Hi from Brighton

[glitterandgem]

Hi I am an Amateur Lapidarist/Silversmith from beside Brighton. I have been cutting ,shaping and polishing stones for a year now and have taught myself some basic Silversmithing for rings etc. I am originally from North east coast of Scotland where my love of rocks began from watching my Grandad when I was a boy . I am currently at college trying to learn a bit more Silversmithing techniques part time . Since starting this hobby I have met some lovely friendly and helpful people who are always ready to part with good advice ( 2 of whom are on here) through our UK facebook group for Lapidary.

[Goldsmith]

Welcome to this forum John.

[ps_bond]

Hi John - abandon hope

[metalsmith]

Hi I am an Amateur Lapidarist/Silversmith from beside Brighton. I have been cutting ,shaping and polishing stones for a year now and have taught myself some basic Silversmithing for rings etc. I am originally from North east coast of Scotland where my love of rocks began from watching my Grandad when I was a boy . I am currently at college trying to learn a bit more Silversmithing techniques part time . Since starting this hobby I have met some lovely friendly and helpful people who are always ready to part with good advice ( 2 of whom are on here) through our UK facebook group for Lapidary.

Hi John. Welcome to the forum. I've been interested in rocks (that sounds so douche) for many years, have tumbled a few. Recently I've upped my game in cabbing a few - I'm happy to say, putting my early efforts to shame. I would be quite keen on facetting too. Please don't tell me I need to joing Farcebook. Maybe Peter and yourself could give me some ideas on how to get started in facetting?

[CJ57]

Hi John from me too. I'm up in Fife

[ajda]

Please don't tell me I need to joing Farcebook. Maybe Peter and yourself could give me some ideas on how to get started in facetting?

Perhaps you could launch Facetbook? I'm also allergic to FB but a fan of facets, though I have minimal experience - mainly grinding glass rather than stones. Photo shows a glass bead that I made in the torch then cold worked to mimic the emeralds of the "Oplontis Jewels" when I was in my replica ancient bead phase a few years ago (pictured alongside some natural emeralds).



Welcome, by the way...

Alan

[ps_bond]

Maybe Peter and yourself could give me some ideas on how to get started in facetting?

Buy a faceting machine.
And a trimsaw.
And a large selection of cutting and polishing laps.
Then discover that having bought all the tools you've no money to buy rough

There's a few decent books around on the subject too; I've got Vargas, Wyckoff and (much newer) Herbst, which contains some much more up-to-date content (like the fact that Beilby layers in polishing are a load of cobblers).

As far as faceting diagrams go, this has some good stuff - http://www.gemologyproject.com/wiki/...ceting_Designs

[glitterandgem]

Cheers guys I dont have the patience for faceting im more of a free-form man as Peter and Jim both know There are a couple of faceters on our FB group but if you dont do Facebook im sure there are probably people on this forum who do it, I know Peter dabbles

[metalsmith]

Perhaps you could launch Facetbook? I have experience - mainly grinding glass - a glass bead that I made in the torch then cold worked to mimic emeralds of the "Oplontis Jewels".
Alan

Facetbook - I love that!

.com and .net are already taken, but .co.uk is unregistered if anyone is up to the challenge?

Cool 'emeralds' btw

Peter - thanks for the info. I've recently bought a dry/wet-grinder which is great and my cabs have made a step-change in quality. I'm still cutting with a dremel(type-machine), tho' I have a tile-cutter that I've run a couple of rocks through in the past.

I also found designs at the uk and us faceters guild websites. I have some rough already so I should be laughing, except ...

No cash for a faceting machine

sorry