Faceted stones - Gallery

[Eu_citzen]

Thank you Regis!

Only for display, as a curiosity. To soft to be putting in a ring.

As for the shape, I made it up as I went. Didn't have any set idea when I started.
I felt a set design to go after would just complicate things.

I'm calling it free-form on the basis of it being a 1-fold symmetry cut, mostly.
I wrote down indexes and angles, though.

[Eu_citzen]

Nigerian Sapphire, quite dark rough. (doesn't pass the "white paper test")
Did a custom design and ended up with ~50% recovery(!!)
Also kept the natural crystal faces as "table". Thought it was a nice feature.

[Mark]

Really nice stones!  I love the sphalerite, you don't see much of that.  I have a really kool specimen and when i look at the chunks of sphalerite and think about how nice they would look faceted, i quickly come to my senses and realize i can never ruin such a beautiful creation.

I love the Nigerian sapphire and its super blue color.  Was the rough heat treated, and is that why this one is so dark?  I recently got a new book on setting gemstones and another on just the gemstones themselves, and have been reading about all the treatments.  Its kind of sad that we can do or rather un-do in seconds to hours to days, what nature took millions of years to do.  I don't really have a problem with treated rough and stones, as long as their treatments are declared and the stone is not passed off as natural to get a higher price.  If it wasn't for the treating of inferior stones to make them look decent, many of us would never be able to afford nice looking stones.  Over the last 8 years, i have picked up a number of really nice faceted gemstones to someday use in jewelry making.  Most have run between $2 to $15 for up to a several carat weight stone.  They look great (to the unaided eye) and are cheap enough to use in my low priced settings.

Mark

[RegisG]

Nice touch Willie

[Eu_citzen]

Thanks Mark,
The sphalerite is from Spain. The mine is not producing any more.
I guess many keep away from it due to the 6 cleavage plains.
On this piece it wasn't to troublesome, an underestimated material.

I bought the sapphire as untreated, but I haven't checked for treatment.
The nigerian stuff is usually heated at worst.

If done right, heat treatment can also lighten the colour if memory serves.

Nigerian sapphire tends to be a bit on the dark side though, it's the rough which is usually a dark saturation. Also tends to show colour zoning. (blue, green, yellow the most common)

This piece has some nice colour zoning, did my best to hide it and get the blue colour out. Seems more valued (read: popular).

I imagine this one would easily go for a couple 100 per carat, but it's not my area of expertise.

[Eu_citzen]

Thanks Regis, how's the cutting going?

[Eu_citzen]

Some new cuts.

First one is an approx 10 mm light amethyst in my Medieval design.
It's designed to save light colour rough.


And just a glamour shot, the amethyst above and a few garnets.

[RegisG]

A lot of flash there Willie.   Lookin' good. Thanks for sharing.

Regis

[Bentiron]

I tend not to look at this section on faceted stones as it is something I don't work with either in the act of making or setting, however today the blue sapphire caught my attention and that is very nice looking stone both in shape and color. It will make a fine piece of jewelry or just a very nice collectors stone. Thanks for sharing the pictures of your stones I enjoy viewing your portfolio.

[Debbie K]

Beautiful sapphire and amethyst! I like the garnet directly below the amethyst; great return of light. I like the way you left the face of the crystal on the sapphire; I like to imagine that this is how faceting started; just improving the stone, but not changing it so much that it's unrecognizable.

Debbie K

[Eu_citzen]

Thanks Regis, how's the cutting doing? Having fun with the sunstone? 

Bentiron, thanks for the kind words.

Debbie,
That lower garnet is cut in Jeff Grahams Cornered, I think it was called.
Sometimes one has to decide if it's worth save natural crystal faces and being a bit of an artist or just changing it all. It's up to us cutters. :)

[Eu_citzen]

Here's a stone you don't see all that often; Orthoclase.



A light coloured amethyst (Rosé de France) in a Portuguese Cut (161 facets or thereabouts!)


And to round it off; a garnet. The Culet chipped, so this is going in for a recut.

[Eu_citzen]

Well, I finished the recut for that garnet. Ended up at 2.6 cts. Not bad!

Natural light:


Incandescent light:

[Debbie K]

I don't know how I missed these earlier, but really pretty stones. I like them all. The orthoclase is doing something odd to the light, isn't it? I'm assuming that the cut is symmetrical, but the way it's reflecting/refracting, it doesn't appear that way. I don't think I'd want to facet a feldspar; I'd be afraid that they'd cleave along one of it's almost impossible to discern planes.

I respect you faceters so much, after dabbling a little bit I realize how difficult it is to produce such beautiful stones. Keep up the good work!

P.S. - The ametrine still hasn't turned up!

Debbie K

[Eu_citzen]

The orthoclase cut is actually not symmetrical, first I planned to cut a shield but a feather turned up. Had to cut it out.
So the design is cut "on the fly".

Most feldspars I've cut haven't been that troublesome regarding cleavage. Albite is the only one that was a bit tricky to polish certain facets. But that's it. The orthoclase was a piece of cake.