Kaj Gems

We are up on the 5th floor of Balram Chambers in Block 20, right on Barrack Road. It’s a bit of a climb if the lift is being temperamental, but we have a good view of the street from up here. Our days are mostly spent looking at stones under a magnifying glass and sorting them by size and color. It’s quiet work that requires a lot of patience and good lighting. We get a lot of people coming in to look at what we have in stock, and we just lay things out on the desk for them to see. There’s no big showroom here, just a practical workspace where we do our sorting and grading. Gems are interesting because every one is a bit different, and we’ve spent years learning how to spot the small details. Sometimes the office gets a bit messy with paperwork and little bags of stones everywhere, but we know where everything is. Barrack Road is a busy area, so it’s nice to have this space away from the noise downstairs. We aren't really into big sales pitches; we just show what we have and let the stones speak for themselves. It’s a small family-run sort of feeling here, even though we deal with some very high-quality items. We just show up every morning, turn on the lights, and start working through the day’s tasks. There's always something new to look at when a fresh parcel of gems arrives at our door.