After 108 years of serving the jewelry industry, Modern Jeweler is suspending publication. We’d like to thank all the people who worked hard over the years to make every issue worth reading. We’d also like to thank the retailers and manufacturers who shared their time and expertise with our readers each month. We hope to find a buyer who believes in the future of the jewelry industry as much as we do. But even if we don’t and the August issue of Modern Jeweler is truly the last, we are sure that the jewelry industry’s strong community and generosity of spirit will ensure its recovery is swift and its future is bright. We’ll certainly miss being there to cover it.
- Tim Murphy, Publisher, and Cheryl Kremkow, Editor-in-Chief
Custom jewelry design is about to get much easier. Stuller, the jewelry industry’s largest just-in-time supplier, has partnered with Gemvision, the company that created Matrix, the most popular jewelry CAD-CAM program, to create new software that enables salespeople to create true custom designs at the counter that Stuller will then manufacture and deliver in less than a week.
“This is a tool to make custom design possible for the sales associate,” says Matt Stuller, founder, president, and CEO of Stuller. “When the customer is part of the design processes it fuels the passion and excitement of jewelry. It’s not a commodity anymore.”
The new software, tentatively called “Counter Sketch” was previewed for 50 select retailers at the inaugural Stuller Owner’s Conference in Lafayette, Louisiana on July 14. A beta version will be released to 100 retailers on October 12 this year and the software will be available in wide release in January 2010. Pricing hasn’t been set yet.
“We want to create an experience where the customer doesn’t have to ask for custom design, it becomes part of the shopping experience,” explains Jeff High, founder and president of Gemvision. The design process in the new software starts with existing models of popular jewelry styles. According to Stuller, the goal is to launch with 1,000 to 1,500 different initial models. Each model can then be modified and adapted to suit the customer’s needs through an intuitive easy-to-use interface, creating an infinite number of possible customized designs.
Take a three stone ring design, for example. A salesperson, or even a customer, can use simple sliders to change the finger size, the center stone size and type, the size and position of the side stones, the angle and height of all the stones, the width and profile of the shank. As one attribute of the piece changes, all the others seamlessly adjust proportionately in real time to change the look of the piece to suit the customer’s requirements.
Once the customer is happy with the design, the sales person can calculate pricing and send the model to Stuller for manufacturing. Stuller offers the design as a casting, as a polished mounting, or set with gemstones from Stuller’s inventory, delivered in 5 to 7 days.
Although Counter Sketch allows jewelers with little or no custom design experience to offer the service, even jewelers who specialize in CAD CAM said the new program would improve the custom design experience for their customers. “It’s a game-changer that makes custom the new normal: the biggest change the jewelry industry’s seen since the introduction of CAD,” says Jim Tuttle of Green Lake Jewelry Works in Seattle, the largest Matrix user in the country. “This is the beginning of the mass customization revolution. In what other industry can you essentially design something yourself and get a good quality product? Who would have thought that the jewelry industry would lead the way in the democratization of design?”
Jewelry designer Sarah Graham is known for hand-crafting natural forms, from seedpods to coral, in the most urban of materials: blackened cobalt chrome steel and gold. The inspiration for her new men’s collection, Mr. Graham, which will be launched at the JA show at the end of the month, comes from the sea: tiny radiolarian, a single-celled marine organism.
“I have been doing lots of reading on Darwin, drawing a parallel between the ‘evolution’ of art and fashion as a result of major shifts in society like war and economic swings,” Graham explains. “I foresee great opportunities and exciting design and marketing developments related to earth and nature conservation as we emerge from the current economic downturn with a new consciousness.”
The blackened steel and sterling silver Mr. Graham collection is targeted to the style-conscious man. “There is a whole generation of guys who wear jewelry as a matter of course and it is just a matter of time before their earning potential allows them to trade up to fine designer jewelry,” Graham says. “Historically high end purchases by men have been limited to traditional offerings such as wedding bands and cuff links. While we certainly will be offering those, I also want to focus on nontraditional items with an emphasis on functionality, hence the moniker gear rather than jewelry. A great example is our carabineer – a new take on the traditional key chain – a functional tool that can be used to fasten all kinds of items for both urban and outdoorsman alike.”
The other shoe dropped at Scott Kay. We mentioned in an earlier post that Scott Kay’s new SK Cobalt diffusion line of men’s bands in a cobalt alloy that was being shown at Couture this year looked a lot like the CobaBlu patented cobalt alloy from Spectore’s Edward Mirell. Well now it’s official: Scott Kay is the new exclusive distributor for CobaBlue which will be marketed as SK Cobalt. I have to admit that SK Cobalt is a better name than CobaBlu, so maybe it’s all for the best.
Modern Jeweler has covered a lot of jewelry trends from the Vegas shows, and jewelry with personal significance remains important: initial pendants, jewelry with spiritual and religious symbols, birthstones, engraved messages, lockets, and so on. Our June 2009 issue, for instance, showed off an amazing variety of initial pendants (page 62).
Initial pendants came to mind when I visited Italian designer and artist Fabio Cammarata at the Couture show. I like the unity theme of his “Stories” collection. It has a kind of “We Are the World” peaceful feeling to it. (Apologies if you have that song stuck in your head like me, but it just can’t be helped after all the Michael Jackson media coverage.) The 18k gold and gemstone collection includes initial pendants as well as rings, earrings, and cuffs. Sculptural jewelry features carved gold people wrapped around the designs; others feature a “shadow” effect with people silhouettes carved into the gold.
