#MJSA Vision Awards - Announcing the 2016 Winners #AwardWinners

Vision Award Categories(For the entire list of winners, second place and more see the MJSA website)


The competition provides designers with several opportunities for deserved recognition. The winning entries will be acknowledged and on display at MJSA Expo.

Professional Design Excellence 
Open to all independent or company-employed designers, the Professional Design Excellence Category celebrates work that exemplifies the best of contemporary jewelry design. The winners show a thorough grounding in the tradition of fine design, along with an eagerness for experimentation and innovation by meeting the highest standards of craftsmanship and creativity.


Professional Design Excellence (4 years in business): Honors designs that exhibit exceptional creativity, craftsmanship, and marketability by jewelers in business for 4 or more years.

Klaus Kutter, A Jour Jewelry Inc., Bristol, Rhode Island
First Place Winner

Professional Design Excellence (1-3 years in business): 

Honors designs that exhibit exceptional creativity, craftsmanship, and marketability by jewelers in business for 1-3 years.

Baiyang Qiu, BQ Jewelry, Milpitas, California

First Place Winner

Laser Distinction: 

Honors entries in which the design relied upon the use of a laser and any technical challenges that were overcome to take the piece from concept to completion.

Baiyang Qiu, BQ Jewelry, Milpitas, California

 

CAD/CAM Distinction: 

Honors designs that were created with the use of CAD/CAM technologies and the challenges that were overcome to take the piece from concept to completion.

Gregoré Morin, Gregoré Joailliers, Santa Barbara, California

Custom Design Distinction: 

Honors designs that met a client’s request and the challenges encountered during the design process and how they were overcome.

Cynthia Renée, Cynthia Renée Inc., Chapel Hill, North Carolina

(NEW for 2016) Responsible Practices Distinction: 

Honors designs that use responsibly sourced materials, including recycled metals and fair-trade gems, and were created using environmentally sensitive manufacturing processes.

Sandy Leong, Sandy Leong Fine Jewelry, New York City

Future of the Industry Award: 

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

Seung Jeon Paik, Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Georgia

Future of the Industry - First Place Winner

NEW Gallery Exhibit - Summer at Reinstein|Ross!

From a Press Release

Above: Fleur Bleue Necklace, Julie Decubber.

Compared to a Summer's Day - conjures up a natural world of inherent beauty. On view today through August 28th, this international group exhibition showcases the work of six jewelry artists who look to the natural world for inspiration. The title of the exhibition is a playful twist on Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, an ode to his beloved:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date......

One-of-a-kind pieces, including delicate floral enamel earrings, porcelain brooches with cicadas and butterflies, hand-pierced steel necklaces with painted botanical images, golden butterflies...... all come together to form this summer fantasy.

Above: Red Dragonfly and Red Underwing Moth Pendant from the Hexapoda Collection, Mielle Harvey.

Compared to a Summer's Day features the work of Nicolette Absil, Julie Decubber, Mielle Harvey, Judith Hoetker, Sarah Hood, and Helen Shirk - and includes select work from Reinstein|Ross, Goldsmiths and Gaetano Pesce.

The Gallery is open everyday, and the exhibition will run from June 23rd through August 28th.

Unable to make it to the gallery? Contact them for a "Skype tour" of the exhibition with their gallery director.

The Gallery at Reinstein|Ross - 30 Gansevoort Street - New York, NY 10014

  Gallery@ReinsteinRoss.com -  212.226.4513

Website    http://www.reinsteinross.com/gallery

#JWLV DEF'S DIAMONDS DO GOOD AWARDS GALA SHINES LIGHT ON GIVING BACK #DiamondsDoGood

From a Press Release:

DIAMOND EMPOWERMENT FUND’S DIAMONDS DO GOOD 

AWARDS GALA SHINES LIGHT ON GIVING BACK 

Nate Light, Dorothée Gizenga and Chow Tai Fook Receive Honors

Three global industry leaders were honored for their outstanding leadership and service at the Diamond Empowerment Fund’s Diamonds Do Good Awards Gala, just one of several evening events held during Jewelry Week in Las Vegas.  

How can you support DEF's Diamonds Do Good Initiative?  The new Diamonds Do Good Bracelet
designed by Jewelry Designer, Mark Patterson, will be available at retail this Fall.

Nate Light, former CEO of Sterling Jewelers, Dorothée Gizenga, executive director of the Diamond Development Initiative, and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group were recognized for their actions, which have left a positive impact on communities from the United States to China to Africa. 

An inspirational beat of African drummers kicked off the program that highlighted the Diamond Empowerment Fund’s mission of education empowerment for youth from diamond communities around the world and demonstrating how Diamonds Do Good. 

