i just bought my first gemstone faceting machine!
cutting gems is a craft ive been interested in for quite a long time - i'm very excited to finally immerse myself in this art form and bring my jewelry designs full circle with complimentary self-cut gemstones
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(the following story is a bit long, but is a 100% true account of the experience that first lead me into the machining/faceting world)
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i have an infrequent but reoccurring dream where i'm at a university that teaches you anything you want to learn. one of these dreams in particular was very lucid - it happened about 3 years ago, back when i was just making wire wrapped jewelry and wanted to learn how to fabricate more traditional/fine jewelry
I was in the class with about 15 other students - we were practicing basic bench skills like sawing sheet and soldering bezels. i felt a tap on my shoulder - the instructor of the course told me to stop working at my bench, and to follow him into the lapidary room to start cutting gemstones
i responded with, "but i'm not done making my bezels yet, and ive never cut a gemstone before either." the instructor looked at me and said, "none of that matters, come with me."_
the remainder of that dream was a private 1-on-1 lesson, where the instructor and i cut a stone together, while he explained to me the general principles of how a faceting machine works
upon waking, i started looking up information about faceting online to cross reference it with what i remembered from my dream. it was a confusing excitement, because the same things that i had zero knowledge of the previous night was now very familiar to me - almost as if a computer file had been downloaded to my mental hard drive
a couple months after the dream, i bought my first lathe and modified it to do ornamental work on metal. a couple months after that, i faceted my very first gemstone with and under the guidance of @dougrobinson1005 (slide 2)_
i hope everyone is ready to see a heavy concentration of faceted gemstones alongside the metalwork i've been posting
thanks again for all of your support on my ever evolving journey to create art that makes the world a brighter place