Gemcutting Power Couple

Victoria Raynaud

Victoria began her gemcutting career at an age when most people are still deciding what they want to do with their lives. At fourteen, she entered a lapidary apprenticeship in Geneva, where she was trained in the tradition of Swiss gemcutting.

For the next five years, she cut gemstones professionally for European watch and jewellery companies, working to the exceptionally demanding standards of the Swiss luxury industry. The experience gave her a strong technical foundation in precision cutting and polishing, but she eventually wanted to understand more about the gemstones themselves.

Victoria moved to Montreal for six months to study gemology in French, earning her FGA diploma and adding a scientific understanding of gemstones to her practical cutting experience.

That combination of skills soon led her in an entirely new direction.

A chance meeting with Bangkok based field gemologist Vincent Pardieu resulted in Victoria joining his origin determination research team at GIA Bangkok. Vincent regularly returned from field expeditions with rough gemstone samples collected directly from deposits around the world, and Victoria was responsible for preparing those samples for laboratory analysis.

Over the next three years, she helped GIA develop methods for cutting, orienting, and polishing gemstone samples for chemical and spectroscopic analysis. Her work involved industrial polishing equipment, precise sample alignment, photomicrography, and the preparation of research material, and she contributed to a number of gemological publications along the way.

In 2017, Victoria moved to Bahrain to help establish the fabrication department of the newly created DANAT gemological laboratory. Working once again alongside Vincent Pardieu, she continued preparing research samples while also beginning to teach an Introduction to Faceting course.

After two years at DANAT, Victoria decided it was time to return to the kind of work that had first brought her into the gemstone world.

In 2019, she became an independent gemcutter.

Victoria cutting in Geneva in 2023

Justin K Prim

Justin came to gemcutting by a very different route.

He began cutting gemstones in 2013 after joining the San Francisco Gem and Mineral Society. What started as a hobby quickly became an obsession. He spent as much time at the lapidary club as he could, first learning to cut cabochons and later moving into faceting.

Within a few years he owned his own faceting machine and was cutting gemstones at home, but he began to realise that while he was learning a great deal about cutting and polishing stones, he knew comparatively little about the stones themselves.

That realisation led him to Bangkok.

Having visited Thailand before and knowing that Bangkok was one of the world's major gemstone trading centres, Justin enrolled in gemology courses at GIA Bangkok. While studying there, he met field gemologist Vincent Pardieu, who invited him to join an upcoming research expedition.

Vincent also introduced Justin to the members of his research team, including Victoria.

After spending a month working at the Tucson Gem Show, Justin returned to Bangkok with his essential possessions, including his faceting machine, and set about trying to build a life within the Thai gemstone trade. A field expedition to Cambodia and Chanthaburi with Vincent further immersed him in the world of gemstone mining, trading, research, and cutting.

At the same time, Justin began developing the two areas that would eventually define much of his career: teaching and research.

With Vincent's help, he began teaching gemology at AIGS Bangkok. Soon afterward, Justin was approached by a group of international gemstone dealers who were developing a new school focused on practical gemstone cutting and trading.

The Institute of Gem Trading opened in 2017, with Justin teaching its flagship course, Cutting and Recutting for Gem Business. He was soon teaching full time while also building a gemstone cutting service in collaboration with skilled cutters and factories in Thailand.

During these years, Justin also became increasingly interested in the history of gemcutting. What began as personal research gradually developed into lectures, peer reviewed articles, books, and a much broader investigation into how gemstone cutting techniques and technologies developed around the world.

In 2019, Justin left IGT and founded Faceting Apprentice, allowing him to concentrate on teaching gemcutting while continuing to write books, produce educational videos, give lectures, and conduct historical research.

Two Paths Become One

Although Victoria and Justin had entered the gemstone world in completely different ways, their backgrounds proved remarkably complementary.

Victoria brought the precision and discipline of traditional Swiss apprenticeship training, years of professional cutting experience, and an unusually deep knowledge of laboratory gemstone preparation and analysis.

Justin brought a background rooted in independent lapidary clubs, international gem trading, education, historical research, and the development of modern approaches to teaching faceting.

Their shared years in Bangkok also gave them firsthand experience across an unusually broad portion of the gemstone world, from mines and laboratories to cutting factories, gem markets, classrooms, and international trade shows.

Over time, their individual work increasingly became a shared project.

In January 2024, Victoria and Justin opened their own gem and gemcutting workspace in downtown Lyon, France.

From there, they operate Magus Gems while continuing to cut gemstones, teach faceting, conduct research, write, and travel throughout the international gem trade.

What began as two very different journeys into gemcutting has become a shared life devoted to understanding gemstones from every angle, from the rough stone to the finished gem, and from the history of the craft to its future.

Usually with Milo somewhere nearby.