Welcome to the GuiltTrips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and
gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 carat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join
me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's
tune in on these topics and get golden. Previously, I've shared about my apprenticeship and what
a mixed bag that was as far as experience. Today, I'm discussing my gemology education
and how it was one of the best decisions of my career. Not only because of the doors that
it opened, not just for me, but for anybody who graduates from the program, but also how
absolutely delightful it was to be in the company of so many people passionate to pass along
knowledge and empowerment to the next generation of students. The GIA, known as the Gemological
Institute of America, has two main campuses in the United States, one in New York and
one in Carlsbad, California. Both are centers for the three pillars, education, the laboratory,
where stones and not just diamonds get certified, and lastly, research. I'll be addressing
each of these, but I also want to talk about the genius of their curriculums and how that
creates, develops, refines, and enhances the jewelers within all of us. Now, there are
people I've met who have taken gemology courses strictly for pleasure and have no interest
whatsoever in anything vocational with these classes, but most of us go on to a variety
of opportunities as far as work. To name a few, I've seen people become jewelry designers,
appraisers, repair workers, goldsmiths, CAD designers, authenticators, buyers, valuators,
and many have gone back to work in the GIA lab and also to become a future educator for
the university. While I can't speak to every single course that is offered, I can share
the ones that I've taken and where I've put them as far as my career and industry. Before
I get started, an important thing to address, the components or elements that go into your
personal success with this type of learning. One, your understanding of the cost. It's
not cheap and scholarships at the time were almost exclusively need-based. Next is the
time commitment. It's not something that you can phone in and I was extremely discouraged
to do this coursework while going through my apprenticeship. Lastly, is your interest
level. If the idea of gems is the only part of this you can get passionate about, it's
going to be challenging when it gets a little dry, scientific, chemistry-driven, and extremely
formulaic, leading on traditional math for a bulk of the program. Another factor to consider
is do you want to do remote learning or beyond campus? Being on campus is immersive. It will
certainly accelerate the timeline that it takes to become a graduate gemologist. However,
I did some of my coursework remotely and was able to blend it in to the environment I would
end up applying my studies into. Now, why is the GIA such the gold standard in our industry?
Why does it give so much credibility to the people who end up participating in these classes?
We have to remember the modern system of grading diamonds. The way that you approach purchasing
one using the four C's was established by the GIA to be able to relate to a major purchase
with a system that can speak to the color, clarity, cut, and care at weight for not just
commercial purposes, meaning the people buying it in the public, but to establish a language
and a structure that would be embraced by the entire world in the art of gemstones is
pretty impressive. The GIA has also been a powerhouse as far as developing equipment
for the job. It employs some of the most advanced minds in our industry to be able to come up
with solutions to identify and authenticate the mystery of an unknown stone or jewel.
Not only is the GIA considered cutting edge as far as the information, but we've had
the joy of watching it change with the times. This is not an old school institution that
is trying to keep things so traditional that it deters any sort of interest in the digital
application of its three pillars, education, the laboratory, and research. It was wonderful
to see the embracing of modern manufacturing and putting it into coursework for people
who may not have wanted to go down the path of older techniques, especially now that time
is one of the most important factors in creating a piece of jewelry.
How I first heard about the GIA courses was working as a designer at my first job. It
wasn't through the GIA, but there was an opportunity for a weekend diamond hands-on crash course
using GIA standards. I would walk away with a weekend certificate from Diamond College
XYZ, but it was the beginning of my interest. The time was only a couple days, and it gave
me the prep work to know if this was something that I could truly commit to, or if I was
going to take a pass and be thankful that at least it accelerated my conversation and
comfort with the communicating to clients on their stones. It turned out it was something
I absolutely needed more of in my life. The subject came up in my apprenticeship. I've
made the joke before that my undergrad degree taught me how to etch a penny and anodize
some aluminum wire, but it didn't really set me up for how to size a ring or set a diamond.
So we both agreed a crash course of some basic usable techniques and practical skills was
overdue. The owner of the store where I did my apprenticeship was a gemologist, so I got
to see a lot of the equipment that I would end up studying with and eventually using
as a professional myself. We had a microscope in the showroom and in the studio there were
refractometers, polariscopes, and a variety of other pieces that were critical to make
sure that the gems that we were using since we did all the work in-house were as stated
so that when you gave them to the setter, he knew exactly how much force or pressure
or what the risk would be regarding each jewel. I ended up diving into the gemology program
which is divided into three categories. The first is diamond grading. In that, as it sounds,
you'll learn the four C's, cut, color, clarity, and carat weight. You'll learn the formulas
of how to understand calculating the weight, especially if a diamond is already in a ring.
