I wondered if anyone could give advice. We have a lovely pink Kunzite, it is 4.53cts. the gem is flawless and the cut is stunning, I keep seeing different price ranges online and on the forum. Can anyone give me an idea of the price? It is weird as I tried Google’s new Gemini feature which connects you to Bard. It’s a new AI which is more sentinent (a bit scary). Wait until you see the prices they gave lol:
Low end:** $5,000 - $10,000: This range assumes a less intense pink color or a slightly imperfect cut.
Mid-range:** $10,000 - $25,000: This range is considered a vibrant pink color and a good cut.
High end:** $25,000+: This range applies to stones with exceptional color saturation, flawless clarity, and an excellent cut, especially if they come from a renowned locality.
Using Chatgpt does not give you anything, I have looked at the prices on here which are about $50 a carat, I’ve gone on different auction sites and now we have no idea. I don’t know how often the IGS updates their pricing.
By the way, if any of you decide to take a look at our website it is being completely redesigned as soon as we have finished our one-off, no one else will have gold rings. The Fusion collection. We could do with some support, if anyone feels like supporting new designers sign up for our emails, you will see big changes in a few weeks. Only two ladies are working at the lapidary wheel, designing and setting our gold rings.
Thank you for any of the above
Athena Visage
The only thing i can contribute is what i have paid as a consumer. I got a nice approx 5 carat very pale kunzite (faceted). And paid aprrox. $60 for it. This was from a reputable wholesale seller at a show. I hope this helps.
Kunzite in general has less value that beryls. Spodumene crystal grow to enormous sizes in as many pegmatites.Non gem kunzite crystals the size of large tree trunks and weighing tons are found at the Etta Mine, at Keystone, SD. and at the Harding Pegmatite in Taos County NM… Large kunzite gemstones do not have a value simply commensurate to their size as do many pegmatite gems, only because clear crystals can grow large… More of a collector’s item than a highly prized traditional precious stone… the same applies again in general, for all pegmatite gems. If you think you have something that’s worth 5K or more, then getting it appraised would be worth the cost.
So I tent to a logical method for pricing and as an appraiser this is the method that most accredited appraisers use. It’s a bit time consuming but I believe it to be an honest method.
Search for Kunzite for sale and look for 3 different wholesales. Then find the gems that best match the description of the gem in question, colour, clarity , cut, location… and any other details that might be impacting the price.
Take the 3 lowest prices and take the cost average.
This is the average replacement cost to Rebuy the stone once it is sold.
If you are using it in a piece of jewellery to sell retail, triple the cost of the stone.
If it cost $10 to buy then it is $30 that you need to add to the cost of the jewellery.
So if the setting cost you $100 plus the stone at $10. They you should be selling the ring for $330.00
The next step is to search Kunzite rings ( or what ever type of jewellery you are making) that best matches the description of the piece and repeat the same process.
This should give you an honest price range to work from.
Every area has its price threshold so keep that in mind as well. Something that will sell fo $10000 in NYC might not sell in Nebraska at the same price. This is where rarity, fashion And socioeconomics come into play
Hi Daniel,
Thank you, you got your Kunzite at a nice price, we have nearly finished our first collection of three rings and the one we were going to set with kunzite, we were going to enter the “A” design awards but that was the last stone we were setting and we were just polishing the gold on the ring and rubbing over the gold so we could set a cornflower blue sapphire, there was a bubble in the gold and it caused a huge hole from the gold casting, we have nearly finished this ring, should be done by the end of the week. Thank you for your info, though
Kind Regards AV
HI,
This is so helpful, thank you, we live in the UK and although we appraise rings we want an independent jeweler to appraise our newly designed rings as it is our first designs, it can be a bit shocking, we took a tanzanite gold ring to be appraised in our town, one of the jewelers said it was a sapphire, then we sent it off to be appraised costing £200 and there were 0.50cts of diamonds surrounding the gem and they put on the appraisal it was 0.25ct and we had to get another independent jeweler to say that the appraisal was wrong to which after many phone calls they agreed and we were refunded our money. Once again thank you for providing this information.
Kind Regards
AV
If you are looking for a quality reputable wholsale dealer check out Internationalgemstoneinc com
The owner is Larry, super nice guy. And he has some great prices. I have been buying from him for several years now.
sorry to hear about the bubble in the casting. How did you fix it?.. people of Ganoksin/orchid of which I am a member as an ex hobbist DYI jeweler would like to know… it’s a common problem with castings, I did fabrication but still am curious… what you have designed sounds gorgeous… mind posting a picture of the finished product?
Hi Steven
We only finished the ring last week, it has been a nightmare, we designed 3 for our first collection. This kept needing opal inlays and enamel redone, the tapered baguettes were hard to cut. The main stone is Kunzite, the others are a pink sapphire, purple sapphire, yellow sapphire and a stunning blue sapphire finished with opal inlays and enamel.
I can’t seem to upload a pic so plz look at website athevisage.com.
We are now designing Andy Warhol inspired jewelry in silver, we had someone contact us from the Milano jewelry week, we had an interview and we told them we only started in January but they loved our 3 pieces, which was lovely to hear as no one has given us feedback, we need to get our name out there so this sounds like a good opportunity.
Oh the original question we couldn’t repair the ring because of the blow out, I think it might have been easier if we hadn’t enamelled it plus had set a few gems, because we could have heated the gold and added gold to it but the heat would have damaged the pieces we had set.
Would love to see some of your designs, as a hobbyist do you sell your jewelry? It’s good to create without any pressure or deadlines as you enjoy it more. We are hoping to get the silver ready for Milano week ASAP and create silver and gold pieces ( fingers crossed a ring will sell) without pressure. Sorry think I babbled too much but please sign up to our website, we are going to be launching an updated one soon. Thank you for your interest.
AV
Sorry but I can’t get into your website. Your piece sounds gorgeous. A lot of thought goes into your designs. Executing them sounds formidable, but the results sound like they are quite stunning. You are doing high end fine jewelry. I myself learned silver work in a high school class… initially I did sell a few pieces on consignment. That I regret, since the semiprecious stones that were used are not avaliable at a reasonable price anymore… After I developed neck and shoulder problems and could no longer sit at the bench for hours at a time, I stopped making stuff and have kept all of it since it was irreplaceable. All of my stuff has a distinctive hand made appearance. It’s not fine jewelry… I used only the most basic of tools, a propane/air torch and still have my old rolling mill… I worked mostly in silver, then in gold and mixed metals. The latter is very difficult. Brass and copper on silver makes it’s own solder as it’s heated and is extremely difficult to control, especially brass with it’s zinc content, but I still was able to make a few bracelets by melt embedding copper and brass into silver,… I started out with simple band rings and as I got better slowly by experimentation, did more applique work with mixed metals. My band rings evolved into gold on silver, vice versa, with twisted wires, straigth wires, copper and gold leaves on silver, and shot…I usually mounted a single stone, but sometimes several… The stones I used were all semi-precious. I am looking to dispose of a hoard of unset loose stones of which I have no idea of current valuation, other than prices appreciating over 20-30 years about ten fold. Some haven’t… quartz stones are still very cheap due to their abundance. The sterling silver hoard that I acquired as scrap, I bought for $2 - $2.50 per oz. That has appreciated ten fold also… however, as is, I have to send it to a refiner. Ideally, I’d like to get it back as investment grade fine silver bars… commissions and fees are nearly prohibitive, despite the quality which is somewhere around 25 pounds… I also have several ounces of 18k green gold alloyed from Kruggerands and fine silver… That would also have to be refined to fine gold… Doing all of this, however is not a priority… I have recently retired from a very demanding profession and am enjoying travelling a whole lot… most of my knowledge of gemstones is old, from the time I bought them online. The quality of what is being sold has gone down drastically, unless one is willing to pay very high prices for quality…again, another however… I don’t trust online sales very much at all… Etsy in particular is crazy… some of their sellers actually don’t know what they are selling…someone didn’t know whether their gems were synthetic or natural… and they were selling rubies…
