Gem: Vanadium Kornerupine
Weight: 1.835 ct.
Dimensions: 8.25 x 6.4 mm
Clarity: VS
Origin: Umba Valley, Tanzania
Treatments: None, natural gem
Comments:
This kornerupine has an extra KICK in the side with it's deep, neon green color. When the kornerupine is THIS clean and has a color THIS strong, it's almost a foregone conclusion that it'll be faceted. But I was lucky enough to find and buy a parcel of these bright gems, and since I had a few to work with, I decided to make a select few high-end cabochons.
This 'over-full' drop shape caboshon has a high, glossy dome, and great tapered proportions. It's a regal, handsome gem.
Full of brightness and color no matter the light, this dash of grassy, citrusy green is sure to set off any piece of jewelry it's set in. If I were going to keep it, I would set it in a gold bezel ring with a thin half-round shank. A perfect solitaire.
It's astoundingly clean for the material, which is one of the rarest gem varieties on earth, by the way. It's a sheer marketing lapse on the part of the jewelry industry that this stone isn't more popular than both tanzanite AND tourmline. (Kornerupine has a hardness above 7, just like tourmaline, and can be trichroic, just like tanzanite).
Since the 2019-20 Kornerupine deposit has dried up and been long gone from the rough market for almost a year, (as of May 2022), gems are only becoming scarcer, and more expensive. When my modest stash is gone, I have no way of getting more.