In 2014, Gemporia opened a ladies gem cutting school in Jaipur to train local women to cut gemstones. Many of them have now graduated, so we caught up with them to find out how they're getting on.
Here at Gemporia, we cut many of our gemstones ourselves at our cutting houses in Jaipur, India. Jaipur has been a capital of gem cutting since it was founded in 1727, specialising in coloured gemstones. A huge percentage of coloured gemstones reaching the market around the world every year are cut and polished in Jaipur.
In 2014, we opened a ladies gem cutting school in Jaipur. After providing schooling for their children, many of the mothers felt lost with how to spend their days. They had never worked before and few could read or write. So we enrolled dozens of mothers from the Kathputli Nagar slum into a gem cutting course. They were paid a wage during their training and we provided all of the expertise, equipment and rough gems. At the end of their training, we offered full-time work to the mothers in various aspects of gem cutting.
One of the graduates told us: ‘We were going through a hard time after my husband had an accident and needed surgery. I really know the value of money after all the hardship we faced. But now I’ve started this training, I come here stress-free every day. We’re independent. This is not just training. We’re now being paid to take control of our lives. We’re all delighted.’
Another graduate said: ‘My husband and I are both disabled and were struggling to run our family. We were both struggling to find work, so I decided to take the step of joining this course. The teachers have really motivated us to work hard. I wasn’t sure initially, but once I started with it, I gained confidence. We’ve all learnt new skills and have immense pleasure in learning to cut gems.’
We have been so impressed by their work that we decided to do a little comparison between our graduates’ cutting and gemstones cut by other Jaipur cutting houses.
We split a parcel of Serenite in two and had our cutters cut one half of the batch in a couple of different cuts and sent the other half to one of the most respected cutting houses in Jaipur. The results were even easier to see than we had anticipated. With such a naturally-sparkling gem, the cutting can make a huge difference. The gems cut by our team display more sparkle and more life than their counterparts cut by the other cutting house, and this is even more obvious in person. We believe that the difference is the care and attention paid to the cutting of each and every gem.
What seems even more extraordinary than the cutting itself is the considerable changes in our students' lives by learning to cut gemstones. This is just one of the ways we believe that gemstones can help bring the disadvantaged out of poverty. Gemstones aren’t just objects of beauty – they can bring wealth, hope, and opportunity to some of those who need it most. In 2021, the ladies continue to learn and improve their already significant skillset, cutting stones to show off their very best qualities for our beautiful jewellery designs.
AMELIA VISITS THE CUTTING SCHOOL
