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WOOFDOCTOR posted:If ceramic is not possible, does anyone have a suggestion of other materials to look at that come in green? We have also looked at channel set green sapphires and it's not the same. Claes Oldenburger posted:Actually just giving it some thought, noble metals (titanium, niobium) can be coloured with electricity...so maybe you'll be able to find something with a titanium or niobium inlay that is then electrified to turn green? Unfortunately that's all I can come up with! I Google image searched for titanium green inlay ring and a lot of cool stuff came up-- wood (which has its own durability issues), some anodized titanium, carbon fiber inlays, and this:  The Green Machine by Minter + Richter Which appears to be some kind of resin inlay. Resin will definitely have scratching issues, but if it's the same stuff custom pen makers are using it should be easy enough to buff out. There's a lot of neat rings on that site, actually. Looks like they do custom work too. Oh, here's a nice green one from them: Fauna. 
effika fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Oct 13, 2016 |
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Oct 13, 2016 03:42
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How about malachite? Not super durable as far as gemstones go, but as an inlay it might fit the bill.
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Oct 13, 2016 07:25
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For a durable inlay in this type of ring you're better off using an acrylic or a cold enamel. Most jewelers can source either.
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Oct 14, 2016 17:12
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I don't know much about this style of jewelry, but wouldn't something like jade or even chrysoprase provide a nice green color with superior toughness? I suppose that fabrication could be a bit complicated though.
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Oct 14, 2016 19:16
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I just took a class at my old college in faceting. The first stone I completed was a piece of laser gem in this design I found online (the larger pink one below) https://usfacetersguild.org/faceting-diagram/amaryllis-1/ . I am pretty happy about the way it turned out (except for the little chip I knocked out of the back of it). Then, I took a brilliant cut design the teacher gave us, and cut a piece of amethyst. I thought it would be sparklier than the other, since the cut is called "brilliant" (and it is designed for quartz's refractive index). However, it kind of looks like it has half a window if bright light is not shining on it, and only the edge and half the inside sparkle at one time, as opposed to the "amarylis" design, which seems to have much more sparkle distributed around. The difference isn't showing as much in the photos, but in person especially, the pink one looks a lot more "fully lit" and sparkly than the amethyst). Did I cut it wrong? Is it the design? Is it quartz vs laser gem? Sorry about the quality of the photos, I was having trouble lighting it. 
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Oct 22, 2016 00:11
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There could be alot of reasons why its happening, It could be a difference in refractive index, possible issues in the polish, different facet heights, problems with the material itself, it's super varied! But don't be discouraged, most people can't tell the difference and will just be impressed by you cutting a gem in the first place. hell once i somehow managed to chip the crown of my gem quite significantly but people still couldnt tell lmao
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Oct 22, 2016 00:21
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Yeah, I know I'm being much more critical of it than the people I've shown it to. I was just google imaging "brilliant cut amethyst" and it's not as bad as some of the specimens people are charging for! http://web.tradekorea.com/product/219/942219/Best%20Quality%20Oval%20Brilliant%20Cut%20Facet%20Light%20Amethyst%20Spinel_2.jpg https://www.goldarts.co.uk/images/9...-1275_image.jpg
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Oct 22, 2016 00:48
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littlebluellama posted:Yeah, I know I'm being much more critical of it than the people I've shown it to. I was just google imaging "brilliant cut amethyst" and it's not as bad as some of the specimens people are charging for! I'm the same, I just had a very very small scratch in the table of a tourmaline I cut and it's the gem people tell me they like the most. All you can do is try another and practice!
