Tourmaline

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Pretty pinks

The three pink tourmalines in the photo weigh in at 1.35, 1.85 and 0.81 cts. and range in size from 5.8 to 7.2 mm. The rough for these was acquired from Steve Ulatowski / New Era Gems and spent too many months waiting to be cut.