Thank you for putting me in contact with Ed Bristol-I haven't met him in
person yet,but hope to before very long.I have really enjoyed his personal
communications and for transferring his knowledge.Cheers Ed.
Thank you also for putting Duncan Miller in contact with me.He came to lunch
today and my wife fell in love with him[more later].Such an interesting and
knowledgeble[sp?] man.He has 2 PhD's in geology and something else,plus being
a well-qualified gemologist,very smart and willing to freely share his knowledge[I think
I spelled that right!]We could not believe that we had to make contact via a site in
California and he lives a 20min drive from me.
I was trying to pick his brains on gemology,but then we discovered he had done work
for years on cave paintings,sea levels,ancient shell middens etc for UCT[University of
Cape Town]studies and publications about Verlorenvlei[Lost Lake] near Elands Bay on
the Western Cape coast.We have a holiday cottage there on a RAMSAR[International
Wetlands Site]-where South Africa was settled[by Europeans] long before America was
"discovered" by Europeans.Of course,America was not "discovered" but was already
populated by native Americans[If politically incorrect term,please edit] and our West Coast
by the San.Although my wife is a barrister[lawyer,not sure what it is in USA] her true love
is archaeology and geology.She was going to go out and leave us to talk "gems" but,guess
what,she totally hijacked the discussion-local geology,botany,tortoises,aardvaarks,porcupines,
you name it.
Anyway,the long and the short of it is that Duncan and partner will be revisiting Verlorenvlei
and staying with us
in the near future.
So,thank you GO.Much appreciated.
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but I should clarify that I don't usually cut citrine and other low value gems. For the past few years I have specialised in custom cutting Namibian demantoid garnet and other high-value stones, for which I charge what is for South Africa a comparatively high rate - about half the cost of precision faceting in the US and Canada. I don't cut large parcels - generally single stones or a couple at a time. Shipping cut gemstones out of South Africa can be problematic, unless the overseas customer has a courier and linked insurance account and is prepared to take the risk of loss. So I don't anticipate being inundated with overseas requests for work.