My knowledge of gemstones comes from a life time hobby of rock collecting… Even as a kid I had memorized the stoichometry formulae of common minerals and their crystal classes. Later I started studying how and my minerals form… gems are minerals, mostly crystals but occassionaly rocks, like lapis lazuli… that evolved into the study of petrology and geochemistry. I bought and read 300 and 400 level text books in geology with an emphasis on petrology and geochemistry. Learning this kind of stuff is difficult at my age… I have a science background but it’s 50 years old…I would have to retake 4 semesters of calculus and higher math, two semesters of chemistry, one of physical chemistry and two semesters of physics. Numeric modelling developed after I left undergrad school… Developing mathematically based algorythms for computer analysis would be a new field for me… Yet I am still thinking seriously of returning to school and getting a geology degree, just for the joy of learning something that I have always loved…cystallography is essential to gemmology but can be quite complicated… symmetry group analysis which is all mathematical is used all of the time… Bravais lattices are less complicated but still are… It’s always been the science behind the gems that have interested me more than their value or beauty, but I still appreciate beauty above all…but my time is short… right now, besides travel, I’m disposing of my junk to move south…hence the interest in valuation of my gemstones… the winters here are brutal and long… I’m too old with too many orthopedic problems to shovel snow and take care of a big old house and yard…
That is a very colorful ring! I like it! Well done!
I would like to state a cautionary note: Some (not all) kunzite is sensitive to sunlight! Some pinks are irradiated to enhance the hue, then heat treated to make the color “more” permanent. These can still fade to colorless, if heated above 500C or exposure to intense sunlight.
Tenebrescence is the phenomena. This is a characteristic found in the spodumene family. It is more prevalent in the blue variety, but can affect kunzite as well. If the stone has chromium, it can be irradiated to recover the pink hue. However, there is risk it would be a temporary effect.
There was a discussion on this effect last July/August.
Another good resource on Kunzite:
You should caution your customer, who purchases that work of art, about protecting the stone from sunlight and that it should be considered an “Evening Stone”.
When you get back to the ABQ, definitely go and visit RioGrande.com. Their main facility is over on Bell. You can have them process your scrap metal or they will buy it a reasonable price compared to a pawn shop or Gold/Silver trade company.
I always took mine there since I didn’t have a casting setup.
Rio Grande is the middleman for scrap. They have to send it out to a refiner. I’ve gotten a bunch of direct referals to different refiners… Thanks for the suggestion.
Is the fading universal with kuzite, or does this happen with just some stones? Is this a product of heat treatment or does that just
I don’t know why this particular stone exhibits these properties but in general, I try and make send of fluorescence in terms of the geological and paleo climatological history of the planet. These characteristics would have emerged for a reason, and as you suggest, given broad, global organic and non-organic distribution of this property, it seems likely it’s a product of extended periods where visible UV served functioned as some kind of survival advantage or somehow reflected such conditions. Why it fades, I have no idea, but there is a reason (duh! :-)). That’s the limit of what I understand about this stuff.
Not all kunzite is susceptible to UV fade and not all kunzite benefits from heat-treatment for color enhancement. There is some kunzite that has chromium present and what I have read so far explains those tend to recover their pink hue when subjected to irradiation / heat treatment. But that effect is sometimes short lived.
There are some mine origins that are more prone to the UV and some of those cannot recover their pink hue. This effect is called Photochromism. Similarly, the Blue Spodumene variety is particularly susceptible to permanent color loss.
I would offer more detail on this process, but I am still learning the atomic interaction of photons with crystalline structures. It is definitely not a “light” subject for me… excuse the goofy pun.
Most of the what I have been reading has gone over my head a few times. I attempted to explain this phenomena in a previous post last year… but I don’t know if I did correctly, or totally jumbled it up.
Luckily, I just happen to have a particular nuclear physicist at work, who I enjoy extracting neurons from on things just like this.
