Episode 2: Your Life, Written in the Language of Jewels

Podcast
Written By Lois Melbourne
 

Guest: Cynthia Renée Marcusson, Cynthia Renée, Inc.

Cynthia Renée Marcusson started out as a gem mine geologist, wrote her undergraduate thesis inside a working mine in Southern California, and founded Cynthia Renée, Inc. in 1990 as one of a handful of colored gem wholesale companies owned and run by a single woman. Today she works directly with private collectors, many of them for decades, sourcing rare colored gems and designing bespoke pieces around the stories of the people who will wear them.

In this conversation she and Lois get into what actually happens underground, why she asks clients about the shape of their dining room table before she designs anything, and why she calls the rise of colored stones a renaissance rather than a trend. She also shares the story behind a pair of tanzanite earrings built around a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti, and explains why the way you clap your hands might be quietly destroying your rings.

    • 0:50 Gemologist or geologist? Cynthia clears it up right away

    • 1:23 Growing up curious about the riddles of the earth, and how a geology degree turned into a life in colored gems

    • 2:29 What it means to be a jeweler who has actually been underground

    • 3:46 Her honest advice about buying at a mine, including the rule about never spending more than you can afford to lose

    • 5:03 The darkest dark you can imagine, the eyeless creatures living in it, and the moment she describes as riding on a star

    • 6:36 How do you let a stone go? The short answer is cash flow, the longer answer is love

    • 7:49 The 96 mile walk through Scotland and the pendant she is making from a pink tourmaline she pulled out of that mine decades ago

    • 9:14 What a bespoke process really looks like, and the questions she asks that have nothing to do with jewelry

    • 11:27 The blue pearl moment, and the tanzanite and acacia earrings built around a sunrise over the Serengeti

    • 13:11 Why a finished piece should feel like it was always there

    • 14:25 Heavy clapping is damaging your jewelry. Here is how to clap instead

    • 15:50 Convertible and interchangeable pieces, the engineering behind them, and the client who pushed her to start making them

    • 18:44 Why colored stones are having a renaissance, not a trend, and what changed in the market to get here

    • 21:23 Why you need a guide more than ever, and what a Johnny come lately jeweler will miss

    • 23:04 The emerald engagement ring question, plus the difference between hardness and durability. You would not fry chicken in a silk blouse

    • 26:16 Inherit the earth. Cynthia explains the phrase and why a jewelry collection is a message in a bottle

    • 27:39 Lois on the mystery amethyst ring, and Cynthia on leaving breadcrumbs through inscriptions

    • 29:56 Should you reset an inherited piece? What grandma would probably want

    • 31:10 The American Gem Trade Association and the ethics pledge behind it

    • 31:54 Spectrum Award wins, the carved petrified wood owl she refused to sell, and a collection built on Mary Oliver poetry

    • 34:41 Her current favorite piece, made for a widow, about moving through chaos toward a new path

Find Cynthia

Follow What A Gem
New episodes every other week. If you enjoyed this one, follow the show so you never miss an episode, and leave a quick review to help other jewelry lovers find us.

 
Lois Melbourne
Next

Episode 1: Bringing Joy with Jewelry, with Veda Kalro of Anamśa Designs