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NST, Life & Times Style July 14, 2010

Romancing the stones

The husband and wife team at Karl Faller Lapidaries tells VIMALA SENEVIRATNE about their love affair with precious gemstones

THEY may be surrounded by some of the most dazzling gemstones but the only bling on Heike Faller is a pair of small pink tourmaline earrings set in silver and a necklace consisting of a pendant on a black string.

She tucks her short cropped hair behind her ears to show off the earrings to full effect. “Dainty but eye-catching aren’t the?” she declares.

“I just love the multi-coloured and bi-coloured ones, green at one end and pink on the other. Did you know that tourmaline is found in all colours because according to ancient legend, it travelled upon a rainbow and as a result gathered all its colours,” she says, laughing, her eyes lighting up.

She also has in her personal collection a 24.5 carat emerald pendant and a pair of earrings costing close to 400,000 euros (RM1.6 million).

“The instant I laid eyes on them, I knew they were meant for me.”

Not to be outdone, her big, burly husband Konrad Henn, 51, shows off his pair of silver cuff-links with its perfect round-cut blue sapphire. “It’s Kashmir blue,” he says with pride. This is because in the world of blue sapphire, Kashmir is the epitome stone against which all others are measured.

“I’ve also got a tie pin with a blue sapphire, and a pen with a cabochon sapphire. I have a soft spot for blue sapphire, as you can see.”

The couple know their precious stones like the back of their hands. Pint-sized Faller, also 51, is the owner of Karl Faller Lapidaries which was founded by her grandparents, Karl and Anneliese Faller, more than 60 years ago.

She now heads the family business while her husband is its managing director. The gemstone cutting company supplies high quality gems to goldsmiths, designers and jewellers around the world.The stones are cut and ready for use in jewellery and watches.

Both Faller and Henn were in the city recently to touch base with their client, Oeding-Erdell, a German fine jeweller that opened its first retail showroom in Kuala Lumpur. The company has a factory in Penang which has been operating since 1974.

Earlier, the couple had been to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Hong Kong to attend trade shows or conduct business meetings with their clients.

Faller, a biology teacher turned gemstone dealer, points to an almost identical pair of emerald gemstones sitting pretty on a velvet line tray at the Oeding-Erdel outlet at Suria KLCC.

“They are absolutely stunning because it’s so rare to find two perfectly cut emeralds of almost identical saturation and intensity. As such, it commands a very high price, more than a diamond of the same weight.”

Adds her husband: “Fine precious stones are comparable to great works of art. Like a painting, to appreciate it, one must view the whole, not just the parts,” says Henn, who was a mechanical engineer for more than 20 years before he joined his wife in business six years ago when they married.

Henn had also studied mineral science. “His knowledge in mineral science comes in handy whenever we give talks on gemstones — he gets into the nitty-gritty of how the stones are formed, and their composition, among other things. Now, you know why I married him,” quips Faller.

The couple’s love affair with gemstones developed over the years. They both grew up near a mining town noted for its semi-precious stones.

“Almost every family in the little village was dealing in these stones. I remember growing up with so many kinds of coloured semi-precious stones. At that time I had no interest in such stones,” says Faller.

It was only when her father switched to dealing with precious coloured stones 30 years ago that her interest grew. “There were lots of fiery red rubies, the most amazing blue sapphires and rich green emeralds all over the house. I just fell in love with them. I had never seen such beauty in my life,” says Faller.

Less then two years into her teaching career, she accompanied her father for the first time in one of his regular overseas trips to meet the suppliers.