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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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