Archive for June, 2007
India’s jewelry exports climb 32%
Economic Times, India
MUMBAI: Exports of jewelry from India, the world’s largest producer, climbed 32 per cent in the two months ended May as overseas sales of diamonds rose.
Exports reached $3.18 billion, compared with $2.4 billion a year earlier, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.
Diamond exports climbed 7.6 per cent to $1.74 billion, while jewelry sales gained 10 per cent to $674 million. Exports from special economic zones surged sevenfold to $704 million. Sales of gemstones rose 3.4 per cent to $39.5 million, while shipments of rough diamonds gained 3 percent to $82.2 million.
India’s exports of gems and jewelry rose 2.7 per cent to $17.1 billion in the year ended March 31 from $16.6 billion a year earlier, according to council’s Web site.
June 29th, 2007
One request now keeps jewelry on artist’s mind
Chicago Suburban News, IL
Hinsdale, IL -
Hinsdale resident Colleen Smith now spends about 40 hours a week working on something that started as a request from her sister: making jewelry.
“My sister came to me and said she was going to a wedding, and she wanted me to put something together for her,†Smith said.
She created a chunky necklace of semiprecious stones.
“She got a lot of compliments on it,†Smith said, and her jewelry-making grew from there. The necklaces, bracelets and earrings are part of a collection called Colleen’s Creation.
Smith recently brought her necklaces, bracelets and earrings to the Hinsdale Art Fair. It was her first year at the show.
“I didn’t expect it to go so well and have so many great responses to my jewelry,†Smith said.
Most of Smith’s jewelry is “pretty organic looking,†she said. She uses semiprecious stone, wood, sterling silver and gold to create her pieces.
“All my things are wearable,†Smith said. “I didn’t want to create something that was too much of a piece, so people would be afraid to wear it,†she said.
Color and texture are the main inspirations for Smith’s jewelry, as well as how two different stones will look together and as a piece, she said.
She keeps some tools and materials in a bag in her car so she can work on her jewelry wherever she is, describing herself as “kind of nomadic.â€
“Just because I love doing it, I’m always thinking about it,†Smith said. “It’s about putting that piece together. There’s something about it that makes you feel so good.â€
Her brother’s death in April gave Smith a new reason to create jewelry. Todd Smith died from Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. She hopes to hold a fundraiser for Ewing’s Sarcoma research, as well as donate a portion of her jewelry proceeds to the cause.
“It means a lot for me to do something as a benefit with my jewelry for Todd,†Smith said. “It’s devastating, and there’s no cure,†Smith said.
Smith’s jewelry is sold at Urban Sole shoe stores, in Hinsdale and La Grange, as well as home shows. Her work can be viewed online at www.creativestonejewelry.com.
June 28th, 2007
Miko Marks Sparkles in Jewelry Campaign
Top40-Charts.com, NY
Nashville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ Mirrome Records) - The stunning Miko Marks is not only an award-winning Country singer. She now lists modeling among her many credits.
The Mirrome Records recording artist recently posed for an advertising campaign for Varna, the same jewelry firm that provided spectacular diamond accessories for Miko’s appearance at the New Music Awards in Los Angeles. Miko was named “Best New Country Artist” at that red carpet event in November 2006
The ad is currently running in the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of Brides Noir Magazine. Miko’s photos were taken by Artush Ohanjanian at Siluet Studios in Glendale, CA.
Introduced in 1989, VARNA was established by revered platinum-smith and jewelry designer, Garo Chividjian. Varna’s exquisite collection consists of entirely handcrafted, one of a kind masterpieces brought together by the finest craftsmen. Varna’s collection can be found in fine jewelry stores across the country. For more information, visit www.varna.com
Miko’s sophomore album, It Feels Good, was recently released at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville. The annual event celebrates Country Music and its’ fans. Marks was tapped for an acoustic performance which was attended by a standing-room-only audience.
