This is a gem I recently cut from a large piece of quartz called the "Pharaoh's eye". This gem weighs in at a whopping 45 carats. The Pharaoh's Eye is a novel design credited to "Gems of the world" as Sapphire faceting guide number 37. Fred Van Sant tweaked the original design. The girdle facets goes inward and comes back out again. Thus making it a almost impossible stone to cut. Cutting this stone takes enormous skill and imagination as cutting it is all about feel and how good your eye is. I haven't seen any photo's on the net of others who have cut this stone. Just wondering if other faceters on the forum have cut this stone? Anyway, this may possibly be the first images of my attempt of "The Pharaoh's Eye" on the net. Of course the biggest bullshitter in our gem club says he has just seen two recently. Maybe Benkenobi from the forum can shed some light on this gem design (or maybe he has cut it also)? To me the entire design was purely made up in imagination of someones mind and was drafted as a design on paper but never cut in reality. Cutting this gem seemed a ridiculous folly once I saw that the girdle did curve in and come out again (From the Van Sant Design also). Van Sant even admitted that he had never cut the "Pharaoh's Eye". There is a design called the Cleopatra Eye, but that has a straight girdle and seems more logical. I'm quite thankful that in my early months of learning how to use a faceting machine I became the master of the cheater knob on girdles and facet angles. It comes in handy on designs that seem totally implausible.
Sad you never received comments on this. Looks like you put a heap of effort in and the cut does seem to be shaped like and eye and also catch some darkness in the centre of the gem that could make it seem like there is a pupil.
