Halloween was last week, but this orange beauty from stonecutter John Dyer will delight the final owner long after the pumpkins have turned to compost. A 63.57 ct. square cushion citrine took second place in the Innovative Faceting division of the 2012 AGTA Cutting Edge Awards, and, is still for sale; the retail price is $8,500.

The rough was purchased about five years ago from a dealer in southern Brazil, and the material is from a mine in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Originally part of a one kilo lot of rough, this stone started out as an approximately 223 ct. piece of rough—which means a loss of about 71 percent of the stone’s original weight. “In colored stone faceting, this is a pretty good recovery,” explains Dyer in a phone interview.

It was shaped into the square cushion cut you’re looking at through the pre-forming process: Dyer lops off the “junk” right away, then grinds away at the rough until he decides on a final shape. All work is all done by hand, and this particular piece took about four days total to complete.

“This piece is less deep and a little bit shallower than I would normally use for a flat-faceted gem, which is handy because you get a larger face size for the carat weight,” says Dyer. “That also make it less expensive, and the manufacturer doesn’t need to sink as much metal into the finished piece because the mounting doesn’t have to be as tall. This stone also has special grooving on the back to make its appearance more brilliant than a traditional flat-faceted stone, and has a lot more facets than, say, an ideal-cut brilliant pattern like is common in round diamonds. These internal facets allow for a shallower gem while still giving great brilliance. Honestly, I sort of create the cut on the fly.… I use my experience with angles to make something beautiful. I’ve cut thousands of gems so I have learned what works.”

Dyer has also won 37 cutting awards, including 33 AGTA Cutting Edge awards, since 2002—and has been cutting gemstones for nearly 17 years—so, really, who’s going to challenge his technique? Clearly, it’s working.   

When the stone comes back from AGTA—it’s still with them for photographs—it’ll be ready for a new home.

A 63.57 ct. square cushion citrine took second place in the Innovative Faceting division of the 2012 AGTA Cutting Edge Awards, and, is still for sale; the estimated retail price is $8,500. John Dyer Gems

JCK