Gemgeneve Univers #17 Diamond beyond brilliant cut by Avnish Shah - Glittering Gems and Rajanish Sutariya - Great Diam
Il était une fois... le bijou
This episode explores the artistry and historical significance of non-brilliant diamond cuts, moving beyond the standard brilliant cut to discu
Key takeaways
- Avnish Shah of Glittering Gems showcases between 50 to 60 different types of diamond cuts and shapes.
- Historical diamond cutting in India utilized slow-turning wheels powered by animals due to a lack of electricity.
Main topics
- Historical diamond cuts
- Evolution of diamond cutting technology
Notable quotes
Let's not make a factory product... Let's make history.
Conclusion
The episode serves as a tribute to the enduring value of craftsmanship
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:05) In the cosmos of the world of jewelry, subjects are as various and diverse as the galaxies that gravitate together in the jewelry planetary system that Gemgenève has built. Gemgenève, which has become a cultural event, offers to their exhibitors and visitors a wide range of topics around jewelry and provides their knowledge on current affairs. I've joined them all together in one universe. The seventh season of the Gébollerie team podcast, Il était une fois le bijou. Speaker 1 (0:51) In this episode, I'll be exploring a new nebula, diamond beyond the brilliant cut. So I welcome Avnish Shah from Glittering Gems. Hello. And Rajneet Sutareya from Grid Dime Inc. Hello. First of all, can you tell me about the different style and cut of diamonds in your display? Speaker 2 (1:17) Be how? At my booth, I think at least 50 to 60 kinds of cuts and styles on the diamonds on various shapes and various colors also. Speaker 3 (1:28) Definitely, we have a similar kind of thing, almost 70, 80 types of diamonds with different cuts, different forms, different lusters, different charms, because that's the need of the hour today. So today everybody is looking to have something out of the ordinary. All customers want, yes, they want to compete with each other. And like us, we want to compete with each other. But what is more special or more unique about the diamond, which each one has, is what is more saleable today because nobody wants a repetition. So even if I say I can repeat this again and again, my customer is not happy. They want to have what you cannot repeat is what I like to have, which makes. Their piece already special. So even if I said, oh my God, I sold this to so-and-so and this is the piece they made and somebody else asked me, can you make one again? Even I cannot. So their design remains special, remains unique. It's like every Picasso. Picasso made so many paintings, but each Picasso is special in its own way. Each Picasso has its own value. You cannot say each Picasso is 100 million, but one will be 60 million, one will be 200 million. It's all depend on what it is. And the one who understands wants to pay the number. There are people who don't understand and say, why would I buy this? Why don't I buy a poster which is $20? And you want to put that? That's where you go. So that's how life is. And there's room for everybody. So you do what everybody does. So traditionally, India was the first jewelry market in terms of diamond or studded jewelry. The rest of the world had gold and silver jewelry, definitely. But India was the first to have diamond cutting. And in those days, you didn't have electricity or the modern machinery. You had a bullock cart or a horse which helped turn the wheel, which was so slow. So in those days, that's why you couldn't do any faceting. So it was more table cut or that kind of faceting in those days. And as in when time went by and when they had the extra facility, that's when the... thicker diamond was formed. So it is surprising to see that in those days, even if they would find a big piece of rough, like 200 carat, 300 carat, they made slices of it. And from one piece, they suddenly had 10, 12, 15 stones, which were really thin slices, which was shocking. I myself have seen one antique piece of jewelry where they had 23 pieces and I could literally see. It started from the tiny one, became big and became tiny again in the end, in the graduation. Funnily, one inclusion started in the fourth stone and it finished in the 12th stone. So I could realize that when the stone was a complete one, that's where the inclusion would have been. And that's where the inclusion finished. And so the remaining piece were nice and clean. And this one, and you could really see even the inclusion, it became big and small as per the slice. So it was really marvel. It was really surprising for me that, oh my God, it's really the truth. I heard this story, but it's really the fact that this is what actually happened in those days. And they took days to prepare this. There was no commercial thing in those days. The cutter was, and I don't want to say employee, but the cutter was taken care of by the king. So he sent him food to eat. There was no like we have today, Saturday, Sunday. They would work at any hour. They would do as per their need, their mood. That's why they created more charming thing. Today, if our worker doesn't finish something in those many hours and we are paying by the hour, we are angry. We are not happy. We are saying, well, how come you are like this? You should have finished this two hours ago. But we don't realize that everything special or artistic, which this should be. takes its own time. Leave the guy to breathe, leave the thing to happen. Let's not make a factory product is what I would say. Let's make history. Let's make charm. I don't want to go on manufacturing shoes every day, which I can in diamonds, but I'd rather make one shoe per month, which is a special pair of shoes. And I still have in London some stores which are making made-to-order shoes. So they measure your foot and they exactly design the shoe. accordingly. Costs Speaker 1 (5:55) a Speaker 3 (5:55) fortune, but the same way. This is the reason why today these things are special. And I hope this trend continues. It makes me happy. Speaker 1 (6:02) I notice you have several table cut diamonds. I know this historical cut as we see them in Renaissance paintings. Speaker 2 (6:11) Yes, it's a historical cut, as Richard Auerich said, that there were in those days is no electricity and that they pull up or horse, turn the wheels and they try to make it facets on that. So. just find the rough and put the minimum facets on the stones to sparkling and shining. And so the double cut is the easiest way to cut because they were to just put the both the side facets to make a big table and just bounding the girdle and that's the diamond was ready. So on those days, double cut was so famous about that in diamonds mostly. And after they start to put some extra facets and then slowly, slowly builds rose cuts or old mine cut diamonds on that days. Speaker 3 (6:50) I would like to add something here. So today, the table cut, in fact, in those days, what was more easy, today is that much more difficult because the speed of the wheel is actually against making a table cut today. The table cut was a more safer thing to do that day because the wheel was slow. Today, the wheel being fast, it can crack the diamond. easily even today so it's more difficult so that's why the table cut today is more special because not everybody can do it it takes much longer to arrive to what was done in those days those days they had time today we are short of time but we have to bring the same result so it's unfortunate that today's jewelers really don't actually understand or appreciate the effort which is going which is more difficult to find a cutter today who understands this is also a very big challenge because they are more used to doing and the cutter in India we pay them as per the product they bring back it's not about the hours they did so if he polished the stone five carat I will pay him as the polish weight and things like this I don't pay him per hour but earlier he didn't the cutter never bothered because The king took care of everything, for his family, the food, everything was taken care of. Today, if he didn't produce in certain hours, I'm paying you so much money and what am I getting in return? So it's a big challenge to be satisfied. Even for us, sometimes we are unsatisfied, even though we know it, even if I know it, I'm still after my worker in the factory and I say, what are you doing? Well, it's taking so long, but I need to also accept and I wish the world accepts this. Look, good things in life takes time. Takes time, yeah. Speaker 1 (8:44) Do your customers use the table cut diamonds on their own? Or is it sometimes used over another gem or picture like portrait cuts? Speaker 3 (8:54) I cannot quantify or qualify exactly where and how because it's the designer's dream is what I would say. So I've seen so many fabulous ways to think of it. I've seen sometimes designers actually take a colored stone with a carving underneath. So, and they still put the diamond on top. So you're looking at that color and that carving, but you still have a diamond on top. I have seen people or top end watchmakers use the diamond glass on top instead of the sapphire glass to make the watch even more expensive because you have that. So, but each is unique because you have to find that size, that thing, because you don't know in today's day and age what you're going to find. Everything costs money. Earlier, people would cut anything according to what they wanted. Today, they need to build a little bit around the stone which they find. They may have a vision, they may have a dream, but sometimes they come to me and they say, I need something this 20 millimeter by 15 millimeter. And I said, yes, you need, I understand. But do you know how much it weighs? Do you know how much it's going to cost? He said, no, I didn't think of it. You tell me. And I said, okay, it's going to cost you half a million dollars. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is not what I want to spend. I want to spend only 70,000. I said, look, you know, from where to where, then you need to not look for a white. You have to look for a yellow or a brown. You have to not look for 20 by 10. You have to come down to eight by 12, something like this. And you have to go back and forth till they come to a satisfaction. And what happens, they decide what they want to do. So today it's very, very different. We have to all work in combination. I cannot say. Everything I do is correct. Everything Mr. Raj does is correct or everything what the designers are visioning or doing is right or wrong. It's about a lot of teamwork. Today, I don't think anybody can say they can do everything single-handedly. It's not possible. And I'm happy that this is, you know, what we call... the majors business, what they call buying this engagement ring in United States, which is $9.99 or $4.99. This product, yes, it turns out a thousand pieces a day, you can do this kind of thing. But what we want to do is do one piece a month kind of situation. And that's what today's importance is. Speaker 2 (11:18) Yeah, it's a kind of, as Mr. Omni says, one of a kind stones that we are doing that. And it depends on the designer's choice and designer's designs how and what they want to build. And according to that, we can cut the diamonds. Sometimes the table cut diamonds put on the surround stones as like a frame of the diamonds. And sometimes they say it is underneath the color stones or top of the color stones. And sometimes it's a glass