Gems

Before and After

On a more positive note, I have done some experiments with adding concave facets to previously cut stones.  The first one is a round prasiolite quartz which was initially cut with all flat facets a number of years ago.  I added a row of concave facets around the culet. The stone is 15.3 mm. in diameter. When I was getting it dopped prior to cutting I managed to chip the culet so I had to cut more than planned losing .07 carats in the process.

Another prasiolite already had a few concaves in the pavilion of a very long  (25.2 mm x 7.3 mm.)  oval.  The final weight was 6.97 carats having lost only .03 carats in this case.

A rectangular amethyst also had some prior pavilion concave facets.  It wasn’t as boring as a plain emerald cut, but it still lacked dazzle.  After the additional concaves were added, the 21.3 x 9.2 mm. stone ended up at 13.44 carats, a loss of only .02 carats.

Both of the stones with previous pavilion concaves had been cut with my old PolyMetric OMF machine a year or so before I moved up to the Ultra Tec Fantasy machine which has much better flexibility for placing the facets.  I am still learning what combination of  stone shapes and concave facets provide the best return.

 

 

Tourmaline Trouble

In mid-November I was doing a show in Ventura during terrible weather. As a result of the storm, attendance was very low, the parking lot was a lake, the room was cold and the roof of the fairgrounds building leaked right by my space.

On the second day, things were a little better and we had someone looking at the tourmalines. I noticed that one of them looked “funny” — like maybe some lint had gotten under the glass lid of the  box. Not too many minutes later, the customer had left and my daughter called my attention to the same stone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t lint. There was an ugly fracture running across the stone.

The stone had been fine initially.  There were no “feathers” or other inclusions visible.  It had not been taken out of the box and dropped. The stone had both pink and a bit of green — not enough or in the right places to be an obvious bicolor. But it seems the stone decided it was time to split the colors.

Sunset or Sunrise

My photography skills do not do justice to this gem.  The colors blend and shift as the stone moves.  Yellow, orange, red and a hint of green appear.

The rough material was purchased in 2024 from Farooq Hashimi during a chance encounter at one of the many Tucson gem shows.  it was labeled “Sunset Tourmaline”.

I am not sure if the colors match those of a sunset.  My location on the California central coast  is such that there is a strong marine influence bringing fog or high cloud cover.  Besides, our home is on the side of the hill which faces the sunrise instead of the sunset.  Occasionally the elements cooperate and the fog stays low enough to allow for a lovely sunrise.  So it may be that this is actually a “Sunrise Tourmaline”.

Stone is 4.68 carats and measures  9.4 x 6.2 mm. with some concave facets on the pavilion to add a little extra sparkle to the sunshine.  Available on the website.

 

Slowly

When I broke my shoulder last August, the citrine pictured here was in the machine and ready for adding the concave facets to the pavilion.  And then it sat that way for months.  It took a lot longer than I expected to recover from the joint replacement surgery.  I needed to regain mobility, strength and stamina before I could approach the fantasy machine — especially to deal with such a large stone.  And of course, besides faceting there were many other areas which also had been neglected and needed attention.

When finally finished the stone was 27.29 cts. and measures 30.3 x 12.6 x 9.7 mm.

I did a couple of smaller pieces of smoky quartz as practice getting back up to speed before finishing the citrine.  The octagon shaped one is  4.04 cts. and measures 10.6 x 6.9 mm.  The other is 11.0 x 9.0 mm. and 6.71 cts.  Both have concave facets on the pavilion.

Tucson 2024 – Part 2

I had a day to do laundry and pack for the return to Tucson to be a dealer in the TGMS show.  The first load of laundry was in the machine when the power went out.  As the next hour or so went by, the outages increased and the only explanation from the power company was it was likely due to the storm.  Being that we are in a rural area, it has in the past it has been a day or more before we have power restored.  We have a generator — but it refused to start.

So plans changed.  I packed for the coming week, loaded the car and headed south to LA where my daughter lives.  It was a miserable drive down US 101 in the rain..  Fortunately there were not that many others crazy enough to be out driving in the storm so I could usually keep lots of space between my car and other vehicles.  And the majority of the other drivers were being as cautious in their driving as I was.

Laundry done and a head start for the rest of the drive, accompanied  by my daughter who had been drafted to help at the show, I started out the next day for Tucson.  It rained until we were past Palm Springs.  Unlike the previous day, there was a lot of traffic. First it was just the normal LA traffic, and then more and more of it was big trucks going long distances on I-10.  It was a good feeling when I finally saw familiar Tucson landmarks and got to check in at our hotel.

The next day after I picked up our credentials at the Tucson Convention Center, the storm caught up with us.  The wind was powerful enough to move the orange barricades used in the parking lot and carried small bits that stung exposed skin.  It was the last day for the motel shows on the other side of the freeway and the storm caused some of those in more exposed outside spaces to pack up early.

The weather was definitely the significant feature of the week.   Wednesday morning was set up time.  We were lucky that there was a pause in the precipitation while we hauled things into the building.  As we were heading back to the car after the booth was set up,  a few drops of rain fell.  No sooner than we got in the car, the skies opened.  I decided, to just sit there and wait hoping the cloud burst would go as quickly as it came.  And then the sound of the storm got a lot louder. It was hail!  All we could do was sit there and laugh until it passed (and try to take a few photos of the hail on the windshield).

Thursday morning the show opened to the public.   The ballroom where we were located was opened at 9:30 while the big exhibition hall did not open until 10.  It wasn’t the out-the-door first day crowd I experienced as a visitor to the show pre-pandemic.  As the day went on people trickled through the ballroom.  Some of the other dealers complained that a lot of people just did not realize there were more dealers in the ballroom and only went to the exhibition hall downstairs.  It was interesting that most of the sales that day were cash sales.  We had done okay.  Enough excess cash to make a deposit in the bank before heading to the hotel and then out to dinner.

Friday the show opened at 9am for local school children to visit the show and participate in special educational programs.  The show dealer chair took note of the complaints about traffic to the ballroom and for the remainder of the show, the hourly announcements included mention of  more dealers in the ballroom.  That did seem to help bring more traffic.  Of course, there wasn’t all that much I had to offer for the kids to purchase so the increase in people coming by did not help overall sales.  The major difference was that on Friday, more of the sales were using credit cards rather than cash.

Saturday morning started with more rain and a much bigger crowd in line to enter the show.  However, our sales did not reflect that increase.  There were actually fewer sales and only two stones not from the $50 and under boxes.  Only one of the sales was a cash sale.  So the day was a bit disappointing.  Lots of people came by and admired what was on display, but they were not buying.  I was getting the feeling that the most of the people who would be interested in the gems I had to offer had already left Tucson.

As expected, Sunday was slow.  It was also Super Bowl Sunday, so there was extra completion for the public’s attention and our sales reflected that. As a result, I had a chance to make a quick tour of the exhibition hall.   Several of the dealers were already packing well before the 4pm official show closing.  Tear down always goes faster than set up and it wasn’t long before we had everything back in the car and were heading to the hotel.

Monday morning we started for home. This time the trip was a very long but uneventful drive in good weather.

Tucson 2024 was history.