Fashion Forward: Best of Breed

Modern Jeweler writes:

Before you start barking at the idea of selling diamonds for a dog, cat, or even other pets, ponder this: Consumer spending on pets has doubled in the last 10 years to $38.4 billion. Although much of that spending is on food, supplies, and veterinary care, the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association says spending is increasing in high-end areas due to the influence of the baby boomers. This affluent and influential generation many of whom are now also empty nesters, are pampering their pets with everything from gourmet pet food to, yes, even diamond jewelry. As the jewelry industry has responded to the tween and men’s markets, now pet jewelry is the latest little luxury. And as consumers celebrate their pets, they also wear pet inspired jewelry; some, in fact, can be worn by either pet or human.

More info @ http://archives.modernjeweler.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=174

Photographic Jewelry

Collector Cafe writes:

Those familiar with Victoriana may know all about photographs and jewelry but might not have come across the two combined. Photographic jewelry is jewelry that contains a photographic image in place of a cameo or gem stone. The phenomena were popular in the nineteenth century when photography was first developed. Such was the interest and novelty of the first photographs in domestic circulation that they were seen as a fitting adornment for the Middle classes.One of the beauties of photographic jewelry was that it could be worn by both men and women. The photograph proved to be highly versatile – it could be cut to any size and chosen by the wearer to show a loved one or family member. The jewelry was made into many different forms including bracelets, brooches, pendants and pins. Whilst all types of photographic jewelry are collectable, the most popular type at auction is daguerro type. Daguerro type, invented in 1839, is one of the earliest photographic processes. The image was produced on iodine-sensitized silver and developed in mercury vapor and the image formed by this process is thought to be particularly beautiful.

Dating photographic jewelry should be based on the type of photographic image used. Daguerro types were most popular circa 1839 to 1857, ambro types (images on glass) 1854 to 1865, tintypes (images on tin) 1856 to 1900 and paper images from the 1850s to the present. The value of this jewelry values enormously from the inexpensive to the very expensive. Photographic cuff-links are perhaps most affordable at around $20 - $50. Photographic pins and lockets are also easy to find and the price not too prohibitive - a gold-filled daguerreian pin, without hair start around $150. Large photographic pendants were produced around the middle of the century, again using daguerro type images. These were highly personal items and make interesting collectibles. Often the larger pendants have a glass-fronted compartment on the back to store a lock of braided hair. But for serious collectors of this jewelry a daguerrian a ring would be the most prized possession. A good example can sell for over $1500.

More info @ www.collectorcafe.com

Trade Journals Related To Watch & Jewelry Industry

I found the following links educational + informative.

Jewelbiz India
Jewellery New Millennium
Jewellery News Asia
Jewellery Review
Jewellery Review Monthly
Jewellery World
JF-W Magazine
Joia & Cia
JQ International Magazine
La Revue des Montres
Lamasat/Touch
Le Bijoutier
Máquinas del Tiempo
MJSA Magazine
Montres Magazines
Montres Passion
MOVMENT
MSM le Mensuel de l'Industrie
My Watch

How To Get Rich

A Charles T Munger quote:

A young shareholder asked Munger (Charles T Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation) how to follow in his footsteps, and Munger brought down the house by saying, "We get these questions a lot from the enterprising young. It's a very intelligent question: You look at some old guy who's rich and you ask, 'How can I become like you, except faster?'"

Munger's reply was: "Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts... Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day, at the end of the day -- if you live long enough -- most people get what they deserve."

Fireball Cultured Pearls: Learning Curves

David Federman writes:

Let's do some role-playing. You're a pearl dealer visiting Hong Kong. You've just been shown some eye-popping white baroque pearls that you would swear come from Australia. Hey, they've got the size, the shape, and the sheen.

The seller smiles. He knows what you're thinking. Then he tells you the price, which is a fraction of that quoted for bona fide South Sea baroque strands. You have a sudden moment of cognitive dissonance as you puzzle over the cost of these pearls. But just before you hear the price explained, you guess their true origin. It's China. How is this possible, you wonder. Are you sitting down?

They're bead-nucleated. You heard right: These pearls were grown in freshwater mussels implanted with 7 to 9mm balls of shell, along with pieces of mantle tissue, and then put in the water for two years while a cultured pearl grew. Now you're really confused. Aren't bead-nucleated pearls supposed to be round? Why are these misshapen?

So far, no one knows for sure. Fuji Voll of Pacific Pearls, Mill Valley, California, who has been predicting breakthrough pearls like these for some time, thinks farmers may be trying to avoid the high cost of training workers to be accomplished nucleators. So, instead of placing beads in the body of the mussel, they tuck nuclei just under the shell in easy-to-reach mantle area. There, unfortunately, beads can't keep pearls from going haywire.

Of course, few are complaining just yet about the failure to produce rounds because baroques are among the most popular pearls these days. At first glance, these first-ever top Chinese bead-nucleated freshwater baroque strands, especially if white, look like they come from the South Seas. In fact, the best of these freshwater baroques are being strung with their South Sea counterparts to make mixed-breed strands selling for $3,000 to $6,000. Available in 18 by 12 and 17 by 11mm sizes for under $200 per strand, the new Chinese baroques are easy to retail at three and four times their wholesale prices—and still remain bargains.

