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Jewelry Making Class
Experimental
Faceting, Optical Effects.
A while ago, a buddy of mine,
who is a land surveyor, had theodolite reflector that was
bust. Inside was this about 50mm diameter glass faceted
reflector thingamajig. (Actually called a Retro Reflector) Amazing thing. It was like a giant
stone with 3 big facets at the bottom. You could see
yourself in it. So I borrowed it and I measured the angles
which came out at sort of 52 degrees. Then cut a couple of
test stones along the same shape and design. It didn't
really work well because the were to small, (10mm diameter)
so the effect was lost. Anyway, one day, in a fit of
lethargy, I ground a concave on the three 'ridges' of the
pavilion of one of the finished test stones. It produced an
interesting effect Like a six rayed star . I have cut a
bunch of them over the months, playing around with the
angles, material ,sizes and shapes. I finished two today
that came out ok-ish , one curved and one flat, just for
fun. (It is low season here in the Caribbean, so I got some
time to play around) So the photos aren't so good , and the
curved one was ground with to a course diamond wheel on my
hanging motor. Anyway...
The Mercedes Benz ones are the
ground ones and the 6, 11,2 o'clock are the reflections. The
reflections also 'fall away' in the stone, giving a nice
feel of depth.
That's the pavilion, simply
ground with a hand held diamond wheel.
This is a flat faceted
version. Again 6 11 and 2 o'clock fall away. The center is a
culet facet. The black circle in both stones is the camera
lens, reflecting like it should.
Bottom of the flat one....
Next, I am going to cut on with a 80 index, so I can get 5
sides and then I am going to cut one in Strontium Titanite,
to see if there is any prism effect with a high RI .
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