Her previous project, Freeway Bound, was named “Country Album of the Year” in the Independent Music Awards. Both albums were produced in Nashville by Grammy Award winner, Ron Cornelius.
June 27th, 2007
Jewelry Diva Blog Rant
Jewelry Weblog, CA
Time out for a jewelry diva rant folks! And, I’m really talking to those wonderful designers, manufacturers, and other folks in the jewelry business world. Listen up!
The time of the blog is here. In fact, we are well entrenched in the electronic apparatus and are quickly over-taking the old hardcopy media that you are so familiar with
I’m not saying hard copy magazines are out, but what I am saying is that you need to tune your brains into those of us on the cutting edge of new media - those of us in the blogosphere who are here trying to get the word out about your jewelry.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’m surfing around, discover a great site with fabo jewelry that I know my readers (and I got a lot of ‘em!) would love to read about and, yes, SEE, as in view. Yet, I’m stopped by some kind of ridiculous copyright statement: “The images on this site are not to be copied without permission. Yada, yada, yada.”
Okay, so yes, protect yourself. But, also give us blog press folks something in return or you will continued to be ignored. The digital world is a mixture and text and images. We are like a big beautiful interactive scrapbook for readers to pick and choose what they want to read and look at.
When you have a web site but have no information available for blog media folks like moi, that means you want to be ignored. Am I right? That you want us all to just click on by. See ya! (Somehow I don’t think this is the case.)
So, get a clue. It’s the age of the blog, baby, and that means either have a media area with downloadable images and maybe a press release even, or get over yourselves and get rid of that has-been hardcopy-mindset copyright BS on your sites.
Okay, rant over…back to blogging about brilliant jewelry folks who want to been seen.
June 26th, 2007
Dubai Economic Department calls on the jewellery sector to adopt service industry standsards
AME Info (press release), United Arab Emirates
In an award ceremony initiated by the Department of Economic Development, the UAE’s premier retail jeweler, Pure Gold, won the coveted ‘Best Service Performance Outlet’ in the jewellery category.
Dubai is becoming the regional epicenter for jewellery purchasing for Middle Eastern, African, Asian and European customers and in an attempt to encourage the commodity sector to adopt service industry standards, Dubai Economic Department audited commodities firms on their customer handling, sales care and post sales warranty schemes. This year’s Dubai Service Excellence Scheme (DSES) has chosen Pure Gold Jewellers in Gold Souk to win the coveted ‘High Service Performing Outlet’ award
Kenneth Smith Johnes, retail analysist at McFadden Global Consultancy underlined that the new Scheme introduced by the government will boost Dubai’s competitiveness against Turkey and India which both hold a strong share in the consumer oriented commodities sector.
Johnes said ‘After seeing the Sari trade move from Mumbai to Dubai we now see the new trend being buying jewelry in Dubai. In the last few years we have seen great competition in the retail segment in the commodities market in the region. However competition is often focused on price and design yet the consumer now wants more, - the consumer now expects royal treatment regardless of the money spent on any jewelry outlet as price and design choices are wider than ever before.’
The award ceremony event announced that the Pure Gold Jewellers stores were the only retail outlets which combined all the aspects for superior customer experience. The award recognized Pure Gold Jewellers for its excellence in areas such as customer acknowledgement by staff, availability of products, and staff knowledge about products and the attitude of the cashier.
Mr. Khalid Ibrahim Al Kassim, Deputy Director General for Planning and Development said ‘The retail business in Dubai is a driving factor for its economy and the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme has been designed to recognize those companies that realize customer service and satisfaction is an integral part of what makes Dubai the worldwide landmark that it is. This year, the Pure Gold Jewellers store in the Gold Souk has demonstrated notable service excellence and DSES is pleased to commend them for the achievement.’
The Dubai Service Excellence Scheme is an initiative of the Government of Dubai, Department of Economic Development aimed at promoting excellence in customer service and recognizing businesses that provide excellent service for their customers.
