I renamed the thread of diamond setting prices in this case, because
the reply was about finding a lost diamond with a headlamp when the
power went out. We have flashlights scattered all over the place for
that very reason, and the power doesn’t need to be out, and the lights
don’t even need to be off. When a diamond on the floor catches the
beam of light, it “winks” at you.
Or you could check your cat’s rear end lol I used to sort stones in
my bedroom where there were only 2 kittens and they were good about
not jumping up. This goes back to my Show kitten Sony Trinitron aka
Sonny Jim I lost a 25 pointer and couldn’t find it anywhere later my
Sonny jumped up on my bed and turned around and there it was gleaming
in his white fur. Good old static electricity I laughed so hard
Diamond butt Jim Brady was not concerned over losing his decoration.
Teri
Silver & Cameo Heritage Jewelry
www.corneliusspick.com
1 Like
This is good advice but I have one more piece of advice for you. Any
one who wears “hard” contact lenses will tell you that lost contacts
are sometimes not found on the floor. At times, the contact can be
caught into a crevice of a piece of furniture, a cabinet, etc. So,
while you are on the floor with your head lamp, look up, in addition
to looking down.
this makes me wonder…where is the strangest place you found a lost
diamond?..so far the cat has it. Can you top it?
Reply to my own post haha… One time I just jiggled a parcel paper
with 2 emeral cabs in it. One fell in my bench, but one just dropped
over the side. These are only $50 stones, but they were customer
stones, and matches. 3 HOURS later, having moved furniture, swept 10
times. I had lunch and a break, and then within 10 minutes I found
it. It had gone up inside the footpedal to my flexshaft - 3-4 feet
away. I had picked it up and shaken it, before, but this time I
turned it upside down, and pfft, there it was… They know when you
are under the gun, they do…
It is amazing where stones can end up. I once lost a client stone, a
cabochon of little value but of course irreplacible. I had made the
earrings and she wanted different posts. I took out the stone and it
just hit the floor and vanished. I looked for the entire afternoon. I
finally started taking EVERYTHING out of the room. I found the stone
resting the in a layer of small plywood sheets. I had a small stack
of varying pieces, setting in a pile. Somehow the stone had hit the
floor and bounced up about a foot off of the ground and wedged its
way into the pile. There was a piece of plywood on the top of the
pile overhanging the one with the stone about 2 inches and one below
it sticking out an inch or so as well How did it even get there??
Trolls, the same ones who take your socks out of the dryer. I have
since found if you ask nicely for the stone to be returned in will
magically appear, sometimes right before your eyes!
Good luck Dennis
Teri
I really liked the story of how you found your stone ‘on your cat’.
I have 4 cats that ‘help’ when I am in the shop. They do some of the
darnedest things.
Mike who helps polish stones, or at least he paws at the wheels
while I am grinding and polishing.
Bisset, who likes to be there when I am at the bench sawing and
forming metal, there is a contention between her and Mike as to who
should be there for buffing. The only rule we have in effect, no cats
on the bench when soldering or dopping. I keep and alcohol lamp going
and the cats can’t see an alcohol flame any better than I can. Bisset
had the fur on one side scorched because of it. When it happened the
first thing I did was to feel my head, I thought I had set myself on
fire, when I found it was Bisset I felt even worse. She wasn’t hurt,
but as she sleeps against me, it felt odd for about a month, all
those crinkly hairs.
Maggie is probably the best behaved now, I gave her my stool. For
her part, she felt that if I had worked on it and set it aside it was
fair game for batting around. Giving her her own stool helped, but if
I leave anything out after I leave the room I have to find what she
did with it. Most of the time it is not as bad as it sounds, it is in
her box or at my place on the couch.
Bud, the dog, feels a little left out, I don’t let him in the
basement because I can’t get him to stop eating the cat food and at
45 pounds I step on him a lot. The other day I came home and he
wasn’t acting normal, I had him give me whatever it was in his mouth,
it turned out to be a piece I had been working on, I think he took it
away from Maggie. However it has a certain unique peening on it that
was not part of the original design.
Lastly is Squeak, she feels computer time is hers, the only problem,
she likes pawing the keyboard, or standing on it.
Anyone else have these problems trying to working at home?
Terry
This isn’t the strangest story but I bet it’s one of the longest
ones. We had a customer who brought us three old mine cut diamonds
(about a third of a carat each) that she wanted made up in a ring (a
really ugly ring, I might add). When we had her come in to look at
it before we set the diamonds we said to her: “We’re going to just
drop the diamonds into the bezels but they’re loose so don’t turn
your hand over.” What was the first thing she did? Turned her hand
over of course! We found two immediately but the third was nowhere to
be found. Three of us searched high and low in the front of the shop.
During the search some other customer came in and joined the search.
She left rather abruptly (leading us to believe at one point that
she had found it and walked out with it). We all stripped down and
checked ourselves and our clothes. We spent close to three hours
looking for the darn thing. Fortunately the woman had more than
three of them and, since she had done exactly what we told her not to
do (and she knew it) she just gave us one of the other ones to work
with. EIGHT YEARS later we had a kid working for us who did the
cleaning. One day he decided to sweep out under the safe (which was
in the back room). At the very back of the safe, he saw something
sparkle and fished it out. There it was!
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
@Daniel_R_Spirer
Hi
My wife once lost her 1 ct diamond from her ring in the store, and
realised at the end of the day. We searched the whole store paid a
bunch of overtime to all the employees but failed to find it. Well
the diamond showed up after 6 months it was hiding in the corner of
the showcase door tracks.
Gary Udhwani
I have a story to relate which is amusing. My cousin Amber was a
"Tom-Boy’ when she was a young girl. Living in Illinois she had the
opportunity to climb a lot of trees. One fine day, she climbed up a
tree and found, are you ready for this?—A lady’s diamond cluster
ring, stuck in a bough. She retrieved it, and showed it to her
Mother. Being a good citizen, it was turned into the local police
department “lost and found.” A year goes by, no claim is made and
under the law of salvage, the ring now belongs to Amber. Our family
theory is that it was either stolen and dropped by the thief or that
it slipped off of a finger. The mystery was: How did it end up in the
tree? Well, if you are familiar with Illinois, the squirrels are
everywhere and they are attracted to all sorts of small things aside
from food and you get the picture. I don’t think DeBeers hires
squirrels to mine diamonds, do they? LOL!
Try 9 cats and 1 dog. Toby (head honcho), Penny (ready to be head
queen, half bobcat/half Maine coon), Missy (who doesn’t care as long
as there is plenty of heat and food), Luka (a drop off when her
owners came to order a school ring), Tom (still semi feral and the
only one that doesn’t come into the shop), Jo Jo (brought by Tom),
Tinkerbelle, Tucker and TJ. Dog is Cody. All were drop offs except
Penny, Tom and Jo Jo. Our customers actually are disappointed when
the cats are not in the shop when they come.
Judy Shaw
FYI, this thread has given me great comfort and peace. So many times
I spend looking for my scribe, my glasses, or some other thing I need
immediately (which are not nearly as small or costly as diamonds, of
course). Glad to know I’m not the only one 
Trolls, the same ones who take your socks out of the dryer. I have since found if you ask nicely for the stone to be returned in will magically appear, sometimes right before your eyes!
Hi Dennis! Re your post about the gem-stealing trolls; is your
studio under a bridge? You may want to get a billy goat.
In my studio, the problem seems usually to be gnome-related. I
believe these gnomes to be small-tool gnomes, not to be confused with
the common garden gnome (Gnomus horticulturis vulgaris). I suspect
that they may be related to wood gnomes (Gnomus sylvestris), who
usually busy themselves with moving the nuts that squirrels have
carefully set by for the winter. This is why squirrels always have a
sort of flustered look about them.
Anyway, these gnomes scamper about the workshop in the dark and move
things like compasses, pencils, utility knives (they love those),
kneaded erasers, and so on. They don’t come near the jewelry workbench
much, as I always keep things like the chuck key in fixed locations,
which confuses them, and I keep burs and abrasive discs in
compartmentalized boxes, which they find distasteful.
There is some evidence to suggest that there is a species of
thermophilic gnome that is attracted to autoclaves (where they blow
the lids off things or cause bottles to implode), kilns (where they
destroy pottery and discolor dichroic glass), and toaster ovens
(where they blow bubbles in resin as it cures). Many other creatures,
such as the Foredom-motor kobold, the torch-valve imp, and the
hard-drive djinn, also trouble hardworking jewelers, and are found
in every major biome.
Gnome control is indeed difficult. Saucers of milk are no help (as
everyone knows, these are more effective for brownies and pixies),
and scattering seeds, so effective in controlling vampires, only
seems to attract them. So, as you suggest, maybe a politely phrased
plea for mercy is the best approach!
Best to all, and may your gnomes be understanding,
Jessee Smith
www.silverspotstudio.com
Cincinnati, OH
I too have a little diamond anecdote. (At the end free tissues will
be available)
- She was on leave from HM. Army, from helping make and test
sabotage weapons for undercover fighters. I was on leave from HM
Royal Navy, from being chased by torpedoes, bombs, bullets and mines
in the mediterranean. Lovely October evening, so I strayed with my
love by the pure (?) crystal (?) Wanstead Park Lake. We sat under a
chestnut tree, watching the full moon rise over the still water. I
fumbled in my pocket and found The Ring. I’d had no money but
borrowed enough off my father to buy the tiny 2 - 3 pointer diamond
mounted in a 9 carat very slim shank. As I fumbled it onto her finger
loud bells rang out across the water (I kid you not; the local
bellringers practicing in the nearby church belfry) Time moved on (as
it does) and we were married and living in a single room. One
horrible, memorable day we hunted high and low for that miserable
little diamond, with no luck, to Jean’s great distress. Peter had
arrived (as they do) and one day was playing with the sweeping broom
( as they do); when delightedly, Jean picked the sparkling morsel
from the broom hairs and we had that miserable little diamond
re-mounted in that skinny apology for a gold engagement ring. Then
she vowed she would only wear it again on very special occasions.
She will be wearing it next on this June 24th for our DIAMOND
wedding.
(The tissues are over there; help yourselves)
And the moral is?..
Cheers for now,
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua, Nelson NZ
My parents in Florida bought the vacant lot in back of their house
and hired some workers to clear out the brush. During their work they
found an old rotting leather wallet. Inside were two broken diamond
rings in antique filigree mountings. One was a small 5 pointer, but
the other was a very nice stone of about 1/3 carat. The wallet
contained no identification or other papers. We often wondered how
the wallet came to be there. One of life’s mysteries, I guess.
Janet Kofoed
A fellow friend/jeweler in a nearby city to me was part of an
unusual lost diamond story. His teenage daughter was riding around
with her friend in her friend’s old beat up rust bucket of a car. The
daughter noticed a ring hanging from the mirror of her friends car
and asked her where she got it, with a reply that she had found it in
a parking lot or something to that order. The friend said she thought
it was just junk jewelry. My friends daughter, having grown up around
this business all her life, had enough of an eye to know real stuff
from costume, and persuaded her friend to let her father take a look
at it. They found out that it was a very large diamond, large enough
that he said he could sell it in his store easily for 20,000. Of
course the girl was astounded. especially since her car was so junky
that she couldn’t even lock the doors. A typical teenager with a very
untypical mirror decoration that was easily worth at least 10 times
(or more) of the value of the car it was decorating.
Ed in Kokomo
Hi John & Jean,
Congratulations on your anniversary!
God has been good to you & Jean. I’ve only known 2 other couples who
had the good fortune be with each other for so long!
Glad you found the diamond! It’ll truly be family heirloom for
decades to come.
Hope your Day & the rest of your lives are filled with health,
happiness & good fortune.
You and Jean obviously had the foresight to pick the right sets of
parents.
Dave Arens
PS. Always enjoy your posts on Orchid!. Incidentally, my wife Janet & I
celebrated our 50th last July. Any hints on making it to 75?
My cat Francis (a tuxedo cat) loves to sit on my lap with his front
legs stretched out on the desk in front of him, helping me to read my
E mail, and is especially fond of reading Orchid postings. Love these
animal stories…
John,
Sounds like the real diamond was not in the ring! Best wishes for a
joyous count down.
Bill Churlik
@Bill_Churlik
www.earthspeakarts.com
I wish I had nice cuddly trolls or gnomes - my workshop happens to
be on the cusp of a space - time continuum and I am afflicted by
wormholes in time. I just put a tool down for an instant and turn my
back and - zap! - a wormhole opens up and the tool disappears into
another dimension. After much searching and head scratching the tool
suddenly re-appears just where I thought I left it. I’ve now got a
bit blase about this and, when something disappears I just sit back,
close my eyes, and wait for it to re-appear on its own… I
suppose its all the holes in the ozone layer punched by the
spacecraft that’s letting the wormholes through 
Best wishes, Ian
Ian W. Wright
SHEFFIELD UK