Concave

Sunrise Surprise

I had forgotten how the difference in colors between the tourmaline C-axis with the other directions and the frequent bicolor or tricolor often created surprises in the appearance of the finished stones.

In this case, the rough showed a nice purple pink — except for the C-axis which was a lighter pink with a hint of gray brown.  I intended to cut the gem as a square brilliant, not as a step cut with “tourmaline” angles for the C-axis direction.  Thus I was prepared to see the face-up finished stone potentially a less desirable color the the purple pink of the rough.

However,  this tourmaline gave me a nice surprise.  It has orange highlights making a very pleasant combination. It reminds me of the colors of the sky that a sunrise can display on the clouds.   The finished stone is 4.95 cts.,  and 9.8mm. across with concave facets on pavilion.

Fall Back Time

This weekend we go through the ritual of turning back the clocks.  But only an hour.  If only we could turn back whole calendar pages, it would be much more useful.  My list of things to do for 2023 would have a better chance of having more items crossed off.

It seems that much of my gem related activity this year has been struggling with things I thought I had previously resolved.  Stones seemed to resist polishing.  And when it came to getting photographs, they were about a cooperative as a toddler posing for the holiday picture.

So now at the end of the year, I am finally getting around to faceting some of the tourmalines I purchased in Tucson back in February — February 2020 as well as February 2023.  So here are a few of the latest “off the dop”.

This is a little 1.06 carat chrome tourmaline (6.4 mm.) Just a lovely shade of green. (One that the digital camera liked as well.)

Next is a 2.58 carat light peachy tourmaline, 8.1 mm. across which has concave facets on both pavilion and crown.  The rough was bicolor, pink towards one end and light green at the other.  However, the green end was  not deep and was heavily included and cracked. I had thought that all of the green was being cut away in the process of getting the piece clean.  Apparently enough green was left so that there is a hint of green around the edge of the stone.

Here is another slightly darker peachy tourmaline with concave facets on both pavilion and crown. It is 3.26 carats and 8.9 mm. in diameter.  No green in this one.

 

And finally, a fairly traditional square green tourmaline.  It is 2.56 carats and 8.9 mm, across.  Of course I didn’t notice the lint captured on the upper facets until I was processing the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, More Hexagons

Before I went off February 1st for ten wonderful days in Tucson, I was trying some variations to better understand how different facet placements would impact the resulting gem.  While there are software programs that will attempt to do that for flat facets, concave facets and fantasy variations are not included.  So I set up several stones and cut them with the same flat facet pattern but differences with the fantasy machine cuts. (Besides, faceting is more fun that sitting at the keyboard.)

The first one is a 12.61 carat lemon citrine which has all of the pavilion row of facets done with the regular mandrels for concave work.  It is 14.6 mm. across, so I managed to work in more facets than I have been using in some of the smaller hexagons.

 

Using that same flat facet arrangement, I did two somewhat smaller amethysts.  For one, a 6.60 carat, 12.8 mm. stone when done, I used a rounded fantasy wheel and made some small curved cuts.  These added some “lights” which seem to be inside the stone.

 

On the other amethyst, which finished at 5.65 carats, 11.2 mm., I added a lot more of these compound concave “facets”.  It looks like the stone is full of glitter.

 

For a totally different variation, after returning from Tucson, I tried something along the lines of the demonstration done at the USFG seminar on Fantasy cutting.  For this one, which is 5.40 carats and 11.0 mm. across,  I used a slitter and cut grooves from the culet most of the length of the corner facets.  These were left unpolished and they are reflected by the other facets to give the appearance of having many more grooves than were actually created.

 

 

Last ot 2019

The holidays did not leave much time for faceting. Got only a handful of additional gems cut in the last month from the material purchased last February in Tucson. Hopefully now that the Christmas decorations are all put away for another year there will be more time in the next month to catch up a bit. Since there are about three dozen left from the 2019 material it is unlikely all of it will be cut before the end of January and I head off to Tucson again.

Meanwhile, here are three from a parcel of nice, dark orange citrine. Initially the parcel was purchased to try out concave facets on some smaller sizes (8 to 10 mm.) After trying for a few, at least in the lighter colored material, it does not seem to be worth the extra effort. They are a bit too small for the optical effects of concave facets to make a significant difference.

The first is a 2.58 carat, 9.0 mm round which has some concave facets on the pavilion. As usual, it looks a lot better in real life than is this photo.

 

Next is a 2.58 carat, 7.8 mm square.

 

And last, a 2.03 carat octagon which is 8.2 mm. across.

Last off the dop

It feels even longer than it probably has been, but at last I finally finished the baker’s dozen stones that were dopped in preparation for the faceting demonstration the first weekend of August. Now that fall is just about here and the shows are over for a while, I hope to get back to a routine which has a lot more faceting time included.

Here is pictured one of the last off the dop – a 5.08 ct. lemon citrine which is 18.7 x 7.0 mm. and was another experiment with the fantasy machine tools I am still learning to use.