[Jewelry making - Article 01020] - Re: [Orchid] Jeweler's former lives

[Richard Davies]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

    I can't resist responding to the challenge! I am not really a
    "jeweler," rather just an amateur with a life-long passion for gems.
    In my case, I am a retired Naval Officer, with an educational
    background as a mechanical engineer. I began my 54 years of interest
    in gemstones and jewelry during my first year as a geology major at
    the University of Wyoming, when I expanded from collecting minerals
    to polishing opals from Mexico and Australia (no machinery
    required). Within a few years I had decided to make mountings from
    sterling silver and gold (while I was a midshipman at the U. S. Naval
    Academy, of all places!). I also polished a couple of dozen star
    sapphires, including a flawless blue-gray oval from a crystal
    fragment I picked out of a parcel of gem gravel from Ceylon (now Sri
    Lanka). I mounted it in a carved white gold plug I put on the
    engagement ring I presented to my fiancee. During a visit to Brazil
    in 1957 I was granted a tour of an extraordinary private collection
    of museum quality gem minerals, and I picked up some cut stones for
    my own collection. 

    My "bibles" have been a couple of fine books by the inimitable late
    John Sinkankas. When I lived in San Diego, I made a few forays into
    the California back country, collecting crystals from pegmatites at
    Ramona and Pala, mking use of information from Sinkankas. Later I
    collected benitoite, jadeite, and other minerals in the Clear Creek
    district while I was earning my Master's Degree at Monterey,
    California. 

    Now that I am completely retired (in 2001) from the field of ship
    engineering and construction, I have further expanded my interest in
    lapidary to include faceting. I have since faceted several hundred
    stones, using many materials ranging from almandine to zircon, and
    in completed sizes from .1 to 15 carats. I hope to acquire larger and
    finer gem rough for faceting, but the resources for that will
    require disposing of some of the many excess tourmalines, garnets,
    spinels and peridots I have accumulated. 

    I have also expanded my metalworking toolkit to include a flexshaft
    machine. I am beginning to expand my jewelry work to include
    higher-end materials like 18K and 22K gold. Oh, and I am entirely
    self-taught, mainly because I had no choice, as I simply didn't have
    thetime or opportunity. As a result, I have only the most basic
    knowledge of goldsmithing techniques. But I have set stones using
    bezels, and prongs, and I have even done bead setting of small melee
    size blue sapphires. I now have a new "bible," this one from Tim
    McCreight. I do only constructed work at this time, and I make
    jewelry mostly just for fun. 

-Dick Davies
In the snow in Old Virginia
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________