What an interesting day, I had a meeting which was held at a coloured stone cutting workshop (known as a 'lapidary') in Hatton Garden (London) and they kindly let me take a photo of one of their cutting benches for me to share. Can you believe stones are still cut in this way?! Of course, this is mostly for one-off or special stones as opposed to the vast majority which are cut overseas. Diamond cutting is done slightly differently.


Anyway...
For such a complicated task the equipment appears relatively basic, (from what I understand) the stones are cut & polished against a copper plate finely loaded up with a cutting powder. The stone itself is held on an incredibly basic stick stuck on with setters cement & correctly angled by maker by wedging it against the post with all the holes in it (see pic) and lowering onto the revolving plate, which is motor powered or turned by hand depending on whether you are cutting or polishing (the turning handle was made from very old bike parts!). The cutters and polishers must be incredibly skilled and it was a privilege to see a snippet of how it's done.

If you have ever wondered how on earth those amazing pieces of high jewellery are made... well then here's a sneak peek into the making of the Makis Decor Timepiece. Van Cleef & Arpels posted a great video condensing what was probably months of work into 3 minutes. It appears to be made entirely by hand by their seriously skilled makers. So impressive!

Click on the image below to view...

Went to see the "Goldsmiths' Craftsmanship & Design Awards" exhibition today at the beautiful Goldsmiths' Hall....my entry didn't win this time but it was nice to see they had chosen to exhibit it anyway. My entry is below. I was impressed with so many of the entries, but wish I had found time to enter a few other catagories...that's the trouble with a January deadline. It's the dreaded tax time!

The brief was to find an innovative way of using coloured gemstones, yet in a wearable way. My concept 'Lovelocked' was inspired by the locking mechanism of a beautiful Victorian combination lock. To fasten the bracelet you place the 'key' in the barrel (on one end of the chain) & rotate the three central sections, essentially scrambling the gemstones into a random pattern. Once the three rubies are back into alignment the key will release and the bracelet can be removed.