Jewelry Television Launches New Website

Jewelry shopping network develops new site to make shopping experience even easier

Jewelry Television® (JTV), the largest broadcast shopping network focused exclusively on the sale of fine jewelry and gemstones, announced the launch of a new website design at http://www.jtv.com. The new site will make Jewelry Television’s already user-friendly shopping experience even easier for customers.

The new website, completed in-house by JTV’s e-commerce team, features a wider format that allows for large, high-resolution images and videos of jewelry and gemstones, enhanced graphics which are visually appealing, and clearly-labeled tabs for improved navigation. Pages of the site work intuitively and consistently, while new search capabilities allow online jewelry shoppers a way to more quickly and easily find what they are seeking.

“We are committed to providing an exceptional customer experience,” said Craig Shields, vice president of e-commerce at Jewelry Television. “The new website was designed to be informative and very simple for our customers to navigate.”

Mobile users have the option of a fully mobile enhanced web experience will all the functions and features of the full site, from the convenience of their mobile devices.

“The user-friendly website also allows our customers to leave reviews on their purchase or read unbiased reviews before they make the purchase,” he said. “We hope that our customers will enjoy browsing the new site and that it will enhance their experience with JTV.”

About Jewelry Television®
Jewelry Television® (JTV) is the only broadcast shopping network that focuses exclusively on the sale of fine jewelry and gemstones. The privately-held company was founded in 1993 and broadcasts high definition programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to over 80 million unique households in the U.S. Jewelry Television® was recently ranked the 14th largest retailer of fine jewelry in the U.S. by National Jeweler. JTV.com is the fifth largest jewelry destination on the internet according to Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide for 2010. For more information, visit JTV.com.

Source:  Press Release via Jewelry Television

Carrie Underwood Wears "Stars of Africa Collection" at CMAs

I inadvertently left the following information out of my previous post about CMA Jewelry.

Along with her 11 costume changes...co host Carrie Underwood wore pieces from the Stars of Africa Collection by Royal Asscher throughout the 45th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

In her opening skit with co host Brad Paisley she is wearing a pair of simple yet sophisticated yellow gold diamond earrings designed by Royal Asscher. 

Closing the show, Carrie perfectly paired her pale green gown with Royal Asscher’s yellow gold floating diamond pendant necklace.

 Not only did Carrie look gorgeous while co hosting the CMA'S, she was able to support a good cause at the same time by wearing diamonds from Royal Asscher's Stars of Africa Collection. Well known for her conscious, and cruelty free attitude towards fashion, Carrie jumped at the opportunity to support The Diamond Empowerment Fund and Royal Asscher's use of non-conflict diamonds. 

Carrie Underwood wore 18kt yellow gold Affinity Link Earrings- with Royal Asscher cut Diamonds and micro pave by:   Royal Asscher Diamonds (www.royalasscher.com) 

...and yellow gold 18kt Stars of Africa full sapphire globe with floating diamonds necklace by:

                      Royal Asscher Diamonds (www.royalasscher.com)

About ROYAL ASSCHER:
Royal Asscher was established in 1854 in the Netherlands and has had a very influential presence in the diamond industry. The company cut the world's largest diamond to date, (3105 carats) and also has been awarded the title "Royal" two times from Queen Juliana of the Netherlands for being the top in the industry. Royal Asscher has provided jewelry to Royals for over a century now including Queen Elizabeth II and the Late Princess Diana. 

Recently a more contemporary collection with a charitable tie-in was created called ‘Stars of Africa’. The collection represents one of the greatest innovations in the jewelry industry- floating diamonds! Diamonds which are encased in a fluid filled dome move around freely which creates an effect that is utterly mesmerizing. Royal Asscher’s beautiful modern twist on traditional diamond design is also helping to rebuild Africa, which gives each piece an underlying beauty as well. Royal Asscher refuses to work with conflict diamonds that originate from war torn countries and are unethically sourced and sold to fund warfare and civil destruction. Royal Asscher only sources diamonds from nations that are fully compliant with the Kimberly Process, an international diamond industry initiative to stop the flow of conflict diamonds.

New! Palladium Prestige Awards at 2012 AGTA Spectrum Awards™

New! Palladium Prestige Awards 
at the 2012 AGTA Spectrum Awards™ Collection

At the discretion of the judges, up to three winners in each category or division will be awarded trophies. Honorable Mentions may also be awarded a certificate. All entries will automatically be considered for Best of Show, Best Use of Color and Best Use of Pearls. Winners will be awarded a "Best of" trophy.

