queen presents a yankee-made collar all must be forgiven for boston’s little tea-dumping prank a while back: her majesty queen elizabeth ii commissioned a team of americans to create the first piece of official british state insignia ever made outside of the mother country. a 6-ft.-long, 14k gold chain collar of office was presented to scotland’s lord lyon, king of arms, last december.

moving your sales to the next level a common lament of small jewelers is how hard it is to break through sales barriers. the $250,000 milestone becomes a millstone, or the half-million-dollar store that jumped off to a good start just can’t get to $600,000, let alone $750,000. pine bluff, ark., jeweler sissy jones is familiar with this frustration, and in a remarkable speech at jck’…

in an era of media exposés and consumer skepticism, how do you market fine jewelry? the jewelry information center has several answers. it hosts fashion shows for the press. it provides jewelry fashion feature ideas to national publications. its staff promotes jewelry on tv. it’s combating negative publicity by spearheading a new program to change bad trade practices.

colombian-quality emeralds found in the united states emeralds that rival the finest colombian muzos may soon be emerging from the mountains of north carolina. in a stunning development, abundant high-quality emeralds have been discovered in an abandoned mine in the tiny hamlet of hiddenite, about 70 miles north of charlotte.

web site contest winners announced an austin, texas, internet marketing firm has announced the winners of a contest to select the “top 25” jewelry industry web sites. the contest was sponsored by ijeweler earlier this year. winners include the sites of online and traditional jewelry retailers as well as suppliers, plus jewelry trade online networks and other innovative users of the …

what will be popular this year in pearls and colored gems? there’s no better place to find out than at the annual february extravaganza of 25 overlapping gem shows in tucson. this year, pearls were the talk of the town, as they were in 1998. but last year’s main attraction, black tahitian cultured pearls, stepped aside to make room for chinese freshwater cultured pearls.

michael anthony rejects oroamerica’s offer michael anthony jewelers inc. has rejected an unsolicited offer from oroamerica, a major competitor, to buy the mount vernon, n.y., company. michael anthony’s board of directors met feb. 16 to review the company’s long-term strategic plan and preliminary results for the fiscal year ended jan.

cimagrafi is a software system for design and manufacturing areas of jewelry, metalsmithing, goldsmithing, ornamentation, and other applications. users are led step-by-step through the processes to create finished two- or three-dimensional works. a toolkit supports sophisticated tracing options, text manipulation, complex 3-d reliefs, artistic drawing and rendering, and machining processes.

whenever you’re buying, selling, or appraising antique or vintage jewelry, you first need to determine what material the piece is made of. this can be a challenge because lookalike materials can easily fool the untrained eye. here’s help. they paid what? collectors pay large sums for what used to be called “secondary jewelry.

argyle considering rejoining de beers? officials at australia’s argyle mine recently told jck they’re willing to discuss rejoining the de beers cartel – or at least help create a cooperative advertising effort. this is a noteworthy change of heart; mine officials have been critical of de beers since argyle left the cartel in 1996.

what the gia study overlooked your january issue deals with “ideal” proportions of diamonds as researched by the gemological institute of america and others (“gia to ideal cutters: back to the 3-d drawing board,” p. 96). but that research has almost totally neglected the most obvious contribution to the beauty of a diamond – symmetry.

the insurance replacement checklist, a laminated, pocket-sized card, assists jewelry stores in obtaining all the critical information needed to properly handle a replacement claim. the reverse side of the checklist contains diamond color and clarity grading and terminology information. absolute brilliance inc.

with many asian and latin american economies in turmoil, watch companies have turned their eyes on the big prize – the united states. overseas brands are flocking to this market as if it were ellis island in 1900. the companies aim to sell not just a single watch to each consumer but multiple watches – with the help of enthusiastic retailers, of course.

2000 mania: the price is right in watches, 2000 is the magic number – signifying not the calendar change but the price point. while the year 2000 likely will witness many new-age surprises in timepieces, watches hovering around $2,000 are growing more popular. so if you’re a fine jeweler, keep an eye on this profitable, entry-level luxury segment.

ags gears up for conclave the american gem society has finalized plans for its 1999 conclave, set for april 7-11 in new orleans. robb report magazine has signed on as the first overall conclave sponsor. the publication will sponsor a breakfast for all conclave attendees on friday, april 9 and will sponsor the opening speaker, dr.

setting store-owner salaries: too much ‘gimme’ can ‘getcha’ if you own a jewelry store, setting your salary and bonus can be a tricky matter. pay yourself too much and the store suffers. pay yourself too little and you’ll wind up feeling burnt-out and demoralized. to strike the right balance, consider the strategy recommended by john michaels, who leads a management group for …

sometimes it seems your staff just doesn’t hear what you say or do what you ask. frustrating as that might be, you’re probably not witnessing a rebellion. it’s just that each of us processes information in a slightly different way, and this could be why your message is missing its mark.

this year’s jck orlando show (feb. 7-9) sparkled, and the reason wasn’t only the florida sunshine. glittering white metal (white gold, sterling silver, and platinum) remained the queen of jewelry, while diamonds – especially ideal cut and branded ones – were the talk of the show and were featured in workshops on how to sell them effectively.

your january issue deals with “ideal” proportions of diamonds as researched by the gemological institute of america and others (“gia to ideal cutters: back to the 3-d drawing board,” p. 96). but that research has almost totally neglected the most obvious contribution to the beauty of a diamond – symmetry.