My name is Sean Taylor, and I cut faceted gemstones at my home studio in Glasgow, Scotland. I have been cutting gems since 2020, alongside my work in scientific and artistic glassblowing. I have a life-long passion for learning, and for highly detailed, carefully and well-made things, where hand skills are vital to the process. If those things are also unique, then so much the better.
My interest in gemstones was sparked while making glass beads and learning a bit of silversmithing for jewellery.
I found it difficult to find stones I liked – well-polished, pleasing shapes and facet arrangements, clean, with good colour and light return – all the things which make a good, well-cut stone. So, I set about finding out more, one thing led to another, and I ended up with a faceting machine and a prize from the Scottish Gemmological Association for achieving the highest score in Scotland, in the Gem-A Gemmology Foundation course. I got a cup, and everything!
Before glassblowing and gem-cutting, I have, variously:
- worked as a theatre lighting and sound technician
- co-founded a stage pyrotechnics safety association
- taught technical theatre to degree level at a conservatoire
- trained as a traditional wooden boat builder
- studied a degree in maths and physics
- run a glassblowing supply business
- taught glass beadmaking and lampworking
How all of these things happened is a bit of a mystery, but we could probably sort it all out over a couple of G&T’s…
I am ably assisted and supported in my work by my wife Gillian, and Ridley the Springer Spaniel, who variously makes me take long walks, trips me up in the kitchen, keeps the garden-cat-count down, sleeps and sheds hair everywhere.