Shinie Things

So, not my entire life revolves around Advertising & MMPORGs... My true passion in life is faceting. I take ugly, lumpy rocks and facet them into gems for rings, earrings, necklaces, and everything else that can involve stones. Now don't get all excited! My home isn't full of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires - - I do this as a 2nd job, and I primarily focus on doing repair work for my clients. Precious gems are too damn expensive for me to invest in a collection of pricey stuff (you need a certification to cut diamonds anyway - and I don't have one).

My life is full of color, and I love to facet colored gems. I think my favorite type of stone in the world would be tourmaline. The stones come in over 100 different colors, some for with 2 and 3 colors in one shaft, and they are very friendly to cut (polish easily, reveal amazing colors, hearty stone for any setting). My preference is to facet harder gems like amethyst, aquamarine, and citrine (all types of quartz), sapphires, tourmalines, and topaz.

The most difficult stones are soft gems like sunstones, tanzanites and apatites - - people will often set them in rings where they are bumped and knocked around until the top of the stone is demolished, upon which it is sent to me to repair. Not only is it a challenge to not remove too much of the stone, but once the facets are re-cut, applying a glossy polish to soft stones can often make me want to pull out my hair! If you are going to buy a setting for a softer stone... be sure to make it either earrings or a necklace, as a ring setting will be costly in the future to maintain the stone.

The way faceting works is very similar to sanding a wooden board to make it smooth. It starts with attaching a stone to a metal stick which mounts into a device that measures your cutting angles. You put pressure on the stone at certain angles, initially against a rough grit on a rotating wheel, and then gradually apply pressure to the angles with finer grits until you achieve a polish. The entire process is very mathematical, and stones must be faceted at precise angles on the bottom (pavilion) and top (crown) to provide the most shine and sparkle possible for the type of stone being cut. Facets work like tiny mirrors within a stone, and if they do not compliment each other the stone with have places where light drops through and you see dark spots inside.

If you are shopping for an engagement ring or gift of jewelry for someone, feel free to ask any questions in my blog. I'm not a seller of anything, so I'll be sure to give you a no bull-shit response... and can help you make a wise jewelry investment that can be cherished in the future.