Hello. I'm a retired journalist/editor/writer and federal government program analyst. If I post what sounds like a crazy idea, it's just my lateral thinking & lefthandedness.
My uncle, a silver/goldsmith/engraver, got me interested in gems when I was 6 or so. Still have the book he gave me, Die Edelsteine, publ. Weber 1937, which packs a large amount of info (then current) in a skinny little volume. When I finally decided I wanted to learn more about gems and gemmology I foundered on the twin rocks of crystal habit and optics . . . one can't know everything. I love gemstones and wish I could have them hung all over me, like a Christmas tree (only occasionally). Conversely I despise fakers and fakery. A few years ago my operative and I got eBay to toss a notorious faker selling faceted beer bottle glass as topaz - tho I think he soon returned under another alias.
Everyone has favourites - mine are the phenomenal/ephemeral stones - phosphophyllite, padparadscha, moonstone, titanite, colour-change etc. Actually, the idea that little bits of molten material could produce such stunningly beautiful flecks of colour among all the grey stones of our world is mind-blowing.
Spess-pyrope seems to be a good composition for color changers, though that might just be a side effect of the odd chemistry involved with the trace elements. As I understand it vanadium and chromium are working together on most of these color changers, to varying degrees. If there's mostly just vanadium you get a mildly-shifting blue to blue-green garnet. I kind of assume a touch of vanadium is what gives rhodolite its blue color element and typical color shift. I could be wrong on that. That being said, 10k is an insane price for a 2ct red/green color change garnet. They're awfully nice stones but not that nice. Smaller examples can often be purchased for very reasonable prices.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
Of course, a vendor can choose to charge whatever they want for something as long as it is properly represented. wildfish.com has a solid reputation for proper representation, but I too find $10,000 high.
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