Gem cutting in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil, and The One That Got Away

For a long time I have wanted to write about the gem cutters here in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, and later about the cutters in Teófilo Otoni and Governador Valadares in Minas Gerais. Finally, I found the photos I had taken, back in late 2006, of my friend, Saturno. There are really only two cutters in this city, Saturno, and his teacher, Sr. Antônio.

One thing that amazes me about Saturno is that he is roughly my age (in fact, I think he is a few years younger) and he does not need to use reading glasses.

Of course, much more amazing is how he uses equipment that would be considered relatively unsophisticated or even completely inadequate in the U.S. and Europe.


OK, so the first photo here is of his grinding wheel (proper term to be inserted later) where he forms the rough, holding the rough stone in his fingers. He really does everything he wants to do right there.

Once, I was sooooo peeved with him because he had some gorgeous pinkish amethyst rough, and I sat next to him, and he formed a large piece of it into a triangular shape just the way I wanted it. The finished stone would have been about 80 carats. When I came back on the weekend to pick it up and pay for it, it was no where to be found. How does this happen? My mistake! If I had paid for the rough first, then paid for him to cut it, he would have made much more, but I wanted to pay by the finished carat weight. Once he had finished the stone, he must have decided that it was worth a lot more to another buyer, so away it went.

I, being American, assumed that we had a done deal -- after all, had I not sat there right next to him while he formed the rough to my specifications and agreed to have it finished at the weekend when I was to come and pick it up? There was a deal made, wasn't there?

Hellooooo! This is Brazil we are talking about.

There I am, completely confused because I have known Saturno for years, and he has never pulled a stunt like this on me before, and I was also extremely disappointed because that particular amethyst rough was so unusual. It was extremely sparkly, had a silver cast to it, and showed both pink and blue. It even sparkled in the evenings when amethyst is normally a fairly dull stone. Furthermore, there was no chance of getting any more because the owner of the mine had shut it down due to so much theft.

But really, the worst was that I had trusted him. And, in his Brazilian way, he made up all sorts of excuses and fibs about how he had had to give it to Sr. Antônio to cut it for him because he had had other work to do, and it was gone or it had broken or some such nonsense, and this being Brazil, I had to get over it right there on the spot and not get mad and just accept the fact that he had found someone willing to pay a lot more money, and it was my mistake for not paying for the rough up front.

This is called "going native."

Or, "live and learn."



The first rule of business here is: don't trust anyone!

The second rule of business here is: don't trust anyone!

The third rule of business here is: well, maybe trust just a little bit, but not really.

Here are some photos of one that did not get away:

Sr. Antônio is a bit hard to get along with, but his work is better. I asked him to put twice the number of facets on the pavilion as usual -- this is called a fantasia cut, here. So, this is the best I can get, here, which is the reason that I am in search of a really confiável (someone I can trust -- LOL) cutter in Teófilo Otoni with whom I can work. I am beginning with the "french-fried" tourmalines guy, so we'll just have to see how that goes.

By the way... That big oval was cut back in 2006, and I sold it to a really nice client of mine in São Paulo. He was also studying gemology with the GIA there. After he received the stone, he phoned me all in a panic, saying that it was giving the wrong Chelsea filter reaction. I was like, please, Arnaldo, calm down. Ask your teacher. I know this is a real stone because I saw the rough. Look, you can see the growth layers. Later, he phoned back and told me his teacher, a nice guy from Spain, had checked it out, and indeed, yes, it was natural.

[Last paragraph deleted because it was an embarrassing display of gemology ignorance -- I love the fact that blog posts can be edited!]

Copyright © 2009 N. Tenney Naumer -- All rights reserved.