Michael Grant, an Arizona native, is one of roughly a half dozen full-time stone bead cutters in this country today. At a time when many stones are machine-cut, Grant continues to acquire raw stones then use the simplest of lapidary tools - a lapidary wheel, flexible shaft and polisher - to work each bead, rondelle and stone inlay creating surfaces so smooth they must be felt to be fully understood.
“In our society, financial requirements trick us into believing we must hurry up in the work we do. I have sometimes lived this way, but overall, mostly, the stones have taught me differently. Stones are very slow and patient. I spend my workdays alone with them in my workshop and their slowness rubs off on me. It is futile to hurry jewels along on their journey of emergence from the raw stone which bore them. They refuse to move swiftly, forcing the jeweler to still his anxiousness, and even abandon his pursuit of completion. It sounds odd to say it, but they will be complete only when I have learned to follow them and not lead them. Sometimes when I resist this lesson my life is filled with anxiety, yet when I am mindful of this lesson I feel balanced and beautiful. The stones have given me this, and I sincerely hope that the finished jewels which I create can offer the wearer this helpful sort of harmony, a balancing counterweight of timelessness to human life in the 21st century.” - Michael Grant
Grant’s devotion to stones began as a youngster: Quartzsite, AZ and its celebrated mineral show was a favorite destination. By his early twenties he was apprenticing with a renowned jeweler. It was his love of stones, and the potential hidden within each, that led Grant to begin hand-cutting his own. For over two decades he has honed the skills that keep collectors across the country, and beyond its borders, aware of each new collection’s launch. Whether of rare turquoise, sugalite, lapis or coral, each necklace, ring or pair of earrings is outstanding. Grant explains: “To make something fine takes patience and experience, it rarely comes easily. Good jewelry has to be unique and durable. I hope somehow that my passion and attention to detail and form can subtly take root inside each piece of jewelry I create.”
