Gemstone jewelry makes the perfect gift because it’s shiny and well-cut. But there’s a lot of work that goes into making emerald jewelry so beautiful. A raw emerald is an opaque green rock. Since diamonds are so hard, they’re often used by lapidaries to shine and polish raw gemstones, including diamonds themselves. Gemstones are sawed with water or oil to wash away debris and prevent overheating in the machine. Then they are ground with silicon carbide wheels, then sanded to remove scratches from the stone that occurred during grinding, then polished to get that shiny reflective nature of the stone to come out. Ultrafine shaping is usually the last part of the finishing process. Different gemstones require polishing by different gemstones due to their specific hardness.

Cabochons are rounded instead of faceted gemstones and are usually made with softer stones. This is because they can be more easily scratched and made unattractive than harder stones. Most cabochons are elliptically shaped or they have flat bottoms and convex tops. Cabochons are often found in pendants, and can also be made from harder stones, in the case of diamond pendants. Now that you know how much work and precision goes into shaping your ruby jewelry or fancy yellow diamonds, you may be more willing to spend a little extra on a well cut gem.