Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:28 pm
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Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm Posts: 1424 Location: San Marcos, CA
Steve, No email looks the same as site, agreed. The image appears to me that the center image of the three covers is the original concept and the two outer are the new proposed (spiral bound edition & a bound edition). My understanding in reading the update is blurry compared to the image. Partly due to my own beliefs based on the videos and such of the planned book for sale.
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 10:06 am
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Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 am Posts: 1542
He is claiming that the new printer will be using an upgraded paper. As long as the paper stock is heavy enough, I think the spiral bound book will be the most useful as a reference. It can be fully opened and lay flat, while taking up 1/2 the room on a desk. The GIA Lab Manual work the same way, and it is one of the things I like about them.
I guess it is best to wait and see what Justin ends up shipping.
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:51 am
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Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:08 pm Posts: 381 Location: Lyon, France
Hi all. It’s seems that my attempt at transparency has made things cloudy. What you saw In that update are binding mock-ups. Blank white pages in the weight and texture I’ve chosen that have been bound as the real books will be bound to show me what the final binding quality will be like. I didn’t mean for the picture to hold much weight because you can’t see much but I realize now that many people didn’t really read the words, just looked at the photo. A few angry emails came my way which confused me a bit.
As you can see in the update description, everything about the book has been upgraded, paper weight and quality, printing style, and the quality of the cover. Those things are not visible In the photo but with the samples in hand plus a bunch of stuff I didn’t show, I can see that the quality is going to be much better than my original sample.
It’s challenging to do these kind of updates because I want to keep people updated and excited but the aggressive misunderstandings really take the fun out of it for me and make me want to just keep quiet and just get on with it.
The product is going to be amazing in the end and it really shocks me that people would assume for even one second that I would send them a book with a blank cover. It’s also surprising that people would automatically assume that books printed in Asia would be of Lower quality than books printed in America when actually the opposite is true. I don’t know of any large scale printer in America who is as big or as professional or as award winning as the printer we have selected. I guess I’ll keep quiet with updates until the books are done to avoid more misunderstandings.
Just trust me though, quality is my chief concern. We just finished the final revision (version 21) and I think the text is as close to perfect and error free as possible and now the money has arrive and it’s time to order!
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2021 4:48 pm
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Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
I've know Justin for a time and I've always found his word to be golden. This project is certainly a learning process and will take a bit of time for him to iron out the wrinkles but everything will get sorted out.
As a cutter, the quality of the paper and printing wouldn't be very important. I always thought what the late Jeff Graham did made sense just sending out unbound 3 hole punched pages. Normally the pages end up getting splashed on, grease from gunk on your fingers, and written on. I normally make copies and print them off, or put a design up on the big screen like this one.
So lower price, and cheaper paper, or lower price an no paper just digital would be ideal.
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:55 am
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Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:08 pm Posts: 381 Location: Lyon, France
To each their own. For me personally I always thought it was ridiculous that Jeff Grahams "books" cost money considering that they weren't even bound. Obviously the designs have value but no effort at all was give to the presentation. Maybe that served his purposes but I was never attracted to it. I spent a lot of time making this effort beautiful and pleasing to the eye and the hands. I'm interested in creating works of lasting beauty, so that's my main motivation with the project, besides just capturing and preserving the traditional designs.
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:17 pm
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Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm Posts: 1424 Location: San Marcos, CA
That is probably because they were not books but simply designs. In a time not really meant to profit on but for sharing a common interest in faceting. Yes to each their own is right. I personally found nothing wrong with giving Jeff Grams' estate a very small amount in comparison to the contributions he gave to the community. Although he had his controversial moments in life, as we all have in some way. Justin, I have a question. Are the designs in your book your personal work?
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:34 pm
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Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 am Posts: 1542
Justin,
It seems to me that the production value of your book is going to be very high. Great job on that! I would like to see the table of contents from the book that includes the topics covered, and the designs covered. This would be tremendous help in deciding on how useful the book would be in my work. It is very common to publish the table of contents when selling technical books such as this one on line.
To each their own. For me personally I always thought it was ridiculous that Jeff Grahams "books" cost money considering that they weren't even bound. Obviously the designs have value but no effort at all was give to the presentation. Maybe that served his purposes but I was never attracted to it. I spent a lot of time making this effort beautiful and pleasing to the eye and the hands. I'm interested in creating works of lasting beauty, so that's my main motivation with the project, besides just capturing and preserving the traditional designs.
So by that reasoning all the Kindle books and books in Apples Book store should be free?
I think your idea of a pretty book as a coffee table book or to be used maybe in a jeweler store make sense, but not as a book in a work shop. One doesn't buy an automotive repair manual for the quality of the binding or paper.
Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 7:22 am
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Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:08 pm Posts: 381 Location: Lyon, France
I recently purchased Graham’s money cuts. It has 42 designs and cost around $40 if I remember correctly. So it’s about $1 per design.
My book has 50 designs in two depths so it’s 100 diagrams total. You can buy the book for $80 so that’s $1.60 per design (or 80cents per diagram). In addition, mine has 50 full page color photos of a stone in that cut, it has color renders, it has a 35 page design and rough fundamentals section that has a lot of value for all cutters, and the entire book is in full color. Plus it’s a beautiful, easy to use book for your shelf. It’s really not comparable to Jeff Graham’s offerings. Its not meant to be in the same category.
Now if you don’t like books I can understand just wanting the downloadable PDFs. For me, I love books, I have a beautiful collection of vintage and modern books and I’m extremely proud to see my own book on my shelf, sitting next to a ziplock bag which contains Money Cuts
As for the designs being a personal work, definitely. I had to move to Thailand and then travel around the world several times to meet the cutters in Germany, France, England, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Sri Lanka who taught me these designs. I had to mentor under a Sri Lankan cutter for 2 years while also learning from my pro cutter wife from France, absorbing both of their experiences and designs. I also had to work with several Thai factories for the last four years to tease out their secrets and techniques. Then I had to draw all the designs in GCS, do test cuts, tweak them, spend 6 months with a graphic designer making the layout, etc etc. For me it has been extremely labor intensive and expensive, but spiritually fulfilling as I’ve always wanted to be an author and it’s really really important to me that this type of technical cutting history is preserved. I think when you see it in hand, you will realize, if you haven’t already, that it’s worth at least $80 considering the quality of the content and the quality of the book itself.
Also I only buy books for kindle when I am absolutely desperate (because I live in Thailand and don't have access to so many print books).
By the way here is the table of contents. We updated it since the Kickstarter video was made because there was a few topics I realized I wanted to add.
Attachments:
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Post subject: Re: My new book, The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting, is now
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 11:41 am
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Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 am Posts: 1542
Thanks for posting the Table of Contents Justin.
The book looks very well done. It is beautifully presented. The topics covered make up the base knowledge required to become a gem cutters. I am sure it will be an excellent resource for the hobby community, and a valuable documentation of historical skills and processes.
For those that have been cutting natural gems in a professional capacity, it may make a great addition to their library. However, the skills discussed are already part of the everyday process. Since the cuts covered are the traditional ones, most can cut them without diagrams. They can easily adjust them in their heads to fit the individual rough being worked.
Great job on the book. Wishing you success with it.
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