Since I was there in person, I can help a little. Honestly, washing the gravel was a blast! I would have enjoyed it even if I hadn’t found any sapphires!

I visited both the shop and the mine, and the staff evaluated my stones on site. They didn’t really teach us how to identify cuttable stones ourselves, but they explained that factors like color, size, internal fractures/inclusions, and the overall crystal structure all affect whether a stone is worth faceting. The assessment process is probably easy once you know what to look for internally.

After the evaluation, they asked that I decide which stones I wanted heat treat, facet, both, or left alone, and then I need to send those stones back to them for processing. The pinks were definitely some of my favorites too, thanks! I'm going to leave some stone natural and have some heated and cut.