SALE ITEMS GOLDSMITH GEMSTONES STONE CUTTING HOME
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Colored Stone Specialist |
John’s studio workshop is in Lexington Kentucky where he lives with his wife and three daughters, all of whom make frequent requests for his jewelry!
John is gifted faceter, member of the United States Faceters Guild, diamond setter and colored stone setter. His precision cut colored stones distinguish his jewelry. John started his company first cutting gemstones and later expanded by crafting custom jewelry to complement the colored stones. John has refined his stone cutting and jewelry fabrication skill through a variety of training classes, workshops, and lots of hours behind the jeweler's bench and faceting machine. Some of his training has come from nationally recognized leaders in their fields and include instruction in Faceting from Jerry Call, Diamond Setting from Robert Wooding, Gold Smithing from Danny Barnes, Silver smithing from Alan Jewel & Ruthie Cohen, Lost Wax Casting from Fred Sias, precious opal cutting from Sara Lee Boyce, Jewelry Photography from Ken Kipnis, Creative Stone Setting from John Cogswell , Glass Fusing from Renee Wright, Surface Embellishment by Harold O'Connor, and Jade Carving by Carlos Reyes and Bill Smith from Guatemala.
INGREDIENTS
one large round white diamond
ten small round champagne diamonds
14K two tone 17-stone cluster earring mounting
14K white gold 6-prong stone mounting
argentium sterling silver round 10GA wire
MIXING DIRECTIONS
remove post and 7-stone center from earring mounting
cut wire to length to form ring band
combine all ingredients
set all diamonds
clean and polish
place on wife's finger
enjoy a happy anniversary
Step-By-Step
Remaking an 18K Yellow Gold & Emerald Ring into a Pendant
My client's ring had a broken stone and she wanted to have the ring remade into a pendant in the shape of a lower case script letter "y". The following sequence of photos show some of the steps I went through to remove the stone, straighten the ring and make it into a square wire.
Next I bent and shaped the square wire into the shape of the lower case script letter "y", fashioned a bail from the wire, attached a jump ring and mounting for the stone. I re-cut the broken emerald into a 3.5 mm round faceted gemstone. Set the stone polished the pendant and mailed it to my client in California. Voila a new 18K yellow gold pendant re-made from an old broken ring. The finished size of the pendant is 24 mm and used 100 mm of square wire.
My client from Indiana wanted to use the diamonds from these two rings above to make into a more simple and elegant ring.
I started by removing the diamonds from the two white gold rings and then remounted them in a yellow gold anniversary style band shown below.
The diamonds ranged from 3.2 to 3.5 mm and total carat weight was 0.69 tcw.
Introducing
Gems by John Soft Stop
Retrofit Accessory for all Graves Mark I & Mark IV Faceting Machines
click on the Dial Indicator image (above) to find out more about this retrofit accessory
or, click here to read The Story Behind the Gems By John Soft Stop
and the reason behind why John developed it as a retrofit accessory for all Graves Mark I and Mark IV faceting machines.
Who needs a paint brush ? Look at transformation of these rough tourmaline stones, (above) into these brilliant gems (below). Just goes to show what can be done starting with top facet grade stones. I just finished faceting these blue green tourmaline stones for a client in Colorado. Each finished stone shown below is in the same position as the stone I cut it from show above.
- May 2009 -
- April 2009 -
Oregon Sunstone cut from rough. The photo above shows the rough stones. The photo below shows the finished faceted gems. Can you match the finished stones to the rough stones? OK, the green one is easy. I'll give you a clue, the largest rough stone is turned sideways. And, of course only one has no copper schiller. So, that one's easy. What about the rest ?
LAPIDARY
John has been faceting gemstones since 2001 with more than 750 faceted colored stones to his credit. He personally hand selects premium facet grade rough gemstones from mines around the globe including Africa, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Russia, Thailand and the United States. The best finished gems come from the finest gem grade faceting rough. And, it is easy to see quality in colored gemstones - rich vibrant colors that sparkle. Gems cut By John radiate color from precisely cut highly polished facets: more Color - more Sparkle. John recently began cabochon cutting Precious Opals from Australian.
Here's the Big Guy - 97 carat Smokey Quartz, the largest stone I've cut (so far) sold to a fellow Lexington Kentucky rock-hound.
BENCH JEWELER
All of John's jewelry is made from the highest quality karat gold, platinum, and silver. He has been commissioned to make more than 350 unique pieces of jewelry. He hand makes some jewelry and fabricates others using commercially made components, but always uniquely showcasing the colored stones.
GOLD SMITH
John is an accomplished goldsmith. He melts gold grain or scrap gold jewelry, pours / casts the gold into ingots, and then mills the gold into flat bar or square wire stock with a rolling mill, and sometimes further into round or half round thin gold wire by hand drawing through drawing plates. John makes beautifully crafted pieces of jewelry from these hand fabricated pieces of gold, always showcasing his faceted colored stones. John has also developed a knack for making contemporary pieces of jewelry from antique, out of fashion, or broken pieces of gold jewelry.