Best of Show:

Todd Reed, Todd Reed, Inc.
Palladium and 22K Yellow Gold Locket featuring Blue Moonstones, Grey Diamonds (24.51 ctw.), Blue Sapphires (17.34 ctw.) and White Diamonds (5.10 ctw.) opening to reveal a 76.03 ct. Moldavite Buddha.

Men's Wear: 


Evelyn Huang, evelynH. Jewelry, Inc. 
Palladium "Zultan" ring featuring a 12.54 ct. color-change diaspore accented with radiant-cut diamonds (.43 ctw.).

Business/Day Wear:

Dawn Muscio, D. Muscio Designs

Palladium and 14K rose gold "Isis" ring featuring a 19.98 ct. buff-top chrysocolla accented with Peridots (.36 ctw.) and Diamonds (.11 ctw.).

2nd Place Business/Day Wear:


Michelle Mercaldo, 
Michelle Mercaldo Contemporary Jewelry
Ring made in palladium featuring a 2.64 ct. pink sapphire accented with diamonds. (0.17 ct. t.w.).

Best Use Of Palladium & Color:

Dennis de Jonghe
Palladium pendant featuring a 16.39 ct. aquamarine accented with a 2.09 ct. moonstone, diamonds (0.26 ct. t.w.), and pearls.

Evening Wear: 

Naomi Sarna, Naomi Sarna Designs
Palladium ring featuring a 35.0 ct. carved Topaz accented with Diamonds (.63 ctw.).

1st Place - Evening Wear:

Ion Ionescu, 
Ionescu Design, Inc. 
Palladium and black rhodium "Pillow for Dreaming" ring featuring a 36 ct. carved Labradorite accented with paraiba tourmalines (1.50 ctw.).

Bridal Wear: 
Mirjam Butz-Brown, Adorn Gallery
Palladium and 14K yellow gold earrings featuring Quartz and Mother-of-Pearl accented with Diamonds (.16 ctw.) with detachable mirror-cut Amethyst drops (21.50 ctw.).

Classical: 

Dennis de Jonghe
Palladium ring featuring a 16.5mm white South Sea Pearl accented
with round Diamonds (.71 ctw.).

Global Witness leaves Kimberley Process

Global Witness leaves Kimberley Process

...calls for diamond trade to be held accountable

Global Witness today wrote to the Chair of the Kimberley Process to announce its withdrawal as an official Observer. Global Witness first exposed the problem of blood diamonds in 1998 and played a key role in establishing the Kimberley Process. The KP is a government-led rough diamond certification scheme launched in 2003, which requires member states to pass national legislation and set up an import/export control system for diamonds. Over 75 of the world's diamond producing, trading and manufacturing countries participate in the scheme. Global Witness has been an official Observer in the Kimberley Process since 2003 and a member of the KP Civil Society Coalition. Global Witness will continue to work with NGOs in the Civil Society Coalition to reform the diamond sector.

Global Witness today announced that it has left the Kimberley Process, the international certification scheme established to stop the trade in blood diamonds.

The Kimberley Process’s refusal to evolve and address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny has rendered it increasingly outdated, said the group. Despite intensive efforts over many years by a coalition of NGOs, the scheme’s main flaws and loopholes have   not been fixed and most of the governments that run the scheme continue to show no interest in reform.

“Nearly nine years after the Kimberley Process was launched, the sad truth is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, nor whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes” said Charmian Gooch, a Founding Director of Global Witness. “The scheme has failed three tests: it failed to deal with the trade in conflict diamonds from Côte d’Ivoire, was unwilling to take serious action in the face of blatant breaches of the rules over a number of years by Venezuela and has proved unwilling to stop diamonds fuelling corruption and violence in Zimbabwe. It has become an accomplice to diamond laundering – whereby dirty diamonds are mixed in with clean gems.”

In a shocking move, the Kimberley Process recently authorised exports from two companies operating in the controversial Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean army seized control of the area in 2008, killing around 200 miners. Mining concessions were then granted in legally questionable circumstances to several companies, some of them associated with senior figures in Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party. Newspapers have reported that the Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organisation, the state security service aligned with Mugabe whose members are accused of committing acts of violence against opposition supporters, directly benefits from off-budget diamond revenues.

“Over the last decade, elections in Zimbabwe have been associated with the brutal intimidation of voters. Orchestrating this kind of violence costs a lot of money. As the country approaches another election there is a very high risk of Zanu PF hardliners employing these tactics once more and using Marange diamonds to foot the bill. The Kimberley Process’s refusal to confront this reality is an outrage,” Gooch continued. 

