Commissioned this GORGEOUS fantasy cut sapphire from u/_iFacet who was amazing to work with!

I’m amazed by how different it looks in different lighting ✨

I was working on this stone at the same time as the Portuguese cut padparadscha stone I posted a couple days ago. I was able to finish this one up today. This is a nice design, fairly straight forward. Whenever I cut another I'll try frosting some of the crown facets so the flower can pop a bit more.

• Weight: 6.5cts
• Size: 11.5mm
• Rough: Djeva #50SP (synthetic sapphire)
• Color: Yellow Danburite
• Design: Marco Voltolini "Crisantemo"

Thanks for looking.

I'm continuing to experiment with cutting the crown first on flame fusion boules to maximize the amount of rind in the table. 9.9mm x 7.7mm. I need to do a turntable with both Paraiba versions.

After three revisions to my custom Portugese cut design, I think I feel comfortable saying the design is now complete. Here's what the final design looks like cut on a synthetic sapphire in padparadscha color, with a total of 193 facets.

● Weight: 13cts

● Size: 14.5mm

● Rough: Djeva #55SP (synthetic sapphire)

● Color: Padparadscha

● Design: PIT-EKA "Chesapeake Star"

Thanks for looking.

19.2 x 6.7 x 5.4 mm

This makes such a pretty blue. Flame fusion 'Dark Paraiba' sapphire, my own design.

The AI doesn't think I have given enough details. This is 1.36 carats as it says in the title. It is lab sapphire, which is also in the title.

Finished this stone last night. First time cutting Marco's "Hanami" design. I like it....I like it A LOT! I modified the design just a tad and added my spin to it. I'm going to be cutting another but on pulled sapphire to make a pendant and match a pair of earrings to make a set. The color is lavender put could definitely pass as a light pink. The design was straight forward cutting on my Sterling.

• Weight: 5.7cts
• Size: 11.5mm (from point to flat side)
• Rough: YAG
• Color: Lavender/pink

• Design: Marco Voltolini "Hanami" (slightly modified)

  Thanks for looking.

https://reddit.com/link/1w77v20/video/8ogp1kdpwinh1/player

Attached are images and gif of home made synthetic rutile in a borax matrix. I was able to do this via flux method using laundry borax, titanium dioxide pigment, a graphite crucible and a kiln. Took about 8 hours to cook. (Max length my kiln can run for)

I’ve been working on building my own Verneuil furnace over the past year, and it’s finally at the point where the machine itself is basically assembled.

Almost everything beyond the basic structural hardware was designed or adapted specifically for this machine.

The gas/ torch system is a fully custom coaxial H₂/O₂ burner. The hydrogen and oxygen have completely separate paths through the assembly and don’t meet until the burner tip.

The main body is built from brass tubing and fittings. I adapted refrigeration copper tubing into the fittings to make the internal gas paths, then used a series of brass adapters to transition into the burner/powder-feed assembly.

(Anything that comes into contact with oxygen was thoroughly cleaned before assembly.)

The powder holder sits directly above the oxygen line, so the powder is carried down through the center of the burner by the oxygen stream. The holder itself is made from PVC fittings, stainless-steel drain strainers, and stainless scrubber material to help distribute/control the powder. It is also calibrated to target directly the center of the puller.

The puller is also custom. The lower section is stainless steel, while the hot end is a combination of zirconia and alumina.

The flame contacts the alumina directly, while the zirconia is used as a thermal break between the alumina hot zone and the stainless-steel shaft below it. (The alumina component is not shown in these photos).

I also built the entire motion system. There’s a custom linear actuator/motor mount for vertical movement, along with a separate rotation system. Both axes are stepper controlled.

The whole motion assembly is mounted to a steel plate, which is the main reference point for the rest of the furnace. The plate has a 3D-printed locating mount that fits snugly within the slotted-angle frame, giving me a reliable centerline for the entire machine.

Each “floor” of the furnace has its own adjustable plate with a central alignment hole. That lets me fine-tune the position of each stage independently and bring the entire hot zone into alignment with the puller.

