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Why did I cut that stone that way?

Why did I cut that stone that way?

By /August 15, 2022 /3 comments /Cut Rocks

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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Two Completely Different Triangular Free-form Cabs from The Carver

Two Completely Different Triangular Free-form Cabs from The Carver

By /June 26, 2022 /2 comments /Cut Rocks

These stones are all Carver agates, but completely dissimilar in their appearance. The First Stone The first stone looks like a deep blue underwater scene with multicolored sagenitic (cool stuff!) that look like underwater plants in an undersea cavern. Put your imagination to work and, if you are old like me, think of Lloyd Bridges and Sea Hunt! Rock # 4727 Click to enlarge Rock # 4727 detail Click to enlarge More Stones The next two stones are blue and white banded agate, one of which is a pyramidal free-form. While I have recently cut several other stones, I like these best. Rock #4711 Click to enlarge Rock #4711 Click to enlarge Rock #4713 Click to enlarge

New Free-form Cabs from The Carver

New Free-form Cabs from The Carver

By /June 24, 2022 /1 comment /Cut Rocks

The pictures tell the story of the fascinatingly unique and diverse agates I continue to find and cut. It is important to remember that all of these stones came out of the same geologic formation, yet they all look very different. Fun for me and, I hope, interesting for you. Rock #4705: Angular free-form agate Rock #4708 Rock #4709

My Birthday Agates!

My Birthday Agates!

By /March 11, 2022 /3 comments /Cut Rocks

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

Free-Form Designer Cabochons (Cabs)

Free-Form Designer Cabochons (Cabs)

By /April 11, 2019 /0 comments /Cabochons

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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