Another great opportunity to hear Richard Wise  speak!  Richard is a noted bench jeweler by trade on top of being an excellent writer and speaker.
For its 33rd Gemstone Gathering, the Gemological Institute of America GIA Thailand has invited Richard W. Wise, a graduate gemologist and president of R.W. Wise, Goldsmiths Inc., to share his experiences. [...]

One of the largest natural pearls in the world will go on display tomorrow at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The marvelous piece of nature’s gift named ‘Pearl of Sheikha Fatima’ is one of the rarest pearls found so far.

The exhibition is organized by the Abu Dhabi-based Pearl Revival Committee (PRC) under the patronage of HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, Chairperson of General Women’s Union (GWA) and Supreme Chairperson of the Family Development Foundation.

The exceptionally rare pearl will be the major attraction of the Natural Pearl Display, which is being held in from 25th January 2010. The Display, which PRC is organizing with the support of Robert Wan, “the emperor of pearl”, will also feature a number of the world’s rarest natural pearls and pearling master collections, including a showcase from K.C. Bell, one of the world’s leading experts on pearls.

A natural salt-water nacreous baroque pearl – length of 4 inches (10.2 cm), circumference of 6 inches (15.2 cm) and 856.58 carats (171.3 gram) in weight – the pearl is almost twice as large as the Hope pearl, which is displayed at the British Museum of Natural History, and almost 11 carats heavier than the Burma pearl. It has been incorporated into the design of a stunning sculptural jewel of a Centaur, a Greek mythological creature that was believed to be half man and half horse; the pearl forms the torso of the Centaur, with the remaining parts sculptured in gold.

Remember the old line from the Woody Allen movie Annie Hall? “Relationships are like sharks; they move forward or they die.” That thought applies to the jewelry industry, too, which has to move forward, as well, or face becoming, at worst, irrelevant or, at best, an afterthought.

As we know all too well, consumers are gripped by what one might call an “electronic gizmo revolution.” How can–or how will–jewelers develop a relationship with the revolution, or at the very least capitalize on its sales and profit potential?

How can jewelers develop a framework for electronic innovation in an extremely competitive environment that is changing at warp speed?

Several innovation-focused firms, both here and overseas, have started their own electronic innovation building strategies already. There’s Paragon Lake in Lexington, Mass., which used enhanced computer technology to develop a “virtual display case” for jewelers that allows retail customers to build their own custom pieces.

Zale Corp. announced late Wednesday that Chief Executive Officer Neal Goldberg and two other executives are no longer with the company.

The change in leadership will help renew Zale’s focus on its core diamond business and help return the company to profitability, the company said in a statement.

Women’s Jewelry Association’s (WJA) Women in the Know Conference (WITK), scheduled for Friday, March 12, 2010 at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City, will feature as its headliner Ivanka Trump, jewelry entrepreneur, social and style icon, businesswoman, best-selling author, international TV personality and daughter of Donald and Ivana Trump.

A summa cum laude graduate from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Trump is the executive vice president of Development & Acquisitions within the Trump Organization and a co-founder of the Trump Hotel Collection. She undertook her first independent project outside of the Trump Organization in 2007 – the launch of Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry on Madison Avenue in New York City. A luxury diamond jewelry line developed in partnership with Dynamic Diamond, the collection features timeless and elegant gold and platinum jewelry designs that offer a modern interpretation of the best jewelry classics from the 20s to the 60s, now available at her boutique and also offered at wholesale to select retailers internationally.

The inspiration behind Ivanka’s new venture came from her mother Ivana’s collection of diamonds and gems, as well as from pieces her father gave her through the years. With her design philosophy, “to inspire elegance among the women of a new generation,” Ivanka’s goal is to design important pieces with a youthful, refreshed elegance that fits perfectly into the lives of today’s intelligent, self-assured, social women.

