New to forum and looking for suggestions =)

[MrsRogers]

Hi all,

Just a disclaimer to let you all know that you''ll have to excuse my lack of gemstone and diamond knowledge, but that''s why I am here.. to learn! I have been a lurker for a few months and finally decided to participate just for kicks.

I was given a green sapphire from Queensland, Australia as a christmas gift from my aunt last year. It''s still in the "rough" and needs to be cut, but I am very partial to round cut gemstones. I think I can see myself coming out with a cut sapphire somewhere in the .75 - 1 carat vicinity, but don''t really mind if it is smaller. I really just want to maximise the colour as much as possible. It''s difficult to get a feel for its real brilliance while it is still rough and maybe once I have it cut I will post pics (although the macro function on my camera doesn''t get nearly as close as many of the images I have seen on this site), but I would love to just see what kind of suggestions people have for such a stone. I lean toward very classic, simple styles, and am still debating as to whether I want a ring, or some kind of pendant. If I have posted this in the wrong place I sincerely apologise, and if it''s too difficult to make suggestions without pics I fully understand, but I just thought it was worth a shot.

Thanks

 

[neatfreak]

Well my favorite place to browse settings for sapphires are:

Natural Sapphire Company

and

Leon Mege

respectively.

NSC''s settings are usually quite a bit cheaper than Leon''s but oh they are gorgeous! Both fun sites to browse colored stones and settings and see what you like.

 

[MrsRogers]

Thankyou for those links neatfreak. They give me a good start to what will likely be a long decision making process for me.

 

[ILikeBond]

Welcome to the forums!

Can you post a picture of the rough? Sounds cool!

 

[oshinbreez]

Welcome to PS. Are you looking for a cutter? I''d recommend Richard Homer. He does awesome work.

 

[chrono]

There are quite a few cutters that I would recommend:
1. Jeff White of www.whitesgems.com
2. Dan Stair of www.customgemstones.com
3. Contact Wink of www.winkjones.com for a cutter
4. Contact Gary Dutton of www.diamondexperts.com for a cutter

There are more cutters here too but I've never worked with them, so cannot personally recommend them.
1. Richard M of www.artcutgems.com

The thing with cutting a rough that was not purchased by the cutter is that you are taking the risk that:
1. The stone might break, shatter, crack during the cutting process
2. The colour might end up not what you expected
3. The final clarity may also end up not what you expected
4. The shape of the final product is dictated by the shape of the rough. If you want a specific shape, you may end up with a much MUCH smaller gemstone as the cutter has to lose a lot of the rough to get your desired shape if the rough is not a good fit.
5. The final carat weight and dimmensions is dependent upon #4.