About Us

Glenn Lehrer is internationally recognized as one of the finest gemstone carvers of our time. A living legend in the art of lapidary. His fluid gemstone carvings and precisely faceted stones are featured in custom fine jewelry and exquisite gemstone sculptures around the world.

Perhaps Glenn Lehrer’s greatest talent is in being able to transform a solid stone into a piece of art that miraculously transcends its own physical properties. Under Glenn’s expert hands, gemstones become green leaves newly formed or butterfly wings that seem to flutter when glimpsed out of the corner of your eye.

Lehrer’s forty-eight year career with gemstone carving and jewelry design began when he returned from traveling around the world in his twenty’s. His own fascination with a gift of cut quartz from his brother gave him his first inkling that he would pursue a career in the lapidary arts. A self taught lapidarist and goldsmith, he returned to college to study geology, mineralogy, higher math, and crystallography. He received his graduate gemology degree in residence in 1979 from the Gemological Institute of America. For Mr. Lehrer gem carving is where art and science merge to create a synergistic effect.

Lehrer has won many prestigious awards for his jewelry and gemstone designs: ten Cutting Edge Awards and one Spectrum Award from (AGTA) the American Gem Trade Association; the NITCH Award; and an award from the prestigious Association in Germany. His award winning gemstones and jewelry designs have appeared on the cover of twenty major worldwide jewelry publications, and numerous articles have been written describing his craftsmanship. Four of his carvings have been featured in the Modern Jewelers’ Gem Profile collection.

In addition to his award winning carvings, Glenn Lehrer invented a new cut, the "TorusRing™ Gemstone", a modern looking, faceted gemstone with a hole in the middle. This center hole is ideal for setting another gemstone, allowing complimentary color design. He is one of very few modern gemstone designers to have received a U.S. utility patent (#5722261) for the TorusRing Gemcut™.

Lehrer established Lehrer Designs in 1981. His retail store and gem cutting studio are located in Northern California. Lehrer has build a world-wide company serving miners,  wholesalers, jewelry designers and retail customers with his unique gemstones, cutting expertise, and fine jewelry.

Lehrer has been a TV host on several large Gemstone and Jewelry Sales programs in the United States and England for his gem cutting knowledge and artistry, and continues to successfully sell his gemstones and jewelry on TV both in the UK and the USA.

Since 1986, Lehrer has studied and co-created with some of the finest engravers from Idar-Oberstein, Germany such as Hans Ulrich Pauly, the well-known cameo carver. Lehrer and Pauly have combined their unique skills and talents to create magnificent, large gemstone sculptures with multiple reflected intaglio images, giving the viewer a holographic like effect. These Visionary GemArt objects are truly a vision to behold.

Lehrer has  pioneered some of the world’s largest gemstone sculptures. The grandest and most technically challenging is Bahia, a beautifully sculpted 5-foot, 450 pound quartz crystal with golden rutile needles, comprised of three pieces cut from a single 800-pound quartz crystal. It hangs like a jewel pendant, suspended 30 feet from the ceiling by two thin steel cables. Known as:  “The World’s Largest Pendant,” it is on permanent display in the lobby of the Gemological Institute of American campus in Carlsbad, CA. Bahia was created in collaboration with Lawrence Stoller, and has been on exhibition at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. and the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. (See pictures below).

Lehrer member of the American Gem Traders Association and served  on the Board of Directors of AGTA for ten (10) years. He was instrumental in restructuring the organization which increased organizational efficiency, more productive Board meetings, effective staff-Board relationship. As chair of the Constitution committee he was responsible for re-writing AGTA's constitution and bylaws.

Lehrer was given a lifetime honorary membership with  International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) for his work consulting with the Board and staff to re-write and update their Constitution and By-laws.

Mr. Lehrer is currently on the board of trustee's for the Colorful Life  Foundation. A UK non-profit foundation committed to the economic activity generated by colored gemstones helping to improve the health and education in gemstone mining and cutting communities in the developing world along with fostering sound environmental practices.

Lehrer is a well-known lecturer in the gem and jewelry industry and a teacher of lapidary carving. From jewelry to gemstones, Glenn Lehrer’s designs are constantly expanding horizons in the jewelry industry, inspiring awe and wonder at their beauty and execution

 

 

Stephan Lee Gunning has been integral to the success of Lehrer Designs, Inc. since 2004. He a master goldsmith and gemstone setter. Stephan and Glenn collaborate on all jewelry concepts and fabrications at Lehrer Designs. With eighty years combined experience in the trade, Glenn and Stephan can create any kind of jewelry you can imagine.

Stephan became an apprentice goldsmith in 1975, at the age of sixteen, under Master Goldsmith Donald Kleyensteuber in Palo Alto, California. For the next five years he learned traditional European skills and techniques in all aspects of jewelry manufacturing and fabrication. This apprenticeship was a rare opportunity to study old-world skills with a master here in the United States. With rare exceptions, such training would only be available in Europe.

After completing his apprenticeship he began to work for some of the finest jewelry stores in the San Francisco and Lake Tahoe area as their resident master goldsmith. While he was the master goldsmith at Timothy Fidge & Co. in Palo Alto, CA, they won the De Beers International Diamond Design Competition three times.

After leaving Fidge & Co., Mr. Gunning started his own company, Studio Creaius. He specialized in custom jewelry by appointment. He quickly became recognized as the go-to-guy in the local trade for problem solving and his willingness to tackle difficult projects. He also worked as the Master Goldsmith on contract to the Stanford University Art Department during this time.

In 1996 he spearheaded an expedition to Guatemala to locate the ancient lost jadeite deposit of the Olmec culture. Locating the jadeite by a combination of archival research and actual on the ground field work, He founded the Ventana Mining Company.

Master goldsmith, stone setter, laser welding specialist, antique restorer, and jewelry designer. Master of all methods in the realm of jewelry fabrication and casting.