Here’s a public service announcement for buyers headed to the Tucson gem shows: Colored stones that fall in the pink, peach, and purple range are all the rage this year. Think garnets, morganites, sapphires, spinel, quartz, topaz, and tourmalines in sunrise and sunset hues.
The gem that best captures the color range we’re talking about is padparadscha, the pinkish-orange variety of sapphire closely associated with Sri Lanka. But given the dearth of natural padparadschas, not to mention their costliness, buyers will need to broaden their horizons to more exotic species, from peachy Malaya garnets to hot, almost neon, pink Mahenge spinels to faintly lavender purple sapphires.
The spinels from Mahenge, in Tanzania, are an especially hot buy, but good luck finding a reasonable deal. Much like Paraiba tourmalines, the Windex blue gems discovered in Brazil in the late 1980s (and their lookalike cousins from Mozambique), pricing on fine Mahenge gems has gone through the roof since their discovery in 2007.
Not to worry, however. Tourmalines, garnets (check out the fetching color-change variety, also from Mahenge, branded as Lotus Garnets by Parle), and certain types of quartz (rose quartz, amethyst) fit the color guidelines without breaking the bank.
In the end, what you’re after is a spectrum of colors that represent the marriage of Millennial Pink and Gen Z Yellow with a hint of purple—bright hues that suggest good times ahead (recessionary fears be damned!).
Top: 16 ct. Mahenge spinel at B&B Fine Gems (photo courtesy of Dave Bindra)
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