As a woman, any diamond needs to be admired, says Gabriel Tolkowsky, a famous diamond cutter from Canada, who among other things has made the Gabrielle Diamond featuring 105 facets.
“Every stone is a kind of challenge to the diamond cutter and every time it is asking one and the same thing. As any woman would do it, it says to us: I want to be beautiful. And we are doing everything possible to make it such,” La voix de l'Est Daily quotes the maestro.
Tolkowsky, who is called “Speaking to Stones,” is a sixth-generation diamond cutter.
“I cut my first stone at the age of 16,” he says. “This happened in a tiny workshop of my grandfather who taught me how to fix stones for polishing and how to view them. However, it takes a long time to learn the cutter’s trade.”
Tolkowsky’s first cut diamond was composed of several crystals welded into one and turned out to be a real test for occupational aptitude of the future maestro.
“When I was polishing the diamond I heard it squeaking. If you are working on a good stone you can hear it singing and you can smell the odor of oil fed to it,” says the expert who dedicated all of his life to his favorite job.
Tolkowsky always draws a parallel between the birth of a diamond and that of a human being.
“In much the same way as diamonds we are all composed of carbon,” he explains. “As for the stones, plain carbon located in magma, in many kilometers from the Earth’s surface, is transformed under the influence of high temperature and pressure into a hard substance and this is the form in which it exists on the Earth.”
The 68-year-old diamond-cutter warns that sometimes stones may be too obtrusive if you talk to them.
“It so happens sometimes that you get hypnotized by the stone you are working on. There was a period in my life when I spent three years working on one and the same stone in a basement workshop in South Africa. I tried not to think of it, studied foreign languages in my free time, read everything I could lay my hands on, but it didn’t let me go,” Tolkowsky says.
The three years of hard labor and emotional experience gave birth to the Сentenary Diamond, a masterpiece, which up to now is considered to be the most perfect polished diamond ever made by a diamond cutter and which after it emerged in 1991 was issued a $100 million worth insurance policy.
Despite its venerable age and many years of painstaking work Tolkowsky shuns the prospect of resting on his laurels.
Alex Shishlo, Rough&Polished European Bureau Editor in Brussels
