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The Circle of Life–Gems and Jewels Style
My grandfather was a client of GIA’s back in the 50s and early 60s. He died only a few years after I was born, but at his company in Long Island City, New York, where both my mother and father continued to work, I grew up surrounded by the tools of an amateur gemologist—which only stopped gathering dust when my sister and I handled them (secretly, so mom wouldn’t yell). Dops aligned in hand-made open boxes, stones in various stages of cutting and faceting. Boxes of wax and sticky stuff I couldn’t identify, but stuck my fingers in anyway. And an amazing collection of uncut stones picked up on Grandpa’s travels around the US.
Oh…those beautiful, beautiful stones! For a child, it was like an endless Crayola® crayon box of treasures. Truly, I thought every kid got to play with uncut rubies, emeralds and tourmalines.
My mother shared the bounty of her father’s love and knowledge with us—saving the delicate drawings that he made before faceting certain gems, and showing them to us as my sister showed a skill for art; gathering together fluorescent stones he had mined himself, and buying a black light so we could do totally cool show-and-tells at school.
The gardens around the house were decorated with larger pieces from the collection: rose quartz, amethysts and emeralds in substrate, and the occasional chunks pyrite for glitz. I remember a fascination with the geodes that were displayed on hutches and open cabinets around the house. How had he known something so crystalline and beautiful would be inside something so hard and dull?
Getting to write about GIA on this blog is the amazing completion of a circle for me that started with Grandpa Victor. He was no snob from what I could tell—he seemed to collect any rock he found interesting or beautiful. Sure, there were many semi-precious gems in his collection. But there were the simple pebbles he picked up to practice his polishing technique. The agate that became gorgeous cabochons for pendants my mom still wears. And the old cigar boxes filled with meticulously cut “pillows” for the gems he did facet. While I am not a gem expert, I will be able to share with you all that GIA has to offer…while reveling in the DNA that made me a gem-lover, too. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey.