Martin Donoghue was in sparkling form when he entered a top competition for practising gemstone cutters.

The Glasgow-based craftsman carried off the top prize and took the coveted trophy back to Scotland for the first time.

Martin, 46, who works out of studios in the city's Trongate area, cuts and facets rubies, emeralds and saphires for leading jewellers throughout Europe.

Private customers too take ''roughs'' to him to have cut and polished and set in rings and brooches.

Self-taught, the high quality of his workmanship was recently recognised when he was commissioned to cut a pink topaz crystal for permanent display in the Gem and Mineral section of Cardiff City Museum.

He carried off the first prize awarded by the United Kingdom Facet Cutters' Guild.

There are an estimated 120 faceters remaining in the UK many of whom, like the award-winning Glaswegian, prefer to use traditional skills in place of more modern techniques.

He spent 20 hours preparing the stone he entered for the national competition, a three-carat blue topaz, before giving it its final polish.

Next weekend he will be presented with his trophy at the annual Gem and Mineral Show in Harrogate.

The guild encourages competition and each year rewards excellence with a number of presentations. Previously he had won third place in two competitions.

A Fellow of the Gemmological Association, Martin, who started out polishing semi-precious stones as an enthusiastic amateur in 1973, developed that lapidary hobby into a career after studying at college and becoming a fully qualified gemmologist 10 years later.

Since then he is kept busy carrying out specialist work for the jewellery trade and carrying out one-off commissions for designers and private customers.

He said: ''I have been working away on my own for the past 17 years and it is quite a thrill to have my work recognised in this way.

''There are very few stone-cutting workshops remaining in the UK which can carry out fine work for the trade instead of the mass-produced material which is used in general.