Jewelry is sweeter than candy!
If you find colored gemstones delicious and enticing, you’re in for a treat!
As your Jewelry Navigator, it’s my pleasure to bring you today’s featured gemstone.
As an overlooked, but brilliant gemstone, spinel is available in all colors, but ones with colors like sunrise pink, rich, regal purple, velvety violet and reds juicy like berries that are especially captivating.
Furthermore, with a relatively high hardness of 8, spinel can endure frequent wear without risk of cracking or breaking on a cleavage plane.
Spinel-A Sweetheart of a Gemstone
Spinel is formed in exotic locations, but Myanmar and Sri Lanka have been the most well known sources. Other origins of spinel include Cambodia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Vietnam.
Gemstone On Fire
A color variety of spinel that captures the attention of collectors and fine jewelers is the Mehenge (Ma-heng-gee) variety, with its alluring, almost neon orange-pink color.
Mehenge spinel was discovered by miners searching for tanzanite in 2007. As its only source, the supply is extremely limited.
Mother, daughter team at California Girl Jewelry, Mariel Baker and Denise Forbes, in San Francisco, do a great job at describing the origins and characteristics of the rare colored gemstones they set in their jewelry, and their details on Mehenge spinel are spot on.
“Mahenge Spinels are the rarest and most sought-after of all the Spinels. They were discovered in August, 2007 at Ipanko, near the town of Mahenge, in Tanzania. The color of these Spinels is a vibrant orangey pinkish red, that is considered to be top for spinel. What is so special about this material is the highly saturated hot pink-red color and a unique neon-like glow. The color is quite pure, without the grey or brown secondary hue found in a lot of Spinel. It has a glow that makes the best Mahenge spinel unique. Like high quality paraiba tourmaline, the Mahenge spinel seems to possess a kind of energy that glows even under low light conditions.”-California Girl Jewelry, description of Mehenge spinel from their Etsy shop, CAGirlJewelry.
Truly, the color of the Menage spinel is like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, but on fire! It’s visually delicious, and its beauty and rarity make Mehenge spinel a gemstone worthy of owning.
More About Spinel
Not to go Bill Nye the Science Guy on you, but other characteristics that make spinel so special are:
- With colors similar to ruby and sapphire, spinels are different because they have higher dispersion, which means more sparkle!
- The large red stone in England’s state crown, known as the Black Prince’s Ruby, is a spinel that had been mistaken as ruby for centuries.
Mistaken as ruby, the large red stone set in the Black Prince’s Crown, is actually a red spinel. - Spinel crystals are often found in the same metamorphic environments as corundum, or ruby and sapphire.
- The conditions in which spinel are formed allows them to be relatively clean of inclusions.
- Spinels often fluoresce-a characteristic that helps to identify them.
The fact that spinel will often fluoresce is really cool! The photo above shows the reaction of spinel crystals to fluorescent light. Photo courtesy of John Betts Fine Minerals
Enticing Colors of Spinel and More Spinel Jewelry
From their custom jewelry boutique in San Francisco, California Girl Jewelry, as well as their online Etsy shop CAGirlJewelry, mother-daughter business team, Mariel Baker and Denise Forbes, practice sincere interest in their trade, craft and customers by virtue of their motto, “Designed and made for women, by women.”
The collections of California Girl Jewelry serve shoppers looking for unique, quality jewelry, created with rare and unusual gemstones, while honoring affordability and value.
California Girl Jewelry is offering a 15% Valentine’s Day discount!
Below are three beautiful rings created by Julia B Jewelry, San Diego, CA. All of her designs are vintage inspired settings, set with beautiful gemstones and diamonds on her Etsy store.
Julia is offering 10% off until Valentine’s Day!
EleriaJewelry on Etsy shows spinel in beautiful simplicity with an ombre color gradation bar necklace. Available in sterling silver or gold filled chain options. $58
Add Spinel to Your Jewelry’s Destinations
As a somewhat obscure gemstone, spinel is as a treasured as it is beautiful, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the tour!
To purchase or inquire for customizations with any of the featured jewelers and designers, click on their links to be taken directly to their shop.
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