Where can I get rough Peridot & Aquamarine cut? Price? Cost Effective? Etc....

[2Bmarried]

Hello all,

Well, I''ve ventured away from "Rocky Talk" for the moment & I searched through the forum, high and low, but could not find the answers to what I''m looking for. I''m trying to get a baseline idea of where I can get Aquamarine & Peridot cut. I''ve got my eye on a place I''ve seen mentioned on Pricescope before - a place to get the rough;
Peridot
Aquamarine

I''m just brainstorming on ideas here & wasn''t sure how much it would cost to have somebody cut some rough into rounds, ovals, pears, etc. Since these stones are not very expensive as it is, maybe it''s just best to buy what I''ll end up looking for from the store. Maybe the cutting and finishing costs will FAR outweigh what I would otherwise pay for a cut Aquamarine or Peridot.

Any rough ideas of cutting cost per carat (rough or finished), shape, etc.? Any idea who can cut these? Are there import implications I need to be aware of when buying from a place such as this?

Forgive my lack of knowledge and feel free to smack virtual sense into me if the above ideas seem absurd and I should just look for the finished product instead!

Thanks!

 

[valeria101]

The answer to this would greately depend on what you want to obtain: inexpensive stuff or great cut quality on a few gems for personal use?

Cost cutting on producing inexpensive gems relies on bulk processing - certainly low quality aqua and peridot qualify for this type of processing. It would be unthinkable to beat the already dirt cheap prices for those sold-by-the-pound gems.

Great, creatively cut gems can indeed be obtained if you controll the 'production process' - but in this way you can only hope to be enjoy expressing your own creativity and gain by avoiding the retail markup and the 'creative pricing' practiced for the best pieces. In this second case, buying the rough is best left to the cutter - at the very most you may persuade the resepctive person to ask for your precise imput on what you want the color of the cut gem to be. The cut (both model and execution) modifies allot the appearence of the color in the rough - unless you want cabs or beads. Pedicting the final colors of gaceted gems from a picture of the rough is insane - in my opinion.

Of course, all this comes from some innocent trial and error not professional experience. Hope more advice would be added to this thread

 

[valeria101]

Thought this would be funny... expectations about color are one, but what if the stone cut from a green piece of crystal turns out blue (below) ? Ok, neither peridot not aqua are that dichroic, sure so.

One tourmaline bead on my desk looks green from one side and pink from the other - no way I could take a photo of the oddity though

This tourmaline is presented by "All that Glitters"

 

[2Bmarried]

Thank you all for your replies! Gives me a bit more to think about and some good knowledge to help me weigh things out. Michael, I just might be in contact with you once my brainstorming is done. Thanks again!