Archives: Gemstone Galleries

Fancy Round Brilliant Cut Zircon, Australia, 5.27 cts

A very nice, untreated, natural Australian zircon. This stone had a mild peachy pink tint in the rough and it is more just a slightly tinted white color now. It may display some pink though in low light conditions..

Asscher Style Octagon Cut Color Change Sapphire, Tanzania, 1.31 cts

This Songea sapphire is a bit of a bi-color and has a moderate to strong color change from an olive green or blue green under daylight LED bulbs to a very nice purple under incandescent light. In cloudy daylight it’s a lightly brownish purple color. I will check it today to see how it looks under fluorescent light, where I suspect it will turn a fairly nice blue-green color. More to follow..

Fancy Round Brilliant Cut Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 2.08 Total cts

This sunstone was a bit of an experiment in a new way to add some facets to the bottom of a standard round brilliant design. It seems to be oddly dispersive for a sunstone. There is a wee bit of copper schiller in this one, but it doesn’t seem to show when the stone if face up or without magnification .

Triangular Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Africa, .64 cts

This stone has nice color and overall good clarity. There is a flaw that surfaced on the crown in the lower left of the photo, but I’m not able to spot it very easily without magnification. This one is a great bargain stone and priced low because someone might see that little flaw, though hardly anyone would ever notice it. .

Fancy Brilliant Emerald Cut Morganite Beryl, Afghanistan, 2.31 cts

This morganite has great brilliance and is from a fairly rare origin as most morganites from Afghanistan are too included for faceting. This one has some flaws in one end that show in direct sunlight, but it’s usually eye clean in most indoor or softer light. The color is a very light pastel pink, rather than the peach pink found in stones from Brazil or Africa. It’s barely pink enough though to call a morganite rather than a goshenite or white beryl.

Fancy Emerald Cut Sapphire, Africa, 1.05 cts

A gorgeous purple sapphire that often looks like a tanzanite. It also shows a similar color shift from being a more blue-purple in daylight to a hot pinkish looking purple under incandescent light .

Fancy Round Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Sri Lanka, 1.10 cts

A very pretty sapphire with a sometimes purplish Ceylon blue color. It has a few thin veils and a tiny bit of silk, but as you can see from the video below, they are not very noticeable . This would make a great, affordable engagement ring stone!

Barion Keystone Shape Cut Color Change Garnet, Tanzania, 1.08 cts

A nice sized color change garnet that goes from grape purple under daylight fluorescent to pinkish purple under daylight and intense magenta reddish pink under incandescent lighting . It has some typical silk that may show slightly in direct sunlight but is eye clean otherwise. This stone is a bit darker than ideal, so it’s about half the price it woul be if it were just a little bit brighter.

Square Scissors Cut Oregon Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 3.90 cts

This sunstone was cut from the second and final half of the darkest red Oregon sunstone I’ve ever seen, and I used to live in Oregon and have looked through hundreds of kilos of sunstone rough. It has quite a bit of copper schiller in it, but I cut it to minimize the appearance of the schiller and maximize clarity, though it shows well from side angles. In person, people will likely assume this is a pigeon blood red Burma ruby. Video gives a better idea of what it looks like than the photo does.

Fancy Buff Top Oval Cut Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 3.00 cts

This sunstone has a pleasing pattern of streaks of copper schiller, but not so many as to make the stone look overly cloudy like most schiller sunstones. It was cut with a brilliant pavilion and cabochon style crown to emphasize the streaks of schiller.

Mixed Emerald Cut Dichroic Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 1.53 cts

An extremely nice example of a dichroic Oregon sunstone that is primarily a pleasing sage green with rich orange flashes in the ends of the stone. Often these are cut wrong and the colors mix together to make a muddy grayish or brownish green, but not this one . It shows two very distinct colors. In person, it is brighter like the photo. For some reason, the movie is a bit too dark.

Fancy 10-Sided Round Brilliant Cut Rhodolite Garnet, Tanzania, 4.77 cts

This garnet was cut with a 10-sided design rather than the usual 8-sided round brilliant. It also has 10-extra facets added to the culet in a pinwheel pattern . The rough was marked “Umbalite”, but I think it’s more a standard rhodolite that may or may not be from the Umba River.

Brilliant Oval Cut Natural Spinel, Likely Burma, 1.11 cts

This spinel has a deeper medium red color and was partially recut from a stone that was originally a standard mixed cut oval. The partial recut got rid of the window and repaired the scratches in the table and adjacent star facets.