When selling any type of jewelry, be it bridal or cultured pearls, your displays make all the difference in how well your items sell. Customers are often drawn to those dazzling jewelry displays that offer shimmering lights and vibrant colors. Different types of pearl jewelry can be displayed in such ways to attract the eyes of customers. Use the jewelry display tips below to increase cultured pearl sales in your retail store.

The Great Wall of China is not working. Built in 200 BC to protect the land from Mongols hoards, the Great Wall is a symbol of the vast breadth and scope of the economic development of the Chinese nation. International corporations have taken the place of invading Mongols, as they have occupied the Chinese worker in factories across the country. With the approval of the Chinese government, businesses around the globe have made China their main industrial source for all things manufactured. The silver jewelry industry is one such example.

The Report Shows a Stronger December Caps a Stabilizing Retail Environment as Sectors Show Positive Year-Over-Year Growth Since Black Friday
This Year, Driven by Strategy, Not Panic, Retailers Hold the Line on Discounting

Jewelry and Luxury: After a volatile two months, Jewelry ended the season up 5.6%, with both high and low ends of the category showing marked strength. Again the extra shopping day helped the year-over-year growth rate. Although the Luxury retail ex-jewelry category showed some weekly improvement throughout December, it finished the season more with a slight increase of 0.8% over the 2008 holiday season. Luxury is another category that would have been lower without the additional shopping day this year.

Many people have their own jeweler’s loupe these days and love to look at their jewelry with it. Unfortunately not everyone is taught how to use a loupe properly. Using a loupe is not terribly difficult, but using it properly can really help you examine your own jewelry for identifying characteristics, cracks, chips, or other damage without having to run to the jeweler every time to smack your ring on something hard. Before we look at how to use a loupe though, I would like to explain some of the characteristics of loupes so that you can select a quality magnifier for your own use.

Selecting a loupe:
The first thing to look at is the magnification. Loupes can be found with 2x magnification up to 30x, or even more, magnification. For our purposes it is best to use a 10x loupe since this is the magnification that is used by the gem grading labs to grade diamonds. Less magnification may not show enough detail, while more magnification may give you an unrealistic expectation.

The next thing to look at is the number of lenses a loupe has. The inexpensive loupes tend to have a single lens. These are fine for casual use, but may introduce focus and clarity issues. A triplet loupe has three lenses that correct your magnification to present the clearest possible view and help correct any color issues that may be introduced by reflected light.

Well its about time we have some positive news to report on the state of retail jewelry business in the US. According to the National Jeweler, things are looking up for luxury goods in general, and jewelry, in particular, according to the latest statistics for the month of October released by SpendingPulse, an information service provided by MasterCardAdvisors.

In October, apparel sales increased 3.4 percent compared with the same period a year ago, luxury goods overall increased 6.5 percent and jewelry increased 7.2 percent, while department store sales declined 1.5 percent, according to SpendingPulse results released on Tuesday.

Some Info About Cheryl Fornash
I’m excited to create a unique business in Richmond. After 14 years in the retail jewelry business and 20 years as a marketing representative for IBM, I have been inspired to start a business that combines my expertise in the jewelry business and the technical knowledge gained from my career at IBM.

I’m not your traditional retail store or an online retailer. I offer you the best of both worlds by providing more personal service, more selection and lower prices than a retail store. Also, I eliminate the risk of buying online. You can view a diamond or a piece of fine jewelry and have all your questions answered in the privacy and convenience of my Richmond office prior to making your buying decision.

As an importer, I can offer diamonds and fine jewelry at lower prices than any retail store or retailer on the internet. I import GIA and AGS certified diamonds directly from Israel and Belgium, and I have relationships with fine jewelry designers throughout the country. These relationships and the fact that I have avoided the high overhead of a retail store allow me to offer you diamonds and jewelry at incredible prices.

I feel fortunate to have an opportunity to create my own business, and with this comes certain responsibilities to my community. I continue to support such charities as Go Red For Women, American Heart Association and the VCU Massey Cancer Center.

