TaoGem Gemstones

This is my first attempt at making an intarsia !
A bit of a disaster..
It should have been more obvious to me while grinding down the flat edges of the Obsidian that it was not nearly good enough. As can be seen at the joints.
I knew the top edges were a bit chipped, but thought that [...]

Just received this really pretty Ocean Wave Jasper. Have cut a lot of orb Ocean Jasper, but only ever had a couple of Ocean Wave Jasper.
One thing about buying the expensive Orb type Ocean Jasper is that it is hard to find at an affordable price without pitting or vugs. The Ocean Wave Jasper seems [...]

Been having fun again with more multi gemstone groups that are excellent for jewelry designing.. Especially if your a silversmith and like interesting and unique pieces..
What makes the group gemstone cabochon sets a little more interesting, is the way they are cut from the original mineral slab. Somewhat similar to making a quality pair of [...]

Members on my forum join in with bi monthly semiprecious gemstone cabochon contests. This time instead of picking a particular mineral this time we are doing any mineral type in freeform. Any way, as a result I ended up choosing Titainium Rutile in Quartz for my entry. Wanted to share my limited experience working with [...]

For most Lapidaries, cutting gemstone cabochons has most likely resulted in at least a few undercutting experiences.  For the purpose of this blog entry, I wanted to post a bit about undercutting as related in dealing with combined soft and hard mineral compositions . Different from that of flat spots that result from sanding and [...]

I do enjoy working with the mineral Chrysocolla.
This particular Sanora Sunrise was new to me. Because of having much success lately with different Chrysocolla’s, I knew that I wanted to give this a whirl. My only first concern was because the seller had so much of it for sale, that there may be a chance [...]

Some time ago I received my first piece of Chatoyant Feather Malachite. I had seen pictures of finished cabochons of it before and was very excited to finally get to cab some.
Initially I was very disappointed because for the life of me, I could not get a polished finish.
With this chatoyant type Malachite, you have [...]

This was my first time having the opportunity to work with this Tourmaline in Quartz mineral. When I first looked through the piece of rough, was not entirely sure if it would be all that much better to slice it one direction over another.
The black Tourmaline really did not cluster or run any more or [...]

Just thought I might share a neat Imperial Stichtite and Zoisite gemstone cabochon I made with anyone out there listening.
Been playing a little with druzy materials. Ever since we started talking about it on our forum.
Some of the members showed some pretty cool druzy gemstone cabochons. I instantly began to find sources for different [...]

I had some of this a while back and the cabochons turned out excellent. At the time I did not know what it was called. At that time, I had thought it might have been a type of Wave Jasper.
The other day a friend of mine gave me another piece of rough of this same [...]

A while back, came across some Serpentine Gemstone mineral that ended up being unlike anything I had tried to polish before. I could tell the material was certainly going to be some excellent looking gemstone material for custom jewelry designs.
I like to share with anyone interested how these minerals look when first starting to cut [...]

I have been sending out a great many gemstones made of a variety of minerals to gemstone jewelry designers for over a year now.
If you have subscribed to my site then you have probably been following along as I add new blog entries. More to the point of this blog post is another recent [...]

One of what has become a favorite mineral of mine is this semi precious Imperial Spider Jasper. It is a rather rare Jasper. I have never even seen it before.
While visiting another lapidary up in Bonners Ferry Idaho, he reluctantly parted with a very small piece of this fabulous material. It was enough to make [...]

Until recently I have not really cut and polished a lot of Plume type agates. Recently we began weekly contest entries for various cabochons. Each week is different and can be based upon color, type of mineral, or shape.
It was as a result of entering that I finished one of my favorite cabs. I [...]

One of my favorite minerals are the different ocean jaspers. Especially the orbicular jasper variety mined on the coast of Madagascar.
Here is an example of a beautiful specimen of “Ocean Jasper” rough.
I really love the way a finished cabochon looks. Here is a rarer red ocean jasper matched pair. Ideal for designing custom earring jewelry.
For [...]