diamond dancer

jewellry. 6 months ago jewellry, to me, meant items you'd spend hours pouring over every little specification before even thinking about making a decision about buying. so due to lack of sufficient interest and funds to endure that process, i seriously didn't even consider jewellry as something of great importance. sure it was beautiful and pretty to admire, but on me? no no.

but i've shifted my perspective. since being hired by a bloody prominent jewellry store in the city (i still can't believe i've worked four shifts there), learning the intricate details of diamonds, gemstones, opals and the people with millions to spend on them, has made me acknowledge and appreciate just how genuinely beautiful jewellry really is. i find it really spooky almost because i've been working with Surry Hills jewellry designer Elke Kramer for just under a year now, and her work is just pure resin genius, but i'm now getting into the jewellry business very unintentionally. it's all amazing, don't get me wrong, but i can't help think that this is meant to all mean something...jewels...gold...nope nothing....YET.

very kindly my friend Nick, who is an out-of-this-planet-talented jewellry crafter, and conveniently located two blocks from Kramer, has offered to teach me the ropes in the jewellry world to basically blow all my colleagues at work away with my spectacular intelligeble encyclopaediac brain. but seriously, the more i know working for that company the better. the retail side is easy, but the origins of all the jewels, how to cut a diamond, these are things they can't teach me. but he can - his passion is so motivating, and he's like family to me, so there's no alterior motives or no politics, like the big money-pumping conglomerates have with their staff. ugh do not get me started.

just sitting in his workshop is enough for me to take in a week. its a hub of books, equipment and hard work. he has esoteric music playing, incense burning, and has a spare compartment in the front for a fold-out bed when he just can't bring himself to part with his work. arguably, the creatively talented folk of this country reside in Surry Hills. it's all just heaven to me.

i spent five hours with him today discussing and writing notes and writing and writing and saying "I don't know what that means" and asking what his tools do.
thank god he is the most patient man i know otherwise i would have crushed him. and the terminology is like gobbledigook. prasiolite, quartz, carats, open cut, baguette, fault, dyke (i so wish i was joking), boart, finger sizing, cast, trigons OMG.

i'm up for the challenge thankfully so its not going to be as hard as it all sounds. i really am excited, it's just an incredibly vast subject and i wouldn't take this on if i weren't seriously focused...and these things take time. lots of it.

so now i'm going to study four amazing books he leant me until my next visit in a week, followed by a billion Google searches. oh by the way, my dad got promoted at Google today so we just had champagne...champagne is a colour of diamonds...i think i'm gonna do just fine.