In the heart of diamond

When I first started working, I was fortunate to join a small and growing bussiness.  What was interesting about it was that it was two sister companies.  The one was supplying a service to the trade by manufacturing - mostly platinum and diamond jewellery - and the other was a small retail store.  

I would open and close, run the store and design. What was good about this was that I had daily interaction withthe other goldsmiths and as i had the basic principals of jewellery manufacture down, was humble enough to realize that I still knew little, but was ready to learn.  Working with them on different jobs it was illustrated just how different their manufacturing styles were, asif their personalities dictated their manufacturing style.

It also introduced me to my first of a number of long standing relationships to diamond dealers.  Like many of them he was suave, charming and most of all efficient.  NOTHING was a problem.  And if you had one he had the soloution - He would be there smiling brightly while dropping off a briefka. 
Need a 1.5 G/VS1 Princess - Yesterday ?  - he would bring you his best two to choose from -  anything for you....

So, it happened that the store was more easily accessable than the workshop and stones would be dropped off there and signed for by yours truly.

I got to look at every stone and advise. 

I always liked stones.  I remember being nine and going to Top Stones - Mineral world  - Scratch Patch.  Come to think of it I was seven when I went to visist Family in Switzerland and knew that there was a lot of quartz from Switzerland.   So I ended up smuggling Quartzite back home in my little school case.

Now, I find myself smiling at a smooth basalt stone that I found for my Father age five - for his birthday.

I always liked stones.  And now if I needed a stone - this was my solution... A suave dark haired and bright eyed - ready-to-go Diamond Boy!!!
Every few days and sometimes even twice a day, he would pop by and i would feel the briefkain my hand and sign the white slipthat was stamped with a stamp that said that to their knowledge these stones were sourced and adheres to all rules and regulations of the KP.  

What more could a girl want?  A boy dropping in , smiling and dropping me off a diamond!!!  Diamonds and butterflies.
All the pretty with none of the trouble!
Every time I saw him, I knew what was coming. 
Diamonds and butterflies.
Actually I could just see him and - butterflies -  the anticipation was invariably followed by an exchange of my signiture for a little white briefka.

As I sat dont at my desk everytime and felt accross, to locate the diamond before opening it up...
well everytime I had a surprise.  every time i opened a briefka, there was something that left me with a feeling of floating in awe, either at something that came from the earth or how it was handled after it's genesis.

A colleuge of mine at the time who has become a trusted friend and also in the industry turned to me one morning and promptly said - "It's just a diamond.  They re like potatoes, they all come out the ground." 

Needless to say - she didn't know that this was the start of what I anticipate will be a lifelong dedication to a curiosity about what lies in the heart of a diamond or at the heart of my passion.

Years later, we now laugh about diamonds and potatoes.

But it is about this feeling, the anticipation - that I am still not over. 

The crush I thought I had on this guy...

Turned out to last longer than him, it wasn t him.  It was what was hidden in the briefka.
And the realization I ve come to in understanding  that my heart lies in that which is hidden in the heart.

 The heart of the diamond.