Richard Homer and the Gemstones of the Round Table

[Fly Girl]

Joolskie - Thanks for the laugh. I''m going to be smiling all evening!!!

Poshpepper - You are so very, very welcome! I had a blast. I figured that you PSers would really, really enjoy the pictures.

Melcoledi - Wow! Special thanks for the feedback from Richard. He really is a dear! Can you let us know which gemstone caught your eye?

Everyone - I am very slowly recovering from Saturday night. I do believe that I have been in shock for the past few days!

 

[marcy]

Date: 10/8/2007 7:42:04 PM
Author: Fly Girl

Date: 10/7/2007 10:24:51 PM
Author: marcyc
Wow, what a treat for you to get to play with all those lovely gemstones. I''d be too excited to sleep for days after that kind of fun!

Marcy - You are so right. I have laid awake thinking about the gems the past couple of nights!

I want to do it again!!!!

I am sure you do want to go play with those gemstones again. I am going to dream of those gorgeous stones - the zircon, the purple sapphire and the aquamarine are STUNNING!

 

[Lannie]

Wow, those stones are amazing. I''ve never seen many of those cuts. He does fantastic work!

Thanks for sharing your photos with us.

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 10/7/2007 6:02:45 PM
Author: Gemoholic
I love Richard Homers work. But the website is never updated with new stones and has had the same stones up for at least 3 years even though they are sold. I cannot find anywhere where there are photos of current stock. Wink is suppossed to sell his work but his website just talks about stones I see none listed for sale.

How can we buy them if we cannot see them??

Richard spent most of the last couple of years caring for his father who has now died, he has been way too busy to worry about the website, although he does agree that he should do more photos and get them listed, but he is also a single father with a young daughter and a very busy world travelor in his quest for the best rough he can find and also with the round tables which this time of year take him from town almost every week, from wed through Sat.

In a perfect world he would have an army of minnions to do the work necessary to keep his website up to date, but in this world it probably will not happen unless a volunteer steps up to help him.

As for my own website, that too us under reconstruction, but I also have a small staff and too much to do to give it full attention.

So.....

The best way to see his goods up close and personal is to find the best jeweler in your town and ask him to contact Richard and bring in some stones that you would like to see. This will serve two purposes:

One, you will get to see some of Richard''s stones.

Two, the retailer will get to see some of Richard''s stones, which will undoubtedly influence him to carry some of them, unless he is brain dead of course, which will provide Richard with more income, which might allow Richard to pay someone to do the work which he so obviously has no time to do.

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 10/7/2007 8:25:16 PM
Author: Fly Girl

Date: 10/7/2007 8:16:40 PM
Author: Skippy123

Flygirl, you have quite the collection of R.Homer beauty''s!!!! I love the concave look; awesome. Thanks for sharing! Lucky lady

Just doing my PS duties, Skippy!

Glad you enjoyed the pictures. Actually, I couldn''t decide which beauty to purchase, and ended up not buying any gems yesterday evening.

Hopefully, they will invite me to next year''s roundtable! I will try to be better prepared as to what I might like to get.

Wonderful!

This is one of the purposes of the Round Table. Richard has a tray for each person at the event to put in front of them. As the gems are passed around, each person can "dibs" the gems that they like and after the gem has been around the table it is given to the first person to "dibs" it.

As Richard explains when the evening begins, this is not a committment to the gem, but more like a "flirtation", or a "first date". During the course of the evening each person will end up with several gems in front of them, which will allow them to learn a great deal more about what they like than just looking at tray after tray of gems. What did you learn FlyGirl? What shapes did you like? What colors? What sizes did you like more than others?

I will let Fly Girl answer this for the store where she was, but I am going to bet that there was little, if any, sales pressure on her to actually buy anything. This is designed to be a fun, informative, social event where people will get to know more about what they like, and also to get to know people like them that also love gems.

Fly Girl, I would be interested in knowing if you found this format to be a comfortable way to spend an evening? Did your retailer have hors de oeuvres and refreshments? Was it a social event more than a sales event? Just curious how it was handled where you were.

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 10/8/2007 7:38:36 PM
Author: Fly Girl

Date: 10/7/2007 6:02:45 PM
Author: Gemoholic
I love Richard Homers work. But the website is never updated with new stones and has had the same stones up for at least 3 years even though they are sold. I cannot find anywhere where there are photos of current stock. Wink is suppossed to sell his work but his website just talks about stones I see none listed for sale.

How can we buy them if we cannot see them??

Hi Gemoholic - Richard cuts all of his stones himself, and clearly that is where he spends his time. I, too, checked his website before the roundtable, and I was completely unprepared for the number and variety of stones and cuts that I saw in real life.

I have spoken with other local jewelers, and while they have a website, all that is on them are a few samples of what they do. They don''t seem to be aware of how large this unseen, on-line community is. I told Richard about Pricescope. I hope he does take the time to come out here and see what is going on!

