Stones I have cut

[Whisp]

Beautiful!!!!! :Y:

Thanks. :Y:
But it's just the difference the lens makes. Worth while getting one Lefty. Now I'm trying to work out how to remove the reflections/haze off some of the facets. It's a never ending challenge this gem photography. :lol:

Try a circular polarising filter for removing unwanted reflections.

 

[Jaros]

Very nice-well done.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Beautiful!!!!! :Y:

Thanks. :Y:
But it's just the difference the lens makes. Worth while getting one Lefty. Now I'm trying to work out how to remove the reflections/haze off some of the facets. It's a never ending challenge this gem photography. :lol:

Try a circular polarising filter for removing unwanted reflections.

There is one fitted.
Part of the issue is I don't see the end image until I'm done. A camera that can be plugged into a monitor as the shot is set up would be beneficial. Another thought is a light tent but I may have to wait another 12 years when the kids can leave home and I can reclaim some house.

 

[Dihusky]

There is one fitted.
Part of the issue is I don't see the end image until I'm done. A camera that can be plugged into a monitor as the shot is set up would be beneficial. Another thought is a light tent but I may have to wait another 12 years when the kids can leave home and I can reclaim some house.

Doesn't the camera have a screen on the back? Almost impossible to work with macro without something showing the image, maybe you can connect to a laptop? If it has an HDMI out that could be your answer, they are for feeding an image to a screen/computer.

Those Olympus lenses are seriously good, they don't miss a damn thing, I discovered a few things I didn't want to know about when I shot the pick of my gem, that's when I moved from artificial light to bright shade, hid a lot!

Stones still **** really good though :Y:

 

[Mr Magoo]

There is one fitted.
Part of the issue is I don't see the end image until I'm done. A camera that can be plugged into a monitor as the shot is set up would be beneficial. Another thought is a light tent but I may have to wait another 12 years when the kids can leave home and I can reclaim some house.

Doesn't the camera have a screen on the back? Almost impossible to work with macro without something showing the image, maybe you can connect to a laptop? If it has an HDMI out that could be your answer, they are for feeding an image to a screen/computer.

Those Olympus lenses are seriously good, they don't miss a damn thing, I discovered a few things I didn't want to know about when I shot the pick of my gem, that's when I moved from artificial light to bright shade, hid a lot!

Stones still **** really good though :Y:

Yes is does have a screen on the back but it doesn't show the minute detail that shows on a blown up view. Too small. The garnet is only 6mm and the CZ 10mm so the lens is grabbing a lot of detail that it can't display on the little screen.
Unfortunately it doesn't connect to a monitor and if I was to buy another camera, I think that would be a requirement. It's a hind sight thing. The camera is an Olympus Pen EP2 which I bought second hand.

I do have a lot more learning to do with the camera but 'yep' great lens and if you get the set up right the detail is incredible. And that's not in 1:1 macro mode. I'm keeping the lens back a bit, probably twice that distance so its a 1:4. This is to avoid/reduce the reflection of the camera darkening the crown. Again with a light tent that would reduce that problem.

I think I need more practice and improve my set up. But thanks for the comments.
And apologies Lefty for derailing. Just wanted to show how much more a lens will do.

 

[Gilly47]

having a monitor attached to the camera will make a huge difference.

what are the yellow and orange stone then??

ray

 

[Mr Magoo]

having a monitor attached to the camera will make a huge difference.

what are the yellow and orange stone then??

ray

The yellow stone is cubic zirconia in a 'Robin' cut which I first came across when John Wren won a international faceting competition, cutting it giving him a perfect score of 100.

http://gemlapidarycouncilnsw.org.au...14/02/Gemkhana-2014-Schedule-Final-Feb-17.pdf page 14

The orange stone is (supposed to be) a spessartine or spessartite garnet. Cut a bit too deep. Top quality spessartine garnets will glow.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...7OXbAhWCsJQKHeGeCu0Q_AUICigB&biw=1227&bih=549

Garnet is becoming one of my favorite stones. So much colour and variety with good optical performance. Excluding those dark brown/red bottle glass coloured ones.

