Cut Design Competition

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I have been banging on about a cut design competition, along with @Serg and others for a decade.
Recently I have been posting about this on LinkedIn. the head of the Dubai exchange and some other industry leaders have shown interest, but still no activity:

It is time we innovated. A +100-year-old (great) design makes up 2/3rds of sales. Lab diamonds make a cut design competition feasible!
The Cut Group draft from a decade ago:
School kids, artists, designers, businesses and industry staff or teams enter for free.
First Stage – CAD entries. National winners chosen and top 10 designs auctioned off to companies for designer licence fees.
Second Stage – actual diamonds cut and polished and judged in country by industry bodies and popular consumer choice.
Third Stage - Top few progress to International Awards
Please notify all the leaders of organisations and companies who can make this happen.
Important to involve natural and lab orgs. Below are the rules based on those the Cut Group planned a decade ago – no need to read further unless you want more detail. (The Cut group were Sergey Sivovolenko, Dr Yuri Shelementiev, Janak Mistry and me):

1. Initial Entry CAD design in .stl format –
1.1 10 years old’s, anyone or teams can enter. If you cannot use CAD find someone who can – a contractor on a platform can turn your sketches into actual designs and present them as virtual reality videos. Using AI is fine.
1.2 The thousands of entries from each country could be judged in participating countries by associations or committees.
1.3 The top 10 (and popular winners?) designs are auctioned to companies.

2. An auction of the first stage winning designs
2.1 Diamond manufacturers, growers, big brands, retailers bid and agree to payment terms to licence for first stage designers.
2.2 The best designers can negotiate a winners fee.

3. Winners of auctions cut and polish actual diamonds (lab or natural) to specified carat weight or size (weight and size are different).
3.1 The diamonds can be polished in natural or lab grown material. The judges need not know which is which.

4. Judging by experts and peoples choice are based on real life viewing and CutWise videos in mono or stereo 3D virtual reality.
4.1 National and diamond and gemstone associations and organisations host the judging events in different countries gaining local PR. This assist a ‘feel’ for most saleable designs in home markets.

5. Design protection is supervised by each nation’s associations and companies.
5.1 Any person or company found cheating and not paying license and royalty fees is disciplined by national and international associations, trading platforms, bourses and retailers.

Important note: Design patents are slow to established, costly, only last for 5+5 years. Industry associations can monitor for free and with far more effect.

 

[0515vision]

I've loved your idea as you've mentioned it from time to time here.
Alas, I have no pull.
But here's to Hope!

 

[LightBright]

I love this idea.

I’d also personally like to see modern antique cuts evolve into higher quality cuts (more authentic, artisan, and less cookie cutter, thoughtless, sterile). There is demand now, when there wasn’t five years ago. Five years ago I rejected a very large high color antique diamond because it didn’t look like a conventional antique cut. It had an ultra high crown and almost no pavilion, and a large culet. It was translucent in the middle with gorgeous blocky outer facets. Very ancient, I now realize. I didn’t recognize that, the vendor didn’t recognize that. Five years ago they then recut the stone!! Today it would have been appreciated. I cannot find interesting modern antique style cuts like this in my price range but artisan cutters are started cutting Mughal style now.

I also would like to see interesting “retro standard” practices be revived, like “worn” facet junctions (that can be seen and that add definition) and bruted rough girdles that suggest that diamonds are actually more than a mirror like perfect stone. Real old cuts show off the texture of the diamond whether they intended to or not.

There’s also love for crystals, eg 3D original Crystal shaped stones. In spinels they call this “angel cut”, very coveted. I’ve seen several diamonds sold in their original form and they are coveted. This is also another (ancient) way diamonds were styled and set.

So maybe you could have an old cut category. And maybe you could have a novel texture and shape category.

Just my enthusiastic thoughts. Since you are looking to patent design, none of my ideas are likely to be implemented. I’d just love to see more bold unusual cuts out there!

 

[Tartansparkles]

It's great that people can enter for free, but the legal advice associated with negotiating licencing agreements can run to thousands and patents are awarded on a regional (international/country) basis, again the costs can run to thousands. It could all get very complicated and/or very expensive, very quickly.

 

[LightBright]

It's great that people can enter for free, but the legal advice associated with negotiating licencing agreements can run to thousands and patents are awarded on a regional (international/country) basis, again the costs can run to thousands. It could all get very complicated and/or very expensive, very quickly.

I agree, patenting isn’t my concern. It’s generating interest in diamonds beyond the MRB, which most young people and older connoisseurs find boring. Many are looking for interesting cuts beyond the mundane. I’d also like to see more young people getting into cutting.

 

[Tartansparkles]

How do young people normally get into cutting diamonds? What's the usual career path?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I love this idea.

I’d also personally like to see modern antique cuts evolve into higher quality cuts (more authentic, artisan, and less cookie cutter, thoughtless, sterile). There is demand now, when there wasn’t five years ago. Five years ago I rejected a very large high color antique diamond because it didn’t look like a conventional antique cut. It had an ultra high crown and almost no pavilion, and a large culet. It was translucent in the middle with gorgeous blocky outer facets. Very ancient, I now realize. I didn’t recognize that, the vendor didn’t recognize that. Five years ago they then recut the stone!! Today it would have been appreciated. I cannot find interesting modern antique style cuts like this in my price range but artisan cutters are started cutting Mughal style now.

I also would like to see interesting “retro standard” practices be revived, like “worn” facet junctions (that can be seen and that add definition) and bruted rough girdles that suggest that diamonds are actually more than a mirror like perfect stone. Real old cuts show off the texture of the diamond whether they intended to or not.

There’s also love for crystals, eg 3D original Crystal shaped stones. In spinels they call this “angel cut”, very coveted. I’ve seen several diamonds sold in their original form and they are coveted. This is also another (ancient) way diamonds were styled and set.

So maybe you could have an old cut category. And maybe you could have a novel texture and shape category.

Just my enthusiastic thoughts. Since you are looking to patent design, none of my ideas are likely to be implemented. I’d just love to see more bold unusual cuts out there!

Actually LightBright - patenting is NOT on my list.
Patenting slows innovation and development of ideas, and restricts new designs.
I want industry bodies and businesses to manage and protect designers.

 

[LightBright]

How do young people normally get into cutting diamonds? What's the usual career path?

I am not an expert at all. However I’ve talked to an experienced cutter who repolished a diamond once for me. He was over retirement age and trained in a Soviet country, in their diamond industry. He knew all old and new techniques. I think experienced cutters in USA are usually older, and trained in an industry in a foreign country, that maybe doesn’t exist anymore.

Here in USA, I’m not aware of any cutting schools. I think jewelers employ experienced cutters who work in the diamond industry. I saw an Instagram post recently on a young woman who is apprenticing in the NYC diamond district in a colored stone cutting house.

But it’s so rare! And older cutters are retiring.

I’d like to hear from anyone in the Industry who knows. I think it would be great to have facilities and training here in USA but these professionals would not be as low cost as China or India. But maybe could be marketed as more humane!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I am not an expert at all. However I’ve talked to an experienced cutter who repolished a diamond once for me. He was over retirement age and trained in a Soviet country, in their diamond industry. He knew all old and new techniques. I think experienced cutters in USA are usually older, and trained in an industry in a foreign country, that maybe doesn’t exist anymore.

Here in USA, I’m not aware of any cutting schools. I think jewelers employ experienced cutters who work in the diamond industry. I saw an Instagram post recently on a young woman who is apprenticing in the NYC diamond district in a colored stone cutting house.

But it’s so rare! And older cutters are retiring.

I’d like to hear from anyone in the Industry who knows. I think it would be great to have facilities and training here in USA but these professionals would not be as low cost as China or India. But maybe could be marketed as more humane!

I know it a long and complex read - but I am proposing +5 year olds as being the possible winners.
My 10 year old grandson can do this sort of stuff

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

How do young people normally get into cutting diamonds? What's the usual career path?

Virtually no gateway in high cost western nations.
The modern day cutter and polisher needs minimum $100k of equipment and access to ten times that cost of contract equipment such as laser sawing etc.
It is time consuming.
And no one person performs more than a tenth of the processes these days.