About Mark Gronlund AGTA Award Winning Cutter

Mark Gronlund recently won the 2018 AGTA (American Gem Trade Association) 1st place award for Innovative Faceting a 96ct Blue Topaz with a Round Spiral Brilliant Cut.

See Link to this below:

https://agta.org/spectrum/enter-spectrum/2018-winners/

Mark started in the jewelry industry as a self-taught goldsmith. His early work consisted of fabrication, model making, centrifuge casting, stone setting and finishing. Mark began his work as a professional lapidary in 1995. Self-taught in the discipline, Mark quickly earned him mark in the industry by winning the "Cutting Edge" portion of the 1996 AGTA Spectrum Awards, winning a total of three awards his first year. The following two years yielded five more AGTA Cutting Edge Awards. 

Once people acquire a Mark Gronlund creation, they never see gems the same way again. That’s the passionate assessment of many retailers who carry Gronlund’s work.  
Gronlund’s signature concave-faceted gems have delighted consumers since he ventured into the field in the early 1990s.   

Mark also won the  AGTA's Annual Cutting Edge faceting competition which Gronlund entered  with his 1997 and 1998 submissions.  This placed Gronlund squarely in the realm of America’s most talented lapidary artists.

His gems have a depth you don’t normally see.  Mark has indicated he always cuts his gemstones for brilliance rather than to save weight. People who have bought a Gronlund gem become immediate collectors.   A Gronlund gem typically has uniform, pure color and uncharacteristic brilliance. His concave faceting, particularly in the gem’s pavilion, increases reflection and refraction because light waves reflect off of convex surfaces internally.  He also places curved facets along the crown and table of some gems for even stronger brilliance and color.  When you see the intricate patterns and precisely interlocking facets, you will think Gronlund must be a “math whiz".