Cammarata, based in Milan, has some impressive jewelry credentials, both in the academic and business worlds. And like many Italian master designers, he has a long family history in the trade, too. Cammarata Gioielli offers a variety of classic and contemporary designs, including the “Manhattan” line with designs in opal, plus an exclusive collection sold at several Barney’s stores in the U.S. For more information, visit www.fabiocammarata.it. — Matthew Kramer
I’ve been thinking about all the wonderfully creative designers I met at the Vegas shows. Sometimes it’s all too easy to focus on a known brand or designer, but what about something new? What stood out from a “new” designer, someone debuting at the show, or at least someone new to me?
In the designer center, I enjoyed viewing the collection from Andrea Lucille Designs. The contemporary collections featured a lot of natural and organic forms, elegant and delicate pieces, some with an architectural but light feel to them. Styles are created with hand fabrication and casting, polished and textured surfaces in sterling silver and 18k gold, gemstones, and pearls. The “Gavarnie” collection featured overlapping textured square wires, giving pieces form and depth. “Modern Hammer” featured jewelry with hammered links in shapes, swirls, leaves, and shells. “Willow” featured delicate branches, stems, and calla lilies with gemstone and pearl drops.
Price points ranged from $60 to $6,000, from cascading necklaces to a new and affordable under $250 collection. From stunning necklaces, cocktail rings, and bridal styles to a wide variety of sterling silver and gemstone designs, Andrea Lucille has a playful and exciting collection. The “Gavarnie” sterling silver cuff shown here features cultured freshwater pearls, with a suggested retail of $750. For more information, call (718) 930-3461 or visit www.andrealucilledesigns.com. — Matthew Kramer
Simmons Jewelry has another great new nostalgia-fueled idea. Remember having a lucky penny when you were young? I’m not old enough to have put pennies in my loafers but I do remember the lucky penny my mother gave me in my first little purse. The new Simmons trademarked and patented “Penny Pendants” feature a shiny new penny set in a sterling silver pendant line. They even have a little sterling silver purse pendant with a penny tucked inside.
The Penny Pendants line is a collaboration between Simmons and designer Dana Michele, who has a decade of experience in designing and manufacturing jewelry and children’s toys sold in major retailers including Toys ‘R’ Us and FAO Schwartz.
The designs are suspended from a 36-inch chain so they can be easily grabbed to make a wish. And the pendants are priced perfectly for this market, retailing for $99. The impulse-attracting styles may have many retailers believing the adage “See a penny right side up, all day long you’ll have good luck.”
At the recent Couture show, Scott Kay launched a new collection of men’s wedding bands in a proprietary alloy called “SK Cobalt.” The company isn’t releasing details or images at this point but brand spokesperson Dan Scott did confirm that the bands are made from an alloy that contains cobalt. Bands are about the same weight at palladium bands and have a standard white metal appearance. The collection in the new alloy will allow the brand to compete against the price-points of tungsten carbide and titanium bands. “It won’t shatter like tungsten, it’s a molten metal,” Scott says.
Because retail blogger Shanu Guliani has already remarked on the similarity between black titanium bands displayed at the Scott Kay booth this year and styles from the Edward Mirell brand, which has a patent on black titanium, it is perhaps worth noting that Edward Mirell also sells rings in a patented cobalt alloy called “CobaBlue,” that has a similar appearance to the new SK Cobalt.
Modern Jeweler’s June 2009 issue featured 89 Finds Under $500 retail because we heard from retail jewelers across the country that entry-level price points are the most important part of the market right now.
Once we started searching for them, we were surprised to be able to feature so many great affordable styles, including new designs from brands who are known for high-end fashion jewelry. But, turns out, we just uncovered the tip of the iceberg.
At the recent JCK show, at booth after booth we saw attractive, impulse-worthy jewelry that retails under $500. In fact, affordable styles were the most important trend at the show this year. (We saw so many, and heard from so many exhibitors that these were the styles that were selling, that we will be featuring Finds Under $500 in every issue going forward.)
Of course, many of these well-priced styles are in sterling silver, like these bamboo-inspired designs from John Hardy, below. These earrings, which retail for $295, are fashionable forward-facing hoops, a trend, with concentric shapes, another trend. Add in natural texture and the fact that they are sterling and under $500 and you have a show-full of trends in one.
For a couple of weeks now, the editors at Modern Jeweler have previewed some of the beautiful and unique jewelry collections that have launched at Couture and JCK Las Vegas 2009. Now we are back from Vegas, and we admit to still being a little jet lagged, a little cocktail partied-out—and it’s quite curious how our wallets always seem a lot lighter back here in New York. But we are also energized by the new twists, new designs, and new jewelry directions we saw at the shows. So are you ready for more great new designs?
Italian designer Marco Bicego has expanded into the men’s market with the “L’Uomo” collection. The line debuted in the U.S. at Couture with 55 styles (150-plus pieces) including rings, cuff links, bracelets, and chains in 18k yellow, white, and rose gold. Other styles include black and white diamonds, colored enamel, and leather. Retail prices range from $520 to $8,000. Through the use of hand-woven coils and hand-etched gold satin finishes, Bicego’s architectural collection takes inspiration from the New York skyline and its metropolitan landscape.
“With this collection, every man will be able to express his individuality and fine tune his personal style for a unique, effortless look,” says Bicego. For more information, call (415) 249-3800 or visit www.marcobicego.com. — Matthew Kramer
