Steve Hillenbrand
2643 Bafford Place
Knoxville, TN 37920-3605

sjhillenbrand@comcast.net

865-363-9000

Steve Hillenbrand has been faceting for about 20 years and has developed several designs on GemCad, a windows based program to design faceting projects. He has taken the faceting workshop at Wildacres at various levels for about 15 of those 20 years. This is the first class he has taught in faceting. He plans to keep the class at a basic level and does not plan to offer a wide selection of rough.

CLASS DESCRIPTION

The purpose of the class is to familiarize students with the basics of gem cutting. Several simple designs would be expected to be cut, depending on the student's learning curve. Rough gems would be primarily in the quartz family. A kit would be provided for a nominal cost that includes five pieces of lab created rough (colors chosen by students), several simple designs, and notes with physical characteristics of common gemstones helpful in planning a faceting project.

LAB FEE:

The lab fee will be $15 to $25, depending on the current cost of materials to the instructor. The fee will include the class kit, dopping epoxy, solvents, torches, and gem display boxes. Students with opti-visors are asked to bring them. Generic (cheaper, but still functional) opti-visors will be available from the instructor at cost. Wildacres provides faceting machines, dopping dowels, and laps at no additional cost. Students can bring their own rough, but stones in the quartz family (refractive index around 1.54) or glass are preferred.

Maximum No. of Students: 8

Due to the number of Graves faceting machines available at Wildacres, the class size is limited to 8 students. Intermediate or advanced students may attend with the instructor's permission and with their own faceting machine.

Pre-requisite: None