Fancy Barion Square Cut Garnet, Tanzania, 1.91 cts

An unusual garnet with a slgihtly pinkish orange color. The RI is about 1.74 and it has both the little needles found in rhodolites as well as a fingerprint type inclusion more common to grossular garnets.

Tapered Baguette Cut Sapphire, Australia, .64 cts

This sapphire was cut from a dogtooth shaped crysrtal and has some interesting tiger striped and geometric color zoning of royal blue in a blue-green base color. It also has impressive clarity for a completely nature and untreated gemstone.

Asscher Style Octagon Cut Spinel, Tanzania, .82 cts

This spinel has great clarity and almost could be considered a color change stone. It goes from an unusual blue purple with some greenish yellow flashes (dispersion?) in daylight to pink purple under incandescent light.

Fancy Brilliant Oval Cut Spinel, Tanzania, 1.00 cts

A very pretty tanzanite-like spinel cut as a brilliant oval with 8 extra facets added to the culet for more brilliance. The stone has a moderate color shift from more blue in daylight or fluorescent light to more purplish under incandescent light.

Fancy Scissors Emerald Cut Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 6.36 cts

This sunstone has a good orangy red color and a moderate amount of copper schiller that has been oriented to be minimized in appearance rather than to flash back at the viewer. The cut is a fancy scissors design I developed that I’m thinking of calling a butterfly emerald.

Round Brilliant Cut Spinel, Tanzania, 1.05 cts

A very pretty spinel with a moderately strong color shift from blue to purple. It has one small crystal inclusion visible at about 2 o’clock, but it’s not very noticeable at normal viewing distances .

FAncy round Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Winza, Tanzania, .60 cts

This sapphire is a lot cleaner than most of the Winza stones. It has some small inclusions that are genreally not noticeable without magnfication and some super fine silk that gives it a slightly sleepy look. It can border right between pink and orange in some light, so it may be considered a “padparadscha” by some people . In natural daylight it is more pink with slight orange.

Emerald Cut Color Change Sapphire, Tanzania, .69 cts

An outstancing alexandrite-like color change sapphire that goes from a pleasing blue-green in daylight to purple under incandescent light . It’s also completely untreated, eye clean and should fit in most settings made for 6x4mm emerald cuts.

Fancy Square Brilliant Cut Tourmaline, California, U.S.A., .92 cts

This is a very unusual color combination for tourmaline. In person, you see all kinds of crazy medium gray and medium to lighter green flashes comeing from this stone . The Himalaya mine has some odd smokey colored tourmalines and this is one of the most grayish we have.

Emerald Cut Spinel, Tanzania, .87 cts

This spinel has a light purple color much like a Brazilian amethyst. It is very clean but for one tiny feathery inclusion in the bottom that shows slightly in bright light but is not very noticeable .

Fancy Barion Decagon Cut Zircon, Africa, 8.24 cts

This is the nicest red zircon I’ve cut so far. It has a color that reminds me of a rhodolite garnet, and doesn’t show the secondary brown tones that many of the African red zircons display. It’s also not as dark as most of this size. The cut is a double barion design on the bottom, and a fancy sawtooth on the crown. Note that this is a ten sided stone. It also shows a bit of dispersion or diamond-like color flashes in sunlight. None of the other larger red zircons I’ve cut did that, probably because they were darker.

Barion Emerald Cut Zircon, Nigeria, 1.81 cts

A wonderfully bright, brilliant stone that looks a lot like a lighter champagne diamond. The rough was more of a white zircon with some red-orange areas in it that create some interesting color flashes in the final cut stone.

Oval Cut Zircon, Probably Africa, 4.64 cts

This is a very nice BIG darker red zircon. This stone does not show all the purples and pinks as seen in the photo. For some reason, this material is hard to photograph correctly.

Emerald Cut Zircon, Nigeria, 1.94 cts

A very nice champagne zircon with excellent clarity and good dispersion (spectral color flashes). This is a very diamond-like looking stone in person.

Fancy Square Brilliant Cut Tsavorite Garnet, Africa, 0.90 cts

Here is a top color Tsavorite garnet that has excellent clarity for this usually obviously included material. This stone does have a little inclusion out toward one of the corners that is not distracting and very hard to spot without magnification.

