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FEATURE STORY

Balancing positive and negative space, light and matter, Glenn Lehrer's Torus cut provides challenges and rewards to adventurous jewelry designers.

Below (inside C): 2.77-ct. light green & orange Montana sapphire, 11.4 mm. Right: 2.32-ct. tri-color blue-yellow-orange Montana sapphire, 9.8 mm. Photos © Lee-Carraher.

Paul Klecka filled the center of a 10.77-ct. Torus cut aquamarine with a 0.85-ct. demantoid garnet in the necklace. The Torus ring is supported by a row of 24 0.9-ct diamonds in Klecks'a Floating Diamond™ setting. Photo © Lee-Carraher. It's hard to tell what you notice first. What's there - expertly carved gems that seem to emit a soft, luminous glow - or what's not. Namely, the center. The most obvious difference between Glenn Lehrer's Torus cut and other exquisite gemstones is, of course, the delicious donut shape. A gemstone with a hole in the middle is eye- catching and challenging; for jewelry designers, a new, original cut sparks a host of possibilities for new, original designs. “Thinking of a way to use them was the least of my problems,” says Kent Raible with undisguised enthusiasm. “There's so much scope there.” The first spark of the idea occurred to Lehrer five years ago, when he was approached by jewelry designer John Langenfeld asking for a stone cut for a competition piece. “He had this big ring shape; sections of it had stone inlaid, and he wanted it done in amethyst. The problem was, by the time I cut it down, it would have lost the color. It forced me to improve the stone in order to improve the design, otherwise the stone would have been the weak point.” He kept on experimenting; the next year, in 1996, Langenfeld took first place at the Spectrum Awards with a brooch using an ametrine Torus ring. “I had always been fascinated with the toroid shape, which is basically a circle inside of a circle,” says Lehrer. “The symbol is very archetypal. It's the most prevalent form that organic life takes, and the most prevalent form in Earth Science. Looking down on it, it's the center of a flower, or the iris of our eyes. From the side, it's a funnel - a tornado, or a flower. Physicists have told us that time and space exist on a curve, that nothing is linear. In our world, everything looks straight, but everything is moving on a curve. I've heard it said that if you could go out of the third dimension, when you looked back at our space and time, our universe of light would look like a donut ring.” The Torus cut is the toroid shape translated into stone. “If you were to take an emerald-cut stone and bend that around a mandrel to where the two ends met, you'd have created the donut shape from the top, and put the pavilion angles on a curve,” Lehrer explains. “Because there's an inside pavilion angle and an outside pavilion angle, the outer is a convex angle and the inner is a concave angle. Anything that I engrave on the inside pavilion angle, its corresponding reflection on the outside angle is magnified, and anything engraved on the outside angle, its reflection on the inside angle is reduced. So you have this interplay between expansion and reduction in its optical properties, and that's how I can create all sorts of neat effects.” Because of the way the cuts bend the light, the stone itself can be thin, with depth provided by optical illusion, rather than actual mass. 4.65-ct. yellow Montana sapphire, 12.4 mm. Photo © Lee-Carraher. IMMEDIATE INSPIRATION. For Frank Heger, of Aspen Goldsmith, the cut prompted immediate admiration. “When I saw one of the stones, I said, 'Who did that!?' says Heger, recalling his enthusiasm - enthusiasm that obviously remains undimmed. “As soon as I saw Glenn's pieces, I bought a bunch. I've got about $30,000 worth of his stuff sitting in my space. You should see my safe! I've got tons of plans for those stones.” “The first thing that's remarkable about it is that there's a hole in the middle,” says Paul Klecka, one of the first designers to use the cut, amusingly stating the obvious. “That's new and exciting and patentable. I think previous to this, the only gemstones with holes in the middle were the Chinese jade carvings, the ancient disks.” And as Freud told us, humans can't see an empty space without wanting to fill it. Says Klecka, “The challenge from a design standpoint is how to utilize that opening, either in a mechanical way or a visual way.” And the Torus allows the space to be filled without distortion. “If you pop a hole in the middle of a traditional faceted stone, that hole will now reflect on all the faces,” Lehrer points out. “You've distorted the brilliance of the stone for the sake of putting a stone inside. The Torus eliminates that. There's no reflection.” For Heger, what better way to fill the hole than to put a diamond in it? “When you add a diamond to anything, all of a sudden it becomes fine jewelry. That's what people think. If a diamond is set with a gemstone, it's a seal of authenticity, in the eyes of the public. The Torus cut allows you to do that.” Of course, the process takes a deft and confident hand. “You can't be a novice - you have to know what you're doing. These are not for amateurs.” Lehrer works with rough that otherwise might have gone unused. Sapphire often comes in very flat crystals; the Torus cut, about half as deep as a traditional stone, enables Lehrer to make good use of shallow rough. Left: 2.72-ct. Montana sapphire, 12.1 mm. Photo © Lee-Carraher. Raible also uses the center of the ring for an accent stone, but plays with a wider range of color, choosing stones that complement the hue of the Torus. “I'm dealing with adding an accent in the center and setting it without hurting the stone. So far I haven't had any problems with breaking stones. It sets a lot like a faceted stone because it has a girdle,” he points out. “I usually bezel-set them. The big advantage, besides the beauty, which you don't get with any other cut, is that you have a large stone with the same amount of brilliance with less depth, so you don't have to do as high a mounting.” The Torus is about half as deep as a traditional stone, cutting down on metal use and the weight of the finished piece - two major design considerations. “I'll set them in rings and pendants, just like any other stones,” says Conni Mainne, of El Cerrito, California. “But obviously, it's the center hole that gets a setting that needs special treatment. Glenn was very gracious in giving me step-by-step instructions on how to set them - how high to set the bezel, what works the best, specific anchoring techniques.” (See “Setting a Stone Inside the Torus” in Jewelry Journal, page 251.) PROGRESSIVE CLASSIC. The Torus cut is an interesting hybrid of a classic gemstone and the progressive fantasy cuts. “The fantasy cut for the rest of us,” as one designer phrased it. It has the advantages not only of being something new and unusual, but also of more classic cuts. For both Mainne and Raible, much of the Torus' appeal is its symmetry, giving both the chance to use a Lehrer fancy cut for the first time. “I have known Glenn for many, many years, but I hadn't used any of his fancy cuts, because they hadn't worked with my style of jewelry,” explains Mainne. “I guess my head just moves in a symmetrical way. But these fit beautifully with my work. In the same way that I'm classic yet contemporary, the stones are different, yet they're classic. The forms themselves - rounds, ovals, marquise - you can't get more classic than that.” Conni Mainne saw that the way Lehrer's Torus cut plays with light made it a perfect match for her botanical Jungle Dreams collection. 18K gold, green tourmaline, diamonds. Photo: Ralph Gabriner. Raible tells a similar story. “I'd never used Glenn's work before because my work is very symmetrical. When the Torus came along, I saw an opportunity to use his work, which I'd admired greatly over the years, but been unable to use. A lot of his former carvings were freeform, which didn't fit with my work.” Lehrer's carved agates were already well established, and he was looking for an approach to transparent stones that was equally distinctive. “I had always loved transparent gems, but hadn't really done them because I hadn't come up with a trademark image. I was seeking something that was a standalone, that didn't look like other cutters. I was listening to my customers, and to designers, and what I kept hearing was 'repeatability.'” Because of the classic aspect of the cut, it has the advantage of (more or less) duplication. “Here we are, we're limited production jewelers,” explains Mainne. “We need to be able to reproduce something. The freeform stones are fabulous for one-of-a-kind pieces, but you can't reproduce the pieces. It just depends on what our priorities are as jewelers, and where we can spend our time.” Heger goes further, pointing out that it's possible not only to get stones similar enough in cut to reproduce pieces, but to get stones similar enough to be a matched pair, for earrings. Heger had used fancy cuts before, but became somewhat jaded. “When Munsteiner first came out with his fantasy cuts, I made some pieces using a few of those,” he recalls. “But then all these copycats came along and made these stones that looked like garbage to me; they took the magic out of it. But these are totally different. They are completely distinctive. I love things that look delicate, and these look incredibly involved, incredibly delicate. I do all my jewelry in platinum and 18-karat gold, so when I get done, the jewelry will have that lovely antique flavor.” Heger's love of the antique, Victorian-age look leads him to use another style of faceted stone that stands out from the crowd - the briolette (see “Return to Elegance,” September, 1998). He has a piece mapped out in his mind, but actual construction will have to wait until a pause in his business. “I have a strand of faceted sapphire beads; I'll put an oval-shaped Torus ring in the center, and hang antique diamond briolettes from that. I have that piece in my drawer, but it keeps getting shoved back because I get too busy. When I get a lull, I'll be able to get to work on it.” He laughs at his obvious impatience. “God, I can't wait!” For Mainne, the Torus cut is a perfect complement to her new line. “My pieces in my new collection are very classic, but the stylings are my own spin. Carved into the surface are intricate botanical forms. It's almost like little pictures in the gold. Those themselves play with the light in a similar way that the Torus rings do, and then the undercuts in the stone play with the light, reflecting the shapes and lines and surface treatment of the pieces.” For her new collection, entitled Jungle Dreams, Mainne uses primarily green tourmaline to reflect the botanical themes, though she has also purchased a Torus ring in garnet “that plays with the light - it's just gorgeous, and one Montana sapphire that's just fabulous.” She paired the teardrop-shaped sapphire with a pink spinel for a delicate pendant. Mainne was immediately attracted to the cut, and saw the potential for her own pieces, but didn't dive right in for practical reasons. “Glenn's been doing these for a few years, but I held off because I wanted to see how they wear.” Luckily, she had an inside view to how the cut withstood the beating of daily wear. Mainne got running commentary from she who would know best - Sharon, Lehrer's wife. “She wears one practically every day. She's pretty hard on her rings, apparently. The stone itself is very flat across the top; the art is setting the center stone so it doesn't stick up too high and take all the wear.” For Raible, with his high-karat gold and intense, almost Byzantine look, the danger was that his intense goldwork would overpower the center stone, no matter how original the cut. His careful balance of stone with metalwork resulted in a pendant designed around a 10 millimeter Torus ring that is part of his present line. “I designed it with the stone being the bulk of the piece, with gold granulation on the vertical. It's so beautiful and luscious. I could have designed it with more gold showing, but it's really the stone that sells the piece.” Raible, like Heger, uses a center stone to fill the donut-hole. “I take a center stone, and depending on the color of the stone, the way the light refracts through it, I'll pick out accent stones to go with it.” Heger, for his part, is chomping at the bit to get started on the rings that are currently waiting, beckoning, in his safe. For as long as the stones have remained in his possession, he's confident that when the jewelry pieces are finished, they won't stay in his possession for long. “The unusual thing about them is that usually it's very hard for the public to conceptualize loose stones; it's very hard for them to visualize what the jewelry will look like. Ninety percent of the people out there have no concept skills when it comes to how jewelry is going to look on their hand. So it's hard to sell; it's hard to get people interested in loose stones. But these, I can tell it's going to be a hit. I've had them sitting in one of my display cases, and I have people asking about them all the time.” Another jeweler who recently unveiled his own dramatic use of Lehrer's Torus ring is Gordon Aatlo of Norma Jewelers in San Carlos, California. For a while, however, it looked as though the ametrine donut would stay just where it was - in Aatlo's safe. “He doesn't 'soldier on,'” explains his daughter and business partner, Christine Carrere. “If an idea isn't coming, he won't force it. If something doesn't immediately inspire a design for him, he'll let it sit until it does.” As the prospect of the gem and mineral shows at Tucson loomed ever closer, it didn't look as though the Torus ring was going to see the bright lights of Aatlo's booth. But two weeks before the big show, lightning struck - and was reflected in the stylized lightning bolt that frames the ametrine. The stone that Aatlo was using was one of Lehrer's more unusual shapes, a cross between the classic circle shape of the majority of the Torus rings and the more freeform approach of his other carvings. The elongated oval has one flattened corner, like a dent, or a bite mark; the hole in the center is an oval as well. Instead of filling the negative space at the center of the Torus ring, Aatlo maintained it, suspending a small diamond in the hole with a cushion of air between it and the center edge of the ring. One metal arm extends from the ring to hold the diamond in place. Two pieces by Kent Raible: the ring uses a 2.58-ct. Montana sapphire Torus ring, Mandarin garnets, diamond, and 18K gold; the pendant fills a 4.65-ct. Montana sapphire Torus ring with a 0.38-ct. ruby, and uses Mandarin garnets and a diamond. Photo: Hap Sakwa. COMING FULL CIRCLE. For Klecka, the shape of the Torus ring struck a familiar chord, representing a chance for him to return to a design aesthetic that he had first explored years earlier. “As a design student in college, I was making jewelry of that donut-shape design. I approached it from the standpoint of the ancient Chinese jade carvings. I did a whole series as a graduate student - mostly pins, some pendants. Twenty-five years later, Glenn comes up with this Torus, and it brought me back to my roots of design. It's like one of those twilight zone things. On a subliminal level, I responded to what he was doing very emotionally. I realized, 'Wow, I was doing this 25 years ago, but in a different way; it's the same iconic image popping up in my life again. Excuse the pun, but it's come full circle.” The Torus didn't only connect with Klecka's past, but with his present design sense as well. Says Klecka, “In my work I deal with the negative space as well as the positive piece itself. So there's a counterpoint between what is there, in the sense of the physical object, and what is not there. This is what essentially formed the link between Glenn and myself with the Torus cut. There is a connection between my existing work, where I'm dealing with the negative and the positive space equally.” One of Klecka's signature effects is something he calls the Floating Diamond™, an exposed gemstone set in such a way that the casual observer can see no apparent way of securing the gem to the piece. Klecka points out, again, the importance of the negative space to the impact of the design. “When you see the Floating Diamond™, it is so physically striking, you have an emotional reaction, then your brain kicks in, trying to figure out how it's done. It's the air around the diamond that makes the piece so compelling, and the Torus achieves the same thing.” Klecka uses the effect of the Torus with his own use of negative space, using one to magnify, but never overshadow the other. He uses round diamonds, held one after the other with tiny beads of platinum, so delicate as to be invisible, so all the viewer sees is a string of diamonds that seem to float in space. The diamonds are set on an arm that holds the Torus ring clipped into place; the Torus can be swapped out for another of a different hue. The design is an elegant blend of the work of two artists. “It's important to me that Glenn's personality as well as mine is well represented. It's been a rather slow process for me to achieve that balance. I want Glenn and I to have each of our creations complement each other in a successful jewelry design.” And the future? “Where we go from here is hard to predict, but certainly the possibilities are wide open,” Klecka says. “We've discussed doing a necklace that's all Torus carvings, linked with my signature diamond treatments, but reality intrudes. The reality is that we've both got businesses to run. It would be nice if we could hang out in San Raphael and dream this stuff up and put it together; but as it is, this is always the icing-on-the-cake fun stuff.” The jewelers whose work is represented in this article are: Paul Klecka, (312) 726-0225; Kent Raible, (530) 477-6966; Conni Mainne, (510) 559-7823; Frank Heger at Aspen Goldsmith, (970) 544-9410; and Gordon Aatlo at Norma Jewelers, (415) 593-7528. Glenn Lehrer can be contacted by calling his studio at (415) 461-2212.

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