DIAMOND CUTTING

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20692, 30 December 1938, Page 3

DIAMOND CUTTING

GIRL’S NOVEL WORK A MODERN PIONEER Pioneers are usually associated with the earlv days, but in Sydney is a modern pioneer in Miss Patricia Mulligan, who is the first Australian girl to take up diamond cutting as a career A Sydney Morning Herald representative'was'invited to see her when Miss Mulligan was working on an oldfashoned stone which had been cut too steeply to allow the light through it j effectively. There is no way of learning the delicate art of diamond cutting except by practice. Differently graiued diamonds have to be treated in different ways and there are diagrams showing the" different grains, which Miss Mulligan studied very carefully before she made her first attempt at diamond cutting; but apart from that you can learn only by experience, and you go on learning all the time. It takes two days to cut and polish a small diamond. Romance of the Stones Most of the stones Mr Joris and Miss Mulligan work on come from South Africa, but they also use a large number of Australian diamonds in their work. Australian diamonds are the hardest in the world. There is romance in that little workroom. Instead or being surrounded by the tap-tap of typewriters, Miss Mulligan is surrounded by lovely stones from the four corners of the earth. There is romance in their finding, in their cutting and setting, and in their selling, for many of them find their way hack again to the other side of the world. There are priceless stones there, too. which Mr .Joris is handing over to the Sydney Museum. These stones include a. brilliolet diamond (formed like a pear) hanging on a single strand of hair; the first pink diamond found in Australia; diamonds cut# to different set designs (such as emerald, trapeze, marquise, wedge or baguette), and the smallest perfect full-cut diamond in the world. Truly, it is a fascinating profession, and, as far as women are concerned, one which Miss Mulligan has all to herself in Australia. “ Diamond Cut Diamond ” Miss Mulligan took up her unusual profession at the beginning of this year, when Mr Jules Joris was looking for an assistant to take the place of his daughter, Elza, who was married at the end of last year. Every day her eye is growing more practised and her hand more cunning at the fine work, but she is the first to admit that she has a long way to go to equal Miss Joris 1 proficiency, for she was the only girl in Australia ever to design and cut her own engagement ring. But, though the job calls for unceasing concentration, it has lost its first terrors for Miss Mulligan. Her blue eyes sparkle with merriment at the thought, of tmr nervousness in the early days, but now she sits nonchalantly enough at. her desk, all the time watching, watching, as the diamond spins round on its holder and she grinds the edge with another diamond. . . Diamond cut diamond. . . She wrinkles up her nose in concentration as the diamond spins round, stopping every now and then to examine her work through a strong magnifying glass.