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Oct 24, 2016 02:58
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A little non traditional engagement ring advice - my partner has strongly expressed a desire for either morganite (she likes the color) or a green tourmaline (again, color). She also likes white gold bands, halo settings and pear or oval cuts which gives a pretty clear direction to a ring, but I'm slightly cautious because she's planning on wearing it every day, is slightly klutzy and I'm worried that a softer gemstone would get banged up. Any advice on A) What to look for when buying stones? There is tons of advice out there and in the thread for diamonds but not a ton on other stones B) What to look for in terms of setting etc? I'm happy to get something custom made so I've got a lot of flexibility in terms of design, but what should I be thinking about? Know I'm going to have to speak to a recommended local jeweller, but want to be somewhat informed, and have a view about budget etc before I jump in. Cthulhu Dreams fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Oct 25, 2016 |
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Oct 25, 2016 03:11
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:A little non traditional engagement ring advice - my partner has strongly expressed a desire for either morganite (she likes the color) or a green tourmaline (again, color). She also likes white gold bands, halo settings and pear or oval cuts which gives a pretty clear direction to a ring, but I'm slightly cautious because she's planning on wearing it every day, is slightly klutzy and I'm worried that a softer gemstone would get banged up. Any advice on Budget is going to come down to the local jeweller, but sapphires come in both those colours. They are slightly harder to find, but will wear quite a bit better than those two over time. If you're really worried about the stone being banged up then a full bezel setting will protect it the most, or a prong setting with a halo of stones around it. Think of metal taking the direct force when banged instead of the stone itself.
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Oct 25, 2016 06:52
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Budget is going to come down to the local jeweller, but sapphires come in both those colours. They are slightly harder to find, but will wear quite a bit better than those two over time. If you're really worried about the stone being banged up then a full bezel setting will protect it the most, or a prong setting with a halo of stones around it. Think of metal taking the direct force when banged instead of the stone itself. Yeah, I guess when I look at most of the halo designs the stone doesn't seem that protected, e.g. here is a halo design she liked: http://www.sdj.com.au/blog/marjo-pear-shape-diamond-cluster That's a diamond, but how well protected is the stone for something softer? I can see the V-prong designs or similar will have the stone very well protected, but most of the halo designs have the stone seemingly fairly exposed. Good tip on the sapphires, a peach colored sapphire is probably an attractive option that I will float with her. Might have to go to sydney to scope this out at some point.
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Oct 25, 2016 07:43
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A nice peach-colored sapphire might be harder to get for sub-arm/leg pricing thanks to the highly in-demand nature of padparascha (which seems to suck in anything orange/pink even if it's not quite there), plus the concern of unknowingly ending up with a Be-treated stone if you do get a 'deal'. There are some good deals to be had with peachy morganite, though you'd want to be sure to shell out for a precision cut stone.
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Oct 27, 2016 06:42
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If you don't care about Be-treatment, of course, then they're pretty cheap.
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Oct 27, 2016 06:55
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What's be treatment? Edit: Beryllium diffusion? What's the pro/cons? Cthulhu Dreams fucked around with this message at 13:33 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 13:28
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The cons are: The color is artificially induced so they aren't rare or valuable. The pros are: Not expensive & you can get the exact color that you want.
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Oct 27, 2016 23:31
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Also sometimes the stone have little blue polka dots
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Oct 27, 2016 23:33
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JohnnyRnR posted:The cons are: The color is artificially induced so they aren't rare or valuable. Yeah she doesn't care beyond 'looks like I want' so that sounds like an attractive option for securing the visuals desired. Is it a stable treatment?
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Oct 28, 2016 02:11
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It is completely stable (the Be is diffused into the stone over about a month at very high temperatures, so it's not going anywhere), and the colors of the stones can be really remarkable. It's not exactly my favorite treatment since it's a lot like dyeing on a conceptual level, but I pick them up when I see them inexpensively priced because the color range is so darned attractive. OK, something unrelated. I was at a local gem show, and came across a guy with buckets of fist-sized nodules of some green-blue material. He was calling it "Brazilian turquoise", but in spite of a slight resemblance it was pretty obvious that it wasn't turquoise of any kind. But it was clearly something natural with a nice color, so I picked up a few pieces for kicks. In the rough:  It's very soft, a bit porous and fractury, and alas greener on the inside than the outside. The powder is also smeary and slippery, a strong hint that it was a sheet silicate and probably a clay mineral. But a few bits of slabs held together well enough to cut cabochons, which I figured were worth setting as a novelty. One of the bluer ones (you can still see pits and such in it, had to work with the realities of the material:  I sent it off to a friend with a gemmoraman for analysis, but she didn't get a hit off of it. She thought it might be metavariscite, which sounded nice enough, but I wasn't sure about that at all. So today I finally schlepped down to my undergrad university and borrowed the x-ray diffractometer.   Welp. (To be fair, one of China's treasured stones for carving seals is made of dickite. But I bet it sounds a lot better in Chinese). Scarodactyl fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Oct 28, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 02:40
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Something something cummingtonite. Nice stone though!
