Tonight I finished the crown of my first gemstone. All facets are polished. Honestly, it's coming out better than I expected for the first effort. Either I did my homework better than I thought, the faceting machine is more simple to use than I expected, the moon was in the right phase, or something...
It's a seductive effort, cutting gems. Everything's on such a tiny scale. One degree of difference in a facet angle makes a world of difference. Time cannot be rushed, and here in the early going it's taking more time than I would ever be able to recoup in sales of stones. Yet I can see how it can get better with practice, and eventually I'll be turning out really nice stones with much less effort.
I didn't have an engineer's brain to start this whole thing, but it looks like an artist's temperament may compensate. Once I realize what I'm looking for with each facet, the cutting is like playing a Chopin nocturne, the same notes played every time but each performance subtly different from the last depending on my mood, my fingers' willingness and fitness to translate the piece, the setting in which the piece is being played, the depth of soul that can be had at the moment... There are so many jukes and jives you can use to tweak a facet, and each gem will be a unique performance. Unlike music, the gem will remain in silent beauty forever, always there to appreciate, never decaying with time.
I like this stuff.
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