Favorite gemstones/"precious" or "semi-precious" stones?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

I've always been very partial to sapphires, particularly the traditional deep blue ones, but I stumbled upon this sheerly beautiful type of sapphire a few years ago and am still dazed by it:



It's called a padparadscha sapphire and is very rare, but gorgeous.

What do you like?

[flvegan]

1. Keith Richards is a great guitarist.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

2. ...

:rofl:

[NMDemDist2]

3. I like opals, not the green ones, the white ones with a fire inside

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. Ah, nice.

:thumbsup:

[TroglodyteScholar]

16. Yea, me too...

So pretty

[DarkTirade]

5. I've always been an amythest fan myself.

[VenusRising]

6. Reminds me of the "mystic" topaz that I've seen.

I love gemstones that have color variants. Alexandrite is so expensive, but has some of the prettiest color changes.

[supernova]

7. Rubie are ny faves

:D my birthstone

[WritingIsMyReligion]

8. Just as sapphire is my birthstone.

:D

[femmocrat]

9. "Diamonds are a girl's best friend"

I also love turquoise, but I don't know if it's semi-precious.

[Shakespeare]

10. Morganite, in the beryl family (a cousin to emeralds and aquamarine).

A delicate cameo pink:

[SallyMander]

11. Moissanite!

It's sparklier than diamonds, and they grow it in the lab - so no mining or human rights issues. :D

[Lyric]

12. Blue star sapphires, opals, and moonstones are my favorites.

I also love pearls. :)

[peacefreak]

13. Turquoise is my favorite.

I try to wear some every day. I also love Lapis Lazuli & Moonstone.

[RedShoes]

14. aquamarines and rubies.

[MorningGlow]

15. Amethysts

And they like me too. I got an amethyst globe off eBay--it turned out to be HUUUUGE for an incredibly decent price (less than $100). And then the vendor erroneously sent me another one! It was too heavy to send back (postage to Brazil? yikes!), so the guy just sucked up the loss. Now I have two gorgeous 5" amethyst globes gracing my home. Very good energy.

[Connonym]

19. do you have a piture? I bet that's beautiful and I'd like to see

[MorningGlow]

22. I'll dig out my camera

I think it's still AWOL from our trip to California (got back last week). I'll try to post some pics tomorrow! :hi:

[MorningGlow]

40. Here are some pics

Sorry this took so long! The weekend got away from me! The first two pics are the orbs in their natural habitats, one in the dining room and one in the living room.

The first one is larger; I call him Elvis--because he was so amazingly huge (size, presence, what have you!)



So of course when the next one showed up unexpectedly, I called her Priscilla. (Pardon the dust!)



Here they are together with my hand to keep them from rolling away and for size perspective.

[Connonym]

42. oooh, very pretty!

thanks for posting the pictures. Those are really beautiful

[MrsMatt]

17. Equal opportunity precious/semi stone whore here

I love them all!

But, I do confess to a preference to cabachon or cushion cuts. I once saw a beautiful 3 carat heart-shaped cabachon amethyst set into a very simple thick gold ring - I wasn't able to afford it, and it still haunts me as the one that got away.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. My dear WIMR!

I am partial to topaz...

My birthstone!

They come in all sorts of colors, not just the yellow you commonly see...

Many shades of blue are available, and I have many topaz earrings!

Your sapphire is gorgeous!

:hug:

[Tektonik]

20. lapis lazuli

[Inchworm]

25. Also my favorite

:thumbsup:

[LadyoftheRabbits]

21. That is stunning

Sapphires are my favourite, followed by moonstones and opals. :D

[The Magistrate]

23. Garnets, Ma'am, And Moonstones

Followed by opals, lapis lazuli, and malachite.

[Misskittycat]

26. I love garnets, especially in antique jewelry settings.

[The Magistrate]

27. There Is Just Something About That Wine-Dark Color, Ma'am

In 'rock shops' you can occasionally come upon crystalline garnet still embedded in a steel grey matrix stone, and it is a very striking sight....