Firoz Merchant, Chairman of Pure Gold Jewellers said: ‘Our commitment is to offer everyone an equal service experience across all of our retail outlets. This accolade not only reinforces our commitment but also acknowledges the government’s effort to recognize businesses that continuously strive to achieve excellence in customer service.’
‘At Pure Gold we have faith in our recruitment processes and training programs. Jewellery business is not anymore a design or price business or investment, but experience. Understanding this process allowed us to become one of the largest jewelry retailers in the country.’
From humble beginnings as bullion traders in 1989, Pure Gold has become a major player in the region’s local and international jewellery retailing. Pure Gold is now one of the fastest growing jewellery houses in the UAE and is also catering to customers in neighboring GCC countries in Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain.
June 25th, 2007
A Mix of Art and Jewelry on Display at Jeddah Boutique
Arab News, Saudi Arabia
JEDDAH, 22 June 2007 — Motion Boutique opened its first exhibition combining works of art with artistic jewelry on the first floor of Roshana Mall here on Wednesday night.
Exhibits at the three-day show include Nancy Saleh’s “Lustre Jewelry,†a striking collection of handmade designs presented by Stylus on behalf of the Arab-American designer.
Jewelry items on display are in traditional Arabic style and range from fresh pearls to semi-precious stones and have a modern appeal. They include necklaces and ornaments for the ear and hands.
“Nancy is from California where she developed artistic jewelry as a hobby and held an exhibition before, and is staging her first show in this part of the world,†Riyadh-based Miznah Alomair of Stylus, told Arab News.
Alongside the jewelry items are a set of 22 paintings, water colors and sketches by Basma Mattar Alharthy, who recently graduated in clinical pharmacology from King Abdul Aziz University.
The painting of a face greets visitors at the show with its caption “To wonder or to be wonderful.†The colorful face is bejeweled with earrings hanging from two sides.
“I am influenced by whatever surrounds me and that reflects in my artwork,†says Basma, who has pursued painting and sketching as a hobby from childhood. “Importantly, I am inspired by travel and my surroundings, and translate them through the medium of water colors. I want this to remain a hobby and have no plans to turn a professional,†she said.
She has displayed a wide range of her artwork, which includes self-portraits and reflections of different moods. Others are captioned “Facial Confession,†“Solitude,†“Evian,†“Familiar Blindness,†“Blinded by Familiarity,†“Motherhood Solution†and “Velvet Revolution.â€
“I find water color painting relaxing and interesting. I paint as often as I can, which means I produce quite a lot of paintings of various quality,†Basma said.
Dalal Fakeih, daughter of Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakeih who owns the boutique, said she was hosting the twin show with a view to encouraging Saudi artists. The boutique in normal times becomes a showroom for lifestyle items and accessories, especially for young women. They include dresses, mugs, quotable cards and gift items.
Dalal, who studied visual communication as major which included photography and illustrations, is assisted by her sisters Bayan who studies business management at the University of Westminster and is training in a retail showroom in London, and Amal who is pursuing studies to become a chef.
The boutique, decorated by interior designer Sara Batterjee, had its formal opening on April 11.
Dalal says she proposes to venture into retail businesses that include a range of kids’ stores and a department store.
The show will be open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. today.
June 22nd, 2007
Most Popular Mother’s Day Jewelry Gift?
Diamond Vues, NY
Of those who purchased jewelry as a Mother’s Day gift this year, one-third selected yellow-gold items, according to the Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council (JCOC).
The JCOC found yellow gold the most popular metal choice for jewelry, followed by sterling silver (selected by 25 percent) and white gold (selected by 21 percent).
Just under half of survey respondents (45 percent) purchased a Mother’s Day gift this year, and 13 percent of those respondents bought fine jewelry or a watch. Among those who bought fine jewelry, 24 percent bought earrings or necklaces, 15 percent selected fashion rings, 15 percent chose pendants and 13 percent opted for bracelets.
By material, 26 percent bought diamond jewelry, 18 percent selected gemstone jewelry and 18 percent chose precious-metal jewelry without gemstones.