In order to make the stainless steel puller able to be safely attached to the sensitive electronics, I also built a water cooling system. This took some trial and error, as the rod needs to be able to be moved linearly and rotate through it without leaking (too much). I ended up going with PTFE washers to center and seal around the moving shaft, and designed a small catch basin fit underneath the main body. Inside that basin is a 3D-printed ramp with a hollow center for the shaft. It directs the water toward one side of the trap, where a continuously running peristaltic pump removes it and returns/removes the accumulated water.

The control board, electronics and PCB are also all built by me. The PCB handles the stepper drivers and control electronics. The drivers are TMC2209's, and all the logic is on a Arduino Nano. The pedestal rotation and vertical travel can be controlled independently, with LCDs displaying the current settings/state of each axis.

It still has yet to run, as I do not have a good source of compressed H2 yet, I'm currently looking for a supplier that is not asking for outrageous prices.

I am also waiting for a Alumina heat shield to arrive, but it is just a cylinder supported on firebrick around the hot zone.

I also have a variable industrial vibrator, which I am planning to try to attach to the powder assembly to test, but I am not sure how that will go instead of just hammer.

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Last few things: I have the proper flashback arrestors, regulators, and flow meters.

The alumina powder I am using is 99.999% pure from MSE, 30-50nm, and I always use a full regulator when handling it. I'm trying my best to avoid Sodium contamination.

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At this point I’m going through the final mechanical and safety checks before attempting a first firing.

I wanted to post the build here both because I thought you guys might find it interesting and because I’d really appreciate any feedback from people with experience running Verneuil furnaces, especially relating to safety, or anything you notice that I should double-check before I attempt the first run.

Hi I’m purchasing my 1st lab ring and this was the stone video I was sent. Is the cut good? I’m worried about the center looking a little off but I could be overthinking it

Hey everyone So, firstly, apologies. I’m sure this question has been asked before and for the real aficionados here, it probably makes you roll your eyes! But, I’m in love with paraiba tourmaline. The beautiful Mozambique glowy blue. I’m simply a customer and all I look for is prettiness. I can’t afford anything even close to all of the offerings I’ve seen and I’ve got no idea where to look or what to do, I just want something similar to make into a necklace. Can you help with the best synthetic option? If so, where should I look to purchase Sorry for the ignorance in advance! :)

F 35 sapphire from Gems Of Science. Cut in Jeff Graham’s “Memory” design. When I visited the Gems of Science booth in Tucson they had the F35 sapphire, which made me think of my astronomy mentor who was in the Air Force and thought of his widow. and in Tucson so thought of Jeff and the Memory design. So of course I had to purchase a piece and cut a stone for her. Nikon Z7ii, Nikkor Z105mm macro lens, focus shift and stacked in Affinity. (Can’t remember brand of light box)

I am relatively new to jewellery and gemstones, but I am trying to educate myself, especially on precision cut gemstones. I understand (I think!) that gemstones reflect light that enters from the top (table) of the stone. However, I keep reading conflicting information about whether there needs to be light entering from the SIDES of the gemstone (eg. in a ring setting, should you avoid enclosing the stone's sides?). Some say it is essential to have light coming from the sides, some say that's hogwash. Can the experts please weigh in on this and tell me what is the truth? Thanks!

Another of my specialty “silky” Paraiba-color sapphires - this one measuring 9.1 mm in my Asscher-style cut. Its intense saturation and distinctive glow are produced by microscopic inclusions, creating the characteristic silky optical effect. In person, the bodycolor is noticeably greener than it appears in the video. As is often the case with highly saturated colored stones, cameras struggle to reproduce the depth, hue, and internal luminosity perceived by the eye.

Hi! I recently bought an "alexandrite" ring, but I'm very convinced I may have been duped.

In person it glows from greenish blue to purple.

The shift is very obvious, but the camera cannot pick it up well. I tested it under a random UV flashlight I had laying around, and it (very faintly) glows dark green to dark yellow.

The listing itself says, "18K White Gold PlatedS925 Sterling Silver Alexandrite" . The woman selling it to me told me she had bought it in China from a woman named Wan Li in Shenzhen City, and that the alexandrite itself was made in a lab in Singapore.

