During her industrial design studies at Lawrence Technological University, Jenna Sloane made the jump into lapidary work, trading design sketches for the whir of a faceting wheel. She began by crafting pine-cone pendants with gemstone accents, but the materials soon outshone the jewelry itself.
“I saw people on social media faceting gems and decided then and there that this was what I wanted to do,” recalls the California-based cutter.
Now 24, Sloane bought her first faceting machine in June 2021 and taught herself through trial and error. Two years later — already cutting full‑time — she enrolled in a five‑day course “to give myself a confidence boost and make sure I truly knew what I was doing,” she says. The class sharpened her yields, speed, and polish quality, and today she averages a 35% to 40% return from rough.
Alongside bench time, she is pursuing a graduate gemologist diploma at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and putting her design‑school marketing lessons to work running a small but growing business.
Her signature process begins with listening to the stone. “I look at its outline shape, depth, clarity, pleochroism, and color,” she explains. The plan may change, but one principle rarely does: “I very rarely cut a keel” — a cut in which the main pavilion facets don’t all meet at a central point. “I much prefer a culet for its performance, and it rarely changes my yields.”
She gravitates toward spinel, sapphire, tourmaline and chrysoberyl, but steers clear of quartz, beryl, and above all, garnet. “People tend to be surprised when I say I don’t enjoy cutting garnet, but the colors have never really spoken to me, and I find that it contaminates my lapidary equipment.”
Sloane sees only subtle shifts in client taste — “typically a color trend, an outline shape, or clarity” — but she nudges buyers toward the unexpected: fancy outlines, silky textures, and every shade of purple. “As an independent gem cutter, I don’t see much point in cutting yet another blue sapphire or round brilliant.” If she does cut a round, the crown usually carries a decorative facet pattern.
Today, Sloane is channeling her energy into building inventory rather than doing repairs or bulk orders. This year, she is collaborating with California jeweler Olivia Sugarman, who is setting Sloane’s stones in one‑of‑a‑kind pieces — a project that embodies the lapidarist’s goal of “enhancing a gem’s natural beauty and giving it a personality of its own.” With each facet, the rough tells its story, Sloane believes; she simply helps it find its voice.
This interview is part of Rapaport Magazine’s Under 30s series, profiling rising young stars of the jewelry industry. To nominate someone you know email the editor at rachael.taylor@rapaport.com
Main image: Jenna Sloane. (Jenna Sloane)
