The Perils of a Stone

The Perils of a Stone

This rock may not look like much. It's a little dull even though there's an oil coated on the surface which makes the dark areas shine. I purchased this on ebay for about $4 from a very nice seller and I couldn't wait to work on this piece. I just joined a lapidary shop that allows me to use their equipment to cut, grind and polish stones. It's a lot of work but so rewarding when you know you've controlled your own jewelry down to the very stone that was set.

I first had to place the whole rock in a huge vat with a giant circular saw that cuts the rock into slabs. (Sorry I can't show you their equipment without permission.) With the help of a shop assistant, I was able to get three nice slabs out of the rock pictured above. Here is one of the slabs:

From there we had to decide the best stone cuts that could be formed from each slab without wasting too much of the rock. I chose free form. Even though an irregular shape is harder to set in a bezel, it makes a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry that cannot be copied. After deciding how to cut and shape the pieces, I have to take each piece through a series of sanding wheels that grind and sand it down to a bezel shape:

Whether the stone is a perfect geometric shape or free form like these, it must be domed so a bezel wire can wrap around the piece and set the stone in place.

One thin strip of wire is soldered to a flat piece of metal in a circular shape that fits the shape of the stone. The stone is placed snugly in the center and then the thin bezel wire is carefully pushed over the stone to keep it in place.

This is how a traditional cabochon setting is made. Cheap imitation jewelry today glues the stone in place to save time and money. Don't buy that crap! It's mass-produced by get-rich-quick schemers who care nothing for the fine art of metalsmithing and lapidary work.

This whole stone setting process is an ancient art form that is still practiced today. When you examine a  piece of jewelry with a cabochon setting, touch the stone in the center. If it moves a little, that is okay. If it doesn't move at all and there is no metal covering the stone, it was probably cheaply glued in place.

The cabochon setting was the standard way of setting stones from antiquity through the middle ages.

Faceted stones, (your basic diamond cuts) were not created until the 17th century. 

Here's the whole process this Tiger Eye stone went through to wind up on someone's finger:

 

Amazing process, isn't it?