Modified Brilliant with Supernova Crown and Faceted Girdle Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 16.24 cts

This is a huge stone for a pink tourmaline of this type from Afghanistan. It is very brilliant, and also very dispersive, showing distinct spectral color flashes. I even managed to capture one in the photo in the upper right. This stone also seems to have a fairly pronounced color change that ranges from being a bit more saturated pink than the photo shows to a pleasing yellow or slitly pinkish yellow under indoor incandescent light. I think I was seeing a 90%+ color change in this stone, but it was hard to tell with all the brilliance and diamond-like spectral flashes.

Scissor Topped Baguette Cut Tourmaline, Congo, 2.75 cts

This stone is a beautiful, Paraiba-like neon blue color, but a bit darkish in the ends and a bit less than eye clean. You can see a little twinkle in one end of the bottom, and may see some other minor inclusions in extremely bright light. Overall, it’s a fairly clean looking stone and would probably work well in a pendant. This one falls into the category of a really nice “factory second”.

Modified Round Brilliant Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 0.80 cts

This stone is a glowing yellowish mint green color, much like a Merelani mint garnet. It is from the newer batch of rough I have that appears to be copper bearing paraiba-like material. The only stone tested so far did test positive for copper content, but this particular stone has not been checked. Color is much better in person than photo shows.

Fancy Brilliant Oval Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 5.51 cts

Extremely nice color for a Nigerian green tourmaline. This one shows flashes of slightly bluish green and yellowish green, with only a tiny bit of olive green showing on the long edges. The cut is a modified brilliant oval with some extra facets on the bottom and a supernova crown design, so it is nice and lively compared to most other ovals.

Fancy Radiant Scissors Baguette Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 1.82 cts

This is a stunning orangy pink tourmaline. It has excellent color, and was a very successful experimental cut where I basically stretched out a princess cut to make it work on a longer shaped stone. Very unusual and beautiful with flashes of color radiating from the center toward the ends.

Scissor Topped Emerald Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 2.27 cts

This is an attractive pink tourmaline that does show a bit of color shift under incandescent light. There is a small inclusion in one corner that can barely be seen if you’re looking for it, and would likely be covered by a prong if the stone was set. Overall, it’s a very clean stone with good color and flash.

Fancy Octagon Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 2.01 cts

This is a very pretty stone that I cut in a kind of sawtooth or zig zag design. It’s nicely brilliant, but does shift toward brown like most of these Nigerian pink tourmalines do under indoor lighting. The color shown is how it looks in natural daylight.

Rectangular Brilliant Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 6.16 cts

I’ve cut all three of these stones using the same design. The two smaller stones are halves of a single crystal, and though there’s a very slight color difference, they should be close enough for a pair of earrings and are identically cut. The larger stone is lighter than the two smaller ones, but similar material from the same mine. The photo is a little bit lighter than the actual stones, and all three are wonderfully brilliant.

Fancy Portugues Square Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 8.95 cts

This is one big, extremely brilliant tourmaline, especially for an uncommon pink stone from Afghanistan. I cut the bottom as a sort of Portuguese round that I “barionized” into a cut cornered square shape. The crown is a scissors design. This thing REALLY SPARKLES and was hard to look at in sunlight. Also, it dsplays only a mild color shift indoors toward more of a champaigne color, but not an unpleasant brown. I had the chance to pick some of the nicest rough out of a huge parcel of rare Afghani pink tourmalines, and this was the biggest one with good color. This is likely a “world class” gemstone.

Elongated Barion Hexagon Cut Tourmaline, Africa, 2.46 cts

This is a wonderful green tourmaline with a deep chrome-like green color resembling a tsavorite garnet. This stone has great color and brilliance. I had this one posted on my site before, but somehow managed to delete it. So, this is a new and better photo of it for those of you who have seen this one before.

Scissors Cut Baguette Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 2.00 cts

Ooops, a tiny little chip fell off this one near the upper left corner while I was polishing the girdle. I have reduced the price accordingly, even though it can probably be covered up durng setting. Otherwise, this is a very stunning, and extremely lively stone for this shape due to the scissor curtting on both the top and the bottom.

Round Brilliant Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 1.53 cts

An unusual stone in that most of the pink tourmaline on the market has a color shift toward brown under incandescent lighting and this one does not. Lots of refraction makes this stone look like a paster pink diamond in sunlight. Also, most Afghani tourmalines are blue or green colors…pinks being very rare from that region.

