MJSA Expo West Seminars Posted!

MJSA Expo West Seminars Posted!

There’s nothing like learning from the masters—and jewelers who attend MJSA’s At the Bench Live seminars do just that. Featuring the industry’s most renowned experts, At the Bench Live offers a blend of best practices and innovative ideas. It creates an atmosphere in which questions can be posed, solutions offered, and problems solved. And it ensures that attendees can walk away with new ways of solving common problems with uncommon solutions.

But you don’t have to wait to attend a session before you begin participating. Suggest a topic now for a future At the Bench Live demonstration.

MJSA At the Bench Live takes place at MJSA Expo New York, MJSA Expo West (at AGTA GemFair Tucson), and JCK Las Vegas. All seminars are FREE of charge. The current listing of seminars is given below. Please check back for updates!

Sponsored by:

Feb. 2 to 7

All demonstrations below will take place outside the Grand Ballroom of the Tucson Convention Center. For more information, e-mail Rich Youmans, or call 1-800-444-6572, ext. 3025.

Tuesday, Feb. 2
Beginners’ Way to Micro-Pavé
Presenter: Lisa Krikawa

Award-winning jewelry designer Lisa Krikawa will demonstrate a pavé setting technique that, through the use of unique gravers, can help you to bead-set small diamonds and gemstones securely and accurately. Suitable for work on any scale, this information will set you on your way with your pavé practice.

Lisa Krikawa is the founder, designer, and CEO of Krikawa Jewelry Designs Inc. Her designs have won numerous awards, and in 2009 the company was named one of “America’s Best Jewelers” by National Jeweler magazine and received a Southern Arizona Ethics Award from the Better Business Bureau.

Wednesday, Feb. 3
Craft and Creativity: Improvisation at the Bench
Presenter: Alishan Halebian

A master goldsmith renowned for bold and often provocative designs, Alishan will demonstrate how he improvises at the bench to create designs that best showcase specific gems.

Alishan Halebian is a self-taught goldsmith who brings Eastern and Western world cultures together in his distinctive designs. He has received numerous accolades for his work, including several AGTA Spectrum awards, the Contemporary Design Group High Achievement Award, and “Designer of the Year” honors from the Armenian Jewelry Association.

Thursday, Feb. 4
Setting Fancy-Cut Gems 1: A Traditional Approach
Presenter: Lee Krombholz

Fancy-cut gemstones, with their subtle cut variations, present setters with numerous challenges. In this session, custom designer Lee Krombholz demonstrates traditional wax-working techniques to create cast settings that are appealing, secure, and lasting.

Lee Krombholz is the owner of a third-generation jewelry studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he spends most of his time designing jewelry using computer-aided design and interacting with clients to create “heirlooms of the future.” He has won several major design awards, including awards from the Columbus Jewelry Show and Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America.

Friday, Feb. 5
Setting Fancy-Cut Gems 2: A CAD/CAM Approach
Presenter: Lee Krombholz

Lee Krombholz has won numerous awards for his computer-aided designs. Here, he shows how he uses CAD technology to create a wax model, then applies traditional bench techniques to ensure that model becomes a finished piece that safely and securely holds a fancy-cut gem.

Lee Krombholz is the owner of a third-generation jewelry studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he spends most of his time designing jewelry using computer-aided design and interacting with clients to create “heirlooms of the future.” He has won several major design awards, including awards from the Columbus Jewelry Show and Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America.

Saturday, Feb. 6
Working on Heirloom Jewelry: Recycle, Repurpose, Rejuvenate
Presenter: Gary Dawson
More and more customers are asking jewelers to re-work the heirlooms they’ve inherited—jewelry that often has endured years of abuse, faulty repairs, and overall neglect. Goldsmith/designer Gary Dawson shows how to identify the hidden challenges in such pieces, safely remove the gemstones, and either recycle or repurpose them to create modern jewels.

Sunday, Feb. 7

Creating Unique Settings for Unusual Stones
Presenter: Gary Dawson
Jewelers often must fabricate their own settings to accommodate unusually shaped gemstones. Gary Dawson shows how to make the wire or sheet metal they need for a specific job, and how to create a secure and attractive setting.

Gary Dawson is the founder and co-owner of Goldworks Jewelry Art Studio in Eugene, Oregon, who specializes in creating custom designs that capture the personalities and stories of his customers. A master goldsmith, he is a frequent contributor to MJSA Journal and has delivered seminars and presentations at numerous events, including AGTA GemFair, Portland Jewelry Symposium, and the Santa Fe Symposium on Jewelry Manufacturing Technology.

Tools Make You Smart - Don't Be Duped!

