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I kind of love The Mess(TM), honestly. It was already a science rock -- you just did more science to it!
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Apr 8, 2023 01:16
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The Alexandrovich lab was the group that invent the first viable growth technique for of large quartz crystals. Once they had the lab set up (under A.A. Sternberg, probably the greatest expert on crystals on the planet, who also literally slept on a cot next to the giant crystal-growing autoclaves ), they managed to go from building their first machines in 1955 to producing 3 kilogram quartz crystals in 1956. Everyone working there was passionate, so they were incredibly excited when they finally opened up the autoclave and saw the huge crystals. The main assistant (L Tsinober) grabbed one of them out of the autoclave, still hot, and impatiently rushed to the sink to wash it off to get a better look. When the cold water hit, it immediately cracked into a million pieces. The other workers were - to put it mildly, quite unhappy about that, except Sternberg, who just said 'Don't worry. Soon we'll have a lot more of them.'
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Apr 8, 2023 07:12
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Anyone catch styropyro's new video on YouTube today? Angry Turtle's shop got a brief cameo after his horrifying uranium recipe (as in "don't do this, go buy this instead, it's cooler!").
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Apr 11, 2023 00:29
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uranium grass posted:Anyone catch styropyro's new video on YouTube today? Angry Turtle's shop got a brief cameo after his horrifying uranium recipe (as in "don't do this, go buy this instead, it's cooler!"). Also tremendous username/post combo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIM6943BSRA (Our shoutout is around 19:30 but the whole video rules).
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Apr 11, 2023 00:35
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*Squee*  It's all packed up and waiting for the shipper to pick it up. Soon I'll be futzing around with gems.
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Apr 11, 2023 16:41
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That's awesome! Post updates as they come.
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Apr 11, 2023 17:05
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I feel silly for just now realizing that you're the Tiktok account I follow and keep showing to my coworkers.  To be fair, I completely forgot this thread existed.
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Apr 17, 2023 04:07
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Heads up for everyone. Gentleman who started/runs Gearloose is retiring  Announcement went out on their FB page last night.
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Apr 17, 2023 15:03
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Oof. If anyone's earned a (second) retirement it's him, but I just got nice 6 inch laps for my raytech, then I got this new old machine that needs 8 inch laps. I'd better get what I need sooner than later...
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Apr 17, 2023 18:38
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Faceting machine is out for delivery!
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Apr 24, 2023 18:13
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Helllll yeahhhhh!!
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Apr 25, 2023 02:03
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Found this while cleaning up at grandma's house.  Has an appraisal from 1988 with it. Seems like its man made glass. Do these actually have any real value today?
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May 4, 2023 03:07
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Uranium glass is worth a bit to collectors (as is victoria stone), but other glasses aren't worth much of anything without some cool historical origin story. Sorry but if it's glass your gramps got scammed.
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May 4, 2023 04:02
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jeff8472 posted:Found this while cleaning up at grandma's house. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helenite
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May 4, 2023 04:45
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jeff8472 posted:Found this while cleaning up at grandma's house. Vintage Helenite stones do have some value. I don't know if it's the same as it was back in 88 as it was still a lot more in public mind. Pieces of Rough still pull a descent amount of money. Might be worth getting them re-appraised.
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May 4, 2023 15:15
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Helenite is just glass. Not natural st helens glass nor glass made from the ash, just normal glass with some marketing attached. https://www.gia.edu/doc/SU86.pdf
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May 4, 2023 18:17
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Hi there gem goons, I hope this is a place where one can ask some questions about identification. A friend of mine's dad does a shitload of weird buy-and-trade stuff and often deals in vintage or antique jewellery. He's been trying to get my friend 'into the trade', as it were, and recently handed him a few sacks of things to try and sell. I was helping him sort through it last night and realized that there's a lot in there that I can't tell is real or not, with my amateur knowledge. A lot of what he has is old silver with small jewels set in it and I'm wondering if there's any kind of resource that would help with identifying what the stones are. For example, there was a necklace with small faceted pale reddish-pink stones which I suspect could be garnets but I know the garnet group is huge with a shitload of variety. Is there a book or website I could suggest to him that could help us figure out what is what? It was very fun digging through bag after bag of faceted stones and possibly ivory and literal sacks of pearls and amber. Some of the strings of amber beads were about four feet long!
