The Artist: Raised in Florida—just a short drive from some of the East Coast’s most fruitful gem mines—Pamela Huizenga’s passion for stones was sparked at age 16 when she landed an apprenticeship with a local gem cutter and began faceting stones, which she unearthed in his North Carolina mine, using a machine in her family’s garage. At 19, Huizenga started her first jewelry-dealing company and scoured gem fairs for vibrant opals, tsavorites, and aquamarine. She ran a jewelry boutique for the better part of a d…