In the Studio: Upcycled Reimagined Trillion-cut Gemstone Object

I’ve begun working in my studio on a new Upcycled Reimagined Gemstone object, this time in the shape of a trillion-cut stone. Applying my research developed over the past ten+ years, I work with recycled materials – including scrap metals, both precious and base materials. Here, I soldered the silver walls in a triangular *trillion* bezel. Next, I’m carefully planning via a Sharpie fine-tip pen where I’ll use the jeweler’s saw to cut out the sheet base or back of my object. This piece is going to be hand-fabricated into a wearable, one-of-a-kind brooch.

I’ve enjoyed making videos of my work process for ages. In this YouTube short I made, you can see how precisely I endeavor to not waste any metal at all whatsoever in my making. The closer I am to the exact size of my final bezel, the less cleanup and filing of excess metal I’ll have to do! The next step will be cutting this trillion-cut design out with my jeweler’s saw.

As one can see on left, I designed my digital drawing in Adobe Illustrator first. My work is drawn by hand (not AI) – using the Illustrator pen tool to create my digital gemstone facets. I dig through my small metal scrap pile to find the perfect specimen to upcycle into a hand-sawn and silver-soldered brooch. Utilizing a quick printout, I block out and plan the the best way to fit the silver bezel to match the size of my Illustrator drawing. Once the object’s fabrication is complete, my drawing will be printed out on high-quality archival paper and hand-set behind polished plexiglass/acrylic.

So here I made a video of the piece in-the-round, but far from finished yet. This is what my trillion-cut object looks like directly out of the jeweler’s pickle solution. Much of my object’s fabrication is done, however, all three sides need to be filed, sanded and finished. After the next clean-up stage, it’s time to saw out and cut the brooch’s plexiglass. The paper drawing has to fit exactly inside. This is always the longest part of my design process; figuring out the exact measurements of the acrylic/plexiglass so that I have the least filing and sanding. All of this must be done with good ventilation and of course, a dust mask so I do not inhale the sanded particles of acrylic.

The plan is to show this brooch when complete along with other work upcoming this Fall in another exhibition. More details to follow and much work still to go!