New York City Jewelry Week (NYCJW) has been one of the more active and creative industry players on Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organization, which in non-pandemic times hosts fun and thought-provoking live events as part of its annual Jewelry Week, has been successful in bringing its hard-core enthusiasm for jewelry design to Instagram initiatives including a virtual book club and engaging tête-à-têtes with jewelry pros as part of its “Checking In!” series.

Now NYCJW founders Bella Neyman and JB Jones are using the social platform to take us on a virtual journey around the United States.

#USAJewelryTour shares the work of jewelers across all 50 states in bite-size profiles that showcase scads of close-up photos. The initiative is the first national project for the New York City–focused organization, says Jones, who notes that the program is “about building morale and creating a community—because we saw a need to connect on a national level during COVID-19. We shifted our focus from New York City to the country to help unite the community.”

The initial #USAJewelryTour announcement featured an illustration by artist Amelia Toelke (see it at top) and explained the plan: “Each day we will be posting the work of a jeweler from a different state—ALL OF THE STATES YA’LL…. Join us on our virtual tour as we introduce you to the awesome talents across this great country because we could all use a little extra #COMMUNITY support right now so stay tuned, we are a GO tomorrow!”

The news was followed by a call for jewelers to submit their work. NYCJW is hand-selecting the designers it features on its feed but is sharing many submissions from around the country in its Stories.  

“It’s been a lot of fun to ‘travel’ the country and find these great jewelers,” Neyman tells JCK. “One of the things that our audience looks for during NYCJW is discovery of talent—so we love finding this work bringing it to them at home!

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Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor