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 Post subject: What's a good book to help prepare for Color Stone course?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:04 am 
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Hi everyone!

I also posted this question on a couple of the other boards on this site because I'm new and not sure which board gets the most action.

I'm just waiting for my Color Stone Essentials final exam grade and for the arrival of my Color Stone Course material which sounds like it won't arrive for at least another week.

I'm not working this week and I don't have kids so I can study all day long and I wanted to know what books or websites I should study on color stones that will make the Color Stone course easier and help be get through it faster?

Any suggestions? Now that you've taken the course, what would you have studied before hand if you could have?

Thanks so much!
Lucky


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:29 am 
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Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:48 pm
Posts: 834
Location: florida
HI

GOOD LUCK on your exams :smt026

im not officially a student doing all my research on line , a really GREAT :D place to go and get a heads up is GEMOLOGYPROJECT.COM 8) the link to it is on your left side of the screen
DragonStek :wink:


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 Post subject: no worries
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:01 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:16 am
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Location: Silom, Bangrak, Bangkok
No need to prepare in my opinion. I just did the course last year and it went very smoothly and quickly. The material is very, very well presented and you will move through it in no time. I doubt that you will have trouble grasping the concepts- there are plenty of illustrations and the text provides real-life examples to help you picture them.

You are in for a treat. It is an amazing course and possibly my favorite part of the whole GG program. I will let you know in a few months when I am finished if that is still true!

Is there any way you can do the Gem ID Lab in Bangkok? The staff there will blow you away. They are so passionate and so intense. They love to teach and they love gemology in a way that makes being a student there an overwhelmingly positive experience. Coupled with the fact that you will study with others from all over the globe makes it a career-enhancing move and a very interesting, enriching experience.

If you haven't done your diamond grading lab yet, you can't do better than to take it with Larry Larson and Ric Taylor. I had them in Chicago for the lab and while it didn't offer the all-around wow factor of the Bangkok experience their teaching is impeccable. I taught for three years here in Asia and I know very well what separates good teachers from great ones. They have amazing skills.

Lest anyone think I am blowing GIA's horn, I have to say that their headquarters has horrible communications. They virtually never return emails and it is impossible to get consistent answers sometimes. If you are a distance student overseas you will have numerous hurdles over which to jump and doing your practical stones is a nightmare because of the slow turnaround time and poor communication. Foreign distance students fall through numerous cracks in the organization.

But that's me- not most of you. So no worries I think.

Best of luck with the course and use this forum often. It is one of the best tools in your toolbox! Think of it right along with the refractometer, loupe, and tweezers.

_________________
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. ~Mark Twain


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 Post subject: I would love to do the lab in bangkok!
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:33 pm 
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Thanks for responding. I love your enthusiasm. I thought the Color Stone Essentials course was quite easy and I'm sure I'll get through the Color stone course just fine. It's just that I rarely have so much time on my hands as I do right now and I know after the next month I won't again for a very long time so I'm dying to get some of either the Color Stone course or Diamond Essentials course material in my hands to utilize the next week or two as efficiently as possible.

Maybe I'll post a request on the boards and see if there is anyone who I can pay to Fedex me the course material that they are finished with and I'll return it in week or two.

Anyway, I would love to go to Bangkok and study for a few weeks but that is really hard to do since I'd have to take my husband and baby. I looked on the AIGS website but I didn't see any condensed courses that would be for maybe one or two weeks instead of four weeks. Do you know if they have any?

But I do plan to go to Bangkok to check out the gem markets but I especially want to check out the goldsmiths and how much it costs to have jewelry made there because I design jewelry and I'm thinking of having a factory or a team of Thai goldsmiths doing my production (all hand hammered, hand-worked pieces). But right now, since I'm just starting out, I don't have any contacts or know how the goldsmiths over there work and if there are companies that can handle a jewelry line of all hand hammered pieces (I would imagine there is, I just don't know any yet). What I think I need is a English/Thai speaking guide or consultant who knows the jewelry industry over there inside and out and who can take me around and introduce me to reliable gem dealers and goldsmiths.

Since you lived in Bangkok, what would you suggest a good first step for me would be as far as making contacts in Bangkok?

Thanks so much,
Lucky


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 Post subject: Re: What's a good book to help prepare for Color Stone cours
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:52 pm 
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luckyme wrote:
I wanted to know what books or websites I should study on color stones that will make the Color Stone course easier and help be get through it faster?

