Tom Wilkie
3605 Saxon Road
Kingsport, TN 37660

jandtwilkie@charter.net

423-247-6608

Tom began faceting in 1991 at Wildacres. After taking advanced faceting from Harold Smith and Advanced Intarsia from Phil Magistro, and cutting a few hundred gemstones, he began teaching in 1997. In recent years, he has taught Faceting and Intarsia courses at both Wildacres and William Holland Lapidary School. An Information Technology Manager for Eastman Chemical Company in the working world, Tom retired in 1995. He is past president of both the Kingsport Gem and Mineral Society of Kingsport, TN and the Unaka Rock and Mineral Society in Johnson City, TN. Tom and his wife, Jenny, have a small business for the cutting of faceted stones and creation of intarsia pieces.

CLASS DESCRIPTION

This is a combination of Beginning Faceting and Beginning Intarsia. Students should plan to work on one or the other, but not both. Students are encouraged to bring their own faceting machines, but are not required to do so. In the Faceting portion of the class, the student will learn how to combine the capabilities of a faceting machine with techniques for cutting and polishing to produce quality faceted gemstones. By the end of the week everyone should have a sparkling stone or two and the knowledge required to cut faceted stones on their own. The material to be used for the first two stones will be synthetic quartz. The first stone will be a simple eight sided design. The second stone will be a Standard Round Brilliant. Students must provide their own optivisor. There is a $10.00 dollar lab fee to cover the cost of the rough for the first two stones, two Ultralap polishing laps, a black Sharpie pen, and other supplies. A variety of rough material for additional stones will be available. Synthetic rough is usually less than $25.00. Cost of natural rough may exceed $50.00.

The intarsia portion of the class is devoted to teaching the students how to design and create intarsia pieces using a faceting machine. Detailed instructions are furnished for the first project. For subsequent projects, students are free to create designs or use those provided by the instructor. For those projects students may use their own materials or purchase materials from the instructor. (All materials used in an intarsia piece should have approximately the same hardness.) Each student should complete two, and perhaps four or more beautiful pieces. All students are required to provide their own optivisor, calipers, and apron. Colored pencils and sketch paper are very useful. Cabbing and faceting experience is very helpful but not required. The instructor will prepare kits for the first intarsia project. A lab fee of $30.00 will be charged to cover the cost of the kit, polishing materials, glue and other miscellaneous supplies provided by the instructor. The cost of synthetic rough in a single intarsia piece seldom exceeds $30.00. For a single intarsia piece that contains only natural rough the cost could range from $50.00 to $150.00. Average cost of the intarsia course is less than $75.00 including the lab fee.

Any questions about the course should be directed to Tom. His telephone number is 1-423-247-6608. His e-mail is jandtwilkie@charter.net

Maximum No. of Students: 7 (No pre-requisite required)