Nearly all gemstones are cut and polished, but only one in every one hundred is of a high enough quality to remain natural. The others require some form of treatment – usually heat treatment – to enhance their beauty. However, any treatment turns the sapphires into something man-made and the connection to nature lost.

At Wennick–Lefèvre, we don’t believe in treating gemstones. For us, a treated gemstone is as inauthentic as gold plated jewellery. Only a natural gemstone is a true representation of our planet – pure, beautiful and complex. Every Wennick–Lefèvre sapphire is natural and untreated – and we know the story of every one.

Cutting

Our stones are cut in Sanjeewa’s workshop in Kuruwita, near Rathnapura in Sri Lanka. Cutting a natural sapphire takes time and patience. Every gemstone refracts and reflects the light in a certain way and an experienced cutter gets to know each stone intimately as he or she works. The men and women working at Sanjeewa’s workshop are in their mid twenties to late forties, the master cutters are older. They are coming from the area around the small village of Kuruwita, near Rathnapura, where this expertise has been accumulated over centuries.