[Jewelry making - Article 00254] - Re: [Orchid] Bezel setting faceted stones

[Carrie Nunes]

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    Thank you for taking the time to write such a great explanation
    James! My book (GIA) did talk about cutters using windowing to
    lighten a dark stone and extinction for a pale stone. 

>     If you'll re-read my post, you'll see that I was talking about the
>     "see-through effect," not windowing. "See-through" is observed by
>     placing the stone, table down, on print. Windowing and extinction
>     are both seen face-up, and reading print through the stone has
>     nothing to do with it. 

    When I started this  conversation I was referring to being able to
    "see through" my colored stone, seeing some of the metal and opening
    of the setting underneath the stone. When I  said this I was talking
    about looking through the table to the culet. GIA does also use this
    phrase "see through" in the same way: "When you look down at a gem
    from above and see a gap in its bodycolor- an area of weaker color-
    that's a window. Windows  are usually caused by light leaking from
    the bottom of the stone. By creating a see-through effect, a window
    can make a gem's bodycolor uneven and ruin its apprearance. If a
    gem's bodycolor is very dark, however, a window can lighten it a
    little and make the stone more appealing." 

    When I checked for reading type, which Brian Adam suggested, it was
    also this way with the table up which I see was incorrect. I will
    flip them over and experiment with reading type through them upside
    down. I am most concerned though about how the stones are viewed with
    the table side up. 

    I can see it will take studying many stones to be able to judge what
    is an acceptable amount of windowing. I am gaining a better
    understanding of what it is I am seeing. But I still have to deal
    with this issue when setting the stones that have varying degrees of
    windowing and see-through. It seems even if the facets are distorting
    what is underneath the stone, you are still glimpsing something under
    there. Do you think bezel settings make this effect appear more
    pronounced? The stone of mine that originally started my questions, I
    honestly think looked better when there was a solid gold backing
    behind it. I think the metal was compensating for the stone leaking
    light, and the metal was bouncing some of the light back up through
    the stone. When I cut an opening, I could see the lack of reflected
    light that was the opening and the difference between it and the
    remaining metal backing. When I enlarged the opening, it looked
    better because there was no more contrast of opening and backing
    metal, there was just opening. But the stone is darker. Still quite
    pretty but there is less light reflected back. So in setting a stone
    like this, I still don't know that there is any best solution. I
    guess the only solution is choosing a stone with less light leakage.
    It just seems such a common problem with colored stones. 

    Thanks again for your time and for helping me wrap my brain around
    these concepts. 

Carrie Nunes
www.metalpetalsworkshop.com

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