The ongoing saga of the moonstones

A few updates.

I got the velvet and here's an example with my 40watt lamp in close-



I attempted a few pics with two lamps on the stone but multiple lights killed the blue flash. It was strange. I could see the blue but the camera didn't pick it up.

So I picked up a lamp and some 75watt bulbs.

Here's an example with the lamp in close --



And one in the photobox (sorry about the blurring) -



The photobox pic needs a much stronger lamp.

At this point I checked out terapeak and confirmed the main three price groups.

For the past 30days:

• $0.01-1.99 -- generally no flash and near solid color
• $2-5.00 -- a great deal of silk and some flash
• $5-203.99 -- strong blue with the top prices going for clarity and size
  

That shows I'm in the top bracket for most of the parcel. In looking at the pics of the top stones it was clear that a strong lamp at a distance was used. So I tried a few pics with the lamp farther away from the stone. Here's one -



All of the above pics are of the same stone.

My current issue is that I need to repolish all of them.

As I said, when my head gets bad, detail work suffers. I noticed scratches on all of the stones in my pics. They really show up in bright light and magnification.

But such polishing is something I know I can do. So things aren't so bad... just moving much slower than I'd like.

=========

Ok, my head is feeling a bit better.

Going to do a few before pics and then repolish.

16x8mm can be seen above.

13x10mm --


15x9mm --


16x9mm --


14x12mm --


===============

First attempted to repolish on the 14K grit. Based on how slow it went I decided to try going back to the 600 grit.

The 600 grit gives a matte polish and the 1200 grit gives the beginning of the mirror polish. That matte polish hides scratches that the loupe doesn't show (or that I couldn't see). I'm thinking I should have only gone back to the 1200 grit. In working the stones tonight I'm starting to think I need a 800-900 grit step because the 600 to 1200 grit just moves too slow.

Might stop watching the forex markets

I've been trying to figure out a way to trade forex over a week to month time frame. Some trades come out spectacular... and the losses are just as huge.

I'm coming to the conclusion that forex is geared for day trading. At least for the small investor. The only way that I see long term trades working is with carry trades. And that does not look like it is for the small player.

I'm not sure if it is my ongoing headaches that are making it hard for me to see how to work forex, but at this point I'm going to stop following it and go back to watching/trading ETFs.

Considering that there are monetary, gold, and silver ETFs now I think I should be good.

Started on the good moonstone

As I mentioned in the update to the last forex post the weather has been hurting me. I've been trying to muddle through.

I won two auctions for some rhodochrosite that I'll be cutting soon.

In the meantime I cut the good moonstone I bought a while ago.

Because my head has been fogged for several weeks now I managed to forget to take pictures of each step.

Needless to say, moonstone is a bit of a pain. On first viewing it looked like I had a number of large stones in the parcel. However, to orient to the very nice blue flash, many stones had to be cut smaller. Around half were of a size that I went forward with. The rest would end up being very small. If the larger stones do well I'll cut and sell the small ones in a parcel.

I'll put up some pics of the finished moonstone in a bit.

===========================================

Well this is annoying. My lighting is much too weak. I couldn't get pics of the standout stones as the flash washed them out.

I managed a pic of them all here -



I'm feeling pretty lucky that I picked up as much blue flash as I did as I oriented for head on viewing.

Here is an example of the flash washout. It was much worse with the single stones.



I need a few strong lamps.

===========================================

Downloaded the manuals for my wife's camera and tried a few more things.

Still think I need to get the strong lamps. But the moonstone is tough on black (which shows the blue flash best). Any strong light makes the stones glow white and washes out the blue.

=\




I very much like how the polish came out. You can clearly see the inside of my photo box reflected in the stones. I polished down to 14K diamond grit.

===========================================

At my wife's suggestion I hunted around ebay for user groups and guides on photography focused on jewelry. I found a list of guides by a "camerajim" and tried a few of the things he pointed out.



I'm well pleased.

This was done outside of my photobox with only one lamp. I need to tinker a bit more but I think I may have a few ebay ready photos real soon.

Might also try the pic under water as that reduces glare as well.

===========================================

Yet another update -

Head is hurting near 2006 levels. Makes me leery of trying anything requiring attention.

Very concerning. Not at the point where I feel the need to go round to all the docs, but pretty close.

Think the temps recently going from 17 degrees to 80 in a few days time is what is causing the problem. It isn't much fun to have a built in barometer in one's head. No, not fun at all. Would rather be able to predict the weather with my knee.

Anyhow, in comparing my moonstone with what is out on terapeak it looks like they might go for far more than the $10-20 that I first thought. Considering my low feedback (30) it probably won't but it is still a possibility.

With that in mind, my wife suggested that the black foam I'm using could turn away the high ticket item buyers. She is going to pick up some matte black velvet and a tripod for me.

She is far kinder to me than I deserve.

That leaves my rhodochrosite. I may mark it out this week but my head's condition makes me a bit scared to cut it as it is such a soft rock.

Thing is I have no idea when the weather (pressure/temps) will settle out and come February, the juniper pollen will be in the air. So, right now, I may be better off than I will be in a month.

Just don't know.

=\