Samarium YAG

They call Samarium YAG the "Neon Ghost" for a reason, but this particular piece turned out to be more of a poltergeist.

Between a pre-polish phase that left deep, inexplicable gouges and a mysterious "Oort cloud" of tiny dots suspended in the crystal lattice, this wasn't your average faceting project. Dive into how I bypassed the traditional rules of polishing to save the stone, and my theory on why this lab-grown marvel looks like it’s holding a miniature galaxy inside.