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By Jordan Clary
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Thomas Trozzo donated his award-winning "Angel" sculpture to GIA. "Angel" was inspired by the flame on a candle and is made up of two faceted stones that fit together like puzzle pieces.
Photos by Robert Weldon
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Donations are an essential aspect of GIA's Museum, Laboratory and Education programs. Some are works of art the Institute can share with the public in Museum displays, while others are rare and unusual specimens that help students further their gemology education, says Kimberly Vagner, project manager of In-Kind Gifts. The following are highlights of donations made during the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows.
Thomas Trozzo said he decided to give his gemstone sculpture, "Angel," to GIA because the Institute "has done so much for the advancement of the gemstone industry; the donation was one way to show my appreciation."
Trozzo's piece was inspired by the flame on a candle. He thought it would be nice to "put that look into a gemstone," and once he began sketching, an abstract angel began to take form. "Angel" is made of two faceted stones – the bottom triangular stone is tourmaline and the circular top stone is citrine – that fit together like puzzle pieces.
Trozzo won an honorable mention for his "Angel" in the Pairs and Suites Category of the 2006 AGTA Cutting Edge Competition.
Zultanite Gems, LLC, gave a donation of 90 cut stones and one rough specimen of zultanite to GIA Education. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, company responsible for the exclusive promotion and marketing of zultanite has a long history with GIA. Murat Akgun, founder of Zultanite Gems, LLC, said that when he first attempted to acquire the mining rights from the Turkish Government, Richard T. Liddicoat, former GIA chairman, examined the rough and cut zultanite for him.
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Zultanite Gems, LLC, donated 90 cut and one rough specimen of zultanite to GIA's Education programs. Zultanite, a rare gemstone from Turkey, demonstrates phenomenal properties like chatoyancy and color change.
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"The GIA staff supplied the education and encouragement to go forward with the sizable efforts that finally culminated with the full mining rights to the only zultanite mine in the world in February 2006 in the Anatolia area of Turkey," Akgun said.
Jim Fiebig, global sales director for Zultanite Gems, LLC, also has his own connection to GIA. "My father, Art Fiebig, was a watchmaker and took his first GIA course with Robert Crowningshield in the early 1960s in New York," said Fiebig, who followed his father's example when he took his first Distance Education course in Detroit in 1980. He continues his professional development by taking every gemology update course he can find.
Zultanite Gems, LLC, "owes a big debt of gratitude" to GIA Education, Fiebig said. "Right now, when a consumer takes a piece of zultanite to a store for evaluation or alteration, they don't even know what it is. GIA will be instrumental in properly educating jewelers all over the world about this new gemstone that is so incredibly rare."
Dudley Blauwet, who travels the world searching for unusual gemstones, donated the following specimens to the GIA Museum: clinohumite, kornerupine, scapolite, tourmaline and tanzanite.
"Dudley has an amazing eye for gemstones," said Terri Ottaway, curator of Collections. "His gifts offer us a little glimpse into areas of the world that are remote and extremely inaccessible." His donations come from Sri Lanka and Tanzania, which represent the mystique of far-off locales for many in the Western world, she said.
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Dudley Blauwet donated these rare and collectable stones, from locations in Sri Lanka and Tanzania, to GIA. Center: a 3.20-ct. kornerupine; clockwise from top; 5.11-ct. cat's-eye scapolite, 1.38-ct. zoisite, 0.56-ct. clinohumite and 1.14-ct. tourmaline. There are only a few localities where the conditions come together in such a way to create gem-quality stones that are large enough to be cut like these specimens, notes Terri Ottaway, curator of Collections for GIA.
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Blauwet has donated several stones to the GIA Collection over the years, many of which have been documented in Gems & Gemology (G&G). "Dudley is a long-time friend of GIA who appreciates and values the importance of providing reliable information on gems and particularly their sources," says Brendan Laurs, editor of G&G.
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