JNA Nov/ Dec 2020

市場情報 JNA Nov/Dec 2020 | 53 G emstones are wonders and legacies of nature. But while the time spent fashioning a single stone is dwarfed by the millions of years nature spent forming the gem, the cutter's and carver's skill level has a profound – and often irreversible – impact on its beauty, value and significance. In the right hands, the gem comes to life. Award-winning lapidarists Victor Tuzlukov and Naomi Sarna respond to the call of the gem. Pilgrims to perfection, they seek to reveal the full beauty of gemstones through the art of gem cutting and carving. This is likewise their advocacy – both actively organise gem cutting and carving guilds for like minds to share their passion, skills and insights on the craft. Their world-class skills are evident in their masterpieces that are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution. Creative process Famed lapidarist Victor Tuzlukov uses gemstones as vehicles for self-expression. Founder of the Russian Faceters Guild, he takes a philosopher’s approach to gem cutting – imbuing the stones he facets with spirit, body and soul. “The Michelangelo and Leonardo era of gem cutting lies ahead. Nowadays, very few intentionally use the gemstone as an instrument to express ideas, thoughts, emotions or concepts. Modest steps to this goal are now being taken. The first drops are not the storm, but they foreshadow it. Perhaps centuries later, people would consider these days as the official starting point – when a new kind of art was born,” the lapidarist remarked. Tuzlukov embarked on his Lapis Philosophorum or Philosophical Stone project in 2009. The first collection comprises 10 gemstones with parables and images. Within each stone, the gem artist created images through specially faceted designs that reflect the parable. Though created independently, when all 10 stones were exhibited for the first time in 2014 in France, they were found to symbolise stages of the evolution of the universe and of mankind. The entire collection represented the whole cycle of evolution. The whole idea behind the Philosophical Stone collection was to show that a gem could be a vector of ideas and concepts, much like other art forms such as music, painting or literature. The collections that followed – Elements, Flowers and World Heritage – have strengthened and deepened this concept. Cultural microcosm The World Heritage is Tuzlukov’s lifelong and larger- than-life project that started out as an attempt to capture the essence of various cultures. Its first gemstones were faceted with ornaments, images and symbols representative of the cultures of China, Japan and India respectively. World Heritage Gemstone No. 1 is From The Emptiness (China), a 187-carat fire citrine with 712 facets. At the centre of the gem’s crown is the Chinese Yin Yang symbol of duality, carved with 60 facets that allude to the 60-year cycle of the Chinese calendar. Surrounding the symbol are quadrangles and hexagons that form the awakening dragon that is often used to symbolise China. As the World Heritage project progressed, Tuzlukov realised that the deeper the truths expressed by different cultures, the closer they were to each other in essence; they vary only in the means of expression, just like numerous branches stemming from the same hidden roots. This prompted him to expand the project’s parameters, moving from the concept to actual images; from the symbols to their representations. The shift was prompted largely by the 2019 fire that ravaged the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. “This tragedy made me realise the fragility of our cultural heritage. What was created and kept for centuries could be destroyed in a matter of` hours. I wanted to immortalise the memory of the great cathedral as an important part of our world cultural heritage. Interestingly, the first gemstones of the project organically fit into this theme, as though they were created in these frames,” Tuzlukov explained. The Notre Dame experience cemented Tuzlukov’s concept for World Heritage: Focusing on how different cultures expressed the tenets of wisdom, love, beauty and harmony through their own icons and landmarks. Victor Tuzlukov World Heritage Gemstone No. 5 – Fragility of the Eternal (France) by Victor Tuzlukov 世界遺產系列第 5 號寶石–– '脆弱的永恒(法國)'， Victor Tuzlukov 作品