I added a link to download my Optic Sign program. This program requires Windows to run, and will tell you the optic character and sign of your stone, based on measurements you make with your refractometer. The program is free. Click HERE to go to my download page.

Here's a new Peridot from Pakistan. Really nice color on this stone, and one of my favorite cuts.

These stones from Pakistan are a bit hard to come by lately, especially in this nice color.

Tags: Peridot

Three new stones this week: A blue sapphire from Songea Tanzania with NO HEAT or other treatements, a Rubellite Tourmaline from Nigeria, and a Chrome Pyrope garnet from Tanzania.

Songea Sapphire

Rubellite Tourmaline

Chrome Pyrope Garnet

I'm thinking about cutting something green next... maybe a tsavorite or a chrome green tourmaline. Enough red stones for awhile.

Tags: Sapphire

I am helping out a friend in Africa by listing some of his stones. Most of these were cut years ago and have been put away. He is in need of some money, so I told him I would try to sell his stones here. Right now I listed to large rhodolite garnets, and 2 spinels up on my site. They are mixed in with my stones, but the gem numbers start with DB-, and in the descriptions I mention that they are cut by Joseph. Have a look, these are pretty impressive stones. I'll have more in the next few days listed, including a few large tsavorite garnets.

Tags: Guest cutter

This is a picture of a recut sapphire. I didn't get around to taking a before picture, but it was the typical native step cut. Lopsided, poor meets and a deep belly along with a window.
For the recut I did a concave cut to bring out some more color from a light stone.



The finished stone is 3.12 ct.

Tags: Sapphire

Here are two new stones that are from the new find of Spessartite in Tanzania. The color on these stones is a fantastic fanta orange. All the stones from this find will have small bubbles, the camera really picks them up. In person they are not as noticable.

1.95 ct
1.57 ct.

See the orange garnet page for more details.

Tags: Spessartite

Here's the latest cut stone. This one is a yellow tourmaline from Mozambique. I just finished the design this week, and the shape of the rough fit well with the design.

For more details on this gemstone see the Fancy Tourmaline page.

Tags: Tourmaline

Here's a few photos of some Oregon Sunstone. This is how the stones look in the rough after a little cleaning up. A few of these I have saw cut some of the extra clear material away, just to save on some grinding time.

These first two pieces are from the Dust Devil Mine in Oregon. The stone on the left should have a really nice color once cut. The right could be interesting, or a mess. Sometimes when a stone show 2 distinct colors they mix and turn to a muddy color, or they can remain isolated and the stone could be a real winner. That half the fun of cutting.

These two stones have excellent color and very good crystal. They should cut will no schiller, and a deep saturated color. I'll grind all the outer clear material away first.

These are pretty typical for how the stone look in the rough, with all the color in the center. The top left looks to be the best of these 3.

These two stones are examples of the sunstone from Tanzania. Much different than the Oregon material. The specs are larger hematite flakes. The left stone could be faceted, the right one has so much hematite it will need to be cabbed.

Tags: Oregon Sunstone

Here's a new Oregon Sunston. This one is cut in a bar crown round. This one has excellent crystal with no schiller. The color pocket doesn't extend through out the entire crown, so if you tilt it far, you will see the lighter area's in the crown. Face up the color fills the entire stone. Measures 8.63 mm.

See the Other Gems link for detail of this stone and to purchase it.

Tags: Oregon Sunstone

The bignews today is the brand new website. I'll keep adding more content in the upcoming days.
I switched from a PC to a Mac a few months ago, and rebuilt the site on the Mac. The site is done using a program called RapidWeaver, and a number of addins. The most notable is a program Paylooms, the builds the online shopping cart which is hooked up to Paypal. You can now select a gemstone, click on the buy now button and make a payment directly through Paypal. While I still encourage you to either e-mail or call to discuss your stone, this is a quick option if you are sure you know what you want.

Right now there is a problem if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. The images don't show up on the Detail pages. You can download an upgrade free from Microsoft for IE7, or use FireFox. Everything as always, works fine on Apple Safari.