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I'm not sure if this should go in this forum as it's seeking roleplaying advice, or if it should be in the Lost Omens board because it's primarily a lore-based question with no real mechanical aspect. If its in the wrong place, please do not hesitate to motlve it, and I apologize for the inconvenience.
One of the most specific anathemas of the elven goddess Yuelral is "Never cut a gem for aesthetic purposes." I understand the intent of this commandment: as a goddess of nature as much as jewelry, Yuelral wants her faithful to emphasize a gem's natural beauty as opposed to beauty imposed by artifice.
But if I'm roleplaying a Yuelral worshipper who wants to hold to this anathema, does polishing a gem without actively faceting it count as cutting? Where do cabochons fall? Or are Yuelral-worshipping jewelers limited to exclusively rough gemstones?
What counts as "aesthetic purposes?" Does cutting them to specific sizes for varying purposes or fittings break this taboo? What about intaglio or cameo jewelry? Do the gems of dwarven clans (like the ones used in the pommels of their clan daggers) get special exemptions because they're required to be cut in specific ways to be identifiable as the clan in question (especially since there's a prominent temple to Yuelral IN the Five Kings Mountains, as we learned in the Highhelm book)?
I'm just trying to figure out how aesthetically my character's work should look when I describe it.
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A non-aesthetic purpose for cutting a gem would be making a ruby laser. Though Wikipedia says that ruby lasers use synthetic ruby rather than natural ruby. For a magical setting, I recall D&D and PF1 spells that require a diamond spell component, including diamond dust for the Stoneskin spell. Preparing a gem as a spell component would be a non-aesthetic use. Making a diamond drill bit for cutting hard object would be another non-aesthetic use, but Yuelral would object to cutting many of those hard natural objects.
As for particular shapes of gems having meaning in dwarven culture, maybe the dwarves who worship Yuelral embed natural gems in glass or resin of the appropriate shape as a compromise. And Yuelral-worshiping jewelers who need a stone of a specific size probably wait until a natural stone of the right size is found. They might master making settings using several smaller stones rather than one perfectly-sized stone. I am reminded of how in the real world Islamic artists forbidden to make images of creatures instead mastered making beautiful geometrical patterns.
Polishing a gem is probably viewed as uncovering its natural beauty rather than changing the nature of the stone. In contrast, shaping a gemstone into a perfect oval cabochon would be anathema. Drilling a hole in semi-precious stones to make a necklace would be a fringe case that would be allowed but considered inferior to a necklace that mounts unmarred stones on a fiber mesh or metal chain.
I'm just trying to figure out how aesthetically my character's work should look when I describe it.
Creating a jewelry tradition that uses polished unshaped stones would be the strongest aesthetic for the character. The jewelry they wear would mark a specific religious tradition.
I Generally agree with mathmuse and raven black here
But what counts as 'cutting a gem' might even be reason for debate within the church with some followers happily embracing a good polish and others saying that is already too much
I don't know enough about the church in particular to know If that is true or both but within the faiths of golarion there are often smaller subgroups
How Well those get along is another question and a Potential plothook even
I haven't found much about Yuelral, so I feel you have quite some freedom on how to interpret one of her followers.
I'd still consider that polishing or any other actions made to increase a gem beauty would be an issue, but it's a purely personal opinion.