 

[Pat Hogen]

Look at the light jumping out of that yellow CZ! I am glad you included the diagram names, good move. I sold a colour change CZ done in John Wren's Loris design and sold it at a gem show to the first girl that walked up to the table. You could see the stone blazing from 30' away across the room, fabulous designs by John Wren. I have a design of his that a University lecturer says "rivals and surpasses, in some regards, the light performance of some well-cut round brilliants". I just tried to post the link but apparently that page is no longer available.

 

[Lefty]

7.4 carat light pink-purple Lowmead amethyst in Kieth Sanker's "Starlight diamond". Incandescent light shows natural colour.

In LED light....

This is a very bright design and the whole stone lights up at once (LED light shows up reflection patterns but snuffs out the colour). An interesting feature of the design is that while the bottom edge of the girdle is level, the top edge is peaked in the middle of each long side. This is to allow the 8-rayed star inscribed on the crown to have 4 longer major points at the cardinal points and 4 shorter minor points in between. The girdle comes to normal height at each corner so it should not interfere with setting. This particular stone is probably a little large and deep for a ring but would make a fantastic pendent (which is what it was designed for).

I was going to offer it in the for sale section. However, someone saw it a few minutes after it initially went to wife's facebook page and it went straight away.

This is my favourite type of faceting - things that are different and not run-of-the-mill. Can't really afford to be too arty with sapphires as every speck of swarf from clean crystal represents money running down the drain. But with things like amethyst I can afford to sacrifice a bit of carat weight in order to achieve a pre-conceived design.

 

[Wishfull]

Nice job. You do some brilliant work.

 

[Lefty]

Cheers mate :Y: Now I just need to take MM's advice and invest in a decent macro-lens camera.

 

[Dihusky]

That looks awesome, just looked up the cutting diagram and looks like a fun cut, need to keep track of where you are! Pity the colours washed out.

 

[Lefty]

Cheers Dihusky. Yeah, LED light does it no favours - some of the photos in LED were almost black. It's a light pink in natural light, deeper if light is only allowed to enter through the crown (as in a fully-enclosed bezel setting).

It is a nice design, the stone is actually quite deep and the girlde somewhat unusual. You'd better print the design off now, that website has a habit of going down because of running out of bandwidth and staying down for quite a while!

 

[Dihusky]

All good, did a page grab and filed :Y: :Y:

 

[Mackka]

Lefty, I am sure that Olphart could give you one advice on equipment, just sayin.
Mackka

 

[Lefty]

A nice piece of.....erm........glass from a garden bed outside a motel in Germany in Akhavan's "Sierpinski's puzzle".

Father-in-law found it as he was packing the car to leave the motel. It's been lying on his bedside table beside him for the past 8 years and he's still kicking so i think we can assume it doesn't release any toxic gas or radiation Obviously, it's only value is as a memento of his holiday.

It was quite difficult material to work with. It seems slightly harder than regular glass I have cut but very brittle and chipped and gouged even while being faceted with care. It responded well to cerium as a polish but was very prone to scratching and the meets moved very quickly, making going back and re-touching some necessary. It's more yellow than the photo shows, with no brown tones.

This was just a small piece sawn off it. Not knowing exactly what it was I didn't know the critical angle or anything else. But it seems to work well at quartz angles.

Not sure what I'll do with the main piece yet. Anyway, I'll tell him to forget putting it in a setting - it would scratch under normal wear, one hard bump and it would be toast and it could well just break while being mounted anyway (had to be very careful removing from the dop so as not to break the culet off). Best off just put in a little case on a display shelf.

 

[Wally69]

I would say he would consider it priceless :Y:

 

[Lefty]

I would say he would consider it priceless :Y:

Yep, stones/gems often have a sentimental value attached to them that can exceed any monetary value, especially where the person found it themselves.

 

[Reno_86]

How long would you say it would take you to learn how to cut stones on average? Im very interested

 

[Lefty]

Hi Reno.

Basic designs are not that difficult to learn but each different type of stone tends to have it's own characteristics that affect cutting and polishing approaches. Most people start by cutting perhaps half a dozen standard round brilliants before moving on to try other designs.

Hap Wheely used to say "your first few stones will be ok to give to your mother-in-law but it will be a while before you can do one for that special girl"

Your best bet is to track down your nearest lapidary club, most of them will teach faceting if you join up. You can teach yourself successfully, you'll probably just make more mistakes along the way.

Learning is of course a lifelong process.