One of the attractions of malachite, beyond the beauty of its intricate patterns under polish, is that, as a high yield copper ore, it was once the very foundation of civilization and industry.

[Redstone]

24. Good jade (jadeite, not nephrite). Gorgeous spring-grass color, and a pleasure

to work with, because it's so tough. (Not hard, tough. There's a difference.)

Also moonstones. I have a matched set of five (two small, two medium, and two large) that I never set into mountings, and I've had them for over 25 years. Probably worth a few $$ nowadays.

And I really liked making jewelry with Linde star sapphires. Yeah, they're grown in a lab rather than in the ground, but they're stuning.


Redstone

[KitchenWitch]

28. I love rubies and tanzanite

I own some ruby jewelry but no tanzanite. I also love blue topaz.

[reyd reid reed]

29. My favorites are probably opals

but I love aquamarines. And pearls.

[bluesbassman]

30. Black Star Sapphire

All sapphires really, but partial to the black stars.

[just a girl]

31. Blue diamonds

Sapphires are a close second.

[elshiva]

32. Oh my precious...

[Heidi]

33. Lapis lazuli, amber, turquoise and tigereye.

Lapis lazuli


Amber


Turquoise


Tigereye

[csziggy]

34. Alexandrite

Green in daylight and red under incandescent light.

[Shell Beau]

36. I have one of those! So pretty because it has so many different

shades of color to it. Blue, green, purple, pink...

[csziggy]

39. I have one I inherited - for years people told me it was a fake gem

because of the color change. Mine is a turquoise blue-green and a pinky-purple. Very pretty.

[Lilith Velkor]

35. Blue Moonstone

[Shell Beau]

37. Emeralds and rubies!

[supernova]

38. Fun towns for gem hounds - Dig your own!

Hiddenite NC is an Emerald haven http://www.hiddenitegems.com/

Franklin NC has rubies. http://www.sheffieldmine.com/

[sinkingfeeling]

44. You can dig for diamonds here:

http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/

[trof]

41. Watermelon tourmaline

[Jade Fox]

47. Beautiful....

both the earrings and the stones....

[trof]

53. Not too expensive, either. Miz t. loves them.

[sinkingfeeling]

43. Blue topaz!

[BreweryYardRat]

45. Jade, tigereye, amber, sapphires, rubies, emeralds... n/t

[yellowdogintexas]

46. Opal is my birthstone and love it. Also Tanzanite, Iolite, Garnets

and I would love to have a color changing tourmaline.

[FloridaJudy]

48. Most of them

Right now I have on my fingers - reading left to right - garnet/rhodochrosite/mother of pearl, alexandrite (lab grown - I couldn't afford the real thing in that size, but it changes color nicely), moonstone, and blue topaz. And amber in my ears. And amethyst/lapis around my neck. If you believe in crystal therapy (which I don't: I buy them because they're pretty) I'm treating every health problem known. I realize that I probably look like a peasant who won the lottery, but life is too short to wear boring stuff, and I've been collecting semi-precious jewelry for over forty years.

I was never crazy about diamonds, even before I learned about how they're mined. They look cold to me, plus my entire collection of semi-precious stuff probably cost a fraction of what one quality diamond would have set me back. Sapphires, rubies and emeralds would be nice, but with my salary it's never going to happen.

Edited to add: what I've got on my wish list from eBay, if I ever do win the lottery...

[DeepBlueC]

49. moss agate, moonstone, tiger's eye

[DeepBlueC]

50. yeah, amber as well

[sarge43]

51. Pearls and opals. n/t

[AngryAmish]

52. I got a sapphire for my sweetie's engagement ring

This kinda looks like it.

I despise diamonds and the diamond business. She wasn't getting a diamond. She says she likes what she has (and it has the added benefit of being the biggest rock of her friends - 'cause sapphires are cheaper.

[redqueen]

54. Opals are by far my favorite.

There are some other semi-precious stones that have caught my eye... but I always forget their names.