It starts as a rock, too rough, broken, and abraded to see what is inside, but there is a tantalizing blue color showing. Before any cut is started the rock is investigated and evaluated from every angle and in water and, sometimes, oils to try to see beyond the rough surface. It looked promising.

An initial cut was made to make a window on one side. Now it looked very promising, so preforming and the first few faceting passes were done. At each stage the stone is looked at with magnifying glasses and loupe to find hidden inclusions.

Halfway through the cutting, when the facets were becoming clear enough to see through the stone, some inclusions became visible near one surface. The faceting passes had to start over to cut out these inclusions and give us a clean stone. The final polish seemed to take forever - it takes a lot of time to make those are big, flat facets.