Portuguese Round Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 1.77 cts

This is a BRIGHT (lighter than photo) seafoam green stone that features a lot of facets for its size…nearly three times as many as a standard round brilliant cut. This one deserves a place in the “blinding in sunligh” category.

Elongated Scissors Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 3.20 cts

This is a premium quality Afghani stone that I’ve cut into a scissors design that has a lot more character than the standard step cut or baguette. As you roll it back and forth lengthwise it has flame-like flashes of blue and green. This stone also shows some color play…unusual for this type of cut. Additionally, it is slighly bi-colored and has a lttle more blue on one end and green on the other. Bi-color stones are usually included.

Portuguese Brilliant Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 3.63 cts

This stone is a hybrid cut that combines the top (crown) of a round brilliant with the bottom (pavillion) of a Portuguese round. It has lots of extra facets and shows excellent color play or dispersion in sunlight. Basically, in bright sunlight it looks like somebody put a string of multicolored Christmas lights in it. Also, under incandescent light it does show some of the brownish tint common to this material, although it is better than most. This one’s a real sparkler!

Scissor Topped Emerald Cut Tourmaline, Congo, 1.59 cts

This stone has very nice brigher medium neon greenish blue color and appears almost identical to one of the nicer Namibian blue stones. You might see a minor inclusion in extremely bright light, but it seems to be eye clean in all moderate light or even direct indoor lighting. Wonderful color and great flashy brilliance!

Fancy Baguette Cut Tourmaline, Congo, 1.47 cts

his is a deeper blue-green tourmaline that was cut to make the best use of a stone with a dark c-axis. In person, it’s a little better looking than in the photo, and shows some decent color flashes when exposed to direct light.

Emerald Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 2.10 cts

This stone is actually somewhat of a tri-color and has bands of three different shades of pink from a lighter pink to a reddish pink. It shows a moderate amount of brownishness in daylight, and changes to mostly brown under incandescent light.

Brilliant Oval with Supernova Crown Cut Tanzanite, Tanzania, 1.53 cts

This is a very pretty gem with great brilliance! Also, to the best of my knowledge this is an untreated stone. This is a medium color of Tanzanite, and is not cut at all deeply, so it faces up to look like it would weigh two carats or more. The more saturated color is coming in from the ends, which gives it kind of an interesting look. Also, this stone has a very noticeable shift from more of a blue in daylight, to more of a purple indoors.

Elongated Emerald with Scissors Cut Crown Cut Tanga Garnet, Tanzania, 2.15 cts

This is one of the prettiest colored, brightest Tanga garnets I’ve cut, but it had a little surprise in one end so it’s really only going to look good set in a pendant with the included end hanging on the bottom. You can see what looks like a bit of lint on the left end of the stone. This stone also faces up to be fairly large for what it weighs, but because of the end that isn’t quite eye clean, the price is reduced on this one. This would make an awesome pendant.

Rectangular Brilliant Cut Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 2.64 cts

This is the reddest sunstone I’ve cut so far. It is not nearly as bright orange looking in person, and is more of an orangy blood red color. The schiller in this stone has been oriented so that it barely shows in brighter light, and the color is nothing less than wow. This should probably be a $300+ per carat stone because of the color.

Supernova Oval Cut Sunstone, Oregon, 2.59 cts

WOW! Pretty much sums this thing up. It has a bit of schiller in it, but less than most. The supernova cut makes this an extremely brilliant stone. It looks a lot like a Mandarin garnet in person.

Oval Cut Sunstone, Oregon, 1.87 cts

A very nice reddish colored sunstone good clarity and brilliance. A bit darker than photo. Schiller inclusions barely visible without magnification.

12 Main Round Brilliant Cut Sunstone, Oregon, 1.83 cts

This is an excellent stone with good reddish-orange color, good clarity and brilliance. Cut in a round brilliant pattern with lots of extra facets. There is some shiller that is hard to spot unless you turn the stone upside down.

Step Cut Cornered Square Cut Spinel, Tanzania, 0.97 cts

This is a bright, brilliant stone that shifts in color from a sky blue to a bright purple blue much like a lighter tanzanite. Spinels of this color are also known as “periwinkle”. I’m not sure what caused the pink flashes in the photo. The other blue and purple blue colors are fairly accurate though.

