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Gem Identification Basics
Glass, composite and imitation gemstones can be determined - and many gemstones identified - without using complex or extremely expensive instruments. This workshop teaches what can and can't be identified with different degrees of instrument sophistication, from eye identifications on up. Some inexpensive instrument-making is discussed in the workshop. It is a basic introduction to gemology from a practical viewpoint. Learn how to quickly tell if the thing you are being sold is glass or fake.
Be the detective: Note everything you can about the gem, anything you can definitely say. This builds a pattern of information you can place in context, infer, and conclude from.
Meet the instructor
Charles Lewton-Brain studied and worked in Europe and North America. He lectures and publishes internationally on his research into rapid manipulation of metal and it's surface for artistic and manufacturing purposes. He invented Fold-Forming, an internationally reconized new approach to working sheet metals. Head of the Jewellery/Metals Program at the Alberta College of Art and Design, he writes, exhibits and works in his studio. He is President of the Canadian Crafts Federation. He thinks of himself as an artist who works primarily in the context of body ornament. He is a founding partner in the world's largest free educational web site for jewelers, ganoksin.com and has over 700 pages of his writing there.