“Consumers should not buy Marange diamonds, and industry should not supply them,” said Gooch. “All existing contracts in the Marange fields should be cancelled and retendered with terms of reference which reflect international best practice on revenue sharing, transparency, oversight by and protection of the affected communities.”

The diamond industry should be required to demonstrate that the diamonds it sells are not fuelling abuses – by complying with international standards on minerals supply chain controls, including independent third party audits and regular public disclosure. Governments must show leadership by putting these standards into law.

“Consumers have a right to know what they’re buying, and what was done to obtain it,” added Gooch. “The diamond industry must finally take responsibility for its supply chains and prove that the stones it sells are clean.”

Source:   Global Witness Press Release

For an informed decision, here are some information resources regarding the Kimberley Process:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Process_Certification_Scheme

KP Website - http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/

Global Witness - http://www.globalwitness.org/

Rob Bates - Industry Blog on JCK - http://www.jckonline.com/blogs/cutting-remarks

Global Witness- Why We Are Leaving The KP

Why we are leaving the Kimberley Process

...a message from 

Global Witness Founding Director Charmian Gooch

The diamond trader looked me in the eye and said "If I don't buy them somebody else will". He was talking about blood diamonds from Angola, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. It was 1997 and I was sitting in a cramped and anonymous office in Antwerp.  I had just returned from investigations in Angola that revealed the awful truth that diamonds were funding and fuelling conflict and the world didn't appear to realise there was a problem. Millions of people were caught up in the horror of this protracted war, with many hundreds of thousands dead, maimed, or homeless.

Following more research and investigations in Europe, Africa and America, Global Witness launched a campaign to alert the world to what was happening in late 1998. We questioned the accepted view that this was just how the diamond trade worked, and challenged governments, the United Nations and the industry to face up to responsibilities and do something about it.

There was a swift response and recognition of the problem from all involved and mass media coverage internationally. An increasing number of other campaigning groups took up the issue and the Kimberley Process (KP) - a global scheme designed to break the links between diamonds and conflict - was negotiated and then launched at the start of 2003.

The diamond-fuelled wars came to an end for a range of reasons, and countries put in place systems and structures to control the trade in rough diamonds. So that should have been deemed a success, right? Sadly not. Global Witness and a coalition of NGOs - the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition - have pushed continuously to make the KP work. However, the shameful truth is the governments just won't hold each to account.

For its part, the diamond industry avoided regulation at the time the Kimberley Process was set up by undertaking to deliver a meaningful supply chain control scheme. But nine years on, the industry's 'system of warranties' lacks independent verification. The fact is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, or whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes.

The world has moved on but the Kimberley Process remains stuck in time. Ever more insular, the KP has spent the past few years lurching from one shoddy compromise to the next in a manner that strips away its integrity and undermines its earlier achievements.  The KP has failed to deal with the trade in conflict diamonds from Côte d'Ivoire, breaches of the rules by Venezuela and diamonds fuelling corruption and state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.

Most recently, the decision to endorse unlimited diamond exports from named companies in the Marange region of Zimbabwe - the scene of mass killings by the national army - has turned an international conflict prevention mechanism into a cynical corporate accreditation scheme.

We now have to recognise that this scheme, begun with so many good intentions, has done much that is useful but ultimately has failed to deliver. It has proved beyond doubt that voluntary schemes are not going to cut it in a multi-polar world where companies and countries compete for mineral resources.

The Kimberley Process's refusal to evolve and address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny has rendered it increasingly outdated. It is time for the diamond sector to start complying with international standards on minerals supply chain controls, including independent third party audits and regular public disclosure. Governments must show leadership by putting these standards into law.

Source:  Global Witness Press Release

For an informed decision, here are some information resources regarding the Kimberly Process:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Process_Certification_Scheme

KP Website - http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/

Global Witness - http://www.globalwitness.org/

Rob Bates - Industry Blog on JCK - http://www.jckonline.com/blogs/cutting-remarks

WDC's Thoughts On Global Witness' Decision To Leave KP

The World Diamond Council expresses its regret at the announcement by Global Witness that it is leaving the Kimberley Process, and calls upon the organization's leadership to reconsider its position.

The World Diamond Council has always felt that progress in the campaign to end the trade in conflict diamonds will come through dialogue and engagement, and in this respect feels that the decision by Global Witness to walk away from the table will be counterproductive.

