The Faelight Cut: Fantasy Cut Sapphire, Topaz and Ametrine Explained

The Faelight Cut is our name for a gemstone cut whose pavilion is carved with concave grooves radiating from a polished central cross, so the stone looks lit from within. It belongs to the family the trade calls fantasy, concave, star or starburst cuts. We cut it on lab-created sapphire in four colors, natural light-blue topaz and natural ametrine, in seven shapes, sold loose or set into a made-to-order ring.

What the Faelight Cut Is

A house name for a concave starburst cut, applied to lab sapphire, topaz and ametrine.

The Faelight Cut is Aquamarise's name for a gemstone cut with an ordinary flat-faceted crown over a pavilion carved with concave grooves that radiate from a bright central cross. Seen through the table, the grooves read as a burst of fine rays, which is why this family of cuts has so many nicknames in the trade: starburst cut, star cut, concave cut, fantasy cut. It is new to our catalog as a loose stone, and it is a different cut from the carved fantasy cut in our fireworks cut engagement rings, the closest finished rings we make.

The name is ours. "Fae" is the old word for the fairy folk; light is what the cut does. It is a description, not a claim on the technique: concave pavilion faceting is more than a century old, and the radiating-star version is cut by several lapidaries under their own names. We named ours so that you can find it again, and so that we are not borrowing anyone else's mark.

We cut it in six stones and seven shapes: lab-created sapphire in pink, green, blue and purple, natural light-blue topaz and natural ametrine, from a 6 x 9 mm kite to a 6 x 10 mm coffin, roughly one to two carats each. They have their own Faelight Cut loose gemstones collection, and any of them can be set into a made-to-order ring.

How the Cut Works

Why a grooved pavilion looks lit from inside.

A flat facet is a mirror, and a wide flat facet returns a wide sheet of light; a broad flash washes out color.

A concave facet is a trough ground into the pavilion with a small cylindrical tool instead of a flat lap. The Gemological Institute of America puts it precisely: a concave facet "acts as an internal convex mirror," scattering reflected rays in more directions inside the gem. Look into a groove and you see a narrow bright line along its crest with darker flanks on either side. Multiply that by forty or fifty grooves and the stone fills with fine lines of light separated by shadow. Strong contrast between adjacent flashes is what the eye reads as brilliance, so the stone looks brighter than a flat-faceted twin even though it returns no more light in total.

• Inclusions hide. The internal reflections break up the view through the stone, so small clouds and needles that would show in a step cut disappear.
• No window. A shallow flat-faceted stone shows a dead, see-through patch in the middle. The grooves fill it with reflections, which is why this cut can be shallow and still look alive.
• Tilt performance. Because the rays come from many angles, the stone stays bright as the hand moves rather than flashing and going dark the way a brilliant does.

Below the girdle, two polished ridges cross at the center and quarter the pavilion, and grooves fan across each quarter to the edge, ten or more per quarter on a two-carat stone. The cross stays bright because its ridges are flat; the rays shimmer because they are curved. The crown is conventional, so the stone sets like any other, and the pavilion is shallower than a brilliant's, so the stone sits lower in a ring.

The cut also has a preference. GIA notes that light-to-medium tones gain the most from concave faceting and that dark stones may look darker, which is why we cut it on pastel sapphire, sky-blue topaz and ametrine and not on an inky royal blue. For a deep, saturated color, a flat-faceted stone from our sapphire engagement rings serves better.

Where Star and Fantasy Cuts Come From

Idar-Oberstein, a 10,363-carat obelisk, and a 1990 machine.

Curved facets are older than most buyers assume: GIA records that cutters around Idar-Oberstein, Germany, have produced concave pavilion facets since the early 1900s, with revivals around 1920 and in the 1950s and 1960s.

The term fantasy cut belongs to Bernd Munsteiner. From the late 1960s he cut transparent stones with sharp notches and slashes, removing large areas of material for the design and defying the rule that a cutter's first duty is to save weight. The Smithsonian, which calls him the "Father of the Fantasy Cut," holds the piece that made the idea famous: the Dom Pedro aquamarine, a 14-inch obelisk of 10,363 carats cut from a crystal of nearly 60 pounds mined in Brazil in the late 1980s. Tapering "negative cuts" in its back reflect light so that the whole stone appears lit from within, the same idea as a grooved pavilion, scaled up. It has stood near the Hope Diamond since December 2012; see the Smithsonian's announcement of the Dom Pedro.