Barion Shield Cut Spinel, Tanzania, 1.27 cts

The small rope-like inclusion in the bottom of this stone is in just the perfect spot to reflect off of a number of facets. Some stones are cut this way intentially, but in this case it was an accident.

Barion Emerald Cut Spinel, Tanzania, 2.91 cts

This is a darker red spinel that can look blackish in low light conditions but shows good red flashes in direct lighting. In person, it looks a lot like a red garnet (not pinkish like the photo).

Fancy Barion Pentagon Cut Spinel, Tanzania, 1.07 cts

This is a somewhat unusual spinel in that it has a sort of silvery look to it. It shifts back and forth between more of a blueish color and more of a purplish color, and also seems to have some gray or maybe even green in it. It has great brilliance .and shows good dispersion, or multi-colored flashes.

Rectangular Brilliant Cut Sphalerite, Spain, 5.62 cts

Here is a larger yellow sphalerite from Spain that I’ve cut in an extremely brilliant design. This stone has some veils and bubbles in it, but the inclusions are not distracting probably because of the incredibly high refraction of this material. Also, this is a VERY SOFT stone, and some of the facet edges are a bit rounded off on the edges from buffing off the scratches after polishing. This thing is VERY BRIGHT and mostly yellow with some orange showing in the corners. I looked around on other websites for cut sphalerites, and didn’t spot anything that compared with this one.

Cut Cornered Scissor Triangle Cut Spessartite Garnet, Nigeria, 2.83 cts

This garnet is cut with a scissors style design on both the top and bottom. It can range from a deeper reddish orange to a brighter medium orange depending on the light source. Note that the bottom of this stone is a little deeper than most, so it might require a special setting if made into jewelry.

Round Brilliant Cut Sapphire Color Suite, Africa, 3.78 cts

WOW – Now these would make something that could be seen from a distance! This isn’t the greatest photo. All of these are worthy center stones and all were cut at the same angles to look like a perfect set. The second stone from the right is actually a pastel green color. Note that the red stone on the far left has an interesting color change to orange and purple outdoors. To the best of my knowledge, none of these have been heat treated and are all the beautiful colors Mother Nature made them!

Round Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Tanzania, 1.06 cts

This is a Songea sapphire that displays a color shift from being more of a greenish puplish blue in natural daylight, to a very pretty reddish purple under incandescent light. It has an inclusion out toward one edge that doesn’t seem to show face up. Overall this is a decent stone and a good value for an untreated sapphire.

Modified Round Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Tanzania, 0.83 cts

This stone has a moderate to mild color Change from being a slightly grayish, greenish blue outdoors to a puplish blue color under incandescent light. The minor specks in the stone that show in the photo are almost impossible to see with the unaided eye, even holding it right next to a bright light.

Step-Cut Arrowhead Cut Sapphire, Madagascar, 1.07 cts

This stone has an awesome color that is kind of a pink-purple with red and blue flashes. However, because of the clarity, it’s priced at about half what a clean Madagascar pink sapphire would go for. It looks great indoors, but not so good in direct sunlight. Photo is a bit washed out looking. The color of this stone is nicely saturated.

Choval Cut Sapphire, Australia, 1.69 cts

A rich dark blue stone in an uncommon cut. This design has 40 little triangles on the crown. The color is very nice, and the stone is not quite as dark as many Aussie sapphires. It does exhibit some reasonable brilliance for a dark blue stone. This sapphire has been heat treated.

Oval End Pear Cut Sapphire, Africa, 1.45 cts

This is a nice, Australian-looking blue sapphire cut in an unusual elegant pear shape. Most pears are basically half of a round and half of a marquise. This one uses an oval shaped end rather than the usual round.

Fancy Round Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Tanzania, 0.43 cts

This sapphire has a nice teal color, but is a bit on the shallowish side, so it faces up to be big for what it weighs and is more brilliant arond the edges than in the middle. It’s also a bit darker in person, but not a lot.

Emerald Cut Sapphire, Tanzania, 0.89 cts

This is an untreated sapphire from Songea, Tanzania that has a pleasing greenish blue color and great brilliance for an emerald cut stone. It shows a slight shift toward purplish blue under incandescent light, but not enough to be considered a “color change” sapphire.

Modified Round Brilliant Cut Sapphire, Tanzania, 0.46 cts

This is a very interesting sapphire that can show a slightly inky looking purple color under some fluorescent light, to a rich grape purple with amethyst-like magenta flash under incandescent and some compact fluorescent lighting.

