Stones cutfrom starlight
Freja Lindqvist cuts and sets lab-grown gems by hand in Copenhagen. Each stone is faceted to hold light the way a clear night holds stars.
Four stones,
four weathers
Small editions, each named for a faint constellation. Touch a piece and the sky behind it turns to the colour of its stone.
Fifty-seven decisions
about light
- i.
Grown, not mined
Every stone starts as a crystal grown in a lab from a tiny seed. Same carbon, same corundum, same hardness, with no mine behind it and a paper trail you can read.
- ii.
The pavilion
The lower facets are cut first. Their angle decides whether light falls out the bottom or turns around and comes back to your eye.
- iii.
Crown and table
The upper facets split white light into colour. We polish each one on a cast iron wheel until the reflections are crisp enough to read by.
- iv.
Set by hand
A hand-rolled bezel closes around the girdle, burnished under a loupe. The stone sits low, safe, and still free to catch the room.
Cut it your way
- Facets per brilliant
- 57Plus a closed culet, cut by hand.
- Sketch to hand
- 6 wksSample lead time for a bespoke piece.
- Pieces per edition
- 12Sample edition size, then the design retires.
- Stones from mines
- 0Lab-grown only, recycled metals.
Light studies
Refraction tests, gold dust, and the hour when the studio turns the colour of a prism.
"I cut for the moment someone turns their hand and the stone answers back."
Freja Lindqvist, Founder and setter, Copenhagen
Trained at a bench in the back of a watch repair shop. Now cuts and sets under a north window, one commission at a time.
"I kept tilting my hand on the train home just to watch it throw colour."
"The sitting felt like being shown the night sky by someone who knows every star."
Before
you visit
Are lab-grown stones real gemstones?
Yes. They have the same chemistry, crystal structure and hardness as mined stones. Only the origin differs, and every stone comes with a grading report.
Can I bring my own stone or metal?
Often, yes. Bring it to a sitting and we will look at it under the loupe together before promising anything.
How does a bespoke commission work?
A first sitting to sketch, a wax model to try on, then cutting and setting. You see the stone before it is set.
Do you resize or repair?
Every piece we make is resized and re-polished free for life. Repairs on other work are assessed case by case.
Sit with the
stones
Private sittings of an hour, with tea, a loupe and no hurry. Tell us a little about what you have in mind.
Freja Lindqvist AtelierCopenhagen
@nebulagems