Created Alexandrite

My question is about lab created alexandrites. These are created by
different methods: flux pulled (Chatham), Russian pulled (Czochralski)
and hydrothermal. Which one produces the most consistently better
stones? Also, is a deeper color stone closer in color to the natural
counterpart, or are the lighter ones closer? I’ve only seen a handful
of natural alexandrite in my life and my memory is unreliable.

elana - the strange thing about lab created alexandrite, from my
experience, is that the natural material is about 80% changeable
while the created is 100%. guess you can improve on nature.

ive

Elena, I have never cut the Chatam material, but I have cut many of
the Russian and other synthetic chrysoberyl that I think was
hydrothermal. Both have excellent color change when the stone is
orientated correctly. The Russian material seems to be a little blue
green to red purple. The best red to green I have seen is the
hydrothermal. I have cut 20+ carat Russian synthetics that have
spectacular color change, but the smaller hydrothermal stones, in the
2-3 carat range, have been more dramatic red to green color change.

Gerry Galarneau