Choval Cut Sapphire, Australia, 1.69 cts

A rich dark blue stone in an uncommon cut. This design has 40 little triangles on the crown. The color is very nice, and the stone is not quite as dark as many Aussie sapphires. It does exhibit some reasonable brilliance for a dark blue stone. This sapphire has been heat treated.

Elongated Pear Cut Peridot, Pakistan, 2.05 cts

This is a beautiful stone in a somewhat unusual cut. This Pakistan material is some of the best available because it has a richer green color without the olive overtones found in most darker peridot.

Fancy Barion Triangle Cut Peridot, Pakistan, 4.90 cts

A very stunning larger peridot that would make a very nice pendant stone. This Pakistan material is some of the best available because it has a richer green color without the olive overtones found in most darker peridot.

FAncy Mixed Square Cut Oregon Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 2.30 cts

This sunstone haslots of sparkle and an interesting zoney looking mix of pink-orange and golden straw yellow colors. It is also a nicely brilliant sunstone. There’s a bit of copper schiller in it, but it looks good and would make a great ring or pendant stone.

Barion Emerald Cut Oregon Sunstone, Oregon, U.S.A., 3.02 cts

This Oregon sunstone shows a nice blend of the peachy orange and straw yellow color flashes. There are some typical streaks of schiller, but they are oriented to be minimized and the stone has good clarity overall, with great brilliance also.

Fancy Cabochon Cut Opal, Australia, 12.28 cts

I cut this stone in the shape of a guitar pick. It has some interesting mossy looking stuff in it as shown in the photo, and the play of color is very interesting. Straight on, it looks a lot like what you see in the image, then if you rotate it sideways just righ, the whole thing lights up with little neon green sparkles that replace the blue-purple broadflash. The colors are a bit stronger in person also.

Oval Cabochon Cut Opal, Australia, 1.49 cts

This stone is MUCH prettier in person. I just couldn’t get a good photo of the fire, and there is quite a bit up in the top of the dome. This stone is a bit egg-shaped, in that it’s not a perfect oval, but it’s very pretty.

Brilliant Oval Cut Namibian Tourmaline, Namibia, 0.89 cts

This is a nice, brilliant stone that shows more blue in person. This was my first photo with my new camera, and I ended up with the colors a bit off. The ends of the stone are greenish, and the majority of the middle is much closer to a Paraiba-like neon greenish blue.

Fancy Portuguese Octagon Cut Namibian Tourmaline, Namibia, 3.43 cts

This is an outstanding, extremely brilliant Namibian tourmaline that I’ve cut with Portuguese-style pavilion and a kind of sawtooth design on the crown. The color is more of an emerald green looking straight down into it, and then a Paraiba-like, greenish neon blue from some side angles. This is a very nice and unusual stone.

Fancy Shield Shape Cut Merelani Mint Garnet, Tanzania, 1.54 cts

This is a very pretty grossular garnet that has a stronger color than most of them do. It has some minor inclusions, but they are overpowered by the great color and brilliance of this stone. The photo makes the stone look a little windowed, but it’s not.

Step Cut Freeform Cut Golden Beryl-Heliodor, Russia, 2.49 cts

This is the last of three pieces of rough I purchased four years ago from a jeweler and gem cutter who claimed the stones were from Russia. This has a stronger golden color than the other rough I have that is from the Middle East. This is a very pretty gem.

Emerald with Scissors Cut Crown Cut Diaspore, Turkey, 3.22 cts

Somebody told me I should go buy a lottery ticket if I could manage to cut one of these. It was such hell that I was too burned out to go buy the ticket when I finished the stone. This is a very rare gem with a mild color change from more of a pinkish gold to greenish gold in different lighting.

Round Brilliant Cut Color Change Sapphire, Songea, Tanzania, 0.68 cts

This stone has an alexandrite type color change. I’ve seen it show a steely greenish blue color in subtle daylight, and a fairly nice medium purple under indoor light. As is usually the case with these, it also can show some odd grayish and mauve colors, so I have it priced accordingly.

Oval Cabochon Cut Cat’s Eye Chrysoberyl, Tanzania, 1.20 cts

his is my first attempt at cutting a cat’s eye. The eye in this stone is a bit on the soft side, and rolls back and forth in the long direction of the oval at a slight angle. In the photo you can see the silk line lighting up toward the left side of the stone, and I can see it a bit better in person. The eye tends to “hang out” more on that end, but does seem to roll all the way across as you move the stone back and forth.

