Friday, January 28, 2011

Latest news!

Well after a hectic holiday season January has as usual been fairly quiet.This has given me some time to cut for inventory instead of filling custom orders.On the rough stone front things have been extremely quiet for months and even quieter recently,none of the usual rough suppliers have much in stock and what they do have has sold quickly.The reason for this is that the rainy season has closed a lot of the mines in Africa temporarily and the general slowdown in the world economy over the past two years has taken it's toll as well.The demand for good quality gemstones is recovering fast but the supply of rough material has so far not kept up.

On a more cheerful note here's a couple pictures of the latest stones which will be up for sale on the website soon. A nice bright orange spessartite garnet in a classic cushion design at 1.7ct and 6.4mm and a lovely flawless honey zircon in a unique barion oval design at 2.56ct and 9x6mm.Enjoy!




Custom Cut Gems

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Big rhodolite garnet

I cut this 6ct pink/red purple rhodolite from a 25 ct piece of  Tanzanian rough.The rough stone was perfectly shaped for a triangle but I opted for a rectangular shape instead.This resulted in a lower yield but I am very pleased with the final result.The stone changes from red  in artificial light to the typical rhodolite pink/red/ purple in natural light.I got rave reviews on this stone on the forums so I don't expect it to last too long in my inventory.I've priced it at the smaller stone per ct price because it is medium/dark in saturation,if it were a shade or two lighter it would sell for twice the price! Nevertheless it is perfectly cut and 10x loupe flawless and would make a killer ring or pendant stone.
Custom Cut Gems

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy new year!

A happy and prosperous new year to everyone! I haven't posted for a while due to the hectic holiday schedule.
Filling orders,cutting a few stones for my website as well as parties and family obligations has been fairly tiring but hey I'm not complaining.I have not been able to update the site for over a week due to technical problems uploading to the server but this should be resolved tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Here's just a couple of the stones I have cut recently,a natural medium to pale aqua trillion which is more blue in person and a very pretty rubelite tourmaline checker.