Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND
Erika Sherk

Northern News Services
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

SOMBA K’E/YELLOWKNIFE – Jen Pilon’s eyes light up when she talks
about diamonds.

"They are my life," she says.

She might sound like a woman with a penchant for expensive
jewellery. However, Pilon’s relationship with diamonds goes much
deeper than that.

NNSL photo/graphic

Jen Pilon, Canada’s first female certified diamond polisher,
demonstrates the different "facets" of her job. – Erika Sherk/NNSL
photo

Diamonds actually are her life – her professional life, that is.

The first certified female diamond polisher in the NWT and Canada,
Pilon’s love affair with the sparkly carbon began seven years
ago. Having moved to Yellowknife from Ontario, she saw a diamond
polisher at a trade show. Her imagination caught, when she saw a
four-month course advertised, she signed up.

"I was taught on little tiny ones," she said, laughing, "for less
expensive mistakes."

There were only four people in her class. The foremen from the
Yellowknife diamond polishing facilities would come by every Friday
and check out the students’ work.

"Within two months I already had a job in a polishing facility,"
she says.

At Arslanian Cutting Works, her employer for the last seven years,
she was matched up with an Armenian mentor, one of the diamond
professionals brought in to train Northerners after the NWT diamond
mines started producing.

The idea of crafting facets out of rough diamonds appealed to her,
she says. "I’m very artistic, I wanted to do something different when
I moved here and I like to work with my hands."

She wanted to prove her mother wrong, Pilon says. "My mother said,
‘you can’t be perfect’ and ‘ you can’t have the perfect job.’"

This job requires perfection, no doubt.

"If you make a 0.05 millimetre mistake marking a four-carat rough
[diamond] it costs about $3,000," she says.

It never gets boring, Pilon says. "You’re doing the same thing over
and over and over, but no two diamonds are t of character."

She became the first female diamond polisher certified in Canada when
she passed her test in 2005. Pilon says there are now more female
diamond polishers in the formerly male-dominated trade, though it’s
still a fairly rare occupation – Canada only produces so many diamonds.

Laid off from Arslanian in May along with all the other polishers –
some have since been hired back – Pilon, 38, now works promoting
territorial government certified diamonds: the Polar Bear and Polar
Ice brands.

On Thursday she was demonstrating her trade at the Northern Frontier
Visitors Centre. She’s demonstrated there for three years.

"People love it, the opportunity to see diamonds actually being
polished," says Jenni Bruce, president of the Northern Frontier
Visitors Association. "It’s very fascinating because it’s one of the
very few industries where the human factor is still so important."

As a diamond polisher, Pilon is "top-notch," says Bruce, "She’s highly
sought after for her skill."

Pilon has been doing demonstrations twice a week all summer, Bruce
says. The visitors’ centre is hoping to keep providing demonstrators
throughout the year.

People are excited to see a diamond polished. In this case, they’ll
see a very well polished diamond. "I’ve been polishing the same one
for three months," Pilon laughs.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress