[Jewelry making - Article 00266] - Re: [Orchid] Red amethyst?

[Harriet Kelsall]

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Hi there everybody

    Many thanks for all of your fascinating replies which I have been
    reading with huge interest. I have found out so many things from
    your postings! 

    Hmmm - corundum - a possibility. I actually own a large synthetic
    piece of synthetic corundum about this colour (not huge - about 7mm)
    that Ahmed Shareek gave me when I was in Sri Lanka because it is in
    an interesting and beautiful stone - I have found this stone really
    interesting and very useful when showing my team here stones under
    the microscope because you can clearly see the little bubbles in the
    structure under the microscope but it really is a fantastic looking
    fake and a very beautiful stone which is a rosy lilac colour and
    also, interestingly, similarly facetted (very well cut - round with
    a huge number of facets around the star area). When you look at it
    with the naked eye you would certainly believe it to be real. But I
    would say that this customer's stone is which is fairly similar in
    colour in some ways is much less blue/watery in the way that it
    reflects the light than I have found corundum to be. And the purple
    is more of an amethyst purple. But...similar enough for this to be a
    definite contender. I would also say that this stone has a similar
    'feel' of hardness to corundum and despite the fact that it has a
    tiny scratch, I think it has scratched like corrundum would
    scratch...not sure...can't decide! I too wondered about synthetic
    alexandrite as my mum owns a lovely one - and I wondered if it was a
    colour change stone that I was looking at in half daylight and half
    natural light to get this effect. But I checked and the stone
    definitely doesn't exhibit any colour change. 

    I am going to ask the customer to bring it back in so that I can
    photograph it and get it tested it for my own information (I don't
    own any testing equipment as I usually just rely on my eyes and
    experience as I don't offer a testing service or anything). But this
    one has really got me puzzled!! 

    It doesn't quite sound like the red amethyst that some of the
    subscribers have been describing.. but possibly. Part of me believes
    it must be natural because of its apparent age and the other part
    believes it must be synthetic because it doesn't quite fit into
    anything that I can think of! 

    I'll post some photos somewhere when I have them so that you can see
    what you think! 

    Thanks and so much for all of your help so far, 

Best wishes
Harriet (UK)
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