Of those who did not give fine jewelry or watches as a Mother’s Day gift this year, 40 percent cited budgetary reasons, and 26 percent said their mother did not want jewelry or watches.
June 21st, 2007
EK Designs - Jewelry for Us All
Jewelry Weblog, CA
What struck me about EK Designs jewelry is that it is very wearable. Many pieces I could see wearing to just about any where, from the office to the grocery store, but they still make a fashion statement. As I read the bio on this jewelry designer, I couldn’t help but feel it might be inspiring to other want-to-be famous and successful jewelry designers out there:
What started out in 1992 as a fun hobby that fulfilled an artistic need, ek designs has morphed into a premier jewelry design firm. With little more than a good word of mouth chain, ek designs has grown into a company with revenues that continually double each year.
Our lines of jewelry can be seen in over 45 retail locations throughout the United States and we make frequent appearances at local trunk shows, home parties and community events. Every woman will find the ideal jewelry accessories in the assortment developed by owner and designer, Elizabeth Kissick. The entire collection is created with the finest of precious metals, Austrian crystals, exclusive hand blown beads, and our custom designed silver bead frames, befitting these distinguished designs. In its ten years of existence, the business consistently has held excellence in materials, workmanship and service in the highest regard.
She has put a lot of thought into the designs, like this Great Expectations Birthflower Bracelet, which you can customize:
Delicately glass blown beads with the flower of the birth month of your child or children create a unique and distinctive bracelet. Each flower was created as a watercolor drawing and then interperted in glass. The symplicity of the sterling silver beads make the birthstone bead or beads stand alone. The bracelet is finished with our exclusive “ek daisy toggle”.
June 20th, 2007
A Few Bits Of Jewelry
OhGizmo!, Canada
By Evan Ackerman
Yeah, the Hope Diamond is pretty bling and all that, but it’s so, like, analog. We’re living in a digital world now baby, and that means low-res knockoffs of valuable commodities. As far as I know, designers Mike and Maaike are the first to take this beyond music, movies, and microcode (software). They’ve quite deliberately stolen images of famous pieces of jewelry via Google Image search, doctored them to a drastically lower resolution, and then printed them onto leather.
Hmm, having seen one or two of the pieces that they’ve reproduced in person, I’m not too sure I agree with that, but it’s a damn sight cheaper then getting your own 45 carat deep blue diamond, and you’re less likely to die.
The pieces are currently on show at the Velvet da Vinci gallery in San Francisco.
June 19th, 2007
Tiny jewelry shop is global player
Expert Jewelry Repair & Design finds customers in far-flung places
Oshkosh Northwestern, WI
By Maureen Wallenfang
Post-Crescent staff writer
Michael Rivero lives in Oahu, Hawaii, with a view of Pearl Harbor, and does visual effects for commercials, movies and TV shows, including “Lost.”
When he wanted to make a custom lapel pin for his production company, he searched the Internet and found Expert Jewelry Repair & Design, a store that could do the job.
It was in Appleton, Wisconsin.
The microscopically small jewelry store at 636 W. College Ave. is one many Appleton residents probably pass by without a second thought as they cross the train tracks at Richmond Street.
But the shop has gotten a fair amount of national and international attention and orders.
It’s all due to its unusual jewelercam, a live camera that shows two master bench jewelers making and repairing jewelry, and the Internet savvy of its owner who knows how to keep the site on the top of the browsers.
“The Internet levels the playing field,” said owner Randy Kester. “I read all the Google tips and tricks. I experimented.”
The result is that the tiny place shines on the Internet. A Google search for “jewelry repair” brings up the jewelercam.com site third in a listing of more than 9 million pages.
That’s how Rivero found him in faraway Oahu.
“I just know him by his Web presence,” said Rivero, who ordered silver and gold versions of his Home Baked Entertainment pie logo pin and a gold pendant version for his wife.
“Randy came across with this wonderful can-do attitude. That won us over.”
