Flawless Facets

I belong to a trade network that gets some fantastic deals on diamonds and gemstones for my clients.  However, every once in a while something truely unique and beautiful comes along that I have to share with you all!  This statue is from a company called Motion in Time in New York and is over TWO pounds of solid gold and gems!  Here is the sellers description, the price is under $200,000:

I am off to Wisconsin this weekend and thought I would offer you all a little special while I was away.  The 55 gram tri-color diamond necklace from an earlier post has been reduced in price to $3500. 

The piece is from the 1960′s and is made up or rose, white and yellow 14k gold. There are 15.80 carats of diamonds in the necklace which have colors ranging from F to G and clarity grades of VS to I.

Condition: Restored Estate
Metal: 14K Tricolor 55.0 grams
Stones: Diamonds 15.80cts
Clarity:VS to I – A great majority probably 80% SI with 19% VS
The estimated retail price for this estate piece is $19,000, it is for sale for $3500.00

Close up View of Flower

I had the pleasure lately of being selected to recut a very nice cuprian tourmaline.  These tourmaline are often heat treated to get the pariaba color that is so sought after in tourmaline.  The stone was not cut well and had a very large window in the stone.  The customer also did not like the general shape of the stone, which was a round oval, or roval.  We decided to cut the stone in a Portuguese round design(really I do cut other designs besides this).  The before and after pictures are below.

The crown was almost non existent to begin with so the stone needed to be brought in just over a full mm from 10.5mm x 10mm to 9.3mm. Starting weight was 5.9 carats and finished weight was 3.74 carats. The pictures do not show it but the stone actually has better saturation now due to no window and the proper angles used for cutting.
Do you have a stone that needs a face-lift?  Contact me here, to arrange recutting services.

This is the crown before recutting

This is the pavilion view before recutting

Crown view after. Notice the window closed and a better shape

Pavilion view - Notice the high crown and lack or the "gumdrop" shape

As many of you know I have a nephew who has cancer.  Darian was diagnosed with ACS, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia,  in October of 2008.  He has taken it with strides and is doing as well as can be expected.  As a result he has become pretty active in the Relay for Life program.  He asked me to cut  a stone and sell it for his team this year. 

So this is the design I will be using which showcases a ribbon design that is used by the ACS.  Darians color of ribbon, for his type of cancer, is Orange so the stone will be a madeira citrine with the ribbon remaining frosted or unpolished.  The design that will be used is shown below.  The finished gem will be 10+ carats and in the 30-40 dollars per carat range.  Cutting on this stone will occur in the next few days.

If you would like to reserve this stone while helping Darian and his team , contact me here!

From now on I will be offering exclusive deals to my visitors on diamonds and estate pieces. Today, I am offering a 55 gram gold and diamond necklace. The piece is from the 1960′s and is made up or rose, white and yellow 14k gold. There are 15.80 carats of diamonds in the necklace which have colors ranging from F to G and clarity grades of VS to I.

Condition: Restored Estate
Metal: 14K Tricolor 55.0 grams
Stones: Diamonds 15.80cts
Clarity:VS to I – A great majority probably 80% SI with 19% VS
The estimated retail price for this estate piece is $19,000, I am selling it here for $5500.00

Close up View of Flower

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.

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