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May 7, 2023 18:30
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Mad Hamish posted:Is there a book or website I could suggest to him that could help us figure out what is what? There are books and websites that could help you make some decent guesses, but ultimately you can’t know for sure what you’ve got until you go to an appraiser or a certified gemologist. If they’re any good, they’ll have the kind of equipment you need to properly identify gems, which includes (but is not limited to): loupe, scale, refractometer, different lights, and a dozen other pricey tools that end with -scope. The gemologists/appraisers will also have the education to make the occasional subjective call. Gem identification is a complex, nuanced business, and even trained professionals will disagree about the conclusions their colleagues draw from the same material. All of that is to say that you can have some fun playing around with the gems you bought, but if you want to know what they are for sure, you’re gonna have to pay for it.
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May 8, 2023 04:48
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A raman spectrometer would probably get you good answers on 90% of the stones but they're not super cheap. Otherwise you'd want to learn to use a refractometer, polariscope and specific gravity setup (not much help on set stones though) which for loose stones would get you answers a good portion of the time.
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May 8, 2023 05:48
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Cool, thanks!
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May 9, 2023 14:20
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At a recent gem and rock show, my wife (who is a big rock nerd) and I were really admiring this piece of jasper from a local lapidary So I went back and secretly bought it for her  Now I want to do something with it to surprise her. Any ideas? We both said it would be nice in a belt buckle; she doesn't really wear belts though. I guess I could wear it so that she can look at it on me. But I'd rather do something she can wear. I think it would be a lovely necklace pendant, what do you think?
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May 22, 2023 18:12
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Any chance she wears bolo ties? That's a gorgeous stone. It should be perfect for a pendant, classic for a simple bezel or something more elaborate. I have a friend who specializes in setting cabs I cna refer you to as well. Scarodactyl fucked around with this message at 19:14 on May 22, 2023 |
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May 22, 2023 19:11
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Scarodactyl posted:Any chance she wears bolo ties? Haha, we both said "I wish we wore bolo ties" when we first saw it. It wouldn't stand out too terribly much here in OR but would be a bit too much of a statement for us and a bit too westerm-formal. I think necklace is probably the way to go. I'll take a look at your friend's work if you don't mind! Might also look around locally. Do you think it should have the ring on top or two rings on the sides?
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May 22, 2023 20:12
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I would go bail on top, but either way shouldve nice. My friend's name is Deloris, she has an etsy page under JBDJewelry. Her focus has been high quality wore wrap work but she's also gotten good at traditional metalwork.
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May 22, 2023 20:21
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Ymmv but I (just a rando who likes jewelry) think it should connect near the top two corners, but on the back so you don’t see anything from the front, just the chain and the stone
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May 22, 2023 20:23
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i like nice words
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I hit a big jewelry-making milestone today: I made my first three-stone ring! Like all creative projects I make, I’m struggling to ignore the (many) flaws, but I feel like it’s a really good first attempt. Next go-around, I want to make the claw prongs smaller and set the whole thing lower, but it’ll obviously depend on what size stones I use. This guy has a 7.4 YAG middle (cut by TenaciousFaceting on etsy), and the sides are 5mm LuAG rounds I got from our very own Scarodactyl. Thank you, Scarodactyl! 
