The Gemstone Blog

2010-16-05 Oregon Sunstone Wonderful Dichroic / Bicolor material with schiller - from the Bonanza Mine 8.78 carats 2009-11-10 Demantoid Garnet Stunning Demantoid Garnet from Namibia Get your rough here 3.48 carats 2009-11-10 Oregon Sunstone Schiller Sunstone Carving (front) Rough from the Plush Sunstone mines 25 carats, 23 x 16 mm 2009-11-10 Oregon Sunstone Schiller Sunstone Carving (back) Rough from the Plush Sunstone mines 25 carats, 23 x 16 mm 2009-11-10 Oregon Sunstone Juicy Deep-Red Sunstone with schiller from the Plush mines 5.51 carats, 17.1 x 8.9 mm 2009-11-05 Oregon Sunstone Pretty Orangy-Red Sunstone from the Plush mines This one is cut in my Keel Oval design. 3.87 carats, 12 x 9.5 mm 2009-11-02 Spinel Natural Pink Spinel from Badakshan This one is cut in my Lone Star 96 design. 1 carat, 6.5 mm 2009-10-30 Peridot Huge Pakistani Peridot 13.64 carats, 15.2 mm 2009-10-17 Sapphire Uncooked Sapphire from Nigeria cut in a Free-form Barion 1.24 carats, 6.7 x 5.6 mm 2009-10-17 Rhodolite Repair Recently repaired this concave-cut Rhodolite (before & after) 2009-10-17 Rutile Quartz "Sword In the Stone" single blade of Rutile suspended in Quartz 10.12 carats, 14 mm 2009-07-04 Pretty Aquamarine Cut in my new "I'll Be Around, Too" Design. 3.76 carats 2009-07-04 Imperial Topaz Cut in my new Celestial Peace Design. 1.65 carats 2009-07-04 Green Oregon Sunstone Marquis 3.75 carats 2009-07-04 New Needle Stone North Carolina Rutilated Quartz 2009-02-01 Really cool Oregon Sunstone. Cut in my new Deep Reflections Design. 4.05 carats 2009-01-19 15-carat Oregon Sunstone Cabochon. ~ 15 carats 2009-01-03 Just added three new designs to the designs page, and two new videos to the Youtube Channel. 2008-12-21 Just added two new designs to the designs page. 2008-12-21 Awesome Nigerian Spessartite. Cut in my new OMNI-Trilliant design. 6.38 carats 2008-12-20 Color-Change Oregon Sunstone. Just completed for client Anna, this is one of the best dichroic / color-change Sunstones. I've seen. 3.61 carats 2008-12-01 It’s been an insane Fall – with various challenges. We had computer crashes – and we had to change web-hosting companies and ISP’s on an emergency basis. I’m still cleaning up from that mess, but in the process we’re getting back on schedule with cutting orders starting to flow out again. I’m also launching a YouTube Channel where I’ll be posting videos of various things – from field trips and product / supplier reviews to how-to vids on cutting, polishing, and design concepts. Check it out from time to time here: http://www.youtube.com/user/gemstoneartist 2008-07-01 A 400+ Carat Spinel Rough. This was submitted to my shop for cutting. Unfortunately, it had to be cut down into several pieces, but watch this space to see some great 5+ carat finished stones from it! 400+ carats 2008-06-20 Watermelon Oregon Sunstone with schiller and rainbow effect. encircling the pavilion like a bulls-eye. This was cut for a client from Dust Devil rough. 8.6 mm, 3.98 carats 2008-06-07 Some of the finest Moss Agate I've seen. I collected this myself on the steep slopes of Hart Mountain and cut en-cabochon free-form. I have a small number of similar - soon to post here. ~ 34 x 27 mm ~ 36 x 29 mm 2008-05-27 Freeform Oregon Sunstone Carving for a client. I cut this with elongated magnifying lenses to enhance the schiller. 15.58 carats 2008-05-21 East meets West in two more large doublets built from Oregon Sunstone with schiller bars and Afghani Lapis Both are drilled for cord-stringing. 39.16 carat, 30 mm long doublet 17.10 carat, 17 mm long doublet 2008-05-18 An example of my Checkerboard Princess design in Braziallian Amethyst 5.14 carat natural Amethyst from Brazil 2008-05-15 I just completed this 2.43 carat Oregon Sunstone for a client in a cool retroreflector design. 