Post by justinkprim on Nov 4, 2018 22:44:46 GMT -5
Hello, my name is Justin K Prim. I am an American gem cutter living in Bangkok. I cut my teeth on lapidary work while living in San Francisco for four years. They have an amazing club out there and it was a pleasure to learn cabbing, fossicking, and faceting from those old timers.
I came out to Bangkok to do my GIA coursework and ended up staying. I faceted at home for almost a year before finding a job as a gemology instructor at AIGS (Asian Institute for Gemological Sciences). Later, I joined a new group starting a school that just opened in September called the Institute of Gem Trading. We currently offer a two week course called Cutting and Recutting for Gem Business which is an amalgamation of all the techniques that I've learned from faceters in America, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and all over Europe.
In the last year, I've become more than obsessed with faceting and the history of faceting. I travelled all over Europe for a summer seeking out machines, stones, and stories and now back in Bangkok I've been researching through books old and new, compiling an amazing amount of information for the book I am writing that is to be a Regional History of Colored Stone Faceting. I have published a few of articles from this research on my websites: www.justinkprim.com and www.facetinghistory.com
I also started giving talks about the history of faceting this years, as a way of sharing and also organizing my research. If you will be in Tucson 2019, I'll be presenting my talking at the Tucson Faceters Frolic and if you're in Europe, I have some talks coming up in Prague and Munich.
I have another European faceting research trip coming in about a month... London, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Prague, Turnov, Paris, Jura, Geneva. I am so excited to keep meeting cutters and understanding the web that connected all faceters and their traditions all over the world. I feel that I am living in a critical time where much of the old European faceting world is dying out and I am at the perfect moment to record the old information and stories because all the old cutters retire or die.
Aside from all this, I am dating a French gem cutter that apprenticed in Geneva for 3 years and learned the Swiss technique of gem cutting. Needless to say, our house has a lot of gemstones, a museum of cutting machines, and a lot of nerdy gem oriented conversations!
I'm happy to have found this board because I always like finding new people and resources to learn from.
Thanks,
Justin
I came out to Bangkok to do my GIA coursework and ended up staying. I faceted at home for almost a year before finding a job as a gemology instructor at AIGS (Asian Institute for Gemological Sciences). Later, I joined a new group starting a school that just opened in September called the Institute of Gem Trading. We currently offer a two week course called Cutting and Recutting for Gem Business which is an amalgamation of all the techniques that I've learned from faceters in America, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and all over Europe.
In the last year, I've become more than obsessed with faceting and the history of faceting. I travelled all over Europe for a summer seeking out machines, stones, and stories and now back in Bangkok I've been researching through books old and new, compiling an amazing amount of information for the book I am writing that is to be a Regional History of Colored Stone Faceting. I have published a few of articles from this research on my websites: www.justinkprim.com and www.facetinghistory.com
I also started giving talks about the history of faceting this years, as a way of sharing and also organizing my research. If you will be in Tucson 2019, I'll be presenting my talking at the Tucson Faceters Frolic and if you're in Europe, I have some talks coming up in Prague and Munich.
I have another European faceting research trip coming in about a month... London, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Prague, Turnov, Paris, Jura, Geneva. I am so excited to keep meeting cutters and understanding the web that connected all faceters and their traditions all over the world. I feel that I am living in a critical time where much of the old European faceting world is dying out and I am at the perfect moment to record the old information and stories because all the old cutters retire or die.
Aside from all this, I am dating a French gem cutter that apprenticed in Geneva for 3 years and learned the Swiss technique of gem cutting. Needless to say, our house has a lot of gemstones, a museum of cutting machines, and a lot of nerdy gem oriented conversations!
I'm happy to have found this board because I always like finding new people and resources to learn from.
Thanks,
Justin