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Oct 28, 2016 05:36
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I don't have much in the way of high-quality Be sapphires, but here are a couple really zoomed-in photos of a few of my bottom-of-the barrel quality ones I got as part of a parcel.   You can see the polka dots (also: various other flaws). They don't show up in all Be-treated sapphires (I think they come from little rutile inclusions getting heated for a long time?) but if you see them you know what happened  .I bought this guy just because it was weird:  (And I set a more peachy one that isn't very polka dotty as an accent stone here) Tunicate fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Oct 28, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 08:11
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 This is probably more what you're after, though, in terms of quality. They can be downright enchanting, with a really attractive glow. They range all the way from yellow to a weird red (different enough from a typical ruby that they are usually sold as 'red sapphire') with all sorts of oranges, peaches, pinks and orange-pinks in between.
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Oct 28, 2016 20:45
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Yeah, I should clarify here that my low-grade ones shouldn't be taken as indicative of anything about high-end be-treated sapphires, except to give some examples of the possible color range
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Oct 28, 2016 20:58
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Scarodactyl posted:
Hah! I need to find me some of that sapphire rough to work on, that colour is amazing. Claes Oldenburger fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 23:29
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Scarodactyl posted:
Those are a lot nicer than any Be sapphires I've ever seen. The ones I usually come across look like they got carved out of old traffic cones, complete with specks of torn-up asphalt.
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Oct 29, 2016 06:43
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So I'm looking for a three stone pendant necklace like this. So far all I can find is bar necklaces or ones where the stones go straight downward, which is a no go. Who can point me in the right direction? 
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Oct 30, 2016 19:44
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Nodoze posted:So I'm looking for a three stone pendant necklace like this. So far all I can find is bar necklaces or ones where the stones go straight downward, which is a no go. Who can point me in the right direction? I can make you one if you want? Shoot me a PM.
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Oct 30, 2016 23:31
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Finished this sweet piece for a fellow goon: I'm super late on this, but this was for me and my fiance absolutely loved it! Huge thanks to Claes -- can't recommend him enough if you want something custom. Was a great experience all around 
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Oct 31, 2016 00:29
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I can make you one if you want? Shoot me a PM. Will do thanks
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Oct 31, 2016 08:46
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I made a wire-wrapped setting for the amethyst I cut! I have a question for those of you who sell your stuff: how do you figure out how to price things? I have a small etsy store, and I'm never sure if my prices are appropriate. I see some people selling junk, like a ring that's just a bead on a piece of wire without finished ends for like $16 and people love it, but then I see really nice stuff for cheap and I'm not sure. I guess the answer may be whatever people are willing to pay, but I'm just curious. Do you use a formula? Just go with what feels right? Something else?
