The story my Fathers Day...the story of my life! lol

[ChrisA222]

I just thought I'd share how wonderful my Father's Day was...hehe.

So the whole family is here at the house, as we are celebrating for Dad...It's a nice day out here in CT...we have all the windows in the house open, as well as the door leading to the screened in porch...what a nice day!!

I'd been contemplating getting some of my gems posted up on the 'Bistro...I have my eye set on, yet another "dream Sapphire" and need to raise the funds for it...what a great opportunity to get the gems online! I can work in the "family room", being productive as my whole family is around me. If anyone sells occasionally on the 'Bistro, you know how involved the whole process is...the picture taking, getting the pics online, etc etc. What better way than to do this while my niece and nephew are here, playing around me, and everyone is chatting and having a good time...perfect, right?

I take out one of my stones to list...it happens to be one of the smaller, and more valuable, of the listings I am posting (1.0ct 6mm Tanzanite). Well, you know Tanzanite...I take the picture indoors...and its that purply-blue color. But I cannot list a Tanzanite for sale without showing the 'other' color...the outdoors-color, the blue color! So...what to do....

My brilliant Idea was to take the stone with me, out to the screened in porch. The sun was beaming in, it was the perfect lighting to catch the blue of the stone. Now, my camera is horrible and it de-saturates my stones, so I have to do the best I can. So, there I am..Camera(phone) in left hand, stone sitting in a gem jar/case thing in my right hand...oh crap. There is better light a foot away..let me just move a bit....and then...boing!!! There goes the Tanzanite!!

I probably don't have to tell you that my screened-in porch is constructed of wooden planks, spaced (considerably!) more than, well, 6mm's of gemstones apart from each other. Oh yes!!

An hour later, I am still on my knees with an LED flashlight and hey! There it is!! I was just about to give up. Now let me preface to say that there is no way to get to this gem from outside of the porch...we are talking at least ten feet away. Under the porch is the earth...and pebbles, dirt, dead leaves, dirt, sticks, dirt, you name it, and dirt. How I found it was a miracle...but, how am I going to ge it out??? It is over a foot under me, inaccessable by outside of the porch, and any movement around the stone will bury it...with dirt!

Well...thankfully we had a house full of people...and it was good Old Mom that had the solution. She walks over to me with a yardstick..and...that sticky stuff that you stick posters on the wall with! I never would have thought of that. Now, it was no easy task, but after about 20 minutes of struggling, I was able to get the yardstick with sticky-stuff to grab the stone, and carefully, while trying to avoid shaky-hands, I was able to barely get the whole thing through the crack, and now I have the stone, happily ever after! The stone was unharmed in the process! No TL, it wasn't scratched for being softer than dirt I checked!!

So this was my fun day, thought I'd share. The Moral of the story...I am an idiot. No wait..well maybe I am, but the Moral of the story is, don't ever EVER take a gemstone somewhere like a screen-ed in porch, constructed with wooden planks, spaced out more than 6mms apart..considerably more...

 

[chrono]

Chris,
Welcome to the discovery of hazards when photographing gems outdoors. There are many such stories abound on PS about dropping gems in cars, grass, carpet and many other places. Glad you found it and undamaged as well.

 

[johnfish]

Wow Chris what a story! Glad to here it worked out ok. Thank God for moms ingenuity! Seems you might want to consider selling a stone or to and buying a good camera with a flash

 

[Enerchi]

PHEW! I could imagine the panic and assorted thoughts running thru your head!!! Good ole Mom's - they are the best!!!

 

[minousbijoux]

I'm afraid to say that that's another initiation rite - we can all heave a collective sigh of relief for you and say "welcome to the club!"

 

[minousbijoux]

Oh, and remember to post your link to DB in the Preloved Section so folks know you relisted items

 

[LD]

Oh no what a saga! If it's any consolation there are tons of us who have been in the Idiots Club!

