2025 Frankin Faceting Symposium

USFG Franklin Faceting Symposium
July 24 – July 26, 2025
Symposium Presentations are Free

Hosted by the United States Faceters Guild, the 2025 Franklin Faceting Symposium will be July 24-26, 2025 at The Factory, located at 1024 Georgia Rd. in Franklin, NC.

We are excited to announce our 18th year at the USFG Franklin Symposium. As we meet collectively in Franklin, whether it be to learn, to improve our skills, to mingle with those that share this love of faceting; whatever your reason, it is quite exciting to anticipate this year’s event. We have exciting activities and presentations planned. The details, although not 100% complete, are taking shape. Below are some previews of our upcoming plans.

USFG Symposium Hours will be: Thursday, July 24, 9am-6pm; Friday, July 25, 9am-6pm; and Saturday, July 26, 9am-4pm

We have an amazing list of presenters and topics. We wish to thank all who will be presenting. Their knowledge is invaluable, and the generous sharing of their expertise is greatly appreciated by the USFG and its membership. Final dates and times for presentations will be posted in a future announcement as details are finalized.

Larry Mattos—Fantasy Cutting Demonstrations
Roger Dery—“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Faceters’ Edition Activity and Game based upon the popular game show.
Michael Holmes/Roger Dery—Starting and Running a Meet Point Faceting Seminar
Michael Holmes—Designing a Simple Gem from Scratch on Gem Cut Studio
John Campbell—Metal & Copper Laps/Intermediate Gem Cut Studio: Tips & Tricks for Altering Existing Designs
John Campbell & Carl Eleazer—Faceting Laps: A Short History and Q&A on Laps
Dan Lynch—Sunstone & Sapphire-Finding, Mining, and Faceting!
Cody Rosenberg—From Broken to Brilliant: How Glass Faceting Transformed My Life
Ron Snelling & Mark Oros—Starting a Faceting School
Ron Snelling & Cindy Hine—Maintaining Your Faceting Machine and Q & A
Peter Torraca—Cutting Gem Rough with Softer Mohs
Justin Prim—Emeralds Through Time: History, Sources and the Art of Emerald Cutting
Doug Augspurger– A Conversation about Meet Points and Competition Polish
Mark Oros—Fantasy Faceting Quartz Challenge/Doublets and Galaxy Gems
Keith Harrigill—Intarsia with a Faceting Machine

We have an outstanding list of vendors once again, most who are returning from prior years. We love our vendors and thank them for their ongoing support. Without them our event would not be possible.

Confirmed Vendors at this time are as follow:

• Marsh Howard – Lightning Laps and supplies https://lightninglap.com/

• John E. Garsow – Gemstone Rough https://johngarsow.com/

• Stephen Challner – Gems of Science (Angry Turtle Gems) https://www.turtleshoard.com/

• Tom & Judy Mitchell – https://www.mitchelljewelrystudio.com/

• Dan Lynch – Gemstone Rough https://danlynchgems.com/

• Mike Gillespie – Gemstone Rough https://midlandgems.com/

• Larry Mattos – Ashton Gems https://ashtongems.com/

• Gerry Boykin – Representing UltraTec https://www.ultratec-facet.com/

• Noah Trappier – Wood Lap LLC https://woodlapllc.com/

• Cindy Hine—Facetron/Facette Machines https://facetron.com/

Each year, USFG provides a faceting class during the symposium. We are pleased to be able to continue this tradition and thrilled to be able to add an additional class. These classes do have a class fee, and USFG membership is required. Space is limited and the first six people to sign up for either class will be contacted to complete the sign-up process for the class. Sign-ups will be available through Facebook on May 5, so watch the Facebook announcements and don’t wait to sign up.

Class One: Gem Cutting 2-Day Course–$195 Taught by Tom Mitchell
Wednesday, July 23 and Thursday, July 24. 8am-5pm (Class begins one day prior to the symposium.) This course is available for all faceting cutting experience levels. There will only be room for 6 participants to take this class, and they will need to provide their own machine, light, and equipment.

Class Two: How to Improve Your Speed and Process Seminar–$95 Taught by Michael Holmes and Roger Dery. Friday, July 25, 8am-12:30pm
Participants need to have 2 years of prior gem faceting experience and have cut roughly 20 gemstones or more. There will be room for 6 participants to take this class. Participants need to provide their own machine, light, and equipment.

On Friday evening, there will be a pizza party/prettiest stone contest. You will be able to enter a stone in three categories: Natural, Synthetic/Man-made, and Fantasy. Winners will receive a plaque and a gift certificate for use at the show at the vendor of their choice.

Additionally, there will be free-door prizes given away throughout the event. Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase for some incredible prizes. A MAJOR announcement will be coming soon on our raffle. The raffle drawings will occur on Saturday afternoon. This will be a fun time for all!

We are still quite busy tweaking our schedule of presentations and events, but as the details are finalized, we will be able to send out a final agenda.

I’d also like to acknowledge and recognize the outstanding work of our USFG Events Committee who have been instrumental in making this all happen:

Doug Augspurger
Ron Snelling
John Campbell
Barb Yost
Josef Weiss
Dennica Fifield
David Smith
Dan Lynch
Paul Armbruster
Cari’ Fifield

We still have some opportunities for those who have an interest in volunteering to help at this event. If you are interested, please reach out to
Cari’ Fifield at cari@fifieldonline.com. We look forward to seeing you in Franklin.

Cari’ Fifield—USFG Events Committee Coordinator/USFG VP