By Jewel Blog | August 08, 2014 at 07:18 PM EDT |
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I've acquired a lot of dedicated fans over the years for my work. One of them, an appraiser who works for one of my wholesale clients, has seen a lot of my jewelry over the years. She once told me that she can always spot my work because of the attention to detail that I pay to my work. "Most people never look at a piece of jewelry under a 100 power microscope, but I do and I see a lot of things that jewelers hope go unnoticed, like how the metal is polished under a gemstone." You normally can't see directly through a properly cut gemstone viewed directly from the front, so you can't see what is directly behind it. A major part of setting a gemstone is sculpting the supporting metal in reverse to accept and support the gemstone. The tools that jewelers use to carve the metal away leave a very raw, bumpy surface. To a jeweler whose priority it is to sell a piece of jewelry at the lowest price (or to maximize profit) will leave this surface rough, but professionals like my appraiser friend can tell. In a recent pendant I made, I took pictures of the setting so you could easily see this normally hidden detail. In the top right image I've carved away a seat for the stone to sit in. I've already gone one step above and sanded the biggest gouges away, a step many jewelers would have skipped. Then I go further by polishing this strip of palladium that goes under the entire diameter of the stone. The metal is reflective enough that you can see my hand as I take the photo. Now, any light that goes through or around the stone is reflected back into the stone and to the viewer, making for an even more brilliant and scintillating gem!
Larry