Step Cut Diamond Shape Cut Bi-Color Sapphire, Tanzania, 0.64 cts

This is a very cool bi-color sapphire that also has a color shift from a lemon yellow/blue in daylight to a golden yellow/purple under incandescent light. It also shows some green due to the mixing of the colors on the blue end. Note the dimensions on this one. Like a marquise, this stone faces up to be a large size for what it weighs. This stone also has a nice separation of colors where the blue crosses the stone on one tip with in a fairly straight, but soft line.

Cut Cornered Radiant Triangle Cut Andamooka Opal, Australia, 1.76 cts

This is a very clear jelly or crystal opal with good blue and green play of color. Even though the base color is nearly colorless, it flashes a pleasing bright yellow color. Most gems flash the color that they actually appear to be before cutting, but faceted opals tend to generate a completely different color which is usually from yellow to orange, even if the uncut opal appears to be completely colorless.

Portuguese+ Cut Amethyst de France, Unknown, 5.59 cts

“Wow” pretty much sums this one up. 193 facets on this stone (32 more than a standard Portuguese Round). It looks like a universe inside. This is a deep cut stone (acorn shaped) that would require a special mounting. An interesting one-of-a-kind collector stone.

Short Baguette Cut Amethyst, Brazil, 12.08 cts

A very interesting amethyst that is a lighter purple color with a medium purple band that runs straight along one side, then turns 90 degrees and follows the shape on the next side (toward top and left in photo, though it’s hard to see).

Fancy Petal Cut Round Cut Amethyst, Nigeria, 6.05 cts

This is a super dark amethys that can show blue flash in daylight or fluorescent, and shifts strongly to show magenta or red flashes under incandescent light. The color shown in the phot is kind of in middle of the range of colors this stone can display.

Mixed Cushion Rectangle Cut Amethyst, Brazil, 7.35 cts

A nicely flashy amethyst that does show some typical zoning, but is a nice clean looking stone with good overall color. This amethyst shows a moderate color shift from being more of a grape purplein daylight to more of a magenta purple under incandescent light.

Barion Hexagon with Sawtooth Crown Cut Amethyst, Nigeria, 22.84 cts

This is a big, flashy, amazing amethyst that shows outstanding colors in all lighting conditions, and has a strong color shift. In daylight, it is a very nice deeper grape purple, shifting to a tanzanite-like blue-purple under most fluorescent light, then turning almost completely magenta hot pink colored under incandescent light. In person, it’s a bit darker than the photo, but not a lot…just enough to make it a truly stunning example of how intense the colors of an amethyst can be.

Utopia Pear Cut Amethyst, Nigeria, 8.01 cts

This amethyst was cut using a design called the “Utopia Pear” by the late Jeff Graham. It has great brilliance and is an unusual shape with the slight point on the wide end, not usually seen in pear cuts. There is a veil running through it causing it to be a bit less than eye clean, though it’s not too bad a priced accordingly.

Elongated, Cut-Cornered Barion Triangle Cut Tsavorite Garnet, Kenya, 2.21 cts

This is the largest green garnet I’ve cut so far. It’s not deeply cut, so in person, it looks more like a three carat stone. This is not a top color darker green tsavorite, so the price isn’t nearly as high is it would be if it were. This is definitely one impressive, large green stone. The inclusions are minor, and hidden out in the ends of the stone where they don’t have a noticeable affect on the clarity or brilliance. This would make an outstanding pendant.

Baguette Cut Tourmaline Pair, Nigeria, 2.39 cts

A very pretty, flashy pair of tourmalines in a sort of champagne pink or peach pink color. There is a very slight color difference, even though they were cut as identical twins from the same crystal. These would make great earrings, but probably not side stones in a ring. The color difference is more subtle in person than in the picture.

Mixed Cushion Rectangle Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 7.67 cts

A rare color for tourmaline, this stone looks a lot like a deeper Madeira citrine. I did some looking around online, and couldn’t find anything to compare it to that was even close in overall quality. What I did find were moderatly brownish stones for $125 per carat and up that were not this large, nor this nice of a color.

