Tag: free-form designer stones

Why did I cut that stone that way?

Why did I cut that stone that way?

Cutting and polishing a stone is often a matter of the stone’s pattern and coloration. The larger the pattern of the stone to be cut, the larger the finished stone will need to be. A very petite pattern will physically fit into a small cut stone, but will be so small in a piece of jewelry when set that you can’t see the pattern from the distance it is viewed. So, the pattern of the feature you want to highlight must be large enough to be seen by someone standing next to you. The shape of the cab being cut, e.g., oval, round, triangle, rectangle, square, or free form, will limit what part of the pattern can be captured in the finished cut stone. Accordingly, I do many designer free form shapes and sizes and I also cut a great many large cabs in order to capture the maximum part […]

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My Birthday Agates!

My Birthday Agates!

These stones are maybe the prettiest agates I have cut. Or, they just seem like the prettiest because I just cut them! Both show clear evidence of red and yellow jasper that was fractured into shards and then cemented back together by silica which entered into the cracks. When the silica enters the cracks, it creates tiny fortification agates and other banded agates, e.g., a jasp-agate. I think the patterns created are simply beautiful. The free form shapes of these stones are the result of trying to capture all of the detail and coloration that is present. If I had cut the stones in the more conventional round or oval cabochon shape, much of the stones’ patterns and coloration would have been lost. Rock #4643 Rock #4645

Lava Lamp Agate

Lava Lamp Agate

Lava lamp agate. I found it. I named it. Here is what you are really looking at. Rock #4526 This is agate on the right side and lava matrix in which it is formed on the left side, cut and polished and set as a pendant in gold-fill wire wrap. This is a free form designer cut of an agate nodule still attached to the lava in which the nodule formed. If you rotate the specimen 45 degrees counter clockwise, you will see the classical amygdaloidal shape. Rock #4526 rotated 45 degrees For those who may not have the word amygdaloidal on the tip of their tongues or in their lexicon, “amygdaloidal” generally means almond-shaped, typically with a flattened bottom and rounded top. This shape comes from the gas bubble pocket formed in lava which filled in with silica material which formed the agate. This specimen is natural and not […]

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Free-Form Designer Cabochons (Cabs)

Free-Form Designer Cabochons (Cabs)

Pictured above is a free form designer cabochon, or cab, from ‘The Carver’. Free-form means that I have shaped and polished the pictured stone to maximize its natural beauty. The stone is not cut and polished to a specific shape–oval, square or round–or to a specific size. Most cabs are of a uniform shape (oval or round and sometimes rectangular or square) and usually these are cut to a size predetermined to fit easily and exactly into a mass-produced stock jewelry setting for a ring, bracelet, pendant, belt buckle, or whatever.  These stock settings are machine made, inexpensive, and widely used to make jewelry designed to take a single specifically shaped and sized cab. The free-form designer cab is a stone cut without a specific standardized shape or size and it requires a metal setting, usually silver or gold, that is individually designed and constructed to fit the specific size […]

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