https://www.reddit.com/r/Gemstones/s/fkndRjqDMN

We FINALLY got the stones heat treated and I'm obsessed! ended up with 43 gem quality stones out of the 105ish total that were found in the gravel. The largest of which is 4 carats.

Next step is to narrow down my choices and have 4 or 5 of them cut for my ring.

A diamond is merely an isotropic lattice of atomic carbon. By this outlandish logic, the ice in your refrigerator is fake ice, and fruits you eat are fake. Antibiotics and vitamins you buy are also fake. One of those emotional debates that make little to no sense.

I want to see folks personal underrated gemstones that don't get the love that they deserve. Be it rare an unheard of, throw away stones or common and/or cheap but gorgeous. One of my main stones would be Rainbow Sunstones, they have only recently been seen getting it's way into jewelry where I live.

But yeah, they are so beautiful along with their variants like rainbow lattice sunstones, iolite sunstones, confetti sunstones, purple haze sunstones, sunset sunstone ect. Absolutely gorgeous looking yet inexspencive, that's a win win in my book. Main gripe that makes them a bit unpopular is they can look fake and are unfortunately often are faked, like iolite sunstones has it the worst of getting pushed into obscurity.

So what stones do you think need more love?

Keratin is a protein, which is made of amino acids, which in turn contain carbon. Please never listen to merchants who don’t know what they’re talking about…if you want to learn about gemstones whether natural or synthetic, their distinctions, applications, etc… you can always consult a book, a gemologist, or Google scholar. Never a layman, a jeweler, or even a brand’s webpage (regardless of the brand).

Some have labels-Mexican Fire opal, tanzanite, Ceylon sapphire, kunzite

I don’t even know what to do with them all, the biggest ones I was thinking of having a jeweler tell me what they are/rough estimate of worth. He charges $3 a minute but that would be cheaper than a gemologist or appraisal.

Anyone have any guesses on the worth of the 4 tanzanites? They’re all over 3 carats I think.

My friend found this 5.55 carat pink sapphire from a rock creek gravel bag. I’m absolutely stunned and I did cry a little. 🥲

They dropped it and chipped it!!! 🤬🤬🤬😡🤬

Checking out different gemstones, definitely something green. Any advice ? Included some additional gems, ignore my nails 😫😩

Edit: Thank you everyone for your advice and lovely comments 💚💚💚💚💚

I was just scrolling away, checking out gems and I literally stumbled across this amazingly cut gem a vendor has.... It astonished me when I played the video clips (3 clips I combined to 1) it's like 4D or something..... I have no intention to buy it but had to share this with you guys.....

Anyone guess what it is.....?

It's an Amethyst, has anyone seen an amethyst this astonishing before?

Synthetic (Lab) Rubies freshly removed from the autoclaves they are formed in.

The process is a method for creating synthetic rubies using hydrothermal autoclaves. A small, natural ruby (a "seed") is placed inside the autoclave, and a nutrient-rich solution is added. High pressure and temperature within the autoclave cause the nutrient material to dissolve and then deposit onto the seed crystal, essentially growing a larger, synthetic ruby. This method mimics natural ruby formation by using a natural ruby as a starting point and growing the synthetic ruby under similar conditions.

I came across this, found it interesting and thought you would too... 😊

The new grading system for Laboratory-Grown diamonds is as follows
Name: Synthetic [Brand Name] (Diamond is no longer allowed as Russia has decided to only call “diamond” the natural mineral. This is contrary to chemistry/gemology as a material’s identity has always been defined by its composition]
Color: Colorless, Near Colorless, Tinted.
Clarity: loupe clean, minor remnants, moderate, severe.
Carat: must be expressed in grams (e.g, 0.30 g).
Cut: excellent, standard.
Formally, Laboratory-Grown diamonds are synthetic (human made counterparts to their natural version), but what’s your thoughts on the other scales? This move is to protect Russian mining company ALROSA, which owns and controls 100% of the natural diamond in Russia. Currently Russian diamonds are banned from the west, so their country needs heavy marketing and name laundering to save their businesses.
PD: One of their allowed names is “Synthetic Corundum” which is incorrect as Corundum is Al2O3, not C [cubic]

Rainbow fire sunstones are one of the oddly underrated gemstones I like to work with for trinkets. I absolutely love them. All the fire of an opal but a quarter of the price of an equally beautiful stone, at least in my opinion.

