Hello all!
I decided to join this forum for the interesting conversation and to see the ‘other’ side of the coin. I am a hobby faceter, I have a ‘normal’ day job but faceting is incredibly stress relieving to me and provides endless gifts (I don’t sell). But I would also really like some advice on some things as well.
So I will start off with my tale of woe. So wife buys me a really nice (1800$!!) cabinet specimen of Benitoite. So we are moving and I drop it on the hard kitchen floor….Yea you guessed it, broken, not just broken but many small shattered pieces, too small to do much with, except wait, the center piece has nearly come off perfectly, (almost it left a chunk on the matrix) it looks cloudy and dark, but let me facet it…..six grueling hours later…….1.04 ct, eye clean (I can’t find a flaw at 10x) medium blue (lighter than in the picture, the pictures does the stone no justice, it looks like a medium blue spinel with more fire) …..Jeepers, did I dodge a bullet? Wife now wants a custom mount, and talk of my butter fingers has disappeared!
I know Benitioite in cut stones is pricey, but did I in anyway recover the loss?
-RJ