Clear Cut Gems

Current rough stones available

2012-01-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

Here is some of the rough inventory available to be cut to your specs.
First up is a nice chunky light pink tourmaline from Nigeria which would cut a beautiful 8 -9mm round or square,the picture really does this material no justice.

Next is two very special juicy bubblegum pink med/light Nigerian tourmalines which would cut a set of rectangles or squares in the 6 - 7mm range.Top material!

This is a beautiful blocky mint green similar in color to the mint green round fancy cut on the website,it will cut around 8mm square or round,the color was hard to reproduce in this photo but it is top quality clean material.

Some very nice mint green Nigerian tourmaline,again the color is much more light mint except for the more neon darker green piece in the foreground,these will cut elongated sets to smaller rectangles and squares.

Some nice fairly clean light/medium blue Aquamarine from Nigeria which will cut elongated rectangles,squares and regular rectangles,some of these will cut vvs and some flawless while others will be slightly included.

A rare stone!

2011-11-03T06:02:00.000-07:00

A mint garnet from the Merelani hills region of Tanzania cut in a very bright barion oval design,dimensions are 7.5x5.5mm,weight is 1.52ct.
This is just an exceptional stone in every way,extremely bright and very clean for this material(vvs),a few barely visible tiny veils under 10x magnification.I haven't listed this one on the site yet,so if you're interested email me direct.

A beautiful ring!

2011-10-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

I was honored a while back to cut the engagement ring for a good client of mine overseas.She was kind enough to send me some nice high resolution pictures of the finished ring,the jeweler did a great job on the setting which framed the pink tourmaline perfectly.The pictures show from the rough stone stage to the end product.

Time really flies!

2011-09-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

What happens to all the time we used to seem to have?This year has flown by so fast it's scary and I realized I haven't posted anything here for forever.Well here's a lousy picture of a necklace/earring project I finished some time back for a client in Massachusetts,the center stone still needs to be procured rough and then cut,it is going to be a light pink the same as the others but in a rounded pear design,the darker stone in the picture on the top left was replaced with a lighter one and the darker looking one in the front row of necklace stones is not as dark as it looks.There is unfortunately not much if this gorgeous light pink Nigerian material left out there,this was one of the few finds that does not change color or mask up at all in artificial light ,the mine has long since stopped producing!

I have some nice material to cut now that the project work is done for a while,some more mint tourmaline rough,some aquamarine and a stunningly beautifully colored Merelani mint garnet that should cut out in the 3ct range and clean.

Busy busy busy!

2011-07-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

This post has been a long time coming but the last two months have just been hectic with cutting custom orders and getting the new website up and running.My current priority is a 15 stone necklace and set of earrings for a talented custom jeweler client of mine so I will not be starting any cutting orders for the next two weeks or so.If you have an order in the pipeline then you already know your expected delivery date so please be patient,I will give your order the attention and respect it deserves in due course and I'm sure you'll be happy with the results.

In the meantime here is a Barion cut mint blue/green Nigerian tourmaline which I have not had the time to send out on mailing list or post on the website,the picture does the stone no justice at all,1.71ct,8.4x6.35mm,graded SI(slightly included but eye clean).If you are interested please call or email me,I will be listing it on the website for sale in about a week or as soon as I get the time.

The other stone is a 3+ carat Nigerian bubble gum pink tourmaline in one of my popular cushion cuts which was a commissioned job for an overseas client.The pictures are in the incorrect order as I'm sure you've noticed!

Mint tourmaline.

2011-05-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

I just got a small parcel of mint green tourmaline and cut this one today,it has a lot of facets on the domed crown which look a rose opening it's petals.This stone has very fine crystal with a couple of minor inclusions,
8.4mm and 2.8 ct.This one will definitely make some ladies day,it is very bright in all types of light.

Gems and photography.

2011-04-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Besides my family,cutting gems,sailing and a few other pleasurable pursuits photography is another love.Here's a couple of recent pics.I've been cutting and will post new stone photos soon.

Latest news!