One important step before going to the Tucson Gem Show is gathering some important tools together and learning to use them efficiently the following email came from Gemstone Press today and I thought I would pass it on. Gemstone Press usually provides at least one seminar at the AGTA GemFair show. They are an excellent source for books, info, workshops and tools of the trade.

When you go to buy colored gemstones today, you will find yourself immersed in color—every hue, every shade of the spectrum. There has never been a more exciting time to search for a colored gem because there have never been so many beautiful gemstones to choose from. Yet at the same time, there have never been so many imitations, synthetics, and perhaps even worse, artificially enhanced gemstones treated by techniques that produce temporary results.

Today you will find “new” gems discovered in the past few decades: emerald-green garnets (tsavorite), blue and green tanzanite, and “neon” tourmalines from Paraiba, Brazil, in blue and green shades never seen before. Even natural-color diamonds can be found today in a rainbow of natural “fancy” colors, some at very “fancy” prices. But you can also be duped into buying convincing “look-alikes,” such as Paraiba-color apatite (a genuine stone, but not a rare gem such as Paraiba tourmaline), or a “fancy-color diamond” that has been coated on the underside to appear a lovely fancy color when it is not. (This is of major concern when buying pavé jewelry pieces set with numerous small stones that lack laboratory documentation.) Surface-coated diamonds and surface-coated gemstones (such as tanzanite) are being found with increasing frequency. It is further complicated because such gems are sold not only by unscrupulous sellers, but also by manufacturers, designers, and jewelers who inadvertently buy them and sell them to others unknowingly. Don’t be lured into thinking you’re getting a great bargain at a low price—where gems are concerned, you usually get what you pay for, or less!

The more you know, the more you’ll enjoy searching for lovely colored gemstones. Whatever color you prefer, and whatever your budget, there is a sparkling natural gem awaiting your discovery. If you are seeking an emerald-green stone but can’t afford a fine emerald, you have many wonderful choices today, including green garnet (tsavorite), green tourmaline, chrome diopside, or green tanzanite. If red is your color but you can’t afford a ruby, you might choose from red spinel, red tourmaline, or red garnet. Finally, if you prefer blue, choices now include blue spinel, iolite, tourmaline, and tanzanite. And we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface.

Just be sure to keep in mind the many ways that gemstones can be treated and imitated, and why it is so important to know how to confirm the identity and quality of what you buy. Learn what questions to ask, what to get in writing on the sales receipt, and how to find a reliable expert to verify your purchases so that you’ll be able to enjoy your gemstones for generations to come. You may also want to consider obtaining a few inexpensive pocket-size tools that are easy to use and require no gemological or technical background. Many people find that examining stones themselves adds more fun, enriches the overall experience, and most importantly, enables them to easily spot most of the fakes. Spending a little extra time to learn what precautions you can take will help you avoid costly mistakes and help you derive lasting pleasure from your purchases.

CIBJO releases Ruby and Sapphire Guides

CIBJO releases Ruby and Sapphire Guides

making them available for downloading on CIBJO website

Milan, August 4, 2009 - CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has made its new Ruby and Sapphire Guides available for downloading from the CIBJO website. The guides are designed in a printable single sheet format, offering retailers and consumers the basic criteria according to which the quality of a ruby or a sapphire can be determined.

First presented at the Coloured Stone Commission meeting at the 2008 CIBJO Congress in Dubai, the final versions the Ruby and Sapphire Guides were ratified during the 2009 CIBJO Congress in Istanbul in May.

Vichian Veerasaksri, president of CIBJO's Coloured Stone Commission and the driving force behind the creation of the guides, said he was extremely pleased that the guides were now available to the public at large. "It is CIBJO's and the Coloured Stone Commission's purpose to make as much possible information available, which in turn helps to increase consumer confidence in coloured gemstones as a whole. We believe we have achieved one of CIBJO's most important objectives with the release of this document."

Veerasaksri said he had also already arranged for translation of the guides into Thai "We are urging other national members to translate these guides also into various other languages, such as Arabic, Chinese and Russian," Veerasaksri said. "The commission has suggested that CIBJO's national members call on experts from among their own membership, such as gemmologists and gemstone dealers, to help with the translations," he added.

Roland Naftule, president of CIBJO's Sector III, under which natural gem materials resort, said the Ruby and Sapphire Guides were yet another step for CIBJO in offering both professionals and consumers up-to-date and relevant information. "Vichian and his colleagues created a very useful tool that will help gem buyers, jewellers, retailers as well consumers understand and learn about rubies and sapphires," he stated. Click to download the Ruby Guide and here to download the Sapphire Guide.

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CIBJO is the international jewellery confederation of national trade organizations. CIBJO's purpose is to encourage harmonization, promote international cooperation in the jewellery industry and to consider issues which concern the trade worldwide. CIBJO’s chief mission is to protect consumer confidence in the industry.