Gray Spinels used to be viewed by everyone as a color that represented sadness and despair a few decades ago. This season, the diamond business wanted colors that were vivid, strongly saturated, and didn't have a tone that was too dark. On the other hand, over the past few years, the market has seen a significant transition in favor of unsaturated pastel colors.
It's incredible how quickly the market is eating gray spinels, which are in fact an unsaturated color. At trade shows or fairs, the vendors who had previously struggled to move these stones are suddenly the first to sell out!
Grey is a combination of black and white in terms of color theory. However, it can also be made by blending cyan, magenta, and yellow. Because the human eye can only distinguish a very small degree of saturation, colors like yellow, orange, and red produce a warm grey while colors like green, blue, and violet produce a cold grey.
Grey is defined in color theory in a way that is helpful for gemology. Pure grey spinels are rare in nature; they usually have a secondary blue or violet tint. Compared to the former, which are infamously rare and therefore very expensive, these are much more common. Similar to the majority of colored gemstones, the price increases in proportion to how intense the color (in this case, grey) is.
The same deposits where ruby and sapphire are found are where grey spinels, red spinels, and multicolored spinels are found. The best grey spinels, it stands to reason, come from rare sapphire and ruby sources. Burmese grey spinels are highly sought after because of their superior quality and gorgeous natural color. However, due to the country's ongoing civil unrest and the trade restrictions placed on Burmese gemstones by a number of countries, primarily the USA, there are very few genuine Burmese grey spinels available on the market. Additional sources include Thailand, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.
These aspects become vital when handling a stone because one mistake could upset the delicate equilibrium of the hue. Loose grey spinel, one of our most sought-after slots, is available in calibrations ranging from 3mm to 5mm and beyond, as well as larger sizes like 5-carat stones. Market trends indicate that fancy cuts are the most popular cut for these stones since they enhance the unique hue. Cushion cuts, to put it more formally, are also rather typical.
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