2011-02-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

I have a sale on gems until the end of march,I need to clear out some older inventory so here's your chance to take advantage.
I cut the last of the Nigerian spessertites today and it's a real beauty and flawless which is extremely rare for spessertite.It came out at 1.99 cts and 6.6mm,it's very bright and cut in a classic dome square checker.Enjoy!

Custom Cut Gemstones

New stones!

2011-02-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

I cut a few stones for my inventory the last couple days,first up is a 7mm 3.3ct spessartite garnet set.This material is from Nigeria and is very clean for spessartite.Second is a honey zircon at 2,2cts.It's a very bright stone and flawless.Zircon got a bad reputation many years ago when it was sold as diamond because of the high refractive index,many people also mistakenly associate the name with cubic zirconia.This reputation is totally undeserved as zircon is a natural stone except for blue zircon which is almost always heated.Some day zircon will go the same way as spinel in price,spinel used to be passed off as sapphire and buyers wouldn't touch it for many years,these days it commands almost the same price as it's cousin sapphire.
Custom Cut Gemstones

Latest news!

2011-01-28T05:52:00.000-08:00

Well after a hectic holiday season January has as usual been fairly quiet.This has given me some time to cut for inventory instead of filling custom orders.On the rough stone front things have been extremely quiet for months and even quieter recently,none of the usual rough suppliers have much in stock and what they do have has sold quickly.The reason for this is that the rainy season has closed a lot of the mines in Africa temporarily and the general slowdown in the world economy over the past two years has taken it's toll as well.The demand for good quality gemstones is recovering fast but the supply of rough material has so far not kept up.

On a more cheerful note here's a couple pictures of the latest stones which will be up for sale on the website soon. A nice bright orange spessartite garnet in a classic cushion design at 1.7ct and 6.4mm and a lovely flawless honey zircon in a unique barion oval design at 2.56ct and 9x6mm.Enjoy!

Custom Cut Gems

Big rhodolite garnet

2011-01-19T06:52:00.000-08:00

I cut this 6ct pink/red purple rhodolite from a 25 ct piece of Tanzanian rough.The rough stone was perfectly shaped for a triangle but I opted for a rectangular shape instead.This resulted in a lower yield but I am very pleased with the final result.The stone changes from red in artificial light to the typical rhodolite pink/red/ purple in natural light.I got rave reviews on this stone on the forums so I don't expect it to last too long in my inventory.I've priced it at the smaller stone per ct price because it is medium/dark in saturation,if it were a shade or two lighter it would sell for twice the price! Nevertheless it is perfectly cut and 10x loupe flawless and would make a killer ring or pendant stone.
Custom Cut Gems

Happy new year!

2011-01-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

A happy and prosperous new year to everyone! I haven't posted for a while due to the hectic holiday schedule.
Filling orders,cutting a few stones for my website as well as parties and family obligations has been fairly tiring but hey I'm not complaining.I have not been able to update the site for over a week due to technical problems uploading to the server but this should be resolved tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Here's just a couple of the stones I have cut recently,a natural medium to pale aqua trillion which is more blue in person and a very pretty rubelite tourmaline checker.

Custom cut gemstones

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

A merry Christmas to all my customers and may the coming year be a happy and prosperous one.
Lloyd.
Custom cut gems

A good days cutting.

2010-12-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

Today I started on a custom order for a client and finished this fine 3 ct color shift Tanga garnet from Tanzania Africa,it has a strong color shift from light wine red /pink in natural light to pink/purple in fluorescent light to pink/red in incandescent light.The blue flashes are numerous and seen in all light.I managed to capture these blue flashes easily in many parts of the stone with the camera,they are not subtle at all which is very unusual combined with the fairly strong color shift I hesitate to use "color change" because the term is abused so often.

All in all a good days work!

Custom gem cutting

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

2010-11-26T15:29:00.000-08:00

Well, thanksgiving has come and gone.I certainly hope everyone had a happy turkey day.Bonnie and I drove up to friends in Jupiter Florida and a good time was had by all,we had to drive back Thursday evening and got back to the keys around 9:30pm pretty beat.It's always great to sleep in your own bed again.