GEMSTONE CUTTING
FACETING SERVICES
Faceted Standard Round Brilliant $45
Cut round $45
Cut fancy $65
Cut mixed cuts $75
CABOCHON CUTTING SERVICES
Cut oval $25
Cut fancy $30
add $5 for cutting corrundum sapphire and ruby
add $2 per carat for faceted stones over 5 carats
- call for Trade Pricing and parcels discounts -
Re-polish table $25
Re-cut crown $30
Re-cut round $35
Re-cut fancy $55
TURN AROUND TIME
Normal turn around time is 2 to 3 days
1 day rush sevice is avaiable
STONE SETTING
Melee Faceted - under 1/4 ct $10
Round Faceted 1/4 to 2 ct $25
Fancy Shape Faceted $45
Cabochon stones $20
Round = Standard Round Brilliant
Fancy = Oval, Emerald, Pear, Marquise, Princess, Cushion, Trillion, Heart, Freeform, etc.
FACETING LESSONS
Faceting Lesson 1-day $175
CABOCHON CUTTING LESSONS
Cabochon Cutting Lesson 1/2-day, $95
BENCH JEWELER SERVICES
JEWELRY REPAIR
Ring re-size $25 plus gold stock
Gold or Silver $10 per solder seam
JEWELRY MAKING
Time & Materials Pricing
Handmade Jewelry
New Jewelry made from Old Jewelry
Custom & Original Jewelry Designs
Custom Designs
Handmade Jewelry
Remake New from Old Jewelry
Catalog Items
- call for pricing -
GUARANTEE
If you are not absolutely satisfied with the quality of my services, I will refund 100% of all labor charges.
DO YOU HAVE ROUGH GEMSTONES ?
I CUT ROUGH GEMSTONES INTO FINISHED GEMS !
TURN YOUR ROUGH STONES INTO FINISHED GEMS
DO YOU HAVE BROKEN JEWELRY ?
I REPAIR BROKEN JEWELRY !
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ?
DO YOU WANT TO KICK AROUND SOME IDEAS ?
WOULD YOU LIKE MORE INFORMATION ?
Call me at 859.539.2407
eMAIL me at JohnWright@GemsByJohn.com
COLORED STONES !
MORE COLOR !
MORE SPARKLE !
Adobe Photoshop Fine Edges graphic image next to the original of my latest hand made opal pendant
I do a wee bit of wire wrapping as you can see with these two wire wrapped turquoise pendants in sterling silver and gold filled, made for a local client.
I used a 6 mm South Sea white pearl that I removed from a pair of cuff links to make this 14KY ring using a commercial mounting. Hand made the thee colors of white metal ring for a lady who shops garage sales and wanted a ring with platinum, white gold, and sterling silver so she always has a reference to help identify what metal is in the garage sale items. The ruby and diamond ring is my first hand-made band made by casting gold, rolling the ingot with a rolling mill to make the square stock, forming the ring, drilling seats to match the diamond and ruby faceted stones, "picking" the metal to form tiny "prongs" to hold the stones and finally using a mill grain tool along the top edges.
Just in time for Valentine's day platinum engagement ring set with rose quartz stones, made for a client in New York.
- January 2008 -
HORSE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
EMAIL
JohnWright@GemsByJohn.com
PHONE NUMBER
(859) 539-2407
MAILING ADDRESS
Gems By John LLC
4101 Tates Creek Centre Dr
Suite 150-195
Lexington, KY 40517
I don't know if Laura told you, but the opal is my absolute favorite gemstone. I like opals more than diamonds, rubies or sapphires. In my opinion, nothing can compare with the exquisite opal, which glows with an internal fire. So when it came time for my wonderful husband and I to become engaged, I knew what kind of ring I wanted.
I knew that Mervyn's had quite a large selection of opal rings so I went over to the store and saw right away which one I wanted. It had four fiery inset opals in a gold band. I tried it on and it flashed on my finger. It was too big so I asked for a smaller size, but I was told that it was the only size the ring came in. This puzzled me since I knew that rings weren't one-size-fits-all, but I liked it so much I decided to get it anyway. The next day my finance and I went to buy it I figured that I would eventually find a way around the size problem.
First, I took my ring back to Mervyn's, hoping they could help me. The store sent my ring to its jeweler for resizing. Their jeweler promptly sent it back saying that he didn't want to attempt resizing it because of the way the opals were set in the band. They might pop out if the band was tampered with, he said. Next, I tried those clear plastic sizers that slipped around the band. They didn't work very well. Then, I tried one of those gold bands that wound around the inside of my ring. It was uncomfortable, but was the best I could do.
A few months later when my finance and I were formally engaged, I wore the ring continuously until one Sunday when we were in church. I glanced down at my finger and was shocked at what I saw. One of the opals was missing, leaving an empty black triangle where the stone once was. Needless to say, I put the ring away and didn't wear it again. This was in 2003.
I thought of one last option. Every summer I go to visit my family in Minnesota. In 20061 took my ring with me because I remembered a jewelry store there that did repairs. Unfortunately, the jeweler told me the same thing I heard at Mervyn's.
Then, your sister came to visit us in February of 2007 and told me about you. When she went home she took my ring with her. I talked to her later that year and she said that she hand-delivered it that summer when she and Terry went to visit you and your family. Finally, I had hope.
My ring arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I took it out of the box I put it on my finger. It gleamed and glowed once again, looking better than new. And after over four years, I can wear it proudly once again as a symbol of the love and commitment I share with my husband. I owe it all to you and to your dear sister, who made all of this possible! God has truly given you a gift, which I'm certain you are using for His glory! Thank you so very much!
God bless you,
Carol
SALE ITEMS GOLDSMITH GEMSTONES STONE CUTTING HOME
