The Gemstone Blog

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.