It is unique to find a single source with the best prices on diamonds and designer jewelry. I have a passion for the jewelry I sell, and I’m committed to providing the very best prices, quality and service to my customers. I look forward to hearing from you.

Gold continued its meteoric climb on Wednesday reflecting India’s central bank’s buying gold and the continued weakening of the US dollar. The New Delhi Reserve Bank announced it had swapped dollars for 200 metric tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund. The swap price was $1,086.10/toz, about $25 higher than the PM London Close of $1,061. According to India’s Finance Minister, the move was because the “economies of the US and Europe had collapsed”. That news propelled gold prices even higher closing at $1090 on November 4, 2009, according to the PM London Fix.

This could mark a turning point in the fine jewelry business if gold continues to increase as central banks diversify their dollar holdings in to alternative currencies and gold. The question is when does the price of gold reach a point where 10 karat and 14 karat alloys become too expensive to make wearable rings and jewelry? Part of the answer is subjective in that it depends on the emotional connection jewelry has with the consumer. While jewelry has never been a necessity if viewed in terms of such tangible purchases as shelter, food, and transportation, it has been an emotional necessity for many consumers during the better part of the last 60 years. Simply put, many consumers included certain types of fine jewelry, such as engagement rings, on their “must have” list.

(Nov. 5, 2009) — For more than 25 years, all attempts at culturing pearls from the queen conch (Strombus gigas) have been unsuccessful — until now. For the first time, novel and proprietary seeding techniques to produce beaded (nucleated) and non-beaded cultured pearls from the queen conch have been developed by scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI).

With less than two years of research and experimentation, Drs. Héctor Acosta-Salmón and Megan Davis, co-inventors, have produced more than 200 cultured pearls using the techniques they developed. Prior to this breakthrough, no high-quality queen conch pearl had been cultured. This discovery opens up a unique opportunity to introduce a new gem to the industry. This significant accomplishment is comparable to that of the Japanese in the 1920s when they commercially applied the original pearl culture techniques developed for pearl oysters.

In 1983, the country was recovering from a recession, unemployment was a 10 percent and gold prices were double what they had been five years earlier — but Joseph Lisitzky was still selling a good number of gold rings and watches out of his downtown Miami jewelry store.

Twenty-six years later, the simultaneous rise of the price of gold and the unemployment rate have hit Lisitzky-Rosner Jewelry especially hard, slowing sales to a sluggish pace.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen in the last 60 years, no question,” said Lisitzky, who is 78 and has been in the wholesale jewelry business for more than half a century.

As consumers shy away from luxury purchases and potential buyers express shock at the current going rate of gold rings, bracelets and necklaces, jewelers have been hit with a staggering one-two punch of rising unemployment and soaring gold prices. Gold reached $1,070 an ounce last Wednesday, a new record for the metal. The price has tripled since 2003 and doubled since 2005. Up more than 20 percent this year, gold has seen a boost as investors have rushed to the metal as a long-term hedge against inflation. As a result, purveyors of gold have seen their sales nose dive.

How-to videos for using epoxy resin, silver-plated rings and pewter pendant trays to create jewelry from reproductions of your artwork. Video in 3 Parts.

Paris – Shoppers strolling along the Rue Saint-Honore in Paris encounter no shortage of distractions, with the bags of Longchamp, the runway-ready shoes of Giuseppe Zanotti and the chic threads of Gucci and Missoni just a few of the offerings on the boutique-centric boulevard.

And while each is tempting in its own way, a new display at the street’s Chronopassion boutique might have shoppers actually stopping in their tracks.

Earlier this month, the watch store debuted a new window display dubbed the “Carousel,” which features watches set into recessed spaces. By simply pressing a button labeled “touch to move,” someone standing outside the store can spin the display to reveal, with each touch, a previously hidden array of watches within the display. While consumers don’t even have to enter the store to view the watches, the show of wizardry might just tempt window shoppers anyway.

