No website updates.

I just wanted to notify all our clients and followers that there will be no Clear Cut Gems website updates until April sometime.In the meantime I will post new stones and rough material availability on this blog.

Gemstone photography is tricky,sometimes a digital image will show a gemstone color accurately and do the stone justice,other times the image may need to be manipulated in photoshop to get as close to the true color of the gemstone as possible,this is absolutely common practice when selling gems on the internet and is used as a last resort to try and portray the 'problem' stone accurately as no reputable gem dealer wants their client to be disappointed because the color is so different than the image.Often many images need to be taken to capture the essence of a gem and do it justice.It would be much easier if we could just display video of every gem to show light reflection,scintillation and movement but this is not practical unfortunately.

A good example of initial images not doing a gemstone justice is this 10mm Oregon sunstone pictured below,the face up pictures on my website did not show the stone anywhere near the real beauty and needed to be re photographed.The image below came out of the camera at the correct color so no photo shopping was needed except for a bit of extra sharpening,unfortunately there is no way to add this picture until April..

Custom Cut Gems

New rough material on the way!

Pictured below is some of the new rough material I have received.

Beautiful pink/peach morganite.




American Custom Cut Gemstones

New gems and rough material

We are just coming out of the quiet period after the holidays,it's typical for this time of year when everyone has spent a lot of their disposable income on vacations and or gifts.
I have been cutting some great stones and we have some new rough material on the way from Africa including hot pink Kenyan garnets,tourmaline and some beautiful morganite.
Morganite is part of the beryl family of gems along with Aquamarine and Emerald and makes spectacular pink to peach gemstones.

Here's a couple of the stones cut for our inventory so far this year.These beautiful gems are still currently available at our website.If you didn't take advantage of our Valentine's day sale now is the time as the sale is being extended for a few more days at 25% off all gems.

A rare stunning green/teal Oregon sunstone

A very unusual bright yellow African tourmaline with a burned orange center.

Custom Cut Gemstones

2013 was a good year!

The year 2013 was a lot better than the previous year for gem sales although the procurement of quality facet grade rough material was challenging due to problems in common  mining areas in Africa.At the same time the price of quality material more than tripled in some cases due to scarcity and Chinese buyers still buying everything in site.Fortunately availability has stabilized somewhat although prices are still rising.

We will be increasing our price per carat for cut goods in the New year in order to still be able to bring our customers the quality they have come to expect at Clear Cut Gems.
We would like to thank our customers for their  support during 2013.

I have added a few pictures of some of the more prominent  stones cut throughout the year.
We wish you all the very best for 2014.

Custom Cut Gems

Latest gems cut.

Since my webmaster cannot update the website for a while I thought I would just post some of the latest inventory cut here on the blog,I will update this page with new stock until the website is back up to date.

The latest edition is this superb light/medium sky blue Mozambique aqua set cut in a brilliant style pavilion with a checker top,very bright and would make top notch ring or earring stones.
7.5mm,3.5cts,vvs - flawless.

Custom Cut Gemstones

The year 2013 so far.

2013 started well for American gem cutters with better sales and a bit more consumer confidence than last year unfortunately the same can't be said for rough gem supply with many of the mines not putting out much if any production and prices of rough material reaching record prices due to short supply.The quality of the material which is coming from the mines has also dropped in general making it more difficult to procure top quality stones
Another reason for the shortage and high prices is that Chinese buyers are still buying everything in sight and paying more than asking price to make sure they get their supply.In spite of this we have tried to keep our prices close to where they were in 2011 and 2012 so that gem lovers and collectors in the USA feel they can still afford our product.

Here are some of the more notable stones I have cut in the past few months,some have been sold and some are still available either on Clear Cut Gems website or if recently cut then on our Facebook page.Please check in and support the art of gem cutting here in the USA instead of buying gems from overseas or poor quality commercial goods locally.

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Custom Cut Gems

New rough stones!

I just received a small parcel of new rough stones from my supplier in Africa,these gems are available to be cut at your request.From left to right is a medium blue Mozambique aquamarine 9 carats,will cut about a 8mm square shape/cushion at + - 2ct,next up is a magnificent medium/dark blue Mozambique aquamarine,very well shaped and will cut around a 9mm square cushion and finish approximately 3 ct,this material is very hard to come by and about as good as it gets.Lastly is a peachy colored spessertite almandine mix garnet,very pleasing color which will cut a nice 8mm cushion.

Custom Cut Gems