Honoree and Award Recipient, Nate E. Light, Former CEO of Sterling,
at the Diamonds Do Good Gala, Four Seasons Hotel, Las Vegas, Thursday, June 2, 2016

Nate Light, who received the Diamonds Do Good Lifetime Achievement Award for his influence in  spearheading the “Party With a Purpose” and inspiring what is now called Jewelers For Children said “This honor is truly a wonderful and symbolic highlight of my career. I want kids as they grow up not to have to suffer. We need to keep raising money to create a better life and a better world for them. I challenge you to use this as a call to action to do even more for kids and for your community”. 

Honoree and Award Recipient, Chow Tai Fook CEO, was represented by Kent Wong
at Diamonds Do Good Gala, Four Seasons Hotel, Las Vegas, Thursday, June 2, 2016

Accepting Chow Tai Fook’s Diamonds Do Good Community Development Award was Managing Director, Kent Wong. “For 87 years we have been upholding our belief ‘From the Society, For the Society’ and have been devoted to supporting charitable activities and social services for the betterment of future generations”. 

Dorothée Gizenga, who received the Diamonds Do Good Award for Sustainable Practices for her work with the Diamond Development Initiative, gave an impassioned speech on the need to keep encouraging these practices throughout the mining industry. “The very livelihood of millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world, survive because of diamonds. We must maintain consumer confidence in the industry to keep the industry thriving. And to do so means the practices we all embrace must be sustainable and embody integrity”.

Honoree and Award Recipient, Dorothee Gizenga at the Diamonds Do Good Gala,
Four Seasons Hotel, Las Vegas, Thursday, June 2, 2016

Six Diamond Empowerment Fund Student Scholars were on hand to give the awards to the recipients. Androulla Markus, graduate of the African Leadership Academy and recent graduate of Columbia University said “Diamonds have played a pivotal role in who I am today and who and where I will be in the future. My plan is to complete medical school, earn a degree in Public Health and return to Botswana and effect change both at the individual and public level.”

Group Shot of students who have benefitted from the Diamond Empowerment Fund's
Diamonds Do Good initiative Four Seasons Hotel, Las Vegas, Thursday, June 2, 2016

Board President and CEO of Mercury Ring, Phyllis Bergman summed up the evening “as colleagues in the industry we are all driven by a shared desire to do well and to do good. Tonight we raised over one million dollars that will go towards scholarships for deserving young people around the world. We need to share our good stories with others outside the diamond industry and raise even more money so that thousands more deserving young people will benefit from the Diamond Empowerment Fund’s global mission.

Premier Presenting Sponsors of the Diamonds Do Gala included Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, Inc., De Beers Group of Companies, Signet Jewelers Limited (Kay Jewelers, Jared the Galleria of Jewelry, Zales Jewelers) Patron Sponsors were JCK and Rosy Blue Group, and Partner Sponsors included ALROSA, Exelco and Le Vian Group. 

 About the Diamond Empowerment Fund:

The Diamond Empowerment Fund is a global non-profit based in New York City and co-founded by Russell Simmons and leaders in the diamond industry in 2007 to empower diamond communities around the world.  Its beneficiaries include: the African Leadership Academy, a university preparatory school in Johannesburg, South Africa, founded on the belief that ethical leadership is the key to sustainable development on the continent and drawing students from all 54 countries in Africa, the Botswana Top Achievers program that provides the top high school students countrywide the opportunity to study at a university of their choice worldwide. Graduates then return to Botswana to contribute to its economic, social and political development; Veerayatan, a model for encouraging development of responsible citizens who are educated, have strong integrity and a motivation to give back to their community. D.E.F  supports students attending its colleges of Pharmacy, Business Administration and Engineering.  D.E.F also supports the Diamond Development Initiative’s mobile school program in the Democratic Republic of Congo and high school scholars in Tanzania through the Flaviana Matata Foundation    www.diamondempowerment.org.

#FaberGallery Aaron Faber Gallery Spotlight: Jennifer Trask – Cabinet of Curiosities #GallerySpotlight #NewYork

Aaron Faber Gallery Spotlight: 

Jennifer Trask – Cabinet of Curiosities

For the summer 2016 season, Aaron Faber Gallery invites you to enter jewelry artist Jennifer Trask’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Like the wunderkammern for which her early 2000s collection references, Trask marshals together a divergent assortment of crushed gems, peacock feathers, butterfly wings, powdered pigments and curiously unidentifiable objects to create artist jewelry as fantastically atypical as the women they adorn.

18K and 22K gold and silver crystal-covered round cases are locked together and redefined as wearable cabinets to lock away Trask’s miscellany of nature’s marvels – which include dyed beetles, Salamis parhassus wings, crushed shells, sulfur, leaf skeleton, and the occasional eyeshadow. 