Imagine my horror when the wind swept away a small pink diamond I was photographing outside. I managed to find it and two days later promptly lost it again. I found it about 2 years later and then lost it again within days. It's one gem that doesn't want to be seen! So I feel your pain.

Morale of your story is check out your surroundings and cushion yourself in marshmallow at all times!

 

[ChrisA222]

LD! How in the world did you lose that stone? I would have thought after losing it twice, and then waiting 2 years to find it again....how did that happen?? LOL that stone must be cursed!!

 

[LD]

LD! How in the world did you lose that stone? I would have thought after losing it twice, and then waiting 2 years to find it again....how did that happen?? LOL that stone must be cursed!!

Ahem, well, I'm embarrassed to say that I put it in a safe place and ................ yep, it's that safe I haven't found it again!

 

[Silverbackmp]

I lost a 1 carat emerald in Kabul; I dropped in in some leaves and rocks and this other idiot starts digging into it to "assist." If he would have left it alone I'm sure I could have found it. I only gave $100.00 for it, but it was a decent one...good color and no window.

I've seen an Afghan dump an entire parcel of decent rubies (Jegdelak translucents) that he was showing us on a 2" gravel walkway...amazingly with enough persistance we were able to excevate about a 3' area a found them all...we had weighed them prior to the "dump" so we were able to verify all were found.

 

[Fly Girl]

I lost my Jeff White Lake Baringo ruby while photographing it just outside my door a couple of years ago. When I couldn't find it I put a new bag into my vacuum cleaner and literally vacuumed all around my front door... grass, mulch, everything. I had three cake pans of dirt and sticks to sift through. I got tired after 2 1/2 pans and left the last little bit sit for over a year. Finally, my DH got me to look through the last pile, and sure enough, there it was! Those gemstones are tiny. I was too embarassed to confess on PS before.

http://www.whitesgems.com/gallery/RUB002.htm

So, yes, welcome to the club.

Now, to figure out how to set it.

 

[ChrisA222]

Wow, good stories!

Flygirl, I would have not stopped searching through that dirt pile until I found that stone!! I actually thought of the vaccum idea, but it would have been horrible...with all that dirt under the porch it would have taken days. But I would have done it, to get that stone back. And that is only a Tanzanite I have for sale for $150..I could not imagine an unheated Ruby worth a lot more than that little Tanzanite...lol.

Maybe I should keep the stone to better help me remember this Fathers Day, haha! It is a pretty nice stone

PS this is the picture that was the end result of that madness...

 

[Fly Girl]

You used a much better technique to retrieve your stone. Sifting through bits of dried leaves, bark and other plant material is a lot of headache inducing work. It takes many hours. I don't recommend the vacuum method, but in this case, it worked. I guess I gave up a bit too soon.

I did try shining a UV light in the area after dark, just in case the ruby fluoresced. I didn't find it that way, but I did find out that some of the sprays we used on the plants fluoresce (bright orange, in this case).

 

[GemFever]

Uff, what a story! I thought you were going to say that your niece fell in love with your stones and you had to end up giving them away

I dropped a 1ct diamond earring down the sink while washing it... that was a heart-attack moment, let me tell you. But I immediately turned off the water and enlisted FI's help in opening up that U-shaped pipe contraption that's below the sink. Got it out, safe and sound. Never washing jewelry over an open sink again.

 

[ChrisA222]

haha..no...my neice is a newborn!! But my nephew, who is 3, started to cry "Uncle Chris hurt!!!" That imediately stopped my little temper tantrum, and made me realize that its just a stone...He is amazing, btw...

 

[colorluvr]

Been there, done that (dropping a stone between the wood slats in my deck).... twice as a matter of fact- both times taking pictures. The first time took me forever to get the wood lifted up to get to the stone, but no harm, no foul. So the second time I was smart and put a carpet under where I was standing, except that it hit the carpet and rolled off - down through the slat!

The second time didn't take me as long to remove the slat, but the stone got damaged during it's adventure, so now it has a fracture on the upper part of the pavillion. It doesn't show now that it is set, but I know it is there.....