Concave faceting as a repeatable technique is American and recent: Douglas Hoffman of PolyMetric Instruments built the first commercial concave faceting machine in 1990, and Richard Homer is often credited with designing the modern concave facet. The radiating star pavilion grew up in that circle; in the trade it is often traced to lapidary Dalan Hargrave. John Dyer, who began cutting in 1996 and won his first Cutting Edge Award in 2002, built a collection of trademarked cuts on these ideas. Our Faelight Cut is often compared to John Dyer's Starbrite cut, the best-known trademarked version of the radiating-groove pavilion; it is not that cut, and Dyer's stones are natural gems cut one at a time in his own studio. We stock one, a 0.88-carat parti-color Australian sapphire cut by John Dyer, the only other stone of this family in our catalog. GIA's article Making the Cut: The Art and Science of Fantasy Carving covers the whole lineage.

Faelight vs. Fantasy, Star and Concave Cuts

The words overlap. Here is what each one actually means.

Two confusions are worth settling. A star sapphire is a cabochon whose star is a natural reflection from needle inclusions, not a faceting style. And a diamond is not cut this way in any commercial sense; for the look in a colorless stone, white sapphire or white topaz takes the cut well (see white sapphire vs diamond).

The Six Stones We Cut It In

Four lab-created sapphires, a natural topaz and a natural ametrine.

Lab-created sapphire: pink, green, blue and purple

Lab-created sapphire is corundum grown in a laboratory rather than mined, with the same chemistry, the same Mohs 9 hardness and the same optical behavior. GIA rates corundum at 9 with excellent toughness and no cleavage, which makes sapphire of any origin the safest choice here for a ring worn daily. Lab material is also the right rough for a cut that wastes stone and wants clean, evenly colored, light-to-medium rough in ring sizes. Ours come as pink sapphire, a soft rose; green sapphire, a cool mint; blue sapphire, a clear cornflower; and purple sapphire, lavender to violet, all in the Faelight Cut loose gemstones collection. None of them is dark, on purpose. Our sapphire guide covers origin in depth, and sapphire is the September birthstone in every color.

Natural topaz, light blue

Topaz rates Mohs 8 and takes a bright polish, but it has one weakness worth naming: basal cleavage. GIA rates its toughness as poor for that reason; a hard blow can split it, and cutters orient faceted topaz so the cleavage plane sits about 15 degrees off the table. A topaz Faelight stone belongs in a protective setting and away from steam and ultrasonic cleaners. GIA is equally plain about color: blue topaz is hardly ever natural, and the blue is almost always produced by treating colorless material. Assume that for any blue topaz, ours included, unless a laboratory report says otherwise. Ours is the light sky-blue topaz; a deeper London blue topaz joins the range as stock allows. See topaz meaning for the full color story; topaz is a November birthstone.

Natural ametrine

Ametrine is quartz in which the purple of amethyst and the yellow-orange of citrine grew in the same crystal. It rates 7 on the Mohs scale with good toughness, and GIA notes it has only one commercial source, a deposit in eastern Bolivia, so a natural ametrine is almost certainly Bolivian. Cutters usually give it a rectangular step cut to show the two halves side by side, and GIA adds that it is also popular in fantasy cuts; the grooves of a Faelight pavilion mix the two colors into lavender-and-gold flashes that a step cut keeps apart. GIA puts the most saturated hues in gems over five carats, so a one-to-two-carat ametrine like ours is a pastel. Our amethyst meaning and citrine meaning guides cover each half of the stone.

Seven Shapes, from Kite to Coffin

Elongated outlines carry the starburst best.

Every color is cut in the same seven shapes, so a pink pear matches a green pear and a blue kite sits beside a purple one. Carat weights are the cutter's figures and approximate; the millimeter size is what a setting is built to.

