A gem dealer's journal — garnet

Hey Loungers, This week we welcome as our guest Ms. Victoria Raynaud, the young French gemologist who has quite the track record albeit her age and is one of the last people to have learned the traditional Swiss cutting technique! She has worked diligently under our pal Vincent Pardieu both at GIA Bangkok and at DANAT Bahrain and is now setting her own activity as a gem cutting expert in Bangkok, Thailand! But whom better than herself could tell us more about herself? Victoria the floor is yours!     Victoria learning to cut on a traditional Burmese faceting handpiece during...

Just like most girls, I always liked jewellery. But I found it extremely difficult to find jewellery from stores that I liked and would've wanted to wear. This is the main reason why I decided to go and study how to create jewellery myself. I just wanted to be able to do things that I'd like.

To me, jewellery is conceptual – it tells a story or speaks of a feeling, often even when it wasn't intended. People make assumptions about others based on how they interpret the adornments seen. It's one of the ways jewellery is never really silent, nor meaningless. I find it important that the person who's proudly wearing a piece of jewellery is the first one who should know about it. And not just how to take care of it.

Combining my passion, skills, and knowledge about gems and jewellery not just gives me the freedom to do what I love, but also the ability to understand that vast world on much deeper levels.

Hey Loungers,

Wim Vertriest is the current Supervisor of GIA´s field gemology program in Bangkok, Thailand.

Today, we propose you an interview with Wim in hope to better understand what field gemology is all about and what the average day at Bangkok´s GIA office looks like as well as how and why is a gemological field expedition deployed.

With this in mind, we propose you to fasten your seat belt and to follow us as we interview Wim Vertriest. Wim, the floor is yours!

Hey Loungers,

Today we’ll be welcoming in our column for the first part of a twin interview Mr. Stewart Young.

Stewart has been working for some of the most famous auction houses in the world and has more recently been at the helm of the rise of Hong Kong’s fastest rising auction house: Tiancheng International.

Today, Stewart is at the helm of his very own high jewellery brand but that will be a story we’ll be discussing in part two of this interview so stay tuned to learn more about it.

Without any further delays we give today’s guest: Stewart Young!