Review
In logical progression, Zeitner guides her reader through transparent faceting materials, cryptocrystalline quartz, pseudomorphs, cabochons and carving materials, ornamental and decorative gem materials, phenomenal gems, metallic gems, rare gems and laboratory-made gems. She combines photos, charts, illustrations, and text to explain all the elements in gem and lapidary materials from how the materials are formed or where they are found, to the differences in their uses by lapidaries. She also explains the varied techniques that jewelry artist use.
June Zeitner has been a prolific writer on lapidary arts, gems, and minerals for Lapidary Journal since the '60s. Zeitner fans who seek out her columns and have read everything she has ever written will not be disappointed in the informational nuggets in her latest book.
....A reading list ends each chapter so those seeking more specific knowledge will know exactly where to find it. Besides covering history, sources and supply for gem and lapidary materials, Zeitner has included useful Refractive Index and Gemstone Dispersion charts, along with complete lists of gem and mineral Educational Associations, and Publications...
This book is an important contribution to the gems/minerals/lapidary field. It is a "must have" for anyone even remotely interested in gems and minerals. -- Lapidary Journal, January 1997
June Zeitner's name is legendary in the lapidary hobby movement. She has been writing articles about gems and minerals, localities and jewelry making since the birth od the American lapidary movement in the 1960s. The book, her largest effort to date. is an attempt to catalog and describe all of the existing geologic materials that lend themselves to the artistry of the lapidarist. Her emphasis is on the idea that gem cutting and carving are true art forms and the resulting products should likewise be considered to be fine art.
....This book is the best work in print for information on regional jasper names and all the bewildering varieties of crystalline and cryptocrystalline quartz....this book is not meant to ba treatise or scientific tome. Rather it is meant to be a survey report that documents the range of minerals and rocks currently being worked by lapidary artists. The book does not try to support terminology of dubious validity, but rather acknowledges the existence and widespread use of this terminology in the marketplace....Although aimed primarily at the hobbyist, it could find a useful place on the shelves of anyone trying to make sense out of the immense range of stone products that ultimately appear in jewelry. -- Economic Geology, Vol.91,no.7,1996 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
