Color-Change Garnet 3.18ct. 7.62 x 9.62 x 5.82mm. Composite image to demonstrate color change -- amazingly, it has an even better color in plain daylight! Details here.

LATEST NEWS - June 20, 2009:

New Stones

I've just added a few new gems to my listings:

• Aquamarine. Custom Square Cushion. 2.16ct (Aqu177)
• Blue Zircon. Antique Square Brilliant. 1.52ct. (ZirB213)
• Red Tourmaline. Custom Oval Brilliant. 1.44ct. (Tour214)
• Champagne Topaz. Asscher 3.14ct. (Top215)
• Color-Change Garnet 3.18ct. (Gar208)

Tanzania Buying Trip

As some of you know, at the end of June, I'll be heading to Tanzania with Roger Dery and fellow gem cutter Gene Flannigan of Precision Gem. We're going on a rough buying trip and have very high hopes for what we'll be able to acquire being so close to the mines. Tanzania is located in south-east central Africa and is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Africa -- Kilimanjaro and several major game parks are located close to one of the richest gem mining areas in the world. We're expecting to see:

• Grossular Garnets - I'm hoping for bright yellows & mints
• Tsavorite Garnets - we'll be close to the mines for this green grossular garnet, hopefully we can find some larger sizes
• Spessartite Garnets - the hot orange color was first found in Tanzania, hopefully we'll see some
• other Garnets - almandine, rhodolite, etc. usually available in abundance
• Sapphire - maybe fancy colors?!
• Chrysoberyl - hopefully some bright yellows and yellow/greens
• Spinel - hard to come by, but we're hoping...
• Tanzanite - probably the most famous gem to come out of Tanzania
• Iolite - this was one of the awesome surprises last time
• Sphene - it's hard to find, but maybe it'll show up for us
• Scapolite - certainly yellows, hopefully natural lilac or purples in larger sizes
• Zircon - should be a wide range of colors, hopefully some light colored fancy types

...and there are all sorts of other possibilities too: the mining areas of Tanzania and nearby Kenya have been producing some real surprises lately.

If you have a project in mind, this would be a great time to let me know about it. I'd be very happy to help find the right rough for you!