I thought I might have confused some of you non facetors so here is a diagram of a faceted stone with the terms explained.

Also check out a standard round brilliant pattern.

Matt has been pestering me to increase the size of the faceting images I had in the image gallery - so since he is so interested I thought that you might be too. The first stone that I cut was during the faceting class the Canberra Lapidary Club ran about a year and a half ago. It is a cubic zirconium; a synthetic stone that cuts well, is cheap to buy and looks marvellous even for a beginner facetor.

The cut is a standard round brilliant (SRB) and the size is 10mm. Quite large really and not something that I would normally wear in jewellery. The large size is longer to cut due to the large facets and I generally try to stay around 5-7mm as it is a more wearable stone. The colour is wonderful in this stone and I will be moving back to cutting CZ (as it is referred to by facetors at the club) as it is nice to cut.
The second stone that I cut was a natural topaz for my mum. We had gone fossicking as a family to Flinder's Island and found a few nice but small stones. Mum had a ring cut out of one stone and I thought it a great 50th birthday present to cut a matching one for a necklace. I don't have a photo of it but it came up really well and even if a bit late (7 months) Mum appreciated it. It takes me between 10-12 night sessions at the club for about 2-3 hours each to cut a stone at the moment. I am getting quicker as I do more stones though unfortunately as the Quartz is difficult to polish it is still taking me the same number of nights. Hopefully when I go back to CZ it will be speedier!
The third stone that I cut was a spinel that our family found in Tasmania in a river near where we live. Sometimes you can see through the stones - so I thought I would cut it and see how it turned out. It polished really easily though unfortunately was not transparent. It might make a nice men's piece.

The fourth stone that I have cut was a natural topaz for myself. I have set it in a gold fitting to wear as a necklace. It looks similar to the one that I cut for Mum. It was a bit tricky as the natural stone had a split in it filled with dirt or something that I had to cut around. Hence it is only small.

The fifth stone that I have cut is a natural aquamarine that I purchased. It is my birth stone and I was hoping it would have a bit more colour. I tried out my first non-SRB cut - the carousel cut. It was from a faceting competition webpage so I don't know how common a cut it is but I like the look of its symetry and it does nice things for the stone. I have yet to set it and may buy a fitting for it at the November Gem Fair that the club holds at the Exhibition Centre.

As you already know, I am working on a synthetic quartz Carousel cut that is bigger than the aquamarine. I might have it finished in about two nights. I hate polishing quartz it takes forever and is so boring when you aren't progressing. I started polishing last week. It would be nice to think that I will have it finished this week but based on the polishing efforts of the pavillion I think it will take two.

I bought some wool on special yesterday - it is 45% Merino wool and the rest is synthetic. I think it will make a nice jumper and I will start on it once I have finished my current knitting project;

which is a jumper with simple garter stitch and stocking stich in 4 colours. I bought some 100% wool for it and modified the pattern slightly so it wouldn't go past my hips. I have finished the back and have just started the front.

My other purchase yesterday was some ribbon for the edging of a baby's blanket. I am not sure if this is planning for the future or if it will be a gift. A lot of women at work are pregnant so I know some gifts will be needed. I bought it for a jumpsuit but it turned out when unfolded to be more suited to a blanket.

We purchased a new bookcase last weekend and Matt dropped it off for us. Nathan set to with the screw driver and built it and it looks fabulous. I sent most of this morning stacking it up with books and it will probably undergo a few iterations before it is sorted. Unlike the bookcase in the study / spare room, this one is prominent and deserves a bit of design so that it looks good. Let me know what you think!

If you have been to our house it is located between the dinning room (with no dinning table) and the lounge. It sort of separates the rooms and gives them some privacy without blocking the feel of space.

My garden is coming to life after a cold winter. I am excited to see the flowers really vibrant in the front yard with daffodils and blue rosemary contrastig nicely. The rosemary in the back yard is also completely in bloom..

the plum tree in flower...

and the beautiful Winter Iris that I picked for inside.

The current project that I am faceting is some synthetic green quartz that I bought at the gem fair last year. I am using a carousel cut design which I found on the US Faceting Guild competition web page. Its a nice cut with a distinctive pattern around the edge of the stone that makes it look a bit like a flower. I'm not sure how it will turn out in the quartz compared to the topaz that I did in that design earlier.
I bought two pieces of the quartz and have a photo of the uncut piece

and a photo of the piece I am cutting. I'm half way through the crown and am yet to fully put in the mains facets.

This is to test out whether I can insert the image into the body of a post instead of attaching it.
Lets try this.

The theme of this webpage will be lizards in honour of my pet lizard, Laurie. The aim is to post all sorts of things that I am currently intersted in facetting, sewing, writing, lizard keeping, mosaic, kayaking...

Thanks to Matt I have a working blogging website. Hopefully over the weekend I will add a few cool things and a few pictures so it will be more interesting. Matt has done a great job and is hosting the site from his web server. Thanks Matt.

Carol

This here is your website
Do with it as you wish

Matt