The wonderful world of gems

The Australian Facetors’ Guild’s annual Seminar hit Narrabri Showground pavilion on September 1-3 as enthusiasts and experts from across Australia gathered to introduce Narrabri to the wonderful world of gems.

Whether you’re a fascinated facetor or an appreciator of sparkly precious stones, there was something for everyone at the free visitors’ session and workshops.

Rare and unusual gems featuring all the shades and depths of the galaxy could be discovered at Brian Pepperall from Brisbane’s BR gem stall, including giant Nigerian Topaz stones of Titanic ‘gem dropped at the bottom of the sea’ proportions, as well as gemstones ranging from sapphires, topaz, garnet, citrine, ruby, amethyst, and tourmaline.

But if the intricate art of cutting, faceting, and skin polishing was more your thing, masters of the craft offered specialised one-on-one training courses, running over multiple days.

Australian Facetors’ Guild vice president Carol van der Pennen was ready to enrapture gem collectors with her pool of knowledge, and had a few gems of wisdom to give out herself; including that “zircons are a girl’s best friend, not diamonds,” and “always inspect a gem in a dark corner, not by holding it into the light, because that’s when you’ll see the real gleam.”

One particularly poetic musing she dropped was explaining the process which creates the intricate and varying shades of light through cutting rough stones, and how they become so unique.

“When the light enters the stone, the light ray bends, then it reflects off the internal surfaces of the stone, then reflects out again, and comes back out to the viewer,” said Carol.

“In the process that ray is split, and breaks up into its different prismatic colours, and depending on the materials of the stone you can have a more neutral-looking stone that will all of sudden give you all the colours of the rainbow.”

Courses in Gem Cut Studio and GemCAD for beginners were available, then you could attend forums and seminars on selecting your gemstones, faceting, skin polishing, cutting, and setting gemstones.

The faceting courses, level one and two gem cutting and were fully booked with 15 gem enthusiasts each receiving one-on-one personal instruction from experts.

Almost 50 other participants took part in the program, in good company among qualified gemologists, and a North Queensland manufacturer of one of the best VJ gem-cutting machines demonstrating his machines.