I have a tale but it’s a precautionary one. A few years ago I was
trying to photograph a fine custom-cut grape-colored rhodolite garnet
of considerable value I was contributing as an auction item for an
Orchid event. My attempts using artificial light were unsuccessful
and since it was a nice sunny day I thought natural light in my back
yard might be just the thing.
I’ll never know. The stone slipped off the table and landed in
fairly short lawn grass. I searched and searched and practically
denuded the patch of lawn where I thought it had landed, but no
cigar. I simply couldn’t find it so donated another similar stone for
the event. Be sure to use some kind of drop cloth when working with
stones outdoors.
Years ago on this forum I coined the term “Jeweler’s Position,”
referring to the familiar pose we all adopt when searching for
dropped stones, indoors or out. Now as then, I believe dropped stones
have an impish, capricious quality and disappear into the 4th
Dimension until it suits their mood to reappear in plain sight in an
obvious place you’ve searched several times before. Most of the time,
that is. That rhodolite is gone forever and I hope it’s found
happiness wherever it may be.
I once dropped 2ct. of 3pt. diamonds onto a flokati rug. Three
friends, a vacuum cleaner with a pair of tights over the hose and
two hours later we got 2.5ct. back.
Now That’s a neat trick! Can I borrow that rug? And maybe the
friends, vacuum cleaner and panty hose-- hard to know where the magic
was!
I once dropped 2ct. of 3pt. diamonds onto a flokati rug. Three
friends, a vacuum cleaner with a pair of tights over the hose and
two hours later we got 2.5ct. back.
Nice trick! Did you keep the rug? It could have become the next
goose that lays golden, er, diamond eggs…
Now this is still bugging me to this very day. About ten years ago I
lost a box containing the best rough I own. Some of the material I
was saving for the time I would have a faceting machine (which came
five years ago).
Some of the contents are
2 gram piece of Facet Grade Moldavite
3 slabs of Williams Black Jade with gold flecks
5 ounce chunk of light smoky rutilated quartz
Unknown amount of Facet grade Amethyst
A bunch of facet grade Montana Sapphires
Etc. but the worst loss…
I found a green-yellow-red-brown chunk of common opal as big as two
large fists that had 3/8 inch seams of Blue Agate in the shape of a
stick figure walking. It was also in the box.
Now this is still bugging me to this very day. About ten years ago
I lost a box containing the best rough I own.
When we moved from St. Louis to AZ 26 years ago, we packed many of
our valuables including my finished cabochons and some expensive
slabs and rough, etc. rather than trusting them to the moving guys.
We decided to “mislabel” these rather than have something look
attractive to anyone handling it.
When we got the crates from the move unloaded at our new home, I
couldn’t find the round cake tin I’d taped shut in St. Louis and was
sure that it had been stolen. Some things, mostly Joe’s tools, did
not make it to AZ even though they were documented. We were paid for
these but since we hadn’t declared the contents of the cake tin, we
couldn’t make a claim on it.
I didn’t give up hope that I’d actually find the durn thing and sure
enough, a couple of years later, I noticed a round, bright red cake
tin on the lower shelf of a utility cart in my laundry room. Can’t
say how many times I saw it or dusted it before then or if it was
another case of reappearance from the 4th dimension. Felt creepy and
awesome-good all at the same time.
Fast forward more than a year. The silver/aqua ring comes back for
sizing again. I reach for the heat sink jar, open it up, WHAT'S
THAT? Something in the bottom of the jar! In my cheapiness to use
the glob of heat sink over again, I scraped the blob into the jar,
not realizing it had picked up one of the earrings when I set it
down to answer the phone.
This reminded me of a story of my own.
I made a piece, don’t even remember now what it looked like, but it
had a nice, irregular-shaped opal in it. At the time, I didn’t have
my own studio yet, and did my own work in the studio where I teach.
I finished the piece and was all ready to set the stone-- and no
stone! I looked everywhere. I swept the floor and carefully went
through the sweepings (this is a classroom, and they don’t let the
janitorial staff in there because a millennium ago one stole
something, so this is about the only way it gets swept). I was
standing in the middle of the room, turning in a circle to look for
any other ideas, scratching my head, when another jeweler who was
there that day said, “Noel, come over here.” I came over. She said
“Turn around,” so I did. Then she plucked the opal off by butt.
I guess it got knocked onto my chair and I sat on it. It had a
little sticky stuff on the back because it had been originally
displayed on a card.
Some years ago I was commissioned to make a set of earring using the
customers VVS/F .80 cts each. I was polishing one of the earrings
and the buffer grabbed it and sent it flying. I had to deliver the
earrings two days later and I was frantic. I tore my shop apart,
looked everywhere and still couldn’t find it. My young daughter came
into the shop and I offered her $5.00 if she could find it. A few
minutes later, she found the earring. There is a 1" space behind my
safe and that is where it ended up. I was so happy that I gave her
$10.00. Thank God for young eyes :)…
A similar experience to Pam’s here. We had some rather strange
people who volunteered to help us pack up for a move one time. The
box with our heirloom jewelry in it I hid from curious eyes. In the
next house I did not see it for two years and sorrowed to think that
the little locket that was given to my mother by a little Nez Perce
girl was gone forever. She gave it to my schoolmate mother because
her brother, who had gone off to World War I was attracted to my
mother Ruth and had given her beaded moccasins before he left. Both
the brother and the sister died of TB, he while in the service.
Well, anyway, on our next move we cleaned up the kitchen stove, that
had not been needed at the second house, and sell it. There was the
jewelry box in the oven.
Today I was setting 4mm peridots but I could have sworn they were
mexican jumping beans. Those guys and gals just kept jumping all
over the place and then disappearing. Usually I would have been
hopping mad myself but today I just laughed as I remembered some of
the previous posts I read. Hopefully they will turn up tomarrow while
I wash the floor.
Today I was setting 4mm peridots but I could have sworn they were
mexican jumping beans.
I’m still looking for a couple of little diamonds… but in the big
clean-up trying to find them, I did find a bag with a parcel of
demantoid garnets I don’t remember buying and had never missed! Worth
more than those little melees…
Last week I was to repair a ring whose thin shank had broken at the
sizing join. No problem, easy repair. I had the foresight to put the
ring in a small plastic bag before letting it soak in the ultrasonic
all day…it was one of those 10k rings w/dark dark dark blue
sapphires, diamond chips and illusion ‘diamond’ settings. One of the
sapphs came out, was captured by the bag. I patted myself on the
back.
Next morning I do the repair and get set up to reset the sapph. I
had it carefully balanced on my finger pad, bringing it up to the
setting - and I sneezed! Must have blown the stone into the 4th
dimension. After an hour of searching for it (worth maybe 50 cents,
but right then it was going to cost me a bunch), I gave up and called
a local jeweler.
This was the guy to whom I took my jewelry when I first moved to
Florida, long before I became a jeweler myself. He said they had
sapphires like that, bring it in and they would find one that fit.
Not only did they find one, his assistant jeweler set the stone,
tightened two other loose ones and polished the ring for me when I
had my back turned. Talk about great service! Then when I asked to
pay for it, he said, “Let’s just call it a Happy Valentine’s Day
present.”
Well, anyway, on our next move we cleaned up the kitchen stove,
that had not been needed at the second house, and sell it. There
was the jewelry box in the oven.
You’re giving me hope. During/after our last move, I lost a treasure
box containing all of the love letters my husband sent to me during
his deployment in Vietnam. We’re moving again at the end of the
year. If only…