Where the diamond grading part comes in most useful is being able to understand how to
read a lab report on any shape diamond, as well as the confidence and the credibility
to make your own assessment of diamonds that haven't been to the lab or don't come with
papers so that you can relay that to a client and potential customer. The middle section
is colored stone grading. Why this is important is less in the identification like diamonds
because we don't necessarily use their inclusions and their color as talking points for choosing
a stone. But to be able to understand the large swing in pricing around colored gems,
it's not like diamonds where you can look at something at a G color and a VS2 clarity
and have a rough understanding of the price per carat within certain size ranges. That
doesn't apply to the world of jewels. Also, as I've discussed in previous podcast episodes,
more gems can go through different treatments that obviously don't apply to the world of
diamonds. So that is the second part of the entire degree. Lastly, would be gem identification.
And this was the one I had my heart the most because it allows you to play detective and
explore the mysteries of seeing an assortment of materials that have not been disclosed
as to their nature. You would be going through them based on their specific gravity, their
refractive index, the type of inclusions they have, the nature of the hues and colors that
they're expressing, the way that they are damaged, and how that can be a fingerprint
into exactly what species of gem I'm looking at. And the exciting part, which is also the stressful
part for many students, is the 20 stone exam at the end of the program where 100% passing is required
in order to obtain the degree. Yes, you can test, you can also retest. It gets a little more expensive
each time you don't pass. And at some point, that's no longer an option.
The second program was the graduate jeweler program, beginning bench jeweler techniques,
intermediate, and of course advanced. It also had specialty studies that you could take in an
a la carte manner, such as wax carving, and the one that really charmed me was countersketching,
the ability to both quick draw somebody's idea as they were describing it to you.
But also the technique of a full fine rendering and illustration, all the way up to a watercolor
image of a piece that was either being proposed on speculation, or one that had been commissioned
for creation. In this program, I learned the basics of repair, obviously sizing was a big
part of it. But so was setting and breaking it down into the ratios that I would see
out in the field. prongs would be the majority of requests, but also channel setting, flush setting,
and bezel setting would show up and require a steady hand and plenty of practice.
If I hadn't taken those courses, I wouldn't have been able to support myself with repair work
while I was building out my brand. I can't say that about too many classes I've taken,
where there is such an instantaneous return on investment that even while you're learning
the skills before you finish the course, you can convert them, apply them, and monetize them.
Time has passed and advancements have been made as far as a bench jeweler's toolkit.
Now the GIA will teach CAD programming, which stands for computer aided drafting.
The majority of jewelry is now made this way, versus drawing something up and carving a wax.
Also, in the last 20 years, the introduction of laser welding, instead of using a gas-driven torch,
is becoming the new normal, with good reason. It allows for different and more delicate types
of repairs that would have been time-consuming in the sense of having to remove stones to be able
to execute the work, or not even possible, because it would be too destructive to go ahead and dismantle
or attempt to expose to such high temperatures. The laser welding is truly a solution for the
times that we're in and the jewelry that we have. One of the classes that I was interested in
but time never presented itself to take was the Pearls course. Sadly, pearls have fallen off as
far as desirability or even trendiness, but there is such a romance to studying them. And I really
appreciated the ways that they were not only evaluated and graded, but how they were presented.
Learning became as romantic as the gem itself. Currently, there is an offering that leaves
a graduate with the initials of AJP. This is primarily a retail-focused certification that
turns somebody into an accredited jewelry professional. It is a bit of a survey and an
overview on not just the areas and competencies of being in a showroom and being a salesperson,
but also the cross-functionality of what it takes to communicate to a potential client,
buying a ready-made piece, doing custom work, and having a repair conversation.
While not all of my colleagues love to nerd out and talk about diamonds or grading or exactly
what color that amazing tanz knight is showing primarily, or the nature of the inclusions of
that Brazilian emerald, it is a joy to be able to come together and have meetings of the minds
when all of us who do have a gemology degree spark up a talk around design or what it was
like to take their first CAD class, or if they did or didn't become a jeweler.
The years that we may have spent using the education in wholesale,
the friend we know who went on to become a diamond grader for the GIA,
the person who asked to sort and pick all the accent stones for a multi-ring project,
the graduate who struck out on their own and opened a brick-and-mortar store,
our peers at the auction house, esteemed minds that went into the estate realm,
those who advise us as far as reselling, and those who are busy using their studies to help
purchase when it's time to relinquish property or divide assets for a trust.
Those dollars of mine were well invested and my time was well spent,
and while it's been over 20 years since I set foot in the Carlsbad, California campus,
now the day goes by where I'm not thinking about what an excellent adventure I had and how many
wonderful people it's brought into my life, including all of the clients that I've been able
to help and serve and assist knowing what I know. Thank you for listening and learning with me.
I would love you to share this project with people finding rare beauty in today's world
and throughout our times. Until the next episode, keep your own stories sparkling.