a little about polishing stones

Just for interest - photos of a project I'm doing - creating a stone to fit in this ring setting. The original stone broke and was lost and the customer asked me to create a new stone and reset it. Shown with it's future setting and with the size of stone I started with. An 8 by 10mm oval seemed like a good starting point to grind down to the 4 by 8.5mm oblong size I need for the setting:

The little black onyx stone on it's dop stick - I spent yesterday grinding it to this shape with 120 diamond grit. The dop stick is basically just a wooden dowel with dopping wax melted on the end. The dopping wax is very sticky when hot and pliable so it can be attached to the stone but at room temperature it gets hard and can hold the stone while you work on it. When I'm all done I will put it in the freezer and the stone should pop off easily:

This is the spool polisher I will use today to get a nice polish on the little stone. Those syringes in back hold grades of diamond cream which correspond to the different areas on the spool that I will apply the cream to. I will work the stone from 350 grit up through 50,000 grit to a high shine: 

I will need to do some adjustments to the silver ring setting too. I think the original stone broke and fell out because it needed a more stable base for the stone so I will be adding a sterling plate to make a solid bottom for the setting. 

completed

I worked most of the day on setting the stones in these, doing a final polish (and photographing them). Isn't that almandine garnet (the red stone) beautiful? I love that deep red!

creation day

Creation, designing and working with one's hands are good ways to deal with sad emotions. I recently lost my little studio buddy - my Anniecat - who shared my studio space with me. She frequently slept on my work table, the shelf above it or at my feet, and was just generally "always there". I did stay in bed for a while this morning feeling numb and thinking about my loss but then decided to come out and try to work on something. I was looking in a catalog and saw a ready made adjustable band which spiraled up around your finger that you could purchase and then glue a cabochon onto. I thought this was a good idea - but I could do much better - make a bezel cup for my cabochon with all soldered connections and make it really secure. Above you can see the result. I used one of my own enameled cabs with Japanese enamels over a copper base with copper cloisonne wires. I named the ring "Creation Day" - it reminded me of a sperm visiting an egg. Thank goodness there is work to turn to in difficult times.

finished

I finished those dark oxidized rings I showed last time. The stones are set and everything is polished now. The two wedding style rings are for my friends, Gayle and Karen (copper appliques and amethyst for Karen and brass appliques and citrine for Gayle - I hope they like them!), and the adjustable ring with black mother of pearl and black onyx on the left is for an etsy customer.