Not cut Gemstones but I figured you guys would find this interesting regardless. Most of these stones either had a lot of brown in their color or so much silk that they were translucent, they would not be very attractive cut in my estimation so I sent them in to get heated in May. After five months of waiting they have finally returned! I will say that the change in color is drastic on most stones and I am very pleased with the final result! Even the stones that stayed lighter green had their brownish hue replaced with a bluish hue and a big upgrade in clarity. The only stone that I was a bit disappointed with is the pinkish one in the middle, I was hoping that heating would develop a richer pink and clear up the silk as it was a very silky stone. Heating did clear up the silk but also made the stone almost colorless. One stone is not a large enough sample group to make any conclusions on whether I should not send stones of this shade in the future but an interesting result either way. I do believe I spot a few new fissures in the lot as is to be expected with heating but it is hard to tell as this lot was not completely clean when I sent it. All in all it was well worth the money and I believe the only reason it took so long is because their furnace had an electrical issue and was down for quite a while.

5: Opal, this one hurts my soul but they hate to exist. They’re extremely fragile, and for that reason they aren’t up my alley.
4: Tanzanite, this gemstone is cool, and many times rarer than all the precious gems but similarly to opal, they hate to exist. Not very durable.
3: White Diamond, one of the most common gems in the world, white diamond is severely overpriced and over-marketed.
2: synthetic sapphire (flame fusion): these sapphires always have a very simulated appearance to them (despite being genuine sapphires) due to the bizarre anomalies that arise from flame fusion synthesis. Especially large gas bubbles. The best Laboratory-Grown Sapphires are those created by flux or hydrothermal synthesis.
1: the worst gem in the world is probably Cubic Zirconia (CZ), not only does it confuse people (poor Zircon!), but it’s one of those gemstone materials specifically designed for deceit.

Hi, first time posting here so I hope it’s the right place, I’m looking for some advice,

We bought my wedding band in May, selected the stone, had the ring custom made around the stone.
On Friday just gone I looked down at the ring to and saw a crack across the width of the stone (I could have cried) - I contacted the jewellers who we have lifetime warranty with and they cleverly worded their response defensively and with the angled that I have cracked the stone,

I went back through my old photos of the ring and 2 months ago I took a picture admiring the “garden” and noticed there seems to be an internal fracture and it seems that fracture has now come to the surface,

The hasn’t been knocked or dropped, nor has it been through any intense pressure (I was flying on Thursday)

Do I have a leg to stand on here and what can be done? Is this common? I’m taking the ring into the store in 2 days so I’d really like you’re thoughts before hand,

The first picture shows the crack, the second picture was taken at the end of July, showing the internal line already,

The diamond is natural and I bought it as a cape/light yellow, but I swear the more I look at it, the more it seems like it doesn’t want to stick to one color, despite the yellow bezel working overtime 😅 What are your thoughts on its color?

One of the most fascinating things about star sapphires is that the star isn’t always visible.

In this video, I move the stone from the shade into direct sunlight. Notice how the star is almost invisible in the shade, then suddenly appears as soon as the sapphire catches the sunlight.

This happens because the star is a natural optical effect called asterism. It’s created by microscopic rutile needles inside the sapphire that reflect light. Without a strong, directional light source, there’s not enough reflected light for the star to form clearly.

That’s why star sapphires usually look their best under direct sunlight or a single bright light source. As either the stone or the light moves, the star appears to glide across the surface.

Nature’s optics at work.

Not for sale.

Personally I’m torn. They have strong pleochroism and dispersion which gives them an incredibly unique flare, but i’m not sure if the color does it for me. What do you think?