BK Gem - Bob Kay

BOB'S BIO:

Hello! My name is Bob Kay. I was born in Adelaide, South Australia where I have lived and worked all my life. My family has always been very important to me. Our children have given us five fantastic grand children.

I’ve crammed a lot into my life with interests a plenty. It has given me respectful appreciation of the world in which we live. I have more hobbies than I have time for. So I must spread my efforts very thinly in order to keep in touch with all of them.

The idea of giving up some of my hobbies is not an option, as I have participated in many of these enjoyable pastimes since I was quite young. So the object is to indulge in each whenever it fancies me, without totally neglecting the others. It's a fun balancing act which I never tire of.

I’ve been a member of the Australian Facetors Guild since September 1990 and State Chairman of the AFG since ‘97. I’ve been able to attend some of the Annual Facetors Guild Seminars held in September each year.

In 2001 I sat with Robert Strickland, a visitor from across the Big Pond, who was the keynote speaker for the Seminar that year. Though I followed his instructions I just couldn’t get the hang of GemCad. I could never get my head around DOS. It was like a foreign language to me, as it was with many of you. But when the Windows version came out, I thought I might be able to understand it better. It took some time and instruction from some of my fellow facetors as well as a few exercises (over the phone) before I got up the confidence to try it myself. After that, it was just practice and more practice. The rest is history.

The year before last, I sent some of my designs to faceting friends around the world and asked them to do some cuts and tell me what they thought. A couple of them have also found their way into the USFG Newsletter with encouraging comments. So I have compiled the designs I’ve done thus far into CDs. I hope you enjoy cutting them as much as I have. GemcadWin was invaluable in the generation of these designs. My complements to Robert Strickland for his efforts to provide us with this wonderful gem design tool. I have cut a number of them myself to gauge the effect in different materials . Be sure to peruse the photos below---Enjoy!