Prasiolite

Been a while

It has been quite a while since I posted what I have been cutting. The whole pandemic thing left me unable to feel the level of creativity required to give the larger and more expensive rough the attention it needed. So I ended up cutting left overs from parcels purchased by mail order from the back of Lapidary Journal back when I was just starting to facet. Most were small and included, and my photography skills are lacking. My camera only seems to capture the interior features and not the sparkle, especially with the smaller stones.

Now I am to the point of getting back to the newer and nicer rough. There were only a few pieces left from my 2019 Tucson visit. This 3.36 carat aquamarine cut as a blunt end marquis was from some old stock that John Garsow was offering. It is 15.4 mm. long and 7.0 mm. wide.

I just love the granny apple green of the Arizona peridots. I always am on the lookout for affordable nice pieces of rough. This 2.30 carat, 8.0 mm. round was from the pieces I picked up during my 2020 Tucson adventures.

Next is a pretty pink tourmaline from a parcel found at the 2020 Tucson Faceter’s Symposium. It came in at 2.51 carats, 8.4 mm.

Finally prasiolite quartz with concave facets on the pavilion. I’ll skip the part where being out of practice with the fantasy machine, there was an unfortunate incident requiring the pavilion to be completely recut. The fantasy machine is not forgiving when one’s attention slips. Fortunately, the rough was sufficiently deep, that the only loss was my time and my pride. The stone ended up as 11.6 mm., 7.08 carats.

 

 

More From Faceting Demonstrations

Pictured below are a few more stones started at a local club show as part of a faceting demonstration, and then eventually finished at home later.  The previous set was from the show by the club to our north, so these are from the show put on by the club to the south.

The first is a 9.81 cts. lemon citrine that is 12.4 mm. across.

Next is a 6.12 cts. prasiolite quartz 11.6 mm. round.  For this one, the crown was shaped into a dome before a few flat facets were placed on it.

And of course, I had to include hexagons.  This lemon quartz gem is 12.2 mm. wide and weighs 7.16 cts.

This is another citrine at the other end of the color range. It is 2.39 cts. and 8.6 mm. across.

All of these gems have concave facets on the pavilion so really sparkle.  And they are all from rough material obtained in February during my Tucson adventures.

 

Some of the final 2018 rough

Making some progress with the remaining 2018 rough. Three quartz varieties cut with concave facets pavilion and crown.

The largest of these is the prasiolite which is 23.70 cts and is 18.0 mm. in diameter.

Next is a 19.40 cts. amethyst which is 17.0 mm across.

And finally, the citrine which is 5.80 cts and 12.0 mm.

Just for Fun

This stone was as much for fun as for anything else. It is a 8.47 carat prasiolite, 13.2 mm.in diameter. The pavilion had a row of narrow concave facets splitting the normal culet row facets. Then the crown was rounded up to the table instead of using rows of flat facets. Finally a number of concave facets were added to the crown.

The camera once again sees things the do not quite match what I see. The pattern in the center is not something that I “see”. and the light and dark pattern is much more subtle.

Hexagon prasiolite

Pictured here is a new 5.44 carat, 11.0 mm. prasiolite. As mentioned previously, I find the hexagon cuts attractive. Here the light and dark patterns from the concave facets used on the pavilion of the stone are much more obvious to the camera than to my eyes. The result reminds me of an iris flower (another favorite of which I have too little in my garden.)