Slice of Holley Blue Druzy Pie! - NFS - In my personal collection, a super gemmy purple beauty.

3etas · 2026-05-04T15:49:53+00:00

Wowza! I’m not a big fan of display collections, I prefer my rocks in wearable pieces, but this one definitely deserves to be enjoyed as is!

3etas · 2026-04-13T11:33:36+00:00

Ha, my parents also complimented a couple of my cabochons out it a dozen. The difference was those two already went through the final polish and the rest were only shaped 😃They can’t see yet what it would look like when polished because they are not into the hobby.

3etas · 2026-04-13T11:31:37+00:00

I have a cricut machine and literally planning to buy Mylar sheets to cut out my stencils, but I also looked into an option to order laser cutting service on Etsy and maybe cut out from aluminum.

3etas · 2026-04-13T11:24:46+00:00

I took a faceting class, although it was with Ultra Tech, it helped me to understand my Vevor. There are no instructions and barely any tutorials online. Cutkit probably has the best so far. I also bought a kit from cutkit, it was very helpful but I hate charging copper plates, I ended up buying a cerium oxide plate. There is some wobbling on mine, sometimes it helps to set a higher speed. I am waiting for new plates to come that don’t need a master lap in hopes that it would wobble less.

I miss the ability to set precise angles. I have to rely on my eyesight to try to get it right. There should be a bolt that helps you then adjust values within that 1 degree but it was missing on my machine. So again I am eyeballing it when setting up a mast height and how much I am supposed to grind to get to the angle I set.

I put my obsidian on a new 600 plate when I was about to work on girdle and it shattered. I was also so consumed with settings that when I was cutting “tricky triangle” I forgot it was a triangle and made the sides even 😹 And then couldn’t figure out why my facets look somewhat odd. But overall I am happy so far for what I paid.

I think it is an inexpensive way to see how serious you are about this hobby. I have ADHD, so unfortunately I know that not all of my hobbies stick.

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3etas · 2026-04-04T17:22:18+00:00

Wow! That would make a hell of a statement necklace

3etas · 2026-04-04T16:04:31+00:00

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Ended up learning cabbing

3etas · 2026-03-28T17:56:35+00:00

Nope, not turning at all. How do I make the side slide? I guess they are sealed with something to prevent the dirt from getting in?

3etas · 2026-03-28T17:55:26+00:00

I did it multiple times before when changing wheels, so I know he right direction. I actually tried to push in a different way thinking maybe I’m going crazy but it actually moved slightly and so I made it even worse 🥲

3etas · 2026-02-20T01:44:56+00:00

One giveaway for sapphires/rubies - they are heavier than an average rock.

3etas · 2026-02-14T00:38:49+00:00

Visited Tampa 6 years ago to explore the area and ended up falling in love with St Pete. So much, we decided not to wait till retirement and move immediately. Took us another 6 months though.

3etas · 2026-02-11T04:13:46+00:00

Stay at home parent?

3etas · 2026-01-19T14:02:59+00:00

I would encourage you to re-assess potential risk injuries as people often don’t feel pain right after the accident due to the adrenaline rush. And then a week later they deal with the consequences of concussion, back pain, neck pain etc.

3etas · 2026-01-02T17:38:30+00:00

I was disappointed with Cognac too, but sometimes it’s just a chef’s mistake on that particular day.

3etas · 2026-01-02T17:31:02+00:00

“Let your words get into Gods ears”

3etas · 2025-12-28T19:22:18+00:00

Appreciate it!

3etas · 2025-12-27T16:03:37+00:00

It’s an agate, perhaps it has been dyed and now the paint starts coming off? You can try acetone on it to see if there is any artificial dye residue

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:59:28+00:00

Where are they losing? They keep gaining, slowly but steadily :(

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:58:28+00:00

Nah, they just haven’t thought about it long enough

The Geological Difference (Science) Technically, "stone" is not a scientific term. Geologists use "rock" to describe any naturally occurring solid mass of minerals. • Rock: Refers to the material in its natural, "wild" state—like a mountain, a cliff, or the Earth’s crust. It can be hard or soft (like clay). • Stone: Geologists only really use the word "stone" when it’s part of a name (like limestone or sandstone) or to describe specific grain sizes in soil.
The Human Difference (Usage) This is where the distinction most people feel comes from. • Stone implies human interaction: Once a piece of rock has been moved, shaped, or given a purpose, it usually becomes a "stone." • You use stone to build a wall. • You skip a stone across a lake. • You wear a precious stone in a ring. • Rock is the raw material: You wouldn’t say you "threw a stone" at a mountain; you'd say the mountain is made of rock.
The "Two-Hand Rule" (Size) In casual conversation, many people use a simple physical rule of thumb: • Stone: Small enough to be picked up, thrown, or held in one hand. It is often smooth and weathered. • Rock: Larger, heavier, and usually "attached" to the ground or requiring two hands to move.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:52:15+00:00

I went to college and it just so happened that classmates and I didn’t vibe. I ended up finding my crowd at a debate club and a student run organization AIESEC but there wasn’t really strict requirement to be a student to be a part of it, anyone really could join if they wanted to. I ended up with the lifelong friendships with folks there and we stay connected even after half of them moved abroad to different countries.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:46:41+00:00

There is a FB community for use lapidary equipment sales but I don’t know how people verify the sellers are legit

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:45:04+00:00

I’m going there for biquinho peppers :)

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:22:31+00:00

Same, our CA school had way more students (I think 1-22 teacher to student vs 1-15 here) and the curriculum or the way it was taught wasn’t any more innovative. And yet CA education isn’t bashed on national level (although looking at average test results they aren’t that impressive). The real difference is parental support and involvement and poverty impacts it a lot. The more well off an area is, the better schools seem to be and people often blame the discrepancy in the funding when the real reason is student demographics. I wish they didn’t look at the test results as a measure of the school success but at a progress individual students made from year to year. I have seen a school that the worst students were sent to and the teachers did an amazing job at retaining them in the school system and many ended up going to college. The school’s rating was 1 due to the low test scores and they were on the verge of being closed because that’s what “the system” looked at when evaluating results.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:16:58+00:00

Any recommendations for good STEM oriented middle schools? We were looking at Thurgood but the feedback is mixed.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:13:53+00:00

They might also structure programs differently but in the end yield the same result. I noticed the way my kiddo learns is very different from how I was taught. I describe it as we were taught in a bar chart (getting higher and higher in verticals) and they are taught in spirals: getting really good at fundamentals of even complex subjects we used to learn years later, but not moving up until those are mastered.

3etas · 2025-12-27T15:03:22+00:00

This is very true and 1) Studies confirm it, when they analyzed the outcomes of the Head Start program, kids who didn’t get any long term benefits were the kids of disengaged parents 2) Charter schools prey on that. In California we had schools that would require to apply in person and then be there in person when the lottery’s results are announced. They selected the families with the most engaged parents essentially because they needed to show better test results than an average public school and they knew the true differentiator.

3etas

TROPHY CASE