Having fun faceting

[imakedust]

A work in progress,
Hi,
I recently received a gift from Helen Stark :) Thank you Helen! A beautiful round of encased silver blue glass...See I remembered to take a beginning photo! (I always forget the photos)

Had to rough up the back a little :)


Now I thought this pretty glass cab was just perfect the way I received it, but Helen gave me some suggestions as to how I could improve on it by cutting :) So, just because I LOVE to cut new stuff and it changes colors with the light, I thought of faceting it...this is what I came up with so far - roughed in pattern


I thought the beginning stone was a nice shape for a rose cut so just started with that in mind. No pattern to fallow, I just wrote down the angles as I used them, had the 80 gear on so picked a star to float above what I saw at the time as the earth sitting in the palm of a hand. It seems to have turned out like I envisioned it :)
Top finished!

Sadly I have to put the stone on hold for most likely two weeks, I plan on putting a small step cut on the back with a very large polished flat...and of course I have to polish the girdle cuts.

Hope you like it so far...please remember this was cut for fun and is personal, I did not fallow any patterns or use the correct angles for the material. I just wanted to add a little sparkle and have a pleasing shape.

Thanks again Helen, and thank everyone else for looking!
Sheila

[helens]

Shelia, WOW... that is fast progress!!! I'm so excited to see what you do with it!!!

Sheila donated the prizes for one of the Killer Cab contests a while back. She sent a whole bunch of simulated opals in blue... I'd never seen anything like them before, and while they are small, they are incredibly interesting, and I am still trying to figure out exactly how to use them. I promised Sheila that when I made anything with them, I'd send her one! Well... a few months passed, and I still haven't made anything interesting...

But as they are sitting in a small jar on my desk (just waiting for that lightbulb to appear)... I started feeling guilty. I mean months and months....

So I sent Sheila a glass cab, because I was curious what she could do with it:).

Sheila is the cabber for a high end jewelry designer in NYC, so cabbing and faceting is actually her full time job. So I was really dying to see what she could do with this... and Wow! Can't wait to see it done!! Very neat!!! Look at the star on top of the facet... that's gorgeous!!!  

[RegisG]

Very cool Sheila, especially just picking angles.  No GemCad needed for you [lol].   I just started faceting again after 20 years or so and know that freeform faceting is pretty far from freeform cabbing.
Cool!
Regis  

[imakedust]

Hi Helen,
You did not have to feel guilty! (although I love this glass) I did not expect anything in return for the prizes I sent out :) But I am hoping for photos some day :)
I'm glad you like how this is turning out :) The photos do not so off the disco ball effect that it has in the sunlight! You get little spots of light everywhere...when it's all done I'm going to have to send it to you to see in person!

Hello Regis,
I'm not that good :)
Because it had a solid center, I just followed the shape Helen provided. Alternating between short and tall numbers and no-numbered lines on my index wheel :)

When it came to the top, the star just fell into place.
Thanks!

[asianfire]

Lovely creation. Looks fantastic as is.
How long does something like that take to create?

[imakedust]

Hello Kurt,
I have no idea how long it took Helen to create the original stone...
but my end has about 4hrs into it so far, spread out over a couple of days. Large facets are harder to polish, and I had a couple of false starts when setting up the rough grind. When I put a facet in the wrong place, I have to completely start over :)
When I finish it, I'll try for better photos!
Thanks! Sheila

[Helene]

Wow.  The patience you have.  One mistake and start over and it's easy to over-cut when polishing such small faces.

[imakedust]

Hello Helene,
Worst part is that the stone gets smaller the more you re-work it!

[asianfire]

  like Mike used to say: once removed you can't put it back!

Where is Mike (skystone) anyway? and any news of Mamma Sara?

[helens]

Sheila is a MASTER cutter... I'm not going to reveal her employer, but lets just say that their stuff is sold at the best boutiques in the USA...for absurd sums of $$. Sheila produces cabs for them full time, so you can imagine how fast she is. It's a big treat to see her pix of a freehand:)! All her stones are calibrated to precise sizes, so imagine her millimeter muscle memory after thousands of cabs!!

You don't have to send your work of art to me Sheila, I'm thrilled to see the photos!! What a talent you are!!  

[RegisG]

Hello Helene,
Worst part is that the stone gets smaller the more you re-work it!

That is why some of us use "extra small" dops... LOL   

RG

[imakedust]

Oh Helen,
I'm not a master anything! I just have a knack for fitting square pegs into round holes But thanks for the compliment!

Hi Kurt,
I need a sign made with that saying! I seem to be telling people lately that I can make it smaller, but there is no way I can make a stone larger without glue and more stone!

Hi Regis,
if you take a close look at my last side-view, you'll see that there were times that I should have used a small dop myself!

Please forgive me if I don't come back and reply for a week or so. If I'm typing then I'm not working, and I have to get my behind to work!

Have a great week! Sheila

[helens]

Sheila, you are too a master cabber:).

We don't get much activity on the faceting forum... so it's great to see your posts:).

[Eu_citzen]

Looking forward to the pics to! Faceting without a diagram is always fun, and sometimes challenging.

[spiffman]

this is a few days after the fact.  that looks really cool. a couple of the pictures are very cool, not that they all have less merit than the other. hope you understand my point. anyway very cool..
Tim