Joanna was born in 1961 in London. Her godmother, Margaret Biggs, was the first woman to pass her gemmology exam to become a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. She passed that with distinction in 1923. She was also President of the National Association of Goldsmiths. Joanna's father, John, was a businessman in the juke box and slot machine industry.
Joanna learned to love making things at her father's workshop and every holiday, as a child, she worked at one of his businesses. She went to prep school in the village of Liphook where she was Headgirl in her final year. At 13, Joanna enrolled at Bedales School. She was not a natural academic, but she took a strong interest in design. She left after her first year in the sixth form because she was keen to learn more.[1]
Hardy initially trained as a goldsmith at Sir John Cass College[2] before she worked grading rough diamonds for the De Beers company. She worked in a number of countries including Israel, Belgium and Scandinavia.[3] The diamonds were then all cut by hand and she could look at a gem and tell where it had been cut by the angles of the cuts.[4] She went through a rigorous process to appreciate the authenticity and value of a pink diamond gem that was finally auctioned by Phillips and sold at $6 million in 1995.[4]
In 2014 she cautioned collectors when it was observed that coloured gemstones were the fashion rather than diamonds. Some of the value and interest was due to fashion, but Hardy noted that the gems were rare and that was the underlying reason why they achieved high prices. However many gems were heat-treated to give an unoriginal colour.[5]
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