“Like that cabinet of curiosities, these colorful, wearable and inviting jewels provoke a range of responses upon close examination, from delight to caution to discomfort, that tell-tale frisson of our not-always-easy relationship with nature and our role in it,” says Patricia Faber, curator and co-owner of Aaron Faber Gallery.

“This is the territory that Trask explores in her jewelry collections: yes, breathtakingly beautiful…but is it ours to see, to have, to own? Judging from the many avid private collectors and public collections that have acquired Trask’s work, the answer is yes.”

Jennifer Trask’s Wunderkammern Collection 

featured at Aaron Faber Gallery 

July and August. 2016.

JENNIFER TRASK PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

• Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC
• Museum of Arts + Design, New York, NY
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
• CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
• Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
• Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX
• Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
• Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York at New Paltz, NY
• Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
• Rotasa Foundation, Tiburon, CA

#WordlessWednesday #DesignerSpotlight on YOKO London at The #Couture Show #GemShow #Couture2016

Yoko London, established in 1973, is a leading luxury pearl jeweller. The brand has evolved over 42 years with three generations of one family. Renowned for their use of unique pearls in rare natural colours and exceptional sizes, the family run team consists of the finest pearl specialists in the world. The brand’s gifted European designers and craftsmen work together in the London workshop to create pieces which are at the forefront of jewellery trends, combining a contemporary aesthetic, with timeless elegance. Each pearl is hand-picked for every individual design.

Contact Info:
info@yokolondon.com

Website:     www.yokolondon.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/yokolondonpearls
Twitter:     https://twitter.com/YokoLondon

These Pearls Are EXQUISITE!!!

 I am obsessed with the stunning range of pink and mauve...

Give them a call, you can't be without pearls in June...

and it's the gem for the 3rd & 13th Anniversaries.

WJA Announces 2016 Member Grant Awards - First Charlotte Preston 'Gets It Done' Grant - "Awards For Excellence"

From a Press Release:

WJA Announces 2016 Member Grant Awards

First Charlotte Preston 'Gets It Done' Grant awarded, 

plus 27 other awards

The Women's Jewelry Association (WJA) announced that it has awarded its first Charlotte Preston "Gets It Done" grant, a special $1,000 award co-funded by WJA and its Twin Cities chapter. It also awarded 27 other grants of $500 each to recipients around the country, for a total of $14,500 in awards. Member grants are awarded to female, professional-level, WJA members in good standing, to be used toward professional growth.

Charlotte Preston 

Charlotte Preston, who died last October at the age of 62, was an ardent supporter of WJA. She was for many years an active member and, most recently, president of the WJA Twin Cities chapter. As a consultant to the jewelry industry via her business, Charlotte Preston Catalysts, Preston also mentored many industry professionals, embodying the goals of WJA to help members advance and develop professionally through networking, education, and leadership development. "Gets It Done" was her email address for many years and the grant honors her "can do" attitude towards her work.

The first recipient of the Charlotte Preston "Gets It Done" Grant is Amanda Bilberry, who is using her grant to take a course in jewelry appraisal skills. Bilberry earned her Graduate Gemologist (G.G.), Graduate Pearls, and Jewelry Design & Technology diplomas from the Gemological Institute of America, after earning her bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Bilberry's ultimate goal is to become a buyer for antique and fine jewelry. She is also working on completing her website, where she will offer custom jewelry and appraisal services. Bilberry is a board member of WJA's San Diego chapter, and she also served as president and secretary of the GIA Student Body Council.

Amanda Bilberry, winner of the Charlotte Preston "Gets It Done" Grant

"I feel incredibly fortunate to have won such a special grant in honor of such an extraordinary woman," says Bilberry. "I'm sad I was never able to meet her, but I am honored to have received this gift in her name."

2016 grant winners are listed by the WJA chapter that submitting their names:
Boston: Wendy Jo New
Chicago: Sue Crady, Kerry Gilligan, Alison Neumann, Anne van der Meulen
Colorado: Kate Swasey
Dallas: Laura Stanley
Florida: Maryann Scandiffio
Los Angeles: Tanya Parikh
NY Metro: Amy Glaswand, Gabrielle Morris, Madeleine Roslow, Karen Sampieri, Jane Schiowitz
No. California: Feurene Chew, Brenda Flanders, Sawyer Riley
Ohio/Kentucky: Kate Pleatman
Providence: Loren Barham, Lauren Paquin, Marilyn Salvatore
San Diego: Judy Colbert, Tara Hesselroth, Kathryn Timmerman-Susak
Seattle: Kelsey Kovach
Twin Cities: Jacqueline Gerhart, Diane Munsinger

Funds for WJA Member Grants, administered by the WJA Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation, are raised by the national organization, as well as by WJA chapters around the country. All applications are reviewed by the WJA Member Grant Committee, chaired by Susan Elliott, who is also director of education resources at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). All qualified applicants are then placed into a random drawing conducted by the committee.

To raise funds for next year's member grants and scholarships, WJA is hosting its annual Awards for Excellence gala, on Monday, July 25, 2016, at a new location: the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center, 311 W 34th Street, New York, NY. In 2015, the event raised $60,000 for WJA grants and scholarships. A raffle will again be mounted in 2016 to raise additional funds for these awards, which invest in the future of the jewelry industry.

Hayley Henning and DebbieYonick attend the 2015 "Awards For Excellence" Gala 

At the annual gala, WJA will also present three honorees with awards: Sissy Jones, owner of Sissy's Log Cabin will receive the WJA Lifetime Achievement Award; Peter Engel, president of Fred Meyer Jewelers, will receive the Ben Kaiser Award; and Ben Bridge will receive the Corporate Award.

WJA will also bestow Awards for Excellence in 10 categories including:
Sales and Merchandising Marketing & Communications Design
Retail - 15 Doors or More     Retail - Fewer Than 15 Doors     Retail - Non-Traditional
Editorial Media                         Special Service                                   Manufacturer/Dealer/Supplier
... and Watches.

Once again, the nominees for these awards will only discover if they won on the evening of the gala.

To purchase sponsorships or tickets for the Gala visit:
http://www.womensjewelryassociation.com/content.asp?contentid=147

For more information about WJA member grant opportunities, click here.

About the Women's Jewelry AssociationWJA's mission is to help women in the jewelry and watch industries advance and develop professionally through networking, education, leadership development, and the provision of member services. For more information, visit www.womensjewelryassociation.com

Largest New York Recruiting Event for Job Seekers in the Gem & Jewelry Industries - July 25 at the Javits Center

Industry Notables Join Panel at 

GIA’s New York Jewelry Career Fair

Gem and jewelry’s largest recruiting event will take place 

July 25 at the Javits Center

Susan Jacques, GIA’s president and CEO, will moderate the opening panel “Job Success in Today’s Market” during the 

GIA New York Jewelry Career Fair on Monday, July 25 at the Javits Center.

Prominent personalities from the gem and jewelry industry will join GIA at the Jacob Javits Center in New York for the Institute’s annual Jewelry Career Fair on July 25. The not-to-miss opening panel will feature industry veterans and rising stars, each with a unique and inspiring path to success. The leading industry event is free for job seekers and open to the public; anyone interested in attending is urged to register prior to the event.

Susan Jacques, GIA’s president and CEO, will open the event with a panel presentation on “Job Success in Today’s Market.” Rahul Kadakia, international head of jewelry for Christie’s; Steven Lagos, founder and chief creative director for LAGOS; Martin Rapaport, chairman of the Rapaport Group; Natalie Tjaden, recent GIA graduate and merchandising assistant for Jewelry Television; and Yancy Weinrich, senior vice president of Reed Jewelry Group, round out the line-up of speakers.

“We’re thrilled to have such a high caliber group of professionals serving as speakers at the GIA Jewelry Career Fair in New York,” said Kathryn Kimmel, GIA senior vice president and chief marketing officer, and co-founder of the GIA Jewelry Career Fair. “I encourage anyone with a passion for jewelry to come and hear about their incredible journeys in this dynamic industry. This event isn’t your average career fair; it’s an opportunity to meet and network with professionals at the top of their game.”

Aspiring gem and jewelry professionals – including those in retail, design, marketing, human resources and manufacturing – will be able to meet with nearly 50 job recruiters and spend one-on-one time with career-coaches during the event.

GIA hosted its first Jewelry Career Fair in 1991 in Santa Monica, Calif. Since then, the event has grown, connecting gem and jewelry companies with future employees at more than 60 events in India, Las Vegas, New York and the GIA world headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif. Following the New York event, the next GIA Carlsbad Jewelry Career Fair will take place on Friday, Oct. 7.

GIA’s New York Jewelry Career Fair will take place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, July 25 at the Javits Center during the JA New York show. Recruiting will occur from 10:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event is sponsored by JA New York. 

For more details, visit :    gia.edu/career-fair 

emailcareerfair@gia.edu. 

Follow @GIANews #JewelryJobs for updates.

About GIAAn independent nonprofit organization, GIA (Gemological Institute of America), established in 1931, is recognized as the world’s foremost authority in gemology. GIA invented the famous 4Cs of Color, Cut, Clarity and Carat Weight in the early 1950s and in 1953, created the International Diamond Grading System™ which, today, is recognized by virtually every professional jeweler in the world.

Through research, education, gemological laboratory services, and instrument development, the Institute is dedicated to ensuring the public trust in gems and jewelry by upholding the highest standards of integrity, academics, science, and professionalism. Visit www.gia.edu.