Sphalerite

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. Color: Orangy Yellow, Cut: Rectangular Brilliant, Weight: 5.62, Dimensions: 8.7 x 9.7 mm. (Information supplied by photo contributor.) © Daniel Stair, CustomGemstones.com

Credit: Daniel Stair, CustomGemstones.com 2014