At the November meeting of the DCGIA, Michael Dyber, gave a fascinating presentation of his craft that completely mesmerized the audience, capturing their attention for the entire evening. As the owner of Michael Dyber Infinite Design, Dyber specializes in handmade gemstones sculptures and carvings. Though he has no formal education or training in gem/jewelry design (a graduate of New England College in 1970, with B.A. in Fine Arts & Humanities), Dyber has an artistic and creative nature. He started creating metal sculptures at the age of 9 and as he refined his skills, he made the natural progression from sculpting various metals to small jewelry sculpture utilizing gemstones. Utilizing a unique and custom set of tools, which he also designed, Dyber�s creations are breathtakingly beautiful and have earned him numerous national and international awards.

Tonight’s speaker – Michael Dyber – acclaimed gem artist

While he has done a variety of work in his career, Dyber�s unique lapidary work is where he has distinguished himself as an artist. His lapidary is primarily focused on stones like ametrine, aquamarine, Brazilian bi-color tourmalines as well various colors of beryl, rutiliated quartz, and amethyst. He has scoured the world�s gem mines in search of unique and exquisite minerals for his carvings.

Chapter VP Tony Conway greets tonights’ speaker and guests

His passion, creativity and imagination to do something different and extraordinary, took him away from jewelry designing into some extremely creative and imaginative work. In 1987, Dyber developed his internationally known signature lapidary technique called the Dyber Optic Dish. This technique creates optical illusions in small and large dimensions and it is all cut by hand without any prior design in mind. Utilizing his natural sculpting instincts in various gemstones, Dyber was able to create exquisite pieces such as the �Eternal Flame�, which is a free-form carved smoky quartz with rutile, on bronze armature and pink granite. The design flows from front to back and incorporates the Dyber Optic Dishes� in creating numerous optical illusions. The smoky quartz he used in this carving was from Brazil and weighed approximately 5,438 grams, while the pink granite used was mined in the U.S.A.

Chapter members getting into Dyber’s gems

Multi-colored beryl cuts by Michael Dyber

Michael Dyber – disc cut citrine – goes with other 2 cut stones

His Optic Dish art was so impressive and extraordinary that JCK magazine featured Michael as the �Master of Optical Illusion� in 1994. However, his appetite for new creation did not stop there. In 1999 he introduced new signature lapidary technique called Luminaries, which creates illumination and optic illusions within the stones. He has created some extraordinary pieces, utilizing a combination of both the Optic Dish and Luminaries techniques:

• A 43.99 ct. Aquamarine
• A 65.48 ct. Bolivian Ametrine
• 81.64 ct. Amethyst (Winner of the �2006 AGTA Cutting Edge Award�).

Michael�s various works of art have been displayed in a variety of museums all throughout the United States:

• Smithsonian In Washington D.C,
• Gemological Institute Of America Museum
• Carnegie Museum of National History
• Harvard Museum of Natural History

VP Tony Conway sells winning tickets to all comers

Text: Kusam Malhotra
Photos: Doris Voigt