Sometimes while carving a gem-stone, I've come face to face with a challenging step that brings me to a full stop. Such was the case in 2005. I was carving a seashell in blue topaz and I needed to round the tops of the grooves I'd cut into the shell's outer surface. At that time, all available diamond carving tools cut a concave surface -and I needed to cut a uniform convex curve over surfaces of diminishing sizes. I remembered hearing a lecture by Henry Hunt at a GANA (Gem Artists of North America) meeting in Tucson a few years ago, during which he had stressed how tools are the keys to new designs and the evolution of carvings. As I slept, I pondered in my dreaming how such a shape might look. I awoke with a delightful shape idea!
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