Now You See Me…

• GEMSTONE:        Topaz, Fantasy Cut
•  ARTIST:               Darryl Alexander
•  MINE:                  Rise Above Mine, Colorado
•  MUSEUM:           Unassigned

This gemstone was named even before Darryl Alexander has cut it and, as beautiful as we’re sure the cut gem will be, this story is about color, not cut. Don’t get us wrong, we know we’ll love the result! For now we have pictured a large and a small piece of Topaz rough, both next to a cut gemstone. American Gemstone waits with anticipation for Darryl to cut the large piece of rough.

American Gemstones acquired the gemstone rough from Amada Atkins. She had mined it several years before at her Rise Above claim. One large piece of rough was 810 carats and of extraordinary clarity. A smaller piece from the same crystal was also mined at the same time

Later, when we told Amanda we cut the large rough into two pieces, the shock and horror was apparent on her face. Then we told her that we put one of the two pieces in the Arizona summer sun. OK…we thought she would have a stroke. First, we defiled a huge piece of Topaz rough by cutting it and then tortured part of it in the sun. Why in the world would we do such things?

The rough was cut into two pieces in order to demonstrate a characteristic in some gemstones. Now You See Me… is the larger portion of that big piece of Topaz rough. The smaller of the two pieces of rough was exposed to sunlight and then cut into the beautiful gemstone we named ” …Now You Don’t” (shown in the picture). Now You See Me… has been kept out of the sunlight in order to show the contrast. In our view, both gemstones are/will be stunning examples of expert gemstone artistry when applied to beautiful gemstone rough. Even light sensitive stones can typically be worn if a bit of care is used to keep the gemstone from exposure to sunlight for too long. In either case; Now You See Me… is a beautiful warm gemstone and …Now You Don’t is a bright, sharp gem, also of exquisite beauty.