When you look at a gemstone, be it faceted or cabochon, it's sometimes hard to imagine where it came from, or the path it traveled to get to you. Often we forget that when we as jewelers examine our own stone collection, we are touching "souvenirs" from all over the earth.
Lately, the gem trade has been sullied by negative stories about smuggling, "blood" stones, money laundering, and other illegal and unethical practices. While some of these may be true, they don't characterize the way the vast majority of small dealers do business. Most gem dealers are here simply because of their love of minerals. Working with these materials is an end in itself. So I thought I'd introduce you briefly to some of the wholesale dealers responsible for the supply of stones on the Heart of Stone Studio website.
Let me start with Harry, my friend from Indonesia. He and his wife Mary work together, and it seems that Mary holds down the business end of things while Harry is the entreprenuer. He supervises the mining of material, he trains and hires the cutters, and he does the selling at the shows. He is constantly on the search for new gemstones. The fossilized corals and some of the natural drusies on my site are from him.
I asked him how he locates new material, and he told me that he goes from village to village on the various islands, and asks the locals to bring in interesting stones for him to see. In one village, someone brought him some beautiful lavender chalcedony, and so he got permission from the local landowner to remove some rough material. After he had mined a small amount, the landowner told him that if Harry wanted any more of it, he would have to buy the land. So he did.
The neatest part of the story is that after Harry had mined a vein of chalcedony and had what he wanted, he covered over the mine and planted hardwood trees "so the villagers would have something after I left," he said.
Another dealer is John, who with his wife Karen owns a rock shop in southeastern Arizona. Their rock shop is a wonderland of mineral specimens, spheres, bowls of tumbled Apache tears and pebbles of Peridot, and cabochons. John does all his own lapidary work, and has supplied Heart of Stone Studio with a variety of Arizona minerals and natural drusies. John and Karen have an RV that they drive around the west, taking their wares to regional rock and gem shows. I carry a stone, cinnabar in quartz, that John mined himself: He found it in the earth, he took the rough home, he cut it, and then sold it to me so I can bring it to you. Now that's what I call quality control!
Then there's Gabriela and her two brothers. They are young people in their twenties, and they are from Italy. They are part of a family coral business: Their father, Fluvio, has spent the past forty years working with local fishermen off the coast of Sardinia, harvesting red twig coral from deep in the Mediterranean Sea. They sell fabulous gem coral at reasonable prices, and they are a delight to talk with. Because of them, I will be able to offer top-quality gem coral on the website, coral that I've had to pass up in years past because I couldn't find a dealer whose prices I could afford.
And back in Arizona, there's Keith and Alex, a father-son team who are master gem cutters. Keith used to work on a ranch breeding quarterhorses, then came into the lapidary business by way of turquoise. He now teaches lapidary at the local community college, and still cuts stones for wholesale. His stones have extremely elegant cuts that I really admire. His son Alex cuts transparent stones, his favorite being ametrine--the purple/yellow gem where amethyst grades into citrine. Alex not only artistically cuts these stones, he also sets them into gold, creating one-of-a-kind, stunning designs.
And then there's Maxam, who with his wife and small sales team, run a wholesale gemstone business where I purchase most of my coated drusies. I was surprised to learn that Maxam started out in the gem business specializing in rubies. He didn't enjoy the cutthroat nature of that aspect of the industry, so he moved on, becoming the first major person to promote titanium, platinum, and gold-coated drusies in the U.S. Since then, he has specialized in designing and building totally new types of gemstones, combining carved and faceted quartz with other materials such as mother of pearl. Hopefully I will be able to carry some of his unique designs on my site in the future.
And of course, there's Pat. Her lapidary workshop is set up on her back patio, facing her desert backyard where a nearly-tame bunny stops by every day to cadge a treat. Pat's the brave one who cuts the nastily-dirty but gorgeous Psilomelane. So much black gunk sprays off her grinders when she shapes the stone that she wears a raincoat, a shower cap, gloves and goggles when she cuts it. Yet she is able to coax beautiful cuts and patterns from the material.
I have other dealers, too numerous to fit in here, from far-flung places such as Thailand, Namibia, and Australia, as well as nearer neighbors such as Mexico and Montana. What has been most fun about finding these dealers has been the opportunity to get to know them and find out how they came into the business and what makes them tick. The neat thing is, regardless of our home country or background, we all have in common one important thing: Our fascination and love for beautiful gems from the earth.
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