Richard told me this morning that he met you and that I should come to see your posts. I am glad I did, you have done him a great compliment with your posts and enthusiasm and I will send him the URL to this thread so he can come and read it. Thank you for your kindness and your great pictures!

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 10/9/2007 5:25:01 PM
Author: mercoledi
Ditto ^^^^

Thank you so much for the image tour, what a wonderful evening!

FYI I contacted Richard about one of the cuts and he is the friendliest person I''ve ever ''met'' by email. He read through the tread an appologizes for the out of dateness of the website (which was back-burnered for personal reasons), but hopes to revamp it soon, and appreciates all the lovely things everyone said here.

Great, I am glad to see that he has seen all the nice things people are saying. He is one of the most genuine and nice men that I have ever had the pleasure of working with and I am excited for him that one of the pricescopers has had a chance to see one of his round tables.

Wink

 

[Fly Girl]

Date: 10/25/2007 5:18:18 PM
Author: Wink

Date: 10/7/2007 8:25:16 PM
Author: Fly Girl

Date: 10/7/2007 8:16:40 PM
Author: Skippy123

Flygirl, you have quite the collection of R.Homer beauty''s!!!! I love the concave look; awesome. Thanks for sharing! Lucky lady

Just doing my PS duties, Skippy!

Glad you enjoyed the pictures. Actually, I couldn''t decide which beauty to purchase, and ended up not buying any gems yesterday evening.

Hopefully, they will invite me to next year''s roundtable! I will try to be better prepared as to what I might like to get.

Wonderful!

This is one of the purposes of the Round Table. Richard has a tray for each person at the event to put in front of them. As the gems are passed around, each person can ''dibs'' the gems that they like and after the gem has been around the table it is given to the first person to ''dibs'' it.

As Richard explains when the evening begins, this is not a committment to the gem, but more like a ''flirtation'', or a ''first date''. During the course of the evening each person will end up with several gems in front of them, which will allow them to learn a great deal more about what they like than just looking at tray after tray of gems. What did you learn FlyGirl? What shapes did you like? What colors? What sizes did you like more than others?

I will let Fly Girl answer this for the store where she was, but I am going to bet that there was little, if any, sales pressure on her to actually buy anything. This is designed to be a fun, informative, social event where people will get to know more about what they like, and also to get to know people like them that also love gems.

Fly Girl, I would be interested in knowing if you found this format to be a comfortable way to spend an evening? Did your retailer have hors de oeuvres and refreshments? Was it a social event more than a sales event? Just curious how it was handled where you were.

Wink

First of all, Wink, I would like to thank you for introducing me to the work of Richard Homer, especially through your enthusiastic web broadcasts. That was the most important link in a chain of events that led me to the round table three weeks ago. I drive by the local jewelry store where this event was held nearly every day. One day last spring I noticed the cut of the gemstones on a poster for the store, and I thought to myself, "Concave faceting". I was curious enough to stop in and ended up signing up for the round table this fall.

You would win the bet, Wink. The event was exactly as you describe. More social, and really no pressure to buy. I was very comfortable, even though I was mainly there to learn. There were beautiful hors deoeuvres present, but they went largely untouched. A couple of reasons for this, I think. Those present that evening were fairly trim, middle-aged ladies. We don''t stay trim if we chow down the goodies. But, more importantly, we were so busy looking at the jewels, that the beautiful eats just ended up being ignored. But, it was all there, like you describe.

The gems were amazing, and far more than I was expecting. I was thinking I would be seeing smaller stones that could be made into rings. I was totally unprepared for the size and scope of Richard''s work. I loved the nautilus and octafocus cuts. And, the snowflake topaz. I don''t find pale pastel colors very appealing. I love bright flashes of color. I''m not quite sure what to make of the larger fancy cuts. Do we collect those gems for their beauty alone? Can these works of art be made into something wearable? I think the role of jewelry designer is important here, to take Richard''s work and add your vision to make truly amazing creations. I was most tempted to buy one of the two briolletes (one amethyst, one citrine) that Richard showed us. Both had huge red flashes that we all loved. I could envision either as a pendant to wear, and as a sun catcher in the window to enjoy at other times. But that decision was taken out of my hands because both were snapped up before I got dibs. That evening I was sitting on Richard''s immediate left, which normally means you are the second most honored, but at this event meant that I was the very last person.

I would love to do a round table again. I will be much better prepared. I realize I have to make up my mind if I am going to begin collecting Richard Homer gems. Or do I simply want a pretty pebble to have made into an amazing piece of jewelry? In the meantime, I had a ball taking pictures to share with my friends here on Pricescope.

 

[Skippy123]

Where can people find out about round tables in their area??? They sound fun!