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

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!

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 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

The last few steps in the cutting process for an oval is to flip the gemstone over, also known as transferring, and then cut and polish the pavilion.  The first step is to remove the dop stick from the machine and gently heat the gemstone to remove it from the dop stick and transfer it to a new dop stick.  Care must be given to make sure the girdle is flat during this step to ensure the pavilion facets will line up correctly.

This is the shot which 99% of faceters will wonder what I am doing. I will use a transfer dop on some occasions but sometimes I will not. This is one of the times I didn't.

This view shows the pavilion of the gemstone after the stone has been transferred from one dop stick to another. Notice the polished area of the gemstone compared to the unpolished area.

For the pavilion, I only took one picture of the cutting process. I got excited and wanted to get this stone finished! Notice how the facets are "running over" each other, this will be corrected when polishing occurs.

I change out the cutting lap for a copper polishing lap to polish the pavilion facets. This view shows the top down view of four of the facets after polishing on the copper lap with 50k diamond polish.

After two more sets of pavilion facets have been polished. The stone is very close to being done.

The tips of the oval prior to being polished, you can notice the area in the middle of the oval to the right and left of these facets. This area will be polished next.

The white area in the middle of the gemstone is actually a reflection of light off of the now polished middle facets. Now that polishing is done, the dop stick will be heated up to remove the stone from it. The wax will be removed by chipping away at it with my fingernail and then soaking in an alcohol bath for a few minutes.

This picture shows the finished 4.98 carat finished garnet. The finished carat weight establishes a yield of 37.44% from the rough gemstone weight of 13.30 carats. The photo is courtesy Jeffrey Hunt of One World Gemstones. This gemstone will be featured in the June Edition of One World Gemstone. You may purchase it now for the price of $400.00. Remember all my gems come with an inspeciton period and money back guarantee!