At THE GEM MONARCHY, we aim to make your jewellery transcend the ordinary to the extraordinary, similar to the jewellery of kings and queens of past, present and future, by providing gemstones of the highest quality and lustre.
Let our gemstones bring a sparkle to your life. Gemstones come from the earth as little wonders which need to be caressed out of the ground. They have to be shaped to perfection and cut to enhance the stone’s natural beauty and curves. For a gemstone to appear as we envision it, we have to control the integrity of the process; from the mines to you. To enable this, a strong team of miners, workers, apprentices and master lapidarists work around the clock. We all believe in one single goal: to display the royalty of a gemstone.
We pride ourselves in owning the production line, from the mines to the jeweller. Hence, a well oiled-machine of driven individuals make up our wonderful family. So what better way than to show a bit more about us, than to introduce the core of The Gem Monarchy.
Punala Kiripitige | FGAA | GIA AJP
Founder
Punala is the elder son of two gem enthusiasts who has been collecting and supplying gemstones internationally for the past 30 years. He was only a few days old when he first held a Ceylon Sapphire. After having completed his Diploma in Gemmology with the Gemological Association of Australia(GAA), he has an excellent knowledge of gemstones. Whilst studying Bachelor of Medicine/ Surgery, at the University of Adelaide, he is also studying Graduate Gemologist at the Gemological Institute of America(GIA). Additionally, his upbringing in and around gem markets in Sri Lanka, and expertise in analysing said markets and trends in gemstones, will give you the best opportunity to select a beautiful gemstone for you at the best price.
MASTER LAPIDARISTS
Jayantha Samaranayaka
“The Faceting Maestro”
Master Lapidarist, General Manager
Jayantha works from his home lapidary situated in Kalutara, Sri Lanka (District next to the famous gem capital Ratnapura). In addition, you will see Jayantha’s excellent work in most of our larger Sapphires. He not only works on Sapphires but also supervises many of our other lapidarists who constantly work on millimetre-sized stones. They also work from their homes under Jayantha’s guidance and constant quality inspections. In addition, his ability to analyze rough stones and design the best cut for a particular stone is remarkable. All of his cuts are unique and beautiful. Additionally, what he produces from his little workstation is of the highest calibre in the world.
Dapana Saman
“The Fancy Fashionist”
Master Lapidarist
Saman is a valuable member of The Gem Monarchy family, who works from the beautiful coastal city of Matara near the South of Sri Lanka. He is also another one of our master lapidarists, and especially works wonders on our range of semi-precious stones. You will see his years of experience in gem cutting and the creativity of his work in our tourmalines aquamarines as well as other semi-precious stones available on our store. Similar to Jayantha he also oversees a large production of calibrated stock. Thus giving The Gem Monarchy little lustrous wonders capable of amazing everyone’s hearts and souls.
Asela Weerasinghe
“The Lap Wiz”
Master Lapidarist
Asela is a recent addition to the team but has a wealth of experience. He has formally conducted his studies of Gem Cutting in the Sri Lankan Gem and Jewellery Authority in 2006, where he had completed the course as second in a class of around 300, with flying colours. Asela also brings to The Gem Monarchy Team his expertise on gem identification and valuation through various private gemological institutions. After having worked in Ratnapura, the Sri Lankan Gemstone Capital for 10 years, he is now living in Beruwala working from home in his specialised home lapidary due to the recent COVID-19 working restrictions. His special interest is cutting and faceting sapphires and spinels, adding another decade of expertise into our team of highly talented and qualified lapidarists.
Rohana Siriwardana
“The Lapidary Maven”
Master Lapidarist
Rohana had recently joined the team after our master lapidarists recognised his talent. This was following him winning a multitude of awards at the esteemed Sri Lankan International Gem Show: “THE FACET”. Also, you can see Rohana’s amazing and beautiful cutting on our range of Spinels and garnets. His unique cutting optimises the natural colour of the stone and uses basic principles of light to immensely illuminate the stone. As mentioned before his unique style allows him to be not only nationally but, internationally recognised as an outstanding lapidarist, one who is proud to be working with us, and us with him.
Samantha Jayasuriya
“The Spinel Servicer”
Master Lapidarist
Samantha has been cutting gemstones for the past 20 years in his own lapidary in the popular gem city of Ratnapura. The beautiful spinels which you see on our website and on our social media were specifically hand-cut by Samantha. This talent of working with Spinels also secured his position on being a master lapidarist in The Gem Monarchy family. Samantha is also in charge of one of our lapidary facilities, where he has five permanent lapidarists and apprentices working on our stock. This additionally allows us to produce beautiful and stunningly faceted gemstones at an adequate rate. Samantha enjoys his craft, which is why you can see his passion on our gemstones.
SUPPORT STAFF
Dev Jayasinghe
“The Photo-Processing Prodigy”
Graphic Artist
Dev, a recent graduate from high school, is our newest addition to our team! Throughout his childhood, much similar to our Founder Punala developed a love of art and graphic design and is a family friend and relative. In addition, as The Gem Monarchy grows larger and our orders become more frequent we needed a second hand in helping with our photography processing. His half-a-decade of experience as a graphic designer allows him to replicate the quality expected from that of our team. Additionally, he now works on photographs of our gemstones and jewellery. We are overjoyed to accept Dev into our team, to work in a collaborative process. Our aim is to produce some amazing pieces of content about the wonderful world of gemstones.
Romesh Randika
“The Colour Magician”
Resident Heat-Treatment Specialist
Romesh, is the son of the late Chandra, who was the General Manager of Operations in our business in Sri Lanka. When Chandra was diagnosed and passed away from Motor Neurone Disease in 2018, Romesh had just finished his high-school studies. Due to our encouragement and close connection with Chandra’s family, he enrolled in a Specialist Gemstone Heat-Treatment Course(all costs covered) and has since been working with us on heat treating sapphires. He also heads our experiments when it comes to the heat-treatment of sapphires, to enhance the colour and clarity of sapphires, in a new, cutting-edge and scientific manner. Romesh’s aspiration is to become a world leader in the heat treatment of gemstones, an aspiration he is well on the way of achieving.
Contact Us for more information and enquiries of gemstones.