Lucy Fife in her pleased place at work. The little gradient reduce, pure Australian Argyle pink diamond at left is graded 4 purplish pink, a rarer diamond than a straight pink due to the secondary tone of purple which intensifies the color. Price $31,200, the diamond is prone to be billions of years previous. Photograph: John Thistleton.

Aged 24 on the finish of a Contiki tour in London, Lucy Fife from Goulburn was broke however stuffed with desires. As her mates headed residence she begged her mom Cheryl for 2000 kilos for a six-month course on diamond grading with the Gemological Institute of America’s London Workplace. Lucy needed to be with diamonds.

Over the following six months she slept on the ground of a buddy’s tiny Greenwich flat, so fearful the owner would catch her crashing there, she hid her journey bag within the attic. Her buddy’s boyfriend climbed into the roof every time she wanted one thing. Even a hairbrush.

However, because of her mom, Lucy realized in the one world-recognised grading lab find out how to grade diamonds utilizing their color, weight and chopping potential.

“You’ll be beneath 100-times magnification, measuring with a tiny software the angle and levels of every side (of a diamond) to find out how it will reduce, and the way nicely it’s going to refract and replicate gentle,” she stated.

Finishing the course legitimised her abilities and aspirations.

“I positively needed to remain in London and work,” Lucy stated. “I put a deposit on an residence in Shepherd’s Bush, like all Aussies desirous to dwell that UK-European dream. I gave it a go but it surely was Christmas, I had no cash. I used to be younger. It was chilly. It was my first time within the Northern Hemisphere.”

She got here residence to Goulburn. Much more determined to work for a high-end jeweller, she realised they most likely wouldn’t rent an inexperienced individual. She approached a former native jeweller Rob Hunt, providing to work in his Manuka retailer Briolette without spending a dime every Saturday. Rob agreed.

There Rob’s accomplice Di Thompson (now a bespoke jeweller in Braidwood) taught Lucy about consumer relationships, one other essential step in her journey. Quickly after she was a full-time, paid worker.

In the future strolling via the Queen Victoria Constructing in Sydney along with her boyfriend Lucy entered the upmarket Mondial Pink Diamond Atelier whose clientele contains the Sultan of Brunei. “I began chatting with Jacob Neuman (whose household owned the enterprise). It got here up that I beloved jewelry a lot,” Lucy stated, effervescent with enthusiasm.

Difficult her, Jacob stated: “Properly, grade a diamond,” earlier than disappearing out the again of the showroom and returning with an older man who had a colourless diamond and a pair of tweezers.

“Go on, grade it,” Jacob stated, anticipating to wrong-foot the bubbling younger Lucy. She took his jeweller’s loupe (for magnification) and the tweezers, seemed on the diamond and stated, “Oh, it seems to be like an F – VS2,” pinpointing its readability and color grading.

“Sure,” Jacob stated, astonished. “Would you like a job?”

She was quickly working at Mondial’s the place the Neuman’s buddy John Glajz, a captivating big within the jewelry business with substantial pursuits within the Argyle Mine and Hour Glass, referred to as commonly.

In ‘The Pearl Room’, certainly one of two showrooms in her Goulburn enterprise, Lucy Fife has aimed excessive from the start of her jewelry journey. Photograph: John Thistleton.

“He made this little woman from Goulburn really feel essential,” Lucy stated. “It’s type of corny, however he made me imagine in myself as a result of he’s self-made and grew his empire from nothing. He was a poor Jewish boy and made me really feel like I may do no matter I needed, or turn into no matter I needed within the business.”

From there she was supplied a job managing Argyle pink diamond specialist Calleija in Martin Place, Sydney, the place she helped a few of the world’s richest individuals along with her distinctive data of diamonds and jewelry design.

Later, for household causes she returned to dwell in Goulburn. Her long-term aim was to at some point return to Sydney, however after beginning her personal enterprise, Lucy within the Sky, she started to really feel older shoppers’ eagerness to purchase from her was even stronger than their want for jewelry.

“It’s so beneficiant,” Lucy stated. “Clearly there’s a bi-product, a lovely piece of jewelry, however I simply suppose they need me to succeed. They need to give and to not see me fail. That simply blows my thoughts.

“Belief is an enormous factor within the jewelry business and will get a nasty rap,” she stated.

“I’ve two sapphires right here, and one is $8000 and one is $20,000 and so they look very related. To the common individual they’d not know in the event that they have been getting ripped off. I’ll clarify the distinction.”

At first of Lucy In The Sky she made her jewelry, now she outsources that work to 4 jewellers extra expert than her. She is a gemologist, jewelry valuer and diamond technologist.

“I like extra the gemological facet and the product I make now’s increased high quality than I’m able to making myself, so I’ll outsource that.”

Typical of her commissions is one from a Canberra mom of 4 daughters. For his or her twenty first birthdays Lucy created gorgeous stable gold signet rings with colors representing their center names – aquamarine, purple, rose and indigo.

Every of the ‘Sisters Signets’ design matches a half-crescent moon of graduated-size gem stones in every color with hand-engraved French script initials of the women’ names and a secret message beneath every plate. For the mom, a particular ring was product of all 4 colors. Sophisticated and really particular, the task nonetheless allowed Lucy to indicate how a lot lifelong high quality means to her in beautiful jewelry.