• Kite, 7 x 10 mm (about 1.5 ct) and 6 x 9 mm (about 1 ct). The signature shape of our kite cut engagement rings; the cross lines up with the long axis and the rays fill the shoulders.
• Long hexagon, 5 x 9 mm (about 1.2 ct) and 6 x 10 mm (about 2 ct). Six straight sides give the grooves clean edges; the look of our hexagon engagement rings.
• Oval, 6 x 8 mm (about 1.8 ct). The most forgiving outline for prongs; the classic oval engagement ring shape.
• Marquise, 5 x 10 mm (about 1 ct). Two points and a long cross; the most elongating shape, as our marquise rings show.
• Coffin, 6 x 10 mm (about 2 ct). A tapered hexagon with a flat top; the heaviest stone in the set for its footprint. Compare our coffin cut engagement rings.
• Rectangle, 6 x 8 mm (about 2 ct). Cut corners like an emerald cut; the shape that shows ametrine's two halves most clearly.
• Pear, 6 x 8 mm (about 1.5 ct). One point, one curve; worn point-up or point-down. See our pear shaped engagement rings.

Shop the Look

Faelight Cut Loose Gemstones

Six stones, seven shapes, loose or set in a ring made to order.

Shop Faelight Cut Stones

How to Choose a Faelight Stone

Six decisions, in the order that matters.

1. Decide how it will be worn, then pick the stone. A daily ring wants sapphire; ametrine suits a ring worn with ordinary care, a pendant or earrings; topaz is best in a pendant, earrings or a bezel-set ring. This cut is at its best in pale to medium tones, so if you want a deep, dark blue, choose a flat-faceted sapphire instead.
2. Pick the outline for the setting. Ovals and rectangles are easiest to prong; kites, marquises and pears need a prong or V-tip over each point; hexagons and coffins look best in a bezel or a six-prong head.
3. Judge by millimeters, not carats. A 6 x 10 mm coffin covers the finger like a much heavier brilliant. Compare against the stones in our gemstone engagement rings, not a diamond carat chart.
4. Look at the pattern, and ask what the stone is. On a good stone the cross is centered, the quarters carry the same number of rays and the girdle is even; ask for a video. Then ask whether it is lab-created or mined, treated or not, and whether a report exists; we state all three for every stone.
5. Decide between loose and set. A loose stone is the starting point for a custom engagement ring; we build the setting around it.

Setting, Wearing and Caring for a Concave-Cut Stone

Protect the points, let the light in, keep the grooves clean.

Setting a Faelight stone is no harder than setting a flat-faceted one, with two adjustments: the shallow pavilion lets the head sit lower, which makes a ring that snags less, and a kite, marquise or pear should have a prong or V-tip covering each point. An open gallery that lets light reach the pavilion helps this cut more than most. Our guide to setting types walks through the options, and how to build a custom engagement ring explains how we take a loose stone to a finished piece. Any of our metals suits it, from sterling silver with a rhodium finish to solid gold and platinum, compared in our precious metal guide; start from the build your custom ring page.

One care rule is specific to the cut: the grooves hold dust and skin oil, and a stone that has gone dull almost always just needs a brush.

1. Clean with warm water, a drop of dish soap and a soft toothbrush, working the bristles along the grooves from the center outward. This is safe for all three stones.
2. Keep topaz and ametrine away from steam, ultrasonic cleaners and sudden heat. GIA advises against both for topaz because of its cleavage, and notes that abrupt temperature changes can fracture ametrine.
3. Store each stone where nothing harder can reach it. Sapphire scratches topaz and topaz scratches ametrine; keep each in its own pouch.
4. Check the points and prongs once a year, especially on kites, marquises and pears. Our jewelry care page and cleaning guide cover the rest.

What Concave and Fantasy Cuts Cost, and Why

Why the famous versions are expensive, and why ours are not.

Concave and fantasy cutting costs more than flat faceting for two plain reasons: it loses more rough, roughly 10 percent more by the trade's own estimate, and each groove is ground and polished individually on curved tooling, so bench time is far higher. In a 2016 trade survey of concave cutting, Richard Homer's curved-facet gems were quoted at $200 to $500 more than a comparable flat-faceted stone. Signature natural sapphires from the best-known trademarked star cut were listed, at the time of writing, from roughly $900 for a third of a carat to about $6,000 above two carats. You are paying for the cutter's name, natural rough and a stone that exists once.

Our stones cost a fraction of that: the sapphires are lab-created, which removes the cost and the lottery of natural rough; the stones are cut to a repeatable pattern in a specialist workshop rather than designed one at a time by an artist; and nobody's signature is attached. If you want the collectible, buy the collectible; if you want the look in a ring you will wear every day, this is the sensible way to get it. For an independent valuation, our appraisal page explains how to arrange one.

Faelight Cut FAQ