Fancy Cut Cornered Octagon Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 6.30 cts

An outstanding tourmaline with a rich pink color and excellent brilliance. The cut is a sort of double barion octagon with clipped off corners and a sawtooth crown. This stone has some minor inclusions around the edges, but seems to face up eye clean even in bright sunlight. This one would make an impressive pendant stone!

Scissor Topped Baguette Cut Tourmaline, Nigeria, 3.16 cts

This pleasingly flashy stone displays above average, well saturated pink color and is unusually oolor stable under indoor lighting. I could barely notice any color shifting at all and saw absolutely no brownish tones under incandescent light. There are some minor inclusions that might show up in direct sunlight, so the price is very reasonable for a stone of this color quality.

Emerald Cut Tourmaline, Afghanistan, 2.58 cts

This is one of two stones I cut from a single crystal. The color on the “c” axis varied somewhat from one end of the crystal to the other, so the matched pair didn’t quite match. This is the darker of the two and has a notably richer color with more blue than the photo shows. See item to311 for it’s identically cut, but slightly lighter mate.

Brilliant Oval with Supernova Crown Cut Tourmaline, Africa, 5.92 cts

This is a very brilliant and beautiful stone that is a light yellowish green color in person with a pinkish area toward one end. For some reason when I saved this picture it washed out the color. This stone was cut from a peice of the rough people are calling “UFO” tourmaline. The stones are bright yellow green colors with pink spots and yeild gems of good color and brilliance. The pink can look a little brownish when it mixes with the green, but overall the stone is outstanding.

Square Brilliant Cut Tourmaline, Mozambique, 4.51 cts

This is a nice green tourmaline with a somewhat chrome-like color resembling a tsavorite garnet. It has a slightly darker “c” axis but overall good brilliance and color that is much nicer than most of the olive green toned stones coming out of Nigeria.

Emerald Cut Tourmaline, Congo, 2.12 cts

A very nice Congo tourmaline that shows an almost tsavorite garnet-like gree color with a slight blue secondary tone. It has a dark c-axis, so it was cut and priced accordingly. In person, it is a very pretty tourmaline with long, pleasing green flashes.

Scissor Emerald Cut Tourmaline, Mozambique, 1.35 cts

This stone looks much like a Namibian tourmaline in person. The majority is a brighter medium neon blue-green and the ends show the darker forest green of the open c-axis. It was cut with a scissor design on the top and bottom.

Round Brilliant with Step Cut Crown Cut Spessartite Garnet, Nigeria, 1.13 cts

This is a decent stone overall with a good orange color that I should probably call “Mandarin” Orange. It has an inclusion under one side of the crown that is difficult to spot without magnification, even under brighter light. The brilliance is good, but not quite as good as a standard round brilliant design would have been. It sparkles a bit more around the edges than in the middle, and the more I look at it, the more it grows on me.

Freeform Cut Fuschia-Red Sapphire, Africa, 1.63 cts

his stone has been heat treated to brighten color. Many untreated red african sapphires (rubies) look like dark garnets unless they are heated to remove the slight blue tone. A very nice stone for the price. This stone does have a color shift more toward fuscia or a rich pink in some outdoor lighting and is an excellent red under incandescent light.

Round Brilliant Cut Chrome Diopside, Russia, 0.83 cts

This is a very pretty chrome diopside that looks just like a much more expensive tsavorite garnet. This stone is a bit on the soft side, and I would recommend it for use in a protective mounting or pendant rather than having it exposed in a ring. It seemed a lot like Tanzanite during cutting, so I would imagine it will be comparably durable for jewelry use…which isn’t all that durable actually.

Emerald Cut Bi-Color Tourmaline, Nigeria, 2.02 cts

The right 2/3 of this stone is a slightly peachy pink color, and the left 1/3 is yellow. This stone has great clarity for a bi-color tourmaline, as they are usually included in the area where they transition from one hue to another.

Fancy Barion Cut Cornered Square Cut Beryl, Colombia, 3.20 cts

This stone is a light mint green color in person that’s a bit nicer than the photo. I cut is with a sort of double barion pavillion and a scissors cut crown with a frame of step facets around the table. This is an extremely brilliant and very pretty stone.

Barion Octagon Cut Ametrine, Bolivia, 4.48 cts

This stone is about 2/3 orangy golden citrine and 1/3 purple amethyst. The colors also tend to mix a bit to display some peachy colors. The color saturation is a bit washed out in the picture and better in person.