“Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts and let them light our path to love” - Rumi .
About the Artist:
Nick Montecalvo pours a bit of his soul into each of his creations. Born in South Florida to a pair of graphic designers, Nick grew up in an environment suffused with color and culture, and that informs his aesthetic sense.
He’s been obsessed with gems and minerals since he can remember, and began working with semiprecious gemstones as an artistic medium in 2020.
Nick moved with his wife and daughter to Asheville North Carolina in the summer of 2022 and continues to push the boundaries of his jewelry making skills.
About the Process:
“What do you mean by ‘Hand Cut Gemstones’”? - There are many ways to create a faceted gem; jam-peg, hand piece and mast-style machines, computer guided laser-cutting machines, even resin molds. I think you can fairly describe the first three of these methods as “hand cutting” because the artist’s hands are acting directly on the instruments doing the “cutting”. This consists of a rotating disc of abrasive material (the lap) and a method of holding the stone at selected angles and rotational positions (the head/quill). Of these methods, I chose the one that spoke most to my instincts: the hand piece faceting machine. The hand piece seemed to offer more freedom of movement and put the cutter more directly in contact with the way the stone meets the lap, and although it is not as inherently precise as mast-style machines, with practice and attention to detail an artisan can produce a beautiful precision cut gemstone.