Global Witness' withdrawal from the Kimberley Process is regrettable, particularly given the important progress that has been made in addressing the concerns they raise.  

• In spite of the organization's absence at November's Kimberley Process Plenary Meeting in Kinshasa, an agreement was reached by all governments, including Canada, the European Union, the United States and Australia, to continue to hold the Zimbabwegovernment to account and to allow only exports from those operations in Marange that have demonstrated compliance.  

• With regard to the Ivory Coast, which has been suspended from the KP for several years, the Kimberley Process, with the active participation of the diamond industry, has been working closely and effectively with UN agencies to identify diamonds from that country and establish remote monitoring of its diamond mining activity. And even now, with peace being restored to the Ivory Coast, the KP continues to work with these parties to ensure that procedures are in place and compliance is achieved, before it is allowed back into the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

• Venezuela, which also is suspended from the Kimberley Process, has been given untilDecember 20 to provide the documents and data required, or it will  be "removed from the list of KP participants."

While the rate of progress is sometimes slower than desired, the Kimberley Process has proven over the years that it is effective and does have teeth. Legal exports from the Marange region of Zimbabwe were effectively held up for two years, before it was decided that the situation at certain mines has improved to the point that monitored exports could proceed. Indeed, while boycotts against Zimbabwe have almost all proven ineffective, the KP was the only organization able to report actual progress in getting the government to change its approach. 

"The overriding goal of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme has been to protect the integrity of the diamond, so that it properly contributes to bettering the lives of ordinary people living in the areas in which it is mined and processed. The system is not perfect, and is in need of constant review. However, you cannot contribute to the process if you are no longer engaged," said Eli Izhakoff, WDC President.

Source:  WDC Press Release

For an informed decision, here are some information resources regarding the Kimberly Process:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Process_Certification_Scheme

KP Website - http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/

Global Witness - http://www.globalwitness.org/

Rob Bates - Industry Blog on JCK - http://www.jckonline.com/blogs/cutting-remarks

Deadline for the MJSA 21st Annual Vision Awards

Deadline for the 21st Annual MJSA Vision Awards Competition 

coming up on December 15, 2011!

Every year, the association celebrates outstanding talent in the field of jewelry design with our MJSA Vision Awards competition. The winning designers and students represent the future of the jewelry manufacturing industry--and the Vision Awards competition showcases their creativity and boosts their careers.

Julie Buckareff, 2nd Pl. Professional 2011

MJSA ensures the Vision Award winners receive the recognition they deserve by promoting their triumph through the industry's leading publications, which in 2012 will include Instore, Metalsmith, and the association's own MJSA Journal. In addition, their winning entries will be on display for thousands of buyers and exhibitors during the annual MJSA ExpoNew York, the largest and oldest trade show in the U.S. dedicated to the design and manufacture of jewelry, which will be heldMarch 11-13, 2012. Other prizes include gift certificates of up to $500 (courtesy of Rio Grande), cash awards, book libraries, and, for student winners, scholarships up to $1,000.

2012 AWARD CATEGORIES
Design ExcellenceHonors designs that exhibit exceptional creativity, craftsmanship, and marketability.

Visionary Technical SolutionHonors designs in which specific technical challenges--such as combining two non-complementary metals--were overcome to take the piece from concept to completion.

Laser Distinction
Sponsored by LaserStar Technologies Corp.

Recognizes entries in which the design relied upon the use of a laser.
 

Gold Distinction
Sponsored by Hoover & Strong

Recognizes entries that include a minimum of 75% of a karat gold alloy in the design.

Palladium Distinction
Sponsored by Palladium Alliance International

Recognizes entries that include a minimum of 75% of the design metal(s) in 950 palladium.

Platinum Distinction
Sponsored by Platinum Guild International

Recognizes entries that include a minimum of 75% of the design metal(s) in either 90% or 95% platinum. 

Custom Design Distinction

Sponsored by TechForm Advanced Casting

Honors designs that met a client's request for a custom designed piece and the challenges encountered during the design process and how they were overcome.

Future of the Industry Award

Sponsored by MJSA Education Foundation 

Recognizes the work of students in jewelry-related programs who exhibit exceptional design talent and creativity.

Click here to learn more about this year's competition and find out how to enter NOW! Or visit the Career Center at mjsa.org.

Thank you to our 2012 sponsors:

 

General Sponsor:

 

Laser Distinction:

 

Gold Distinction:

 

Palladium Distinction:

 

Platinum Distinction:

 

Custom Design Distinction:

 

Future of the Industry:

 

Media Sponsors: