For those just interested in the stone information and not the backstory: Citrine, 3.015 carats, design is Gram Princess by Jeff Graham (optimized in GCS to work for citrine RI).
And a quick THANK YOU to this community for pushing me to get that 3k lightning lap - quartz and I are finally getting along thanks to your advice, as you can see from this beauty.
THE BACKSTORY
My grandfather was a hobby gemcutter, and passed away over 20 years ago. When my grandmother finally passed a few years ago and we were clearing the estate, we found several cut stones of his left behind and divided them across the family - and I inherited 3 square-cut citrines.
Last year my partner proposed, and we set our wedding date for November 12, 2023 (yes next week! aaah!). I decided I would commission those citrines into a pendant as my "something old" and "something new", and a way to symbolically have my grandfather at my wedding.
After I had gotten the pendant back and was showing it to a friend, they pointed out to me that citrine is November's birthstone, the same month I chose for our wedding... which was a wonderfully spooky coincidence.
My dad is generously paying for our venue, and he has no idea I have started to cut gems like his father used to do. I plan on surprising him by giving him his own square citrine, cut by me, as a thank you for his generosity and for attending. I intentionally chose a princess cut since, after all, I am his little princess. :)
I can't post my gem anywhere on social media lest my family see it and spoil the surprise, but I know none of them use Lemmy so here I am, sharing with you all!
(side note: handling my grandfather's stones and seeing that beautiful pendant is what spurred me to finally learn to cut my own, so there's my origin story too.)
Fantastic job! And I wish you and your partner all the best!
Let us know your father’s reaction to you taking up faceting!
Just gave it to him today! He was incredibly touched at the gesture, and revealed to me he still has my grandfather's old laps! No machine, just laps. So I'll be going through those whenever he finds them in storage, and maybe inheriting some more things from my grandfather if they're in good shape!