Artifact gems sit and look pretty, like most artifacts that aren't weapons, armor, or furniture. ON my latest (and longest lasting) fort I've made a "viewing chamber" for my useless artifacts that lets civilians see them regularly while keeping them out of the hands of thieves:
Those look like floodgates. Floodgates are usable. You can also build them, which makes them more visible.
Those are not floodgates, they're bins that contain an ashen bracelet and a cougar bone spear. I tried getting the dwarves to remove the bins but they won't have it. The thing that looks like a chair is in fact a steel throne; I'm saving it for a decent purpose, as my mayors don't deserve it and my dining hall is beyond impressive enough. There's also a new emerald window one of my gem setters produced in there I'm also saving for a good purpose.
Artifact gems sit and look pretty, like most artifacts that aren't weapons, armor, or furniture. ON my latest (and longest lasting) fort I've made a "viewing chamber" for my useless artifacts that lets civilians see them regularly while keeping them out of the hands of thieves:
Did you place the gem using dump or stockpile?
You can use them to make a window(I think. you CAN use gems to make windows('Y')but artifacts I dont know. please do some !!SCIENCE!!) and put it on a strategic location and the dwarves will see a awesome window. Maybe on the main corridors.
I've just noticed that the gem is large and you can't do anything of large gems.
It's a custom stockpile with every quality-affected item category turned on and both core and base qualities restricted to artifact in each category. It would be bigger but that bit of floor was already there long before I decided to use it for this. I may dig a bigger one later.