Gemologist – I am not.

There is one part of Jewelry Design that my classes don’t cover. That’s the identification, faceting, cutting, etc of gemstones. Which is cool, but it’s also a bummer. It’s cool because I’m focusing more on the metal-smithing which is what I’m most interested in. It’s kind of a bummer, too, because there’s really no way to tell if you’re getting ripped off or not.

I have a chunk of stone that I was given by a kid that just graduated from the program and we have NO IDEA what it is. It’s a beautiful light green with a lot of striations/imperfections that add to the glimmer & crystal appearance of the piece and I find it just stunning.

But there’s no way to tell what it is. There are books where you can look at pictures and try to identify/compare stones that way. And there are testers to tell the difference between Diamonds, Cubic Zirconia & Moissanite, but how do you tell the difference between say a very light Emerald, a great Peridot or just dyed Crystal? Many gemstones are dyed to get their color so these 3 stones can’t always be identified by color alone. Stones might be identified by the type of markings they contain or mineral deposit patters maybe? But a lot of that can be cut out during the faceting process. At that point, the general shape of the stone is up to the artist conducting the lapidary work.

Regardless, we will be able to cut “coins” or discs of raw stones for use in different mountings and jewelry and I already have a few ideas using this piece. The machinery is incredibly loud but I’m looking forward to cutting up this piece to be able to wear.

I’m sure there are ways to better identify stones and tell them apart. I’ve heard there is a gemology program at USF so I’m entertaining the idea of taking this piece over to them for possible identification. For all I know, it’s just a piece of rock crystal and is pretty much worthless, and that’s fine. My only concern is that I don’t want to be responsible for the identification that causes me to sell crystals at diamond prices or diamonds at crystal prices. Beauty is always in the eye of beholder, and with this rock, I’ll be able to mount it something to make it valuable. Even if it’s only to myself.