Glenn's unmatched passion and incredible skill with gem art has led to this wonderful KaleidosCut collection. Glenn's kaleidoscope cut gemstones live up to their name perfectly, as shards of vibrant colour swirl around the stone as it is moved around. There's much to learn more about the intricate process behind the creation of these gems, and Glenn himself has spoken to us about their genesis.
Glenn Lehrer is internationally recognised as one of the finest living gemstone artists. His precisely-faceted stones and fluid carvings are known the world over for their original concepts, flowing lines and stunning brilliance. His genius in gem art and jewellery is unparalleled, creating masterpieces that ignite passion and stir a grand sense of beauty. KaleidosCut is the third of Glenn's incredible creations that Gemporia is proud to bring to you, and the story of how a kaleidoscope effect can be crafted into a gemstone is utterly fascinating.
What Is KaleidosCut?
The KaleidosCut is an artistic masterpiece. Each gemstone features a smaller stone of a complimentary colour hidden behind incredible facet work. These cuts are of such precise angling that while you can't see the smaller stone, its colour bounces around the bigger gem like the shards of light from a kaleidoscope. Each piece is a wonder to behold. The design is a development and reinterpretation of both the TorusRing and QuasarCut.
Throughout Glenn’s illustrious career he has always been fascinated with the concept of putting two stones together to make one piece of art. In the 1980s when Glenn was experimenting with this idea, in one effort he glued a stone to an elongated cut gemstone and he faceted the pavilion in such a way that the colour would appear down near the bottom of the elongated stone. This idea later developed into the Cosmic Obelisk design.
Eventually Glenn created a completely unique and patented TorusRing cut and this fulfilled Glenn’s vision of having a gemstone within a gemstone.
The evolution then continued into the QuasarCut which made a feature of the inverted culet (cone shape) but also featured a concave faceted table. The elements of the KaleidosCut were coming together.
About KaleidosCut
The KaleidosCut is the result of 40 years of studying gemstones and a natural progression of Glenn’s art form. Glenn had a vision that kept coming to him in his sleep. It was of a kaleidoscopic image with shards of disjointed vibrant colour that moved like the broken glass within the Kaleidoscope that Glenn owned as a child.
Glenn started experimenting with this idea in his workshop and he couldn’t get it right, he couldn’t find a novel way to hold a gemstone within another gemstone that would allow the colour to blossom but also hide the source. He wanted the coloured stone to be hidden by using specific reflective and refractive angles so that it couldn’t physically be seen within, but so the legacy of its colour would ricochet around the internal facets.
Eventually Glenn was exhausted at his workbench. He looked over and saw his QuasarCut design, and placed a round brilliant cut gem inside it and upside down so that the culet would fill the cone. What he saw was mesmerising. To anyone else it would have looked dull, but with Glenn’s experience and his trained eye, he saw the potential. He saw the beginning of what could be something very special. He saw the way that he could manipulate the light to do what he wanted to achieve his vision.
It still took Glenn a long time to refine and evolve this cut, but just like the TorusRing helped Glenn understand how to achieve the QuasarCut, the QuasarCut helped Glenn understand how he could achieve the KaleidosCut.
He took the concave facet of the Quasar and through trial and error figured out the specific proportions and angles of the negative dish to be able to force the colour of the hidden internal stone to interact with the internal facets of the main stone without being able to see the stone in the centre. He also worked out the all of the angels of both stones to maximise the colour dispersion and made new facets to allow the light to maximise the colour and shape of the optical illusion.
This was a lengthy process but Glenn’s previous body of work is present in this completely unique cut. It has taken elements of the TorusRing and the QuasarCut and turned it into something unimaginably beautiful, the end result looks so striking and simple but the level of complexity involved in producing this cut is untold.
When you purchase a Lehrer design for the first time, while stocks last, we'll send you a complimentary copy of Glenn's autobiography 'In Quest of the Indescribable', a story with just as many fascinating facets as his gemstone creations. To own one of Glenn Lehrer’s fine creations is to own a museum quality work of art, a piece to be treasured as an heirloom for future generations.
Discover the KaleidosCut collection here
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