Sunstone

Ok.. I did a search but I might have missed over it somewhere. So I am sorry if this was mentioned in another thread.

I did however read in one thread that there is a real and a fake sun stone.

I bought a piece the other day and was wondering about it.

It isn't in the shape of a bead/ball like most colored goldstones are found.

It is shaped like a normal (best way to describe) tumbled stone. Marbled rose colored and there isn't specks of 'gold' throughout the entire stone.

Its metallic like in certain areas.. you catch a glimpse of a shimmer when tilted.

So I guess I am wondering what is the difference between fake suntone and the real deal. This is a lovely piece and I am very curious.


Sorry for rambling!
Melissa

I can't tell from your description if it's a 'real' sunstone or not. The best way -I- can describe the real ones is that they're very similar to moonstone, except a nice, bright, sunshiney yellow-gold color. Or another color in the yellow/gold/sometimes orangey or pinkish range.

Hi Melissa

I googled for a picture for you, there seems to be a couple of varieties of sunstone. one is translucent and seems to be anywhere from a clear yellowish to a deep orange. This is the Oregon sunstone.
The other one (with the sparkleys) is from India and looks like an orange opal.

I think this is the prettier of the two,

I like the sparkleys myself. I have one like this but I think it is a manufactured one (judging by price).

The Oregon sunstone actually looks much more like the Indian sunstone when it's not faceted like that. Much prettier than that picture. It also has sparklies, just not as many. The main difference is the color.

Thank you both..

Majecot, you didn't have to do all that searching! I should have thought about doing that before.. I must have been way tired at the moment.

Now the disappointing thing on my part.. my stone looks nothing like either of those.

It is a cross between the coral like color and a muted rose color expect with a milky marble. It is sparkly/metallic like in places.. not specked..

Ah well.. either it is a knock off or another type stone the store mislabled as sunstone.. heck, they might not have mislabled it and did this on purpose.

I wish I had a camera right now, it is a 'pretty' stone never the less.

Thank you again!

I have an orange sunstone set as a pendent. It is a cabochon - smooth, not faceted. I got this from a reloabe source and the price wasn't pretty....but I know enough of stones to know I hadn't seen it anywhere else in my travels.

A colleague of mine bought a suntone in another city. Hers is dark blue - almost black - with sparkles in it. This is not a real sunstone, although it is quite pretty.

My research all states that "real" sunstone is always a golden/orange color, hence the name "sun" stone. i suppose a coral-orange color might qaulify.

The important thing is *you* like it and responded to it.

Melissa, your stone sounds like sunstone to me. I have some genuine pieces of sunstone which are mostly orange with metallic shimmer when the light hits the piece in a certain direction. My pieces of sunstone also have some white "marbly" areas too.

According to my gemstone books sunstone is orange, red-brown and sparkling.

Sunstone is a member of the Feldspar group (as is moonstone and labradorite). It's official mineral name is "Aventurine Feldspar". (Not to be confused with Aventurine Quartz which is an entirely different stone.) According to my book, sunstone has a red, or more rarely green or blue, glitter which is caused by light reflections from tiny hematite or goethite platelets.

Hope this helps,
Ruby7

It sounds like real sunstone to me, too. I have a couple tumbled pieces which are pale orange and white with schiller (the sparklies). The pictures others have posted must be of darker specimens, or just the process of photographing the stones may have not reproduced the colors precisely.

The only type of fake sunstone I know of is the kind that is uniformly a golden-reddish-brown color with glittery gold flecks all over it. I have also seen it in very deep blue (aka starstone, because it looks like a starry night sky) and recently in green. These originated when people tried to reproduce genuine sunstone.

www.dustdevilmining.com/AboutSunstone.asp

Go to this site and click on the section about cutting and polishing sunstone. Scroll down a ways and there are some good pictures of lighter colored stones, and ones with schiller.

-- Kyrielle

Thank you for the further replies and links.

Ruby7 and Kyrielle, you two describe this piece much better than I did

It is a very beautiful stone.. I believe I might pick up a few more if there is any left!

Melissa