It was a busy week of cutting stones on my new ( secondhand faceting machine ).Really pleased with the results on this machine. So this weeks challenge was - to design 2 stones that departed away from the standard round brilliance. After nearly 4 months of cutting the same design, it was time to change up a gear. The other challenge was facet a extra thin girdle on a small stone ( Lemon Quartz from Brazil ). And I managed to achieve this task also, only because a person at the Gem Club I go to said the stone was too small to facet a 16 side girdle. They suggested that I only cut a round girdle. I also polished the girdle, and took no shortcuts as some do by not polishing the girdle. Reason being is they say polishing the girdle adds no more brilliance to the stone and the possibility of chipping. Personally, a unpolished girdle suggests a unfinished stone. Here's few macro pics, the first pic is a 7.5 carat Mozambique Citrine. And the 2nd pic is a 2.5 carat Lemon Quartz from Brazil.
Thanks for sharing your handy work Do you got any links to some more information on cutting gemstones and what to look for?