Hamish Munro — Jerome Williams is a writer and creative consultant.

Collection essay for jeweller, Hamish Munro, detailing his journey to the outback in search of the elusive Australian sapphire.

“Released alongside the Australian Sapphire Series as a documentation of process and a hallmark of the careful considerations that are signature to the maker.”

The true value of a gem is realised when sourcing a stone directly from the hand of its founder.

Rubyvale lay at the last frontier of the Wild East. The town spills forth from a fortuitous bedrock concealing an elusive blue-tinted gem. A history of booms and busts has pushed and pulled at Rubyvale’s foundations, shaping the terrain and eliciting periodic surges of fervour. Plastic markers award it an informal governance, framing up makeshift dwellings patinated by an extreme climate. An uncertain value lays dormant underfoot. The wailing siren of its proximity draws miners towards an infectious pursuit. Persistence yields a haphazard route to making it big. The odds are high. With a camouflage of optimism, miners chip away at long, hard days. Sworn to secrecy, they hold full houses tightly to their chest to avoid unwanted attention. Everything is a gamble.

To reveal what can be, we must learn what was. Guided by this maxim, Hamish Munro and photographer Josh Robenstone plotted a path from Melbourne to the Queensland gemfields, marking the beginning of a field expedition to trace the provenance of the Australian sapphire. To uncover the people, methods and infatuation propelling a stone’s journey from mine to cut. In Rubyvale, family-run mines hand process and grade bucket loads of unearthed rubble, promising gems with an earned seal of mastery and care. The supply chain is steady and purposeful. A tug of war with the fast-paced present. Miners meticulously peel back layers of earth in search of a cutter, a stone that piques a watchful eye with the rare union of clarity and timely character. It’s these cutters that personify the age old hallmark of quality over quantity.

For Hamish Munro, the true value of a gem is realised when sourcing a stone directly from the hand of its founder. A guarantee that a certain level of attention has been maintained throughout the process. An avenue to forge an authentic connection with the stone and its history. In doing this, Hamish Munro chips away and reveals the care that brought a stone into being. To insinuate its journey from mine to cut, in his extension of design and production. A baton seamlessly passed from craftsman to craftsman and onto its lifelong owner.

Hamish Munro’s Sapphire Series heroes the stone with pared-back, classic solitaires. An assembly of considered silhouettes that surrender the stage to the stone’s complexity and character. The outcome of an inquisitive nature and consideration for materials and their legacy. For Hamish Munro, to know is to care. There is no afterthought, nor hesitation when going directly to the source.

Havaianas

Suupaa