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May 24, 2023 22:16
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Nae posted:I hit a big jewelry-making milestone today: I made my first three-stone ring! Like all creative projects I make, I’m struggling to ignore the (many) flaws, but I feel like it’s a really good first attempt. Next go-around, I want to make the claw prongs smaller and set the whole thing lower, but it’ll obviously depend on what size stones I use. This guy has a 7.4 YAG middle (cut by TenaciousFaceting on etsy), and the sides are 5mm LuAG rounds I got from our very own Scarodactyl. Thank you, Scarodactyl! congrats! It looks great 
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May 24, 2023 22:29
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Nae posted:I hit a big jewelry-making milestone today: I made my first three-stone ring! Like all creative projects I make, I’m struggling to ignore the (many) flaws, but I feel like it’s a really good first attempt. Next go-around, I want to make the claw prongs smaller and set the whole thing lower, but it’ll obviously depend on what size stones I use. This guy has a 7.4 YAG middle (cut by TenaciousFaceting on etsy), and the sides are 5mm LuAG rounds I got from our very own Scarodactyl. Thank you, Scarodactyl! Whoa! Nicely done! Shaping prongs with other ring bits around them can be frustrating, but I love the look of claws. If you shorten the claw length, it makes them easier to shape (imo of course) and much easier to keep them tight to the stone so they don't catch on anything. We always see the flaws in our work, but I constantly have to remind myself that other people do not look at jewellery (especially ones I have made myself) like I do.
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May 24, 2023 22:29
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I've been learning to facet. I'm only 11 stones in but I've really been enjoying pixel cuts in particular. https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/883491922717597837/1120588272838647808/20230620_012249_1.mp4 A loooong pixel cut sapphire faceted from offcuts from...something. Scientific filters? Ultra high end watch cases? https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/883491922717597837/1121899898577617036/20230623_160605_1.mp4 My attempt at making a real life minecraft emerald. Faceted from CTH:YAG, a garnet used in lasers. https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/860777117095559178/1123524517122281553/lv_0_20230628000050.mp4 And that iconic currency from Zelda, the Ruby. Cut in ruby likely grown for laser usage or, maybe, ultra high end watch cases (hard to be sure). Scarodactyl fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Jun 29, 2023 |
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Jun 29, 2023 02:05
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Holy crap, those look so cool!
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Jun 29, 2023 02:33
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Scarodactyl posted:I've been learning to facet. I'm only 11 stones in but I've really been enjoying pixel cuts in particular. Wazzup faceting buddy !!! What machine do you have?
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Jun 29, 2023 03:16
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Thanks! I have a Graves mk 1 that's been souped up with a more powerful motor. Not the fanciest but it works.
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Jun 29, 2023 03:25
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Scarodactyl posted:Thanks! I almost went that route. Wound up getting one of the Sterling ST08. The whole handpiece type seemed to call to me over mast type polishers. If you've ever got any questions on polishing feel free to ask. I work for the company that owns Crystalite, If I don't know it already I can prod people who do.
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Jun 29, 2023 15:11
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Are you that guy in the faceting discord that works for crystalite? 
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Jun 30, 2023 01:02
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Handpiece machines are cool and also the only reliable value buy out there. I bought a raytech years before I got my graves but it somehow never quite clicked for me (though there were other limiting factors too that likely played a role).
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Jun 30, 2023 01:30
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Xun posted:Are you that guy in the faceting discord that works for crystalite? Yup! itttsa me!
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Jun 30, 2023 02:01
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In Zelda 1 the rupees flashed blue and yellow. So I did a pixel cut rupee in dichroic yellow/blue moissanite https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/844202889060155433/1124867755133374645/lv_0_20230701210136.mp4
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Jul 2, 2023 04:00
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That looks awesome. Have you been putting them up for sale and they’re getting snapped up fast from the store?
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Jul 2, 2023 17:55
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Thanks! And yup, they've all sold pretty fast which is very encouraging.
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Jul 2, 2023 19:13
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Scarodactyl posted:Thanks! And yup, they've all sold pretty fast which is very encouraging. How do you usually market them to sell if you don't mind me asking?
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Jul 3, 2023 21:11
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