I am excited to announce that Flawless Facets will now be offering loose diamonds on this website. The integration will occur this weekend so check back on Sunday for introductory deals on all inventory. Diamonds in sizes from .01 carats to 90 carats will be offered. In total, 103,000 diamonds will be available for purchase on this site! The diamonds are certified by laboratories such as GIA and EGL so you know you will be able to get a quality diamond at an affordable price.
I just wanted to let everyone know I have added new inventory to the store. All the Mahenge spinels are now in the inventory as well as the 2.42 carat ruby.
The inventory can be found here.
Also check out the gemstone of the month club here.
A special thanks to the Jewelry Connection show, I had a great time today and I hope I helped everyone further their knowledge of gemstone cutting. Please do not hesitate to contact me here with any questions.
I was able to obtain a large Mahenge spinel crystal weighing 30.50 carats recently. The piece had a crack running through part of the stone that required the crystal to be cut into two separate pieces. I have not done much sawing of crystals in the past and with a crystal this size I wanted some additional help. So I had Mike Kolesar of Blue Forest Lapidary assist me with the sawing process.
Mahenge spinel is from the Morogoro region of Tanzania. The stone is known for its fantastic color that is rarely oversaturated and comes in larger sizes than most other locations. Spinels crystals over 2 carats are rare so a crystal this size that was almost flawless is a spectacular find.
The process to saw a gemstone is pretty straightforward, the hardest part is to decide the direction of the cut to minimize waste. For this stone we decided to basically saw down the middle of the crack. This process worked well and the stone was separated into a 16.55 carat piece anda 11.93 carat piece of rough. The total gemstone weight was 30.50 prior to sawing and 28.48 carats after sawing for a loss of 2.02 carats or 6.62%. The stones will now be faceted and should produce some large vibrant examples of Mahenge spinel. Pictures of the process are below.
This is the piece of rough Mahenge spinel weighting 30.50 carats
Side view of the same piece of rough. If you look carefully you can see part of the crack in the middle of the stone.
This is a picture of Mike starting the sawing process. If a person has any fear of saw blades then this is not the type of thing you want to do.
Here Mike is about a third of the way through the stone. Notice his fingers are about a half inch away from the rotating saw blade.
The crystal is almost completely cut. The last little bit needs to go slowly in order to avoid a slip of the hand and lose a finger!
The two pieces of spinel are now ready for faceting. Look at the color of the stones, the finished gems will be exceptionally vibrant and clean.
Side view of the two pieces of spinel. Both pieces have plenty of depth and I am hoping to get a 4 carat and 6 carat stones to get an overall yield of 33% from the first crystal. Check back soon for pictures of the finished stones.
This is the piece of blue forest petrified wood we used for my first cab.
Image showing the wood without flash. Notice the lines and Mikes illustration of how to create the outline for the cabochon
This is a picture of Mike sawing his piece of rough.
In this picture you can see just how close Mike gets to the lines on his piece of rough. The saw blade is only about a half inch from his picture in this shot
Mikes nicely sawn piece on the left, and my mangled piece of sawed wood on the right. I will have to finish out the shape on the 100 grit diamond wheel.
Rounding out the shape and dome on the cabochon
This is a picture of the rounded out cabochon before polishing
Mike holding my finished stone. Total cutting time was just over 2 hours. I had a blast with Mike and will be offering his cabbing services to my clients in the future.
I will be receiving some new rough Tsavorite Garnet and Mahenge Spinel in the next few weeks. The rough is HUGE for Tsavorite with the two largest pieces being 23 and 18 carats. If you have been trying to find a large Tsavorite the last few months or years you know how hard it is to find large material.
The colors are not overly dark and will produce stunning finished stones. I have included some photo’s of the rough below. Contact me if you would like to reserve this material to be cut by me. The Mahenge material will keep producing excellent gems like the 2.86 asscher spinel and the 2.56 Portuguese Round that were featured in Junes One World Gemstone.
Expect some more gemstone cutting tutorials from this parcel!
The pictures are listed below
23.05 Carat Tsavorite Garnet Rough
Four Rough Mahenge Spinels
Small Mahenge Spinel Rough Parcel
Parcel of Rough Tsavorite
Medium Mahenge Spinel Facet Rough
Two large piece of Mahenge Spinel Facet Rough
23 carat Mahenge Spinel Rough
18.84 Carat Rough Tsavorite in Hand
18.84 Tsavorite Rough
I wanted to let you all know about the interview that will be occurring on Sunday, the 27th of June at 2:00 PM CST. I will be talking with Mona Hair who has a weekly jewelery show called The Jewelry Connection. We will be discussing the art of faceting of colored gemstones. Mona has not had a faceter on her show before so this should be a fun event where the public learns about what occurs during the cutting process.