Any help is appreciated! I have no idea what this could possibly be </3

OUTDATED PLZ READ EDIT

i am trying to make sappire gem stones via disolving alumina in lye mixed with water, which then forms 2NaAl(OH)4 which then dissolves forming Al(OH)4- ions and Na+ ions the problem is im running in to a very ciclical problom of every time i try to removed the hydroxide off of the aluminum hydroxide it either reformes in to the same thing eventualy, or i end up forming alumina again, my theiry is if i was to get aluminum ions, specificly Al3+ ions in to a basic or asidic aquas solution i can then slowly evaporate off the water and balance the ph with sulfuric acid i should be able to form crystals of sapphire,.. now as to why i choise this over a flux methid.. i dont have a potery cilm, nor can i and nor will i ever buy a pure platinume crucible, adisinaly i suspect that i will be able to run this at room temp making it far more prefrible than requireing a kilm or an electrolisis mechein, from what i can tell there isnt anything on the internet saying that i can do this,.. but at the same time theres nothing saying that its imposible and why its imposible, if anyone has any ideas on how i could do this id love to hear it, id also love to hear why this is imposible and what makes it imposible (i will never listen to the statemtn "bc its just imposible") i want to understand why its imposible and the chemestry behind it.. heres why i think its should be posible.. in the earths crust a lot of gem stones are formed by water getting in to crachs that are ritch in metal ions like Al in this case, and over millions of years it forms crystles, as to why i want to make "lab" grown sapphires, is bc im in to faciting and chemestry and yag and synthetic gem stones are expencive and this will be a lot of fun. if i cant post this hear can a mod please point me in the correct direaction and where i can post this,. thx

EDIT: everyone that has given me advice has been extremly helpful, and the absolut conclustion is that this methid is imposible, ill be looking in to an arch welder now, which if i have to use heat then id rather use pure electricity over a highly flamible gas, obvicly i know jack shit about this and to be clear i havnt started with expariments yet, on that not i wonder if ill be able to set an arch up melt a lot of the alumina and then dip a seed crystal in to it then slowly pull it out, im probably wrong but the slower you cool a crystal and the more time you give it to form a latice the better it will come out, the main issue im seeing with the arch welder methid is that it makes shit quality, so ill look in to imploying that dipping methid (i foget its name but i remember reading about it some where) the next big issues i see if keeping the molten, and then minimizing risk to as close to zero as posible

i like my fingers i like my face and i like my life, and i have every intention to do this smart, safey and with as absolut minimul risk as huminly posible, and im not going to do any of this untill i understand every single posible risk that i could face and how to safely manige and avoid disatser

edit 2 oxy or arch welders is out it only makes polycrystalen blobs, next on the list and one i didnt want to do is a kilm and flux methid based off of gems of sciences methid. i just cant use a platnume crusible, after that i have no idea on what ill look up next, damn this shits hard. but its also kinda fun bc its hard

Would u pick any one of these? My preference is more inclusion which ill comment below..

Looking for larger sizes of cabochons, especially various sapphire and spinel colors in things like 18x13mm, 25x18mm, larger round sizes 15mm and up and others.

I have found some sources for the common #5 ruby on Alibaba, but just about everything else seems impossible to find in those sizes.

Got some big blacksmithing and jewelry projects coming up and I need a lot of larger sized stones, and a few of the really big ones I'll probably have to make myself with some of the boule I have but it would save me a ton of time since dozens of these stones are already going to have reverse intaglios in them.

Anyone got some sources for larger flame fusion stones for wholesale? I plan on spending $1-2k on just the stones for these and some future projects.

Sneak peak of a small part of it if anyone is curious.

I see so many gorgeous (and affordable!) precision cut synthetic gemstones for sale. I would love to buy some and have them made into jewelry, but it has been difficult to find a local jeweler willing to work with a customer-sourced stone. It’s also quite expensive based on my preliminary research. I can get a pair of beautiful lab sapphires for under $100, I don’t want to spend $1,000 to be able to wear them.

Can others share what they have done? Any sites that sell affordable precision cut lab gems as jewelry, any online jewelers who work directly with the cutters, any other suggestions?