Gem Cutting Workshop
Profile
Romney Hayden / Owner
- 45 years of gem cutting experience.
- Variety of materials and equipment.
- Gem mining experience.
- Jewelry design and manufacture of custom pieces.
Courses Offered
Cabochon Cutting: Beginner and Advanced
For beginners and advanced students who want to learn new techniques with unusual gem material.
Why cabochon cutting and not faceting?
Everything you learn, the more you learn
In cabochon gem cutting will increase the quality of your cutting when you begin to facet. Forty-fifty years ago, an apprentice did cabochon cut three to five years, before moving on to faceting.
Learning the different hardness of stones, polishing techniques, heat transfer, doping procedures, speed control and wheel grit, best suited to the material you want to cut. As well as hand control, concentration and patience. All of this and a lot more, is essential, and a must prerequisite, for learning to facet stones.
Plus, you will be amazed at what you can do on a cabochon machine, which my store jewelry cases, so well showcase.
The Lab
- (1) One 6inch machine
- (1) One Sinch machine
- (3) Three trim saws.
Machines are set up to allow the student cut and polish a stone from beginning to end. Equipment is standard, so a student can transfer to like or same equipment of their choosing, when they are ready for that step.
Classes Thumbnail
Begginers
2 hours per secession / 10 hour total
Usually from 9:00AM - 11:00AM -- days to be scheduled.
$45.00 per hour -- Total $450.00
Class includes all materials necessary for cutting, stone and or gems to be cut, can be provided, or student can bring their own material, if workable.
One on one, teacher to student instruction.
One of our goals is to get the student to cut and finish a stone, in the first two-hour secession of the course.
At the end of the 10 hour course, the student will have a basic knowledge of gem cutting. The student can continue the advanced course offered, or go off, purchase their own equipment, and continue to learn, at their own pace.
Advanced
2 hours per secession / 6 hour min. no max.
Usually from 9:00AM - 11:00am -- days to be scheduled.
$35.00 per hour
Study:
- A variety of polishing, slabbing, doping and grinding techniques.
- Free form and speed cutting methods.
- More information and instruction on equipment and its uses.