Desktop Closeup Photography 5b - Modify bowl
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The bowl is a starting place
You can modify the bowl by placing different reflective surfaces inside at one or more positions. The crumpled foil covering 1/2 the inside of the bowl, in this example, makes the light more harsh, but provides more sparkle to the gemstone.

Pieces of cut plain-white paper placed in various patterns around the inside top of the bowl add a degree of highlight to the objects being photographed.

Foil or mirrors produce more specular highlights, but paper or foam rubber can be used to change the balance of reflections. Opaque materials will block external lighting and work best with reflected internal lighting from the bottom.
There are many more examples of using the bowl with gemstones in my previous section on digital photography, but I have moved on for gemstones to other methods that will be described later in this presentation

If you want more ideas to play with, then look at my older pages ...
http://www.theimage.com/photography/photopg27.htm

I now use the bowl for metal work and jewelry work almost exclusively but less for faceted stones. It sometimes works nicely on cabochons or domed surfaces. It also works for faceted stones when you are trying to show the pattern of facets and not the "sparkle" in the stone.