TaoGem Gemstones

TaoGem Gemstones
It can be a real struggle for a gemstone jewelry designer to design that unique piece of gemstone jewelry. Most designers do not have a working relationship with a specific lapidary shop. This means that the designer is limited to picking out gemstones to work with at random off the internet or perhaps […]

Now that I have some time under my belt cutting, shaping, sanding and polishing gemstones for others who are skilled jewelry designers, I am now ready to learn some type of jewelry making. After selling to so many talented jewelry designers and witnessing the many interesting jewelry making techniques, I have decided to pursue metal […]

I wanted to sorta be prepared for my first silver metal clay beginners class coming up the end of the month.
I decided to practice what I preach from a previous blog entry, and will design my first piece more around the design / shape of the stones. Then work second with the shape of the […]

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 […]

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 […]

An example of some beautiful Rainbow Jasper in slab form. This particular example really has a great variety of jasper colors. I do have this available in stock and can be cut and shaped in any way that a jewelry designer would like. I have talked before about how important it can be for a […]

There is only one method for a lapidary to create matched gemstone pairs to be used in custom earring type jewelry designs.
It is necessary for the lapidary to begin with a solid piece of gemstone mineral in rough form. There is no other way because we have to have two matching slabs from the […]

It can have so much color and pattern variation. Gray wave red jasper is very similar to red bend jasper in color.
I cut this Wave Jasper Gemstone for a customer. As you can see, this Jasper mineral sure has the potential for some beautiful gemstone jewelry.

The Wave Jasper Slab above is available for special requests. […]

The vibrant blue color of lapis lazuli (or lapis) is a strikingly beautiful. Often having gold veins running through it, or a sparkly finish, lapis is a rock that has been admired and cherished for thousands of years.
 
Lapis Lazuli Information
* Water may remove the protective coating that is on lapis and therefore should not […]

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 […]

Here are several types of settings for gemstone cabochons that will be set after firing the metal clay.
Fine silver bezel wire. Wrap a strip of fine silver bezel wire around the base of a cabochon. Test fit and adjust the bezel over your cabochon on a flat surface. There shouldn’t be any gaps but the […]

When I first decided to try to sell on the internet there was one thing that still stands out from all the suggestions that were offered through a number of online internet sales forums. It was strongly suggested to specialize and revolve the business around a specific niche.
For myself it became readily obvious just how […]

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 […]

Blog Traffic is something that we all want to see. Especially targeted blog traffic. There are several ways to achieve that and probably thousands of different articles on the subject. I’m going to add to the mix with a site that I have run across that looks promising.
If you noticed that in the right hand […]

Link to store wide sale.
If your familiar with TaoGem prices, then you already know how inexpensive they are.
Twice a year I like to have a nice little sale and mark everything down twenty percent. On top of that, there are no shipping costs either for National or International gemstone orders.
This is also an excellent time […]

Blog entry’s are a great way to be seen in search engine results.
So this blog entry is simply to show off a few pairs that I have made while including a link to my gemstone store for jewelry designers to check out. Hopefully so as to find something that they can use for their own […]

Here is another absolutely beautiful gemstone mineral I totally enjoy making cabochons from.
This mostly Azurite with druzy mixed with a little Malachite rough I purchased at a local fair. I had been befriending the owner who together with his wife spend the summer setting up their jewelry booth throughout the Pacific Northwest.
He has been rock […]

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 […]

I was recently given a little bit of nice Chinese Pietersite Rough that was able to get a couple of small slabs out of.

After slabbing up the couple of small slabs thought might share one of my favorite cabs that finished.

I have a couple more on the bench that will post in a […]

No everyone has the same setup. Mine has a metal banding with a hooked spring attachment.
My disc is an eight inch, so I order ten inch leather so it is much easier to hold in place while trying with three hands and a foot to keep everything together.
I like to add a quarter inch thick […]

I just felt like posting how some examples of multiple gemstone sets that are excellent for use in bezel and other silver smithing kinds of settings.
I always cut gemstone cabochon sets like these from the same slab. The idea being to have an awesome matching appearance by utilizing colors, grain, and or combinations of mineral […]

I have had several requests for drilled gemstones. So, the other day I went out and purchased a bench style drill press.
I decided to get right to it and try making some necklace and bracelet sets. Since I had a request for a set made from some fossil coral, it seemed like a great place […]

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 […]

New E-Store Link
Ever since I started using the Wordpress e-Commerce Plugin by Instinct Entertainment customers have been lining up complaining about how difficult it is to shop with. Not user friendly at all.
In response to that, I created a new ZenCart for shopping gemstone cabochon jewelry supplies.
Much more user friendly.
Gemstone categories are broken up into […]

Every imaginable type of jasper for gemstone jewelry designing. For a silversmith who uses gemstones in your settings. For designing silver metal clay gemstone jewelry pieces, or for any other type of gemstone jewelry. Especially any gemstone jewelry designs that use bezel settings.
Here are just a few examples of different types of jasper gemstone cabochons […]

There are a lot of different types of Fossilized Coral, not to mention fossilized material as a whole. The one I have some experience with cutting for customers who make custom gemstone, bezel type setting jewelry is this Indonesian Fossilized Coral.
Here is an example of what I am most familiar with shaping cabochons from.

Here are […]

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 […]

The single most important hurdle for a beginner is getting at least somewhat of a handle on the graduated stages from grinding, sanding and a nice polish on a gemstone cabochon.
Believe me.. I remember all to well. Bought my first combo unit. A Highland Park. It came with one course 80 , and 400 grit […]

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 […]