On another note,rough gem material of good quality is becoming more scarce and more expensive,this is not good for cutters(The rough suppliers still get their price) due to the customer expecting great quality at a better price because of the economy but the cutter has to pay more for the material,everyone is putting their prices up but I will try to hold mine as long as possible without sacrificing quality. The old adage still applies "How do you make a fortune in the gem business?" answer: "Start with an even larger one". Happy holidays!
Lloyd
Custom cut gemstones

Mailing list sent out

2010-11-21T15:10:00.000-08:00

The "new stones" mailing list was sent out a couple days ago with not quite as many stones as I would like to have but I just have not had the time to cut as much for my inventory as originally intended.This will hopefully be rectified in the near future.Keep a look out for December's list and if you haven't signed up yet now is the time to do so,that way you can get that beautiful stone for your Xmas gift to yourself or a loved one at wholesale pricing.
Custom gem cutter

NEW STONES MAILING LIST

2010-11-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

The new stones mailing list will be out soon,in between the orders I've had to fill I've not had much time to cut too much for my own inventory.The list will contain some really top tourmaline and aquamarine.
I have some gorgeous rough on the way from Africa as well,in the parcel are Tanga garnet,spinel and blue tourmaline.Keep checking the blog and website for news.

I used this piece of Brazilian Maraba amethyst to proof cut a new design for a piece of sapphire rough for a client.I always try to use material with some value even when proof cutting.Most cutters proof cut new designs in synthetic material which is fine,nothing wrong with that but I just like something with value for the time spent experimenting.I think this design will do the job!
Custom cut gems

Another gem

2010-11-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished another one for my inventory.A bubblegum pink tourmaline Barion rectangle 2.3 ct.

Barion's are harder to cut but well worth the effort,this stone is very bright even in artificial dim light which is exceptional for tourmaline.Tourmaline is known as a "day stone" because most stones look their best in daylight and usually have areas of extinction(sooty,black) in artificial or dim light.This stone sparkles in any light.
Custom cut gemstones

2010-10-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

Just finished this set up today,the one on the right is amazing! They were both cut from the same crystal but the one on left came out quite a bit darker,I have another piece I will cut to try and match the right one for an earring set. Most of these crystals are light pink/red on the a/b axis and hot pink/purple on the c axis.So far I have cut most on the better color c axis.

Custom gem cutting

One of my other passions - photography

2010-10-19T05:21:00.000-07:00

Some of my recent pictures.Photography is similar to faceting,there are so many nuances that you never stop learning.Note the reflection of the palm tree in the rain drops.
Custom Cut Gems

2010-10-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the hot pink trillion set I cut.I think my wife has claimed them but if not they will be up for sale soon.The weight is around 1.9cts.The one on the right is slightly darker but the same hot pink except the camera perceived the slightly darker saturation as a different color.
Custom Cut Gemstones

Gems cut so far from new rough!

2010-10-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty busy with customer orders but have made some time to cut a few stones for my own inventory.This is a 2.1 ct Rubelite tourmaline from the new parcel I received .I also cut a matched pair of trillion hot pinks which will make a gorgeous set of earrings and will post a pic as soon as I have the time to take a photo,I've noticed with this material that it is hard to reproduce the exact color,the stone above is actually hot pink/purple with some peach highlights,the peach highlights do not show and the exact amount of purple also is not exact.I will have to play around a bit more with camera settings to try to get it 100% or as close as I can get.However this material is all natural with no heat so I believe the multicolor reflections are an asset.Origin is Nigeria and the cut is just spectacular with awesome flashes when moved,notice no table because the petal like facets come to a point where the table would normally go.

Custom Cut Gems

Rubelite tourmaline

2010-10-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

As promised a picture of the new tourmaline parcel.Most of these will cut gorgeous stones.
Custom Cut Gemstones

New tourmaline rough arrived today

2010-10-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

I just got some beautiful tourmaline rough in hot pink,peach,red/purple and will be cutting a few pieces starting today.If you have signed up for my mailing list look out for new stones shortly as I also have some nice medium blue aquamarine on the way as well.Cheers.
Lloyd

Clear Cut Gems