I wanted to show you some of the ways a rock can be cut. Sometimes a piece will be the perfect cut, other times not.

This is a piece of Lapis Lazuli, a beautiful, semi-precious stone with incredible blue tones and spidering veins. Lapis lazuli is a rock, not a mineral: whereas a mineral has only one constituent, lapis lazuli is formed from more than one mineral. Lapis (as it is sometimes referred) is a relatively rare, semi-precious stone that is prized since antiquity for its intense blue color.

One has to be careful when making any cuts. Not just with yourself, but with the stone. Many times the lines in the stone are beautiful in the section you are about to cut, and if you make a mistake, all is lost. This also allows for each slice to be unique, which makes your particular piece of jewelry one-of-a-kind. Below I have some more photos of the cut I made here. Notice the beautiful translucency of the cut. Incredible. If you would like to buy one of my pieces of jewelry with Lapis Lazuli as part of the design, please contact me.

More photos… (more…)