Ammolite, anyone?

[Fezmydoodle]

I personally like ammolite and was happy to see JTV air it last night. Have never seen it in their gemshows before, granted I'm very limited with airings here. Anyone else a fan?

A few years ago I was fortunate to buy a large ammolite ring very reasonably at a tag sale because no one knew what it was.

[bojangles]

I think it is pretty cool.

ShopNBC had some faceted ammolite that was gorgeous! The prices were pretty high, but it was really different looking.

I feel the same way about ammolite that I do opal...I love the gemstone, but rarely see jewelry pieces in it that I like.

[Whoanellie]

I love ammolite. I purchased the shield design ring during ShopatHome's going out of business sale. The Korite representative who sold at SAH is now on ShopNBC. For a while Michael Valitutti was hawking the dragonskin variety which is not the higher grade.

The faceted ammolite pieces have the faceting on the spinel top coat as they are triplets. If you google Korite you will be taken to their company site and they have several pages of jewelry pieces.

[beekeeper]

Awww, hell to the NO! lol ...

I hate it. To me it's very "earthy", which is not my thing. It's up there with hematite and lapis for me. I will agree that it's nice that JTV has a selection of products for us to choose from.

[hotrocs]

I watch jewelry television often. I have seen some very nice Ammolite off and on ,in the past months. I look up extra info on gems on my own just to find out about gems. I like to see nice displays of several colors in an Ammolite,as with an Opal.One of the reasons I watch jewelry television is for pain deversion therapy. I have purchased many good parcels of gems and loose stones, rings ect. I am also not afraid to shop around to find what I like. Not to change the subjuct,but I am new to this site and wonder if anyone out there has researched this labradorite/Andesine thing. Although I do own both Oregon Sunstone and Andesine,I wonder how much they differ? My stones do not look very different from each other. I have been wondering if the much guarded site is in Oregon? There are some online sites that are hinting at this. I realize that disclosing a gem source could be dangerous for workers. I hope the source is in the USA,like Bixbite.I think both Sunstone and Andesine are both equally beautiful and rare even if they are not from the same source.I still have much to learn,but I do enjoy gemstones .

[bojangles]

From what I've heard, the original andesine that came into the market was from the Congo, More recent pockets have come out of China. A lot of people in the gem world have said this and don't know why jewelry television claims it can't tell the source. I've also heard it's the same thing as sunstone, but I personally don't think that it is based on appraisals and such.

[beekeeper]

Over the weekend I saw Victoria Weick (HSN) offer an Andesine ring ... actually very pretty. First time I've seen it NOT called labradorite at HSN.

[jewelfreak]

I got a beautiful rectangular cushion labradorite in one of my mixed facets. At my store, we had a remount show, and I got a great deal on a designer setting so I had it mounted. It looks gorgeous. The very knowlegeable man who is the salesperson from the remount company knew immediately what it was, calling it labradorite. Since it is not a widely used stone in commercial jewelry, must gemologists will use the proper name, not a trade name. He never mentioned the words andesine or sunstone. Don't know if this means anything. But he will be back this month on the 19th, so I will find out more then. Also, if I remember correctly, in my Walter Schuman's Gemstones of the world (a book that has been used for several decades according to an older gentleman who has worked in the industry for many years inclusing Beverly Hills) sunstone and labradorite are listed on speperate pages with no mention or cross referneces to the other.