A gem dealer's journal — Photography

Hey Loungers, By now we have all heard of the legendary Lotus Gemology team. We all know via papers and interviews, the ruby & sapphire colossus, Richard W. Hughes, and his equally talented daughter, E. Billie Hughes. Yet little is known about the missing link in that trinity. Wimon Manorotkul is not only a talented gemmologist in her own right, and a skilled photographer to boot, But she is arguably the person that brought the other two members of her family to the world of gems. You read that right, she is the one who enrolled Richard for his first...

Hey Loungers, Today we have the pleasure of restarting an arc that we began a few years ago with E.Billie Hughes. Today, we are blessed with the presence of the Space Enchanter: Danny Sanchez! We discovered Danny’s work a few years back as we were discussing photomicrography with some of his peers here in Bangkok. Since then, we have had the pleasure of purchasing a few of his shots and finally met him before the COVID folie really kicked in on a world-wide basis at Tucson 2020. Today, we are given the opportunity to discuss his path, his art and...

Hey Loungers,

As you may have noticed, we have had a fair few gem cutters coming through our columns recently. Today, we interview the newly appointed president of the South Australian division of the G.A.A. (Gemmological Association of Australia), Madame the President Laura Phillis!

Laura is a famed lapidary artist, whom is more widely known by her company name on Instagram: Tatum Gems, who’s made a name for herself for coming up with brand new gem designs as well as for being a gemmological teacher in her native Australia.

We had the opportunity of meeting her recently during the 2020 edition of the Tucson show where she agreed to answer to our questions.

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...

Hey Loungers,  Today we propose you a bit of a special episode of A Gem Dealer's Journal, as we will be discussing our latest trip to Madagascar. While the Hunt for Red October was already taken by Tom Clancy, we decided to go after Pink August which was conveniently more readily available in the area of Ilakaka.  For those of you that would like to learn more about Ilakaka and its surrounding we propose you to follow this link to an article by Vincent Pardieu while he was at the GIA Bangkok: read now.   Our merry group upon arrival...