Show Your Colors
It’s time once again for the Spectrum Awards, the top annual design competition for colored gemstone and pearl jewelry sponsored by the American Gem Trade Association. All jewelry designers and lapidary artists from the United States and Canada are invited to enter finished colored gemstone and pearl jewelry produced after October 2006. The competition also includes a category for gemstone cutting, known as the Cutting Edge Awards. The best thing about the Spectrum Awards competition is that winners are often previously unknown designers. I’d say half the winners each year are retailers so the competition really celebrates all the great custom retail jewelers out there. If you have a beautiful piece of gemstone jewelry you’ve designed, with high-quality well-cut gemstones used in an innovative way, you really do have a shot. Are you psyched? You have four months to execute your colorful vision: the AGTA is accepting entries until September 25, 2007. Entry forms can be found online. Winning pieces get a lot of publicity: in fact, for the last ten years we’ve featured a winning piece on the cover of the February issue of Modern Jeweler. We generally run pictures of all the winners (because Modern Jeweler’s managing editor Matt Kramer loves the Spectrum Awards and can’t bear to leave anyone out.) The AGTA also shows off the winners at trade shows and a media event for magazine editors, fashion stylists, producers, and costume designers. So start designing! For inspiration, here are two 2007 winners, a brooch by Jennifer Rabe Morin of Santa Barbara, above, and a necklace by Robert Wander of Winc Creations of Honolulu, below.
