The Citrine pictured here is one of the items that was being cut during the faceting demonstration at the Santa Lucia Rockhounds show last month. It is 3.0 carats and 10.4 mm diameter.
It has been posted along with a handful of amethysts and a couple of other citrines that have been completed in recent weeks
California quail are pretty and very dumb local birds. At certain times of the year flocks assemble at the base of the hill on which we live. And too often then they have the misfortune of trying to stay with the flock crossing the road while a car is going along the road. Then at other times, they appear to separate into pairs and spread uphill. And that is when they show up in our garden like this one.
The Santa Lucia Rockhounds will be having its annual show at the Paso Robles Event Center from 10 am to 5 pm Saturday, April 21 and 10am to 4pm Sunday, April 22. As part of the show, the San Luis Obispo Gem and Mineral Club will have a booth and will be bringing the club’s faceting machine so we can show how gemstones are faceted. There will also be wirewrapping demonstrations on Saturday and club members will have some of their collections and crafts on display. Of course there will be many vendors with items for sale and other demonstrations by the Santa Lucia club members. Come by if you are in the neighborhood.
Another amethyst pictured here. This one is an 8.33 cts, 12.6 mm. octagon with concave facets on the pavilion side. I had planned to work on some other materials, but decided that this parcel was better for re-training my hands for faceting as my wrist heals.
The first post Tucson stone is finally done. It has been a challenge learning to work with a lame right hand, but things are slowly improving.
The finished amethyst weighs 13.2 cts and is 14.6 mm wide. There is a little bit of color zoning, but it is not too obvious when the stone is face up. A set of concave facets on the pavilion and another set on the crown add some extra sparkle. Rough came from a parcel obtained last year from Farooq Hashmi.
Finally got to the point where I could do some post Tucson and broken wrist faceting. Probably a good thing I have a left mast Gem Master as the right hand is still lame and tied up a bit with a splint for the next few weeks until physical therapy gets me back more strength and range of motion.
The piece is a 15 mm. amethyst. Larger than I normally would have wanted as a test drive, but when I tried dopping a couple weeks ago, I could not manage the smaller stones at all.
