ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Hochstasser is the name of a small business that began in Switzerland and is now also located in Germany. Hochstarsser is sixteen years old, and was begun by two brothers, Thomas and Andreas Hochstrasser.

As children, the boys traveled with their father and uncle, mining in the Swiss and Italian mountains. They found minerals, crystals and gem materials in their raw state. On the island of Elba, they saw rings cut from rock and Andreas decided then that he wanted to learn how this was done. Today he is self-taught and a master stone cutter. His brother Thomas went on to study gemology in Idar-Oberstaein, the renowned German gem-cutting center.

ABOUT THE WORK

Thomas and Andreas have a simple objective. They wish to use gems and minerals in a way that most enhances the natural beauty of the material. There is no material that they will not cut, including all gem materials but wood and bone, too. “We love beautiful nature and we love to intensify it.” Both men still mine for raw materials.

In Germany and Europe, the Hochstrasser name is well known. Because of their creativity and innovation, their work is eagerly anticipated at prominent European jewelry shows. They were the first to develop a method for cutting a double spiral, a sort of Mobius strip.