Thank you so much for your help with what to do next! Thank you for sharing what you know with me. It sure is very interesting to have read. I sure I will try to get a piece of this off sooner than later. I think I will ask my jewelry teacher if he could cut a piece off. ( I kind of took a jewelry class for fun at a college. Now I am in independent study jewelry though. I learned a lot! Their is lots of neat equipment their. ). I hope that idea will work?
Iām encouraging you to pursue your passion. Please do it in a disciplined and systematic way. I am first a scientistā¦ scientific rigor is necessary for understanding something well. Taking a community college geology course will give you access to teachers. Online research is also free, but you need to know how to search properly and follow through. There are multiple websites on any gem or mineral. Only a few scientific or scholarly papers are worth pursuing for an advanced studentā¦ Wikipedia is a good place to look as a beginner. The cited reference are very good for a deeper look into what you are pursuing. You must either be formally taught in a class setting be it in person or online OR you have to be very self disciplined and motivated to study in depth on your ownā¦ online resources include GIA videos on specific topics and aspects of gems via Utubeā¦ you also have to be discriminating about avoiding commercial websites that have an agenda: selling stones. They donāt tell you much at all about the science behind a gemā¦ study at a basic level first and then advance as you gain knowledge and learn how to be discriminating about what you pick up online. I am constantly fact checking when I post my responsesā¦ but I do know how to search properly. This is something that anyone can doā¦ it just takes a lot of self discipline to doā¦ studying some physics to understand optical properties and studying a lot of chemistry is essential and should be part of your beginner level repertoire. If you canāt understand science, you will need to either study it formally or engage in it starting at a very basic level alsoā¦Thereās no other way to learn that is validā¦ knowing those topics will be invaluable for any higher level of studyā¦ so good luck and start with the basicsā¦ you wonāt have to post pictures and ask for ID when you learn to do it yourself.
I took my first class in jewelry making in high school. I did fabrication and managed to sell some of my workā¦ I returned to it 20 years ago and actively pursued it for 10 to 15 years. I am currently an active contributor to Orchid/ganoksin, the jeweler sister website to this one. Because of my science background, I was able to search effectively properties of metals and alloys and made my own sheet sterling, wires of various gauges, my own solder with precise melting point as determined by the alloy. I did purchase a rolling machine but worked with a set of basic hand toolsā¦ laser and pulse arc welders were not developed when I first started. I havenāt invested in these tools because I no longer make jewelryā¦ my experience was a lot of trial and error following scientific principlesā¦ I had some catastrophic failures but kept them as learning experiences. I also purchased gems for setting. the gems that I bought were all semiprecious and at that time fairly cheap and of good quality. Now I have a problem on my handsā¦ I have to dispose of a horde of uncut gems whose prices have appreciated tenfold over 20 years. Due to health problems related to aging, I canāt make more jewelry anymoreā¦ I joined this site to get an idea of valuation. Valuation is extremely difficultā¦ provenance and quality of each gemstone plays into it. The quality criteria are diverseā¦Selling at retail will take a bite of what I expect to get. However, I am not in a rush to sellā¦ the longer I wait, the greater the appreciation. They are a store of value as is my equally large horde of precious metalsā¦ that is much easier to dispose of but at the price of a hefty feeā¦ I have to send the whole lot to a commercial refiner to have them exchanged for investment grade bullionā¦ but once again, precious metals will continue to appreciate. Having them in a completely liquid form as hallmarked fine gold and fine silver will make it very easy to sell to precious metal dealers. The loose gems is what brought me to this site. I used to know the market but times have changed over 20 years and I have to relearn it at current pricing.
Just FYI: blue topaz is abundant because itās cheap white topaz that is artificially irradiated. I bought tanzanite and aquamarine for blue colored semi precious stones. Blue topaz hasnāt appreciate much, tanzanite a lot and aquamarine some to a lotā¦deep pinkish orange stones that I bought were imperial topaz and padparadschaā¦ orange red and orange pink are uncommon colors. Hessonite garnets besides pad fulfilled that need. intense deep red were malaya garnetsā¦ I did not buy rubies or sapphires other than the pad which I got for cheapā¦buying cut stones now requires a tremendous amount of discretion. many of these I set in my own settings.
Jewelry making went hand in hand with gemology. gemology went hand in hand with rockhounding. Rockhounding went hand in hand with geology and geology went hand in had with geochemistryā¦
Now Iām collecting plain old drab rocks that can tell us the history of the earth from the time of conception in the solar nebula to the present plate tectonics. Now I collect research papers on topics that I am interested in more than the rocks themselves, as getting rid of my rocks is another problemā¦ I am an associate member of the American Geophysical Union and the European Geochemical Societyā¦ Although I donāt have a formal geology degree, I am well versed in the field, having systematically studied mineralogy, petrology and isotope chemistryā¦ I am strongly considering returning to school for a degree. I have attended the last two Goldschmidt conferences in Hawaii in 2022 and this past summer in Lyon Franceā¦ I enjoyed the presentations so much that I am going to the Chicago meeting this summer. All of this is PhD stuff. I can understand all of it conceptually but not fully quantitatively because l need to study higher math including multivariate analysis and partial differential equations. I do know a bit about numeric modeling since itās in the field of my own specialty as a neuroscientist.
Iām letting you know a lot about myself as well as my limitationsā¦ I am definitely not a GIA certified gemologistā¦ however learning and acquiring new knowledge should always be a personās goalā¦ growing old makes it more difficult but still possible. Being retired gives me more time to devote to learningā¦exploiting your knowledge base which should always keep expanding gives you the wherewithal to answer your own questions about your own rocksā¦ the resources available to your are limitless. Your potential is also limitless. Keep on studying!