colors. I wish (sort of!) that the general public knew that these stones were as varied and interesting as they are. Of course, I don’t wish that the general public knew about them because then the prices would go up even more.

This is for all you January babies out there!

Update: My jewelry line

Posted on January 12, 2015January 2, 2015 by grayspinel

I’ve been working on sketches for quite a while on items for my new line. Of course, this is not the easiest thing since there are so many amazing designs out there, and it’s hard to be innovative when it feels like everything has been done. Some of these are influenced by the custom projects I’m working on with people, and some are just things that I would like to see or wear myself.

Sometimes the stones “speak” to me, and I have to do what they say. Ok, not really, but that’s sort of how it feels sometimes when I’ve had a stone for a long time without any inspiration and suddenly one day I look at the stone and it’s a total Eureka moment. And then I’m scrambling for my sketchbook, which is why I have four located in random areas of my house and one that goes with me in my purse. You never know when inspiration will hit!

Because this is more of a hobby instead of a full time career (for the moment!) I typically wait until the designs find me, rather than trying to wrangle them out of hiding.

Now, having said that, sometimes I will just sit down with a sketchbook and draw whatever comes to mind. Sometimes, that thing ends up being a sketch of my ear. Hah!

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been working on a green garnet mini-parure of sorts, and that has been extremely challenging because of the complexities of the project and using several hundred (not joking!) green garnets and turning them into a cohesive necklace, earring and bracelet set. But it has been great for me because I’ll be thinking about that project, and several ideas that won’t work for the garnets will work for something in my line that I haven’t been able to nail down.

Luckily there are several similarities between the green garnet project, the custom rings project (there are many rings and I’m in the process of trying to build a cohesive collection rather than a gathering of multiple different rings) and where I’d like to go on a few of my pieces for the line.

As of right now I’d like to come up with the following items, and I’m already several in:
1. 3 solitaire type rings
2. 1 halo ring
3. 1 dinner/multi-stone type ring
4. 2 necklaces
5. 1 earring
6. 2 bands

Gosh, writing up that list makes me realize just how much work I have to do! Back to the grind!

In the meantime though, here are a couple pictures of a yellow diamond I’m trying to decide what to do with. Right now I’m leaning towards a milgrain bezel in brushed yellow gold and keeping it for myself!

It reminds me of lemonade!

Feature: Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry, Bonus!

Posted on September 23, 2014September 4, 2014 by grayspinel

So I took a ton of photos while I was at Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry , but some didn’t come out as well as I hoped. Here are a few pieces that I was able to take more than a couple seconds to get a quick snapshot.

I don’t typically love trillions for myself, but I thought this ring was really interesting and wonderful because of the flow of the design and the way it all melds together into one giant piece of stepcut and brilliant cut awesomeness. I love the graduation of the step cuts and how they mimic the lines of the trillion, giving the whole piece an Art Deco vibe.

I don’t think this one really needs any commentary.

I loved this little band, it really had some great details to it.

I absolutely fell in love with this necklace. The larger of the two stones was a low colored diamond with the smallest table I have ever seen on an antique stone, and as a result was super fiery and all around fabulous. I thought it was the perfect size to be able to wear it on a daily basis and not have it be too overwhelming of a piece, easy to dress up and dress down. I believe the total weight on it between the two diamonds is around 1.1cts.

And for the Grand Finale!

This is in the store window. It is almost 7cts of magnificent French Cut brilliance and it is one of the most fabulous items I have ever seen in real life (having been NYC and seen the Tiffany Diamond in all it’s glory, I think that’s probably a pretty big compliment!). This stone is interesting because a hole was drilled directly into the stone and a ring through it, to hang it on a chain. You don’t see this done a lot with diamonds, especially not of this size and cut. I am guessing it was done because of an inclusion, but obviously I was not the person to do it to the stone, so I can’t really say why it was done. I would like to see it on a different chain though, rather than this round diamond chain. I feel like such an amazing and expensive diamond should have a custom piece built around it.

Next time, I’m going to have to set aside another hour, and I plan to try on everything that I saw in the front window. Ok, maybe I might need two hours…

Ok, that’s really it for my visit to Lang! Hope you enjoyed the pics, next time I’ll get video of the big french cut in action!