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Nov 6, 2016 01:36
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littlebluellama posted:I made a wire-wrapped setting for the amethyst I cut! Cool! Ultimately, it does comes down to what people will pay. You can spend a hundred hours on a complicated brass piece of jewellery, but to people brass will only be worth so much. The same applies to silver, and then gold it's sort of the skies the limit. That being said what you're describing is a huge problem with Etsy. People make jewellery as a side gig or for fun (absolutely nothing wrong with that), but because it isn't their main source of income it can get priced way, way lower than what it should be because the money doesn't matter. This in turn throws off the pricing of what jewellery is actually worth, and makes other people feel like they should sell theirs for way below its value. It's sort of like the Uber effect, people feel like they're making extra side cash but when you factor everything in they're actually making below minimum wage. /end rant You need to figure out how much your materials cost and how long it took you. Set a dollar value on your labour (both gemcutting and wire wrapping) and then add that on top of materials. That's your lowest base price, which you then markup with things like your business overhead and etsy fees/shipping if you include it in your price etc. as well as profit. Don't try to compete with the lowest price because someone will always go lower. Cutting your own gems and setting them in your own pieces is a skill not a lot of people have. That skill is worth something!
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Nov 6, 2016 02:54
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Ultimately, it does comes down to what people will pay. You can spend a hundred hours on a complicated brass piece of jewellery, but to people brass will only be worth so much. The same applies to silver, and then gold it's sort of the skies the limit. Thanks for the advice! That ring you made for Neurostorm is absolutely lovely, by the way. Love the scroll work on the side. I finished a little piece of rose quartz last week, with this design: http://www.gemologyproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Voltolini_-_Pandoro . The creator said it was made to complement the "glow" that comes from the haziness of rose quartz (rather than the sparkliness of a clear stone), and I like the effect. When I look at it in real life, the amount of light coming out of it is about halfway between the 2 pictures (one is with flash, one without).  The original rough was pretty large, but only a small, shallow portion of it was transparent enough for a faceted stone. It's been hard for me to decide if I would rather have a little bigger stone, or a smaller stone with less flaws!
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Nov 6, 2016 03:36
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I just saw an add for "salt and pepper" diamonds. They looked like they either had many symmetrical inclusions or were only cut on one side of the stone before setting. Has anyone seen these? What are they?
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Nov 12, 2016 14:53
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littlebluellama posted:Thanks for the advice! Thank you! Great stone cut, I have that issue about being choosy of rough areas as well. The tourmalines I have are green around the edge with pink centers and it's tough choosing between a uniform colour and size! WOOFDOCTOR posted:I just saw an add for "salt and pepper" diamonds. They looked like they either had many symmetrical inclusions or were only cut on one side of the stone before setting. Has anyone seen these? What are they? Technically they are heavily included diamonds. I think they're chosen for symmetrical inclusions or at least a nice arrangement if them, because I really really like them in some designs. I don't think they fit the classic "engagement ring" look but more organic stuff can work well. Because the sparkle isn't as important they can cut them in less standard shapes to emphasize the inclusions or inclusion pattern. I cut a thing! 
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Nov 12, 2016 17:28
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I cut a thing! That's a really pretty stone! What is it?
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Nov 12, 2016 19:03
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Claes Oldenburger posted:
Is that a Portuguese cut? So sparkly!
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Nov 13, 2016 02:59
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It's a YAG, a synthetic garnet that used to be used as a diamond simulant but now gets doped colours and used in lasers in labs. I got given a few chunks by a goon to try out! It is a portugese cut. I knew they worked well on larger stones but drat, this thing sparkles like there is no tomorrow.
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Nov 14, 2016 18:27
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I'm the person running the christmas goon giftsellers thread this year. Mostly etsy goons, but that's not a rule or anything. Anyone interested in being part of it?
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Nov 26, 2016 22:56
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Tunicate posted:I'm the person running the christmas goon giftsellers thread this year. Mostly etsy goons, but that's not a rule or anything. Link it please
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Nov 26, 2016 23:53
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goodness posted:Link it please We're currently arranging things in the etsy thread. Last year's thread is here; I'm going to be following the same formula. Gonna put up the thread and buy a banner once we have 4 shops in it, just so it doesn't seem like I'm buying 'christmas goon' ads which only link to my shop.
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Nov 27, 2016 02:42
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Thread is up. Figured it would be best to have it running for cyber monday. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3799626
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Nov 28, 2016 10:39
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