As you look closer and longer at these Chinese newcomers, you notice something distinctive about them that makes it easy to distinguish them from their South Sea counterparts. It's the wing-like protrusions, which have earned these new-breed baroques the name of "fireball pearls" among some Chinese farmers and dealers.

The name makes perfect—albeit provisional—sense because "fireball" pearls usually have meteor-like shapes. Turn back to Tino Hammid's photograph and you'll see pearls with round bellies and trailing wings that could be likened to flames.

Eventually, farmers hope, the wing tips will disappear the way tadpole tails disappear. And then so will the name "fireball." For, voila, then you will have perfect spheres. No wonder dealers like Voll are watching these pearls with keen anticipation.

TO BEAD OR NOT TO BEAD
A decade ago, China astounded the world with peach and lilac colored semi-round freshwater pearls nucleated only with mantle tissue. Even today, fine 10 and 11mm strands of these glories command thousands of dollars. But they remain exceptions to the rule.

Over time, people skeptical about these near-round pearls began to speculate that they were secretly nucleated with reject pearls to shape them and create all-nacre uni-bodies. But gemologists disproved this theory by x-raying thousands of pearls and finding no evidence of pearl-nucleation.

Now just when the gemological world has grown used to thinking of fine Chinese freshwater pearls as all-nacre, and some dealers lobby for them to be classified as "non-nucleated," Chinese aquaculture has taken a weird turn to nucleation. What gives?

It's the economy, silly. Or so say regular travelers to China like Voll and Jeremy Shepherd, who runs a kind of Blue Nile for pearls called Pearl Paradise.com based in Santa Monica, California. Shepherd, who visits Chinese pearl farms 12 times a year, says that "bead-nucleation cuts pearl growing times in half, allows production of larger sizes, and will one day result in perfect rounds."
Isn't that a return to the akoya aesthetic? Yes, he answers, but with lots of dividends. For whom? For China and for people who dream of owning pearls that look like they came from the South Seas—at a fraction of the price. Well, maybe not a fraction, but at considerably below South Sea norms. "The Chinese are becoming very good businessmen," Shepherd says.

"They are not going to give these pearls away once they have perfected them. But since production costs are far less than they are in Australia, they can sell their pearls at high prices which are still considerably less than those from the South Seas."

How soon, if ever, will we see such pearls? Voll thinks that we will see lovely 15-plus mm pearls by 2010. Shepherd predicts sizes as mammoth as 20mm by then.

True to South Sea standards, nacre thickness of the new bead-nucleated freshwater pearls will be at least 2mm. Moreover, since these pearls come from mussels that are six to ten times larger than akoya oysters, nuclei can be much larger. In addition, since the freshwater mollusks quickly smother beads in thick nacre coatings, farmers can use less-expensive, lower-grade, highly striated bead nuclei whose blemishes are sure to be hidden. The end-result: luxe looks for much less money.

So get ready for bleached and natural-color bead-nucleated freshwater pearls with a roundness new to this variety. And when that happens, get ready for China to receive the full esteem it has long sought as a pearl producer.

More info @ http://archives.modernjeweler.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=95

Lea Stein Jewelry

Jude Clarke writes:

Lea Stein is a name synonymous with collectable celluloid jewelry and yet very little is known about this lady whose distinctive fashion accessories have become a collecting craze.

According to Ginger Moro in her classic book on ' European Costume Jewelry', Lea Stein and her husband Fernand Steinberger began producing their unique celluloid brooches, rings and bracelets back in the 1950s in Paris.

Many sources of information persist in the wrongly held belief that the jewelry was designed in the 1930s; it was not, although of course many of the earlier pieces borrow from elegant Art Deco imagery. Lea contributed the artistic designs and Fernand the complicated and time-consuming techniques of ' sandwiching' layers of fabric and laminating sheets of plastic together.Animals figure prominently as designs for the many oversize brooches; panthers, tortoises, owls, cats and insects are all very popular as is the three- tiered fox with curvaceous tail and slanty eyes available in many color variations.

Later editions reflect more contemporary themes, such as skateboarders, a girl with a hoop and cartoon-like characters. Price variations for pieces of Lea Stein jewelry can be quite enormous and arbitrary, so it really does pay to shop around both on the Internet and in shops and at antiques fairs (most pieces are priced by dealers at around $100 each). A fox pin (variations of the fox are among the most common) available for $285 on one site on the Internet can easily be found for about $70 or sometimes even less.

Production ceased in 1980 but in 1991 Lea Stein issued "Second Editions" of some of the brooches. Apparently one of the ways to distinguish between them is that the "Second Editions" have the pin riveted to the back of the piece rather than heat-fused as in the earlier examples. Whilst there is still confusion over dates and different 'editions' of the items it's best to check with the seller for further details. There was talk, a few years ago, of a book coming out on