If you have any questions listen in and send them my way during the show. Here is the link to the event.
http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/The-Jewelry-Connection
I have been hearing a lot of feedback lately on the lack of a one stop shop online for custom cutting and the setting of stones in semi mounts. Flawless Facets is the one stop shop for these two features. Not only can you have me design and custom cut a unique one of a kind gemstone for you; I can also have this stone set into your semi mounts. Need someone to design the pieces of jewelry to go along with your gemstone? I can have that done for you as well.
I have worked with two goldsmiths in the last five years who deal exclusively with colored gemstones. These gold smiths have experience with normal colored gems like; sapphire, ruby, spinel, tourmaline, garnet and emerald. However, they also have experience with lesser known colored gems such as; climohumite, sphene, demantoid garnet and other rare colored gems. They understand how to properly set colored gemstones to not only fully protect the stone, but to not harm the gem during the setting process. So if working with goldsmiths who understand colored gemstones is what you have been looking for contact me to arrange for setting of your gemstones.
I finished some repair jobs this week on three gemstones. They gems were a pink topaz, blue sapphire and a purple tourmaline. The pictures of the repairs are listed below. The gemstones had a variety of common problems with gemstones such as abraded facets, chipped girdles and windows. A window is a problem in a gemstone where the light is “leaking” out of the gemstone. The tourmaline is a good picture of this problem. Notice in the middle of the stone how the color is white, this is because the light is not reflected to your eyes, it falls through the gem and shows the white surface beneath the gem.
The photo methods used were slightly different so the colors may appear different in the before and after pictures. The colors of the after pictures are best representation of the actual colors. Does your gem stone need a repair or face lift? Contact me for questions on re-polishing, re-cutting, or other gemstone repairs.
Notice the chips, abraded facets and other beat up features of the stone.
The chips have been removed, the facets have been repolished, and the gemstone has now looks great again.
This stone has large chips and is pretty dark in saturation. The facets also have abrading and could use a facelift
The stone has its basic outline changed to a cushion cut. The chips have been removed and the dark saturation of the stone was fixed during the recut.
The stone has a large window and some facets that need repolishing
The window was fixed by recutting the pavilion. The entire stone was repolished to give the stone a brand new appearance.
I just wanted to drop a note to everyone who has given so many compliments on the Mahenge Spinels and the Tanzanian Rhodalite featured in One World Gemstone yesterday. Your words are motivation to get the rest of the parcel done. If you are looking for any particular cut please contact me and I can create a custom gemstone creation for you. I also have access to quality goldsmiths who can create a one of a kind piece of jewelry with your gemstones.
One thing I would like to remind people of is to sign up for my free monthly gemstone give away to the right side of this post. This will also guarantee you to get bonus’s when you order from me such as free gemstones, gem rough and great gifts I send out to my top customers. The people who sign up for my list are also the first to know of new inventory added to the Flawless Facets catalog.
I look forward to working with many of you in the future, and to the people who are already clients of mine.
Sorry for the server being down today. I had to change a hosting plan due to my old hosting company being purchased. I was featured in One World Gemstones this month and have been having a lot of questions on what the prices of the stones are. The prices are listed below. Contact me if you have any questions.
The prices for the mahenge spinels I have cut so far are listed below.
1.99 carat Portuguese round cut $2000
2.29 carat oval $2290
1.87 carat Squaretoguese $1870
2.56 carat Portuguese Round $5120
2.86 carat Modified asshcer $5720
2.36 carat oval $4720
4.98 carat oval Rhodalite Garnet $375
4.59 carat cushion Rhodalite Garnet $345
I guarantee all my gems and have an inspection period so you can evaluate the gemstone in person. I am open to offers on the gemstones as well. I look forward to hearing from you.
2.29 Carat Oval Mahenge Spinel
1.99 Carat Portuguese Round Mahenge
This is the 1.87 carat Squartuguese
2.86 elongated asscher Mahenge Spinel
2.56 Portuguese Round Mahenge Spinel
4.98 carat rhodalite garnet
4.59 Carat Rhodalite Garnet