2.43 carat Oregon Sunstone 2008-05-08 Here's a rare bi-color Topaz from Brazil cut in a traditional Emerald design. 9.09 carat natural, untreated bi-color Topaz from Brazil 2008-05-02 I just completed this inch-long free-form carving in natural Green Beryl from the Carolinas for a client. 2008-04-28 I just completed three more wonderful Oregon Sunstone gems for clients: 4+ carat Orange-red with well-hidden schiller cut for a client in my Barion Losenge design. 4+ carat pink with reflected schiller cut for a client in my Keel Oval design. 4+ carat Orange-red with tiny bar schiller cut for a client in a simple step design. This one is super-juicy-red! 2008-04-26 Spring is the time for rock-hunting on Hart Mountain, and today we had a really good hunt! One thing about Hart is that you always get wonderful views: Paintbrush up here has such a hot-pink color. Degarmo Canyon waterfall - from a half-mile away. A flat place to stand!! View west out of Degarmo from 6,000-foot elevation The rock-hunting went very well - We got into some nice material, and a wild patch of greens! Botroidal Agate I think this is a mass of Calcite Hart Mountain Jasper Hart Mountain Porcelain Jasper Hart Mountain Porcelain Jasper Hart Mountain Porcelain Jasper A beautiful green sandwich! Green-core nodule A nice big hunter green cabochon preform! Awesome patterns in this green! 2008-04-14 This deep green Oregon Sunstone with slight schiller and dichoric flashes of red is cut in a classic step design. It is owned by a friend, and will be offered on auction exclusively in the next newsletter! 2008-04/06 I've been experimenting with a series of doublets and triplets, using various materials. Here are a few of the results. Schiller-bar Sunstone on Chrysoprase Schiller-bar Sunstone on Basinite Schiller-bar Sunstone on Lapis Schiller-bar Sunstone on Precious Opal from Lightning Ridge (3 views of one stone) Schiller-bar Sunstone on Precious Opal from Lightning Ridge, backed with Basinite Schiller-bar Sunstone on Precious Opal from Lightning Ridge, backed with Basinite This one is my favorite. Juniper Ridge Fire Opal backed with Abalone Lightning Ridge Precious capped with Quartz and backed with Basinite. Lightning Ridge Precious capped with Quartz and backed with Basinite. Lightning Ridge Precious capped with Quartz and backed with Basinite. These stones are available in the inventory, though not yet in the database. They'll be searchable within a few weeks. 2008-04-02 This 4.83 carat bicolor Tourmaline from Nigeria is not entirely clean, but stunning nonetheless. This stone is in the inventory, and may be found here. 2008-03-27 I cut this 5+ carat Sunstone with the pavilion faces constructed to carefully reflect and present the schiller in a unique way - reflected in a mirrored fashion: Here's a side view with the stone face-down, and lighted to show the schiller inside. I teach this method for creating/displaying "Kaleidoscope Schiller" in my Faceting Classes or "boot camps". 2008-03-26 A 29.9 carat bicolor Topaz cut for a client in a standard CAM-style Trillion. It faces-up mostly brown, but throws some nice blue flashes from time to time. 2008-03-21 I just solved a unique request for a custom engagement stone set. The couple had this Obsidian arrowhead, and wanted the engagement ring stones fashioned from it. The challenge, of course, is that Obsidian is very soft and brittle. The solution was to build doublets using Synthetic Sapphire for the cap. The pieces were rose-cut using a crown design that I created specifically for this project, and which is available on my design page (Checkerboard Princess #2). The finished piece looks like this: 2008-03-18 This week, I completed a suite of Badakshan Spinel for a client in Afghanistan. The larger stones are over 4 carats.