The shop
Expert Jewelry Repair & Design isn’t a typical jewelry store. It’s more funky than showy with its recycled Balinese teak wood showcases and a window that peeks into the jewelers’ tiny, crowded workroom.
Its jewelry is far from a carbon copy of mall store baubles. Instead, it’s world-savvy, multicultural and one-of-a-kind pieces gathered for the store by a global traveler.
The shop itself is no more than 900 square feet, about 20 feet away from the railroad tracks. When trains rumble past, jewelers put down their torches and tools until the vibrations have stopped.
With two master bench jewelers on staff — Elizabeth Stephenson and Bridget Pahnke — the store can manufacture jewelry according to the customer’s specifications. It has done work in 14- and 24-karat gold and sterling silver. It also does repairs on gold and silver heirloom pieces as well as costume jewelry.
Jewelercam
When Kester took over the operation three years ago from retiring Gary Stein, he decided to put in the jewelercam and Web site for the novelty value. Kester was a tech geek who loved fiddling.
“It stems from my interest in computers. I did Web conferencing with a girlfriend and I thought doing the jewelercam would be unique,” he said.
With a simple $7-a-month Web site and a $100 camera the size of a pack of cigarettes, he set up a site that showed jewelry making in action. A still image recycles every five seconds. He thought about using streaming video, but decided against it because dial-up users couldn’t access it easily.
Besides those who like the novelty, the site has proven practical. A far-away customer can see his own piece in the works. “I thought it would be a gimmick, but it’s been a useful tool,” he said. “Liz can hold a piece up and say, ‘Did you want the stone here?’ The customer can see it and say, ‘No, that’s not right,’ or, ‘Yes, that’s what I had in mind.’”
A school in California even recommended students watch the jewelercam to see what bench work looks like.
Most queries have been national and a few have been from foreign countries.
“I put up some coffee bean earrings on my Web page and forgot about it. Some guy from Germany saw it and he was meeting with a CEO of a coffee company. He paid more for the shipping than the earrings,” Kester said. “I had an order of 20 coat-of-arms Dracula rings for someone who had a connection to the Christopher Lee fan club in England.”
A church in Redlands, Calif., saw the site and asked Kester to cast sterling silver and gold pins. It was a $1,500 order. Caltech, also in California, had the shop make 4,000 pins for donors to a fundraising campaign.
It was all through the Web.
Local business
While the jewlercam has gotten a lot of attention, Kester said that actually just 6 percent of his volume comes from the site. About 44 percent is from the trade, meaning repair work sent over from other jewelry stores. A full 50 percent is work for individuals, mostly local.
Charlene Landskron, for example, is a local gemologist working as a business analyst for Jewelers Mutual in Neenah. She’s brought in her own custom work and recommended the shop to others because of the quality.
“They don’t have to send it out. They can custom make something and you can check on it with them as they’re making it,” she said. “A lot of retail operations can’t get special things in for you.” She has not gone through the store’s Web site.
A Chilton resident, Daniel Weiland, however, was one local customer who wouldn’t have found the store without the Internet.
“I was looking for a custom jewelry designer in Appleton a month and a half ago. He was on the top of the list,” Weiland said.
He and his fiancee wanted to create a custom wedding band with dolphins. They picked it up last Saturday.
“It’s just beautiful,” Weiland said.
Downside
While the Internet has brought in some business for the shop, it has also attracted many lookie-loos who ask for estimates but never follow through. Plus, the “Ask the Jeweler” feature has been less useful than expected.
“Nine out of 10 are boneheaded questions, but you answer them anyway,” said Kester. “The typical questions are, ‘I bought this crappy ring off eBay. What can you do to make it look better?’”
The site brings the store lots of oddball things, including belt buckles, but Kester and his staff take it all in stride.
“Some of them are a test,” said master bench jeweler Elizabeth Stephenson. “They see what you can do. Then they’ll bring in their expensive jewelry because they trust you.”
Maureen Wallenfang can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 287, or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com.
June 18th, 2007
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