Designed by Switzerland-based design and development firm Dietlin, the display is also installed at the l’Heure Asch boutique in Geneva. It began as just one of many research and development projects at Dietlin.

Others include vitrines featuring liquid crystals that appear and disappear on the surface of the glass cases to display signage, as well as glassless displays that allow a customer to view a watch more closely. If one’s fingers get too close to the merchandise, however, a motion detector kicks in and the timepiece swoops down into a compartment below.

Technologies such as these remain in the research and development phase, but they are all a sign of what is to come for the retail jewelry experience, experts say.

“It really is a whole different way of showing jewelry,” says Artco Group’s Mickey Minagorri, describing the interactive jewelry displays he has helped to implement at independent retail stores and watch brand doors alike.

New York–It shouldn’t come as any surprise whose jewelry Ivanka Trump wore the other night when she walked down the aisle to marry newspaper owner and fellow real estate scion Jared Kushner. Why, her own, of course.

The Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry owner, who married Kushner in a private ceremony at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., wore a custom Vera Wang gown and $265,000 in jewels from Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, including a custom-designed, platinum and mixed-cut diamond hair piece, platinum and mixed-cut diamond cluster earrings and an art deco platinum and fancy-link diamond estate bracelet.

The hair piece, valued at $45,000, accented Trump’s veil and featured 6.38 carats of diamonds, while her $90,000 estate bracelet weighed in at 26 carats of diamonds. It was her hefty earrings, though, that carried the heaviest price tag: $130,000 for the 9.67-carat total-weight stunners.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the parent company of Cash4Gold, claiming the company misrepresented its services and defrauded customers who sent in their gold jewelry in exchange for cash, court documents say.

The 100-plus-page complaint names Cash4Gold’s parent company, Green Bullion Financial Services LLC, and was filed as a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Oct. 6.

The suit was filed on behalf of two California women who were former Cash4Gold customers, but attorneys in the case are asking the court to open the suit to all persons “who suffered injury from Cash4Gold’s unlawful practices from Oct. 6, 2003 to Oct. 6, 2009.”

Washington: Despite a deteriorating economic environment in 2008, coupled with the worst holiday season in decades, 57 percent of online retailers surveyed for Shop.org’s “State of Retailing Online 2009″ reported they were more profitable in 2008 than 2007.

According to the survey, which polled 117 retailers and was conducted by Forrester Research Inc., online retailers adjusted to the economy in a variety of different ways. Nine in 10 retailers (91 percent) focused on preserving margins, while 88 percent of retailers amplified promotions or increased “value” messaging. Slightly more than half of retailers (53 percent) lowered prices as a result of the economy.

Petra Diamonds Limited (”Petra” or “the Company”), the international diamond mining group, announces the recovery of an important 507.55 carat white diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. This spectacular gemstone was recovered on Thursday 24 September and is currently with experts for analysis. Initial examinations indicate that it is of exceptional color and clarity, and most likely to be a Type II diamond. Further details, including color grading and clarity, will be released once the diamond has undergone appropriate analysis.

The diamond was recovered alongside three other special white stones of similar color and clarity in the same production run: another very large stone of 168.00 carats and two other stones of 58.50 and 53.30 carats.

At 507 carats (just over 100 grams) the diamond, which has yet to be named, is considered to be amongst the top 20 largest high quality rough diamonds ever found worldwide and ranks alongside other illustrious diamonds recovered at the celebrated Cullinan mine. Cullinan has a special place in the history of diamonds as the source of the world’s largest gem diamond ever recovered, the ‘Cullinan’, at 3,106 carats rough. It has also produced a further two of the world’s largest diamonds, the Golden Jubilee at 755 carats rough and the Centenary at 599 carats rough, and many other famous gems including the Taylor-Burton (69 carats polished).