As said above, the course materials will be very informative in themselves, beautifully illustrated and detailed. You will only be tested on what is contained in them, but if I were you I would augment by using it as an outline to study deeper into the subject.

As for getting ready, aside from Liddicoat which they will send you, I would highly recommend as general overviews of gemology (sometimes available in local libraries by interlibary loan): Gemmology by Read as well as Gemology by Hurlbut and Kammerling, 2nd edition - the latter is out of print but you can find it online for $100-150 or less if you are lucky.... it is well worth buying!!!! It is very readable and a good companion to the the Read book... sort of like the GG and FGA :wink: Make sure you get that more up to date 2nd edition, not the first which is written by Hurlbut and Switzer. Gems 5th edition is a must if you can find a copy - 4th is good also, 6th is a different animal, but very good to have in addtion to the other two editions.

The Gemology Online bookstore listed at left generates income for the site by ordering through Amazon via the link (is that correct Barbara?) and the books on that list are all great: Gemology Online list for colored stones. The PhotoAtlas books are available direct from the author and can be ordered through his site at: http://john-koivula.microworldofgems.com/

I posted my own favorites list in this book list thread which should have included the spectroscopy books listed further down in the thread.

The Gemology Project and this forum are probably one of your best resources.... I love the signature of one of the members which reads something like "the only dumb question is the one not asked" ....you'll find a lot of helpful insights and people onboard.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:22 pm 
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Hey Lucky

Where are you based? If you are in New York you can deffinately borrow my diamond essentials coursework.

I agree with Dave that Bangkok was a great place to do the gia distance courses - everyone was so helpful - but yes there deffinately lots of cracks being a forign distance student!


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 Post subject: Thanks Lucy and everyone!
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:09 pm 
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Hi Lucy!

I used to live in New York City for about 10 years but we recently moved and now we live in Wilmington, NC near the beach (different from NYC but still, it's a lot fun in the sun).

I just did the 5-day Gem ID Lab at GIA in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago. That was my first GIA course/experience. It was good and I really wanted to take the diamond lab that is going on there this upcoming week but I wasn't about to make it work.

Anyway, thank you so much for offering your course material. I would definitely take you up on it if I lived there.

I was just one the Jeweler's Bench board on this website this morning and I saw your post about finding a good jewelry school to attend in NYC. I was looking myself this past summer and was thinking of either doing the Jewelry Arts Institute which teaches ancient and classical jewelry techniques which is what I'm really interested in or I was thinking of attending some classes at The New Approach School in Virginia but I don't know much about them. Did you find a school that you like? What style of jewelry making are you interested in (if you don't mind me asking)?

I went to design school at FIT in Manhattan about 10 years ago (interior design). I think they probably have a good jewelry/metals program you can look into but I doubt it's intense or hands-on enough for you since it's just regular college classes with mostly very young students.

You mentioned Bangkok in your last post. Do you mean that you took the GIA distance courses while living in Bangkok? Did you take any AGIS courses as well? I'm very interested in going there and investigating the goldsmiths and goldsmith factories to get my own line of jewelry made. Did you happen look into any goldsmiths or jewelry makers while you were there or know anything about it?

I love this website!

Lucky


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:37 pm 
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Hi Lucky

Unfortunately Im living in Westchester not NYC - its about an hours commute to the city from here (which is doable just not great!). I would be willing to do the commute for a good school but other than the FIT there are none - the FIT's is a full time year or two year course - and you have to go through the whole hassell of applying etc by the time I have done all that I will be one the move again! I did find a school called Studio Jewelers in NYC, but when I visited it didnt really give me any good vibes - messy, uninspiring teacher, no work to show me etc just not my cup of tea.

The new approach is deffinately the top of my list! and if I can find a way to make it down to virginia for 3 months I deffinately want to take their full course - I have dogs and a husband to take care of up here though! not to mention the expense of housing for 3 months on top of the course! If you can make it down there, I would surely go for it!!

I did the Gem ID, Coloured Stone Grading and Diamond Grading courses in Bangkok (I did them all together over 3 weeks) as I lived in the Philippines up until 6 months ago. I did have a look at the AIGS offices but unfortunately didn't take any courses there - just didnt have the time or funds to keep flying too and from.

You and I deffinately seem to have the same ideas in life Lucky! I look forward to hopefully moving back to asia soon to have myself a small business designing and making jewelry - need to get some business sense first though! :roll:

Glad you found the forum! its a great place to be!


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