I will be demonstrating faceting during the Orcutt Mineral Society Show next weekend.
The event will take place at the Nipomo High School from Friday, August 3rd through Sunday, August 5th. Free admission and parking.
In addition to the demonstration, I will have on display an assortment of gemstones faceted from natural materials and available for purchase.
If you are in the SLO area, do come by the show.
Another type of cut I find appealing is the “opposed bar” cut where instead of having top and bottom facets aligned in parallel, they are at 90 degrees from each other. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out how to photograph that sort of stone so that it shows as well as it should.
Pictured here is a 2.83 carat Morganite (pink beryl) opposed bar cut from Nigerian rough obtained last February in Tucson from John E’ Garsow.
By now it may be obvious that I like hexagon shaped gems. In this case it is a 1.33 carat Brazilian aquamarine.
Pictured here is an amazing 10.27 carat neon yellow opal. that is in the latest batch of newly faceted gems, The rough that I was very lucky to receive from a local friend did not indicate source.
Just posted another batch of recently faceted gems on the website. This time it is a mix of shapes, sizes, colors and materials.
Pictured here is a 4.52 carat ametrine with concave facets on the pavilion to really set off the purple and gold color combination.
Two other ametrines included in this batch finish up the parcel obtained from New Era Gems (Steve Ulatowski) last fall. However, more fun shortly with those picked up while in Tuscon in February.