Jewelers on the Fairway To Raise Money for Childhood Cancer

Now in its 14th year, the annual Jewelers on the Fairway charity golf outing will be held at Manhattan Woods Golf Club in West Nyack, N.Y. on July 27. The event, which brings golfers from across the industry to support Hope & Heroes, a charity that funds lifesaving work on childhood cancer and blood disorders at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The event, which is organized by Larry Gordon of LG Diamond Co./Shreeji Jewelry, Samir Mehta of Indigo Jewelry, and Steven Lerche of Goldstar Jewellery, is also teaming up with CARE’s Ukrainian Crisis Fund, which provides support to refugees in need. Since its inception, the event has raised over $500,000 for charitable causes.

Single-player participation for new participants starts at $1,000, with a variety of player and non-player package sponsorships available, providing numerous levels of awareness, signage, and recognition at the event and its website.

For more information and to sign up for the event, email Steven Lerche at steven@goldstarjewellery.com.

VDB Introduces Sales Genie App

The Virtual Diamond Boutique (VDB) has announced a new B2B selling tool, the VDB Sales Genie app. Customizable by retailer, the app allows sales on the go, giving buyers the option to see digital inventory from preselected or preferred suppliers, along with sharing of customer favorites branded with the store logo.

“Consumer buying habits have changed with the rise of online shopping, which offers a vast array of inventory at your fingertips,” said VDB president and CEO Tanya Nisguretsky in a statement. “We designed the VDB Sales Genie as an affordable tool for retailers to sell more inventory no matter where their goods are located and no matter where the customer requests come up. The Sales Genie can be thought of like a digital vault, expanding a retailer’s merchandise beyond anything they could afford and giving them instant access to inventory beyond that of their competitors.”

The Sales Genie draws upon VDB’s virtual marketplace, which reportedly boasts over 1.5 million mined diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry, all searchable with photography and videos.

The new app can be accessed via mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, allowing for sales queries in and outside the store. Users can filter their results by parameters like preferred supplier or grading lab, yielding search results featuring high-resolution imagery and detailed videos for a closer look at the products. Memos for products can be submitted in-app.

For more information, visit vdbapp.com.

Chris Ploof’s Atelier Goes Solar

Chris Ploof Jewelry Designs, a brand specializing in alternative metals, announced recently that its Leominster, Mass., atelier is newly powered by the sun, having been outfitted with a 37,000-watt array of solar panels.

The eponymous brand, which commits to sustainability by creating everything it needs in-house from recycled raw materials, offers jewelry made with mokume gane, Damascus steel, and meteorite.

“We believe strongly in sustainability, limited waste, and sole authorship,” said brand president and founder Chris Ploof, in a statement. “We have always ethically sourced the materials and gemstones that we work with, and now, our electricity is fully solar powered, producing enough energy to power our shop and our home, as well as to allow for electrical vehicle charging.”

For more information, and to see the studio in action, visit chrisploofdesigns.com.

(Top: Photo courtesy of Virtual Diamond Boutique)

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