This is one of the finest Oregon Sunstone that I have ever worked with. Purchased in early 2019 from Ales Krivanek and mined in the Pana Mine in Oregon it has a very good large size, but what really sets it apart for me is the two strong colors and how vivid these colors are. The visual impact given by having two or more colors in the same gem is a cool property of many Oregon Sunstone, but often these colors are more muted. While muted colors have their own appeal and are often practical to combine with the colors of a person's wardrobe gem dealers and cutters such as myself always enjoy when a specific piece surprises and is different in color from most of the other material available.

When cutting Oregon Sunstone rough I can get a good idea of what will be an attractive gem or not based on my experience, but due to how the material often can be dichroic, have multiple color zones and a variety of other factors (including the choice of what cut to use) many times the exact color and appearance when finished is not something I can predict with 100% accuracy before cutting the crystal. So taking the gem off the dop is like unwrapping a present and I get to be surprised by the contents of the "package" as the brilliance and final color of the gem is revealed. (The dop is a cylinder the gem is glued to during cutting to hold it. While glued to this dop only half the gem can be seen and the brilliance and color is obscured by the glue.)

This gem was a very pleasurable surprise in that regard, having extremely an distinct bicolor along with very pleasing hues of both red and green.  When it was "unveiled" and removed from the dop it was taken around and admired by all in my office. Over the years my expectations have gotten pretty high when it comes to what I expect in a gem's beauty. This is because God has given me the ability to make most good quality gems quite beautiful through cutting them. But even though I am "spoiled" and expect virtually all gems we cut to be gorgeous God still often surprises me with what only HE is able to create in the natural gem that just was finished. No matter what I do with the cutting I cannot make all sunstone look like this one, that is the touch of the Divine and just as all snowflakes are unique every natural gem rough is also unique in color, shape, size, inclusions, transparency and many other factors.

My goal in cutting gem rough is to tailor the cut of each gem to best capture this uniqueness and potential for beauty which is "locked" in the gem. One of the many reasons I do not cut rough for other people is that cutting only my own gems gives me the freedom to do what I truly feel is best and to take as long as need to be achieve the results that I think will best showcase the beauty of these rare natural crystals.

This gem also quickly found a new home as someone from afar appreciated its unique beauty and ordered it off our website.