THE CUTTING EDGE

Having long played quiet supporting roles in the gem industry, gem cutters are finally having their day in the sun. Four acclaimed independent master gem cutters share more about their love of the craft and the creation of their best pieces.

- MINDY TEH

THE STORYTELLER: VICTOR TUZLUKOV

I was born in Siberia, Russia, and qualified as a marine navigator in Vladivostok before pivoting into economics. I started learning the craft of cutting gemstones and gaining the initial know-how from a friend who is an amateur faceter.

A distinctive leap in my gem-cutting journey came in 2006 when I joined my first technical faceting contest, the Single Stone Competition held by the US Faceters Guild. A few years later, in 2010, I won the International Faceting Challenge in Australia with the highest score of 299.17 out of 300, a record that went unbeaten for a decade!

These technical competitions helped me learn to "draw" with facets and create certain images or symbols. Each stone not only has its own name that expresses the main idea of its artistic composition but is also, in itself, a philosophical concept.

The most difficult stone I've created is the Triumph of Life, which will be exhibited from the end of October at the Russian State Historical Museum in Moscow. This is a citrine stone cut in the shape of an egg. A significant part of its surface is covered by a Flower of Life pattern of frosted facets. Its uniqueness is that between the frosted flat "petals", there are curved polished spaces, which makes the "petals" rounded. This technique had only been used once before on a stone cut according to a design by Leonardo da Vinci and included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most faceted quartz in the world. But this egg also contains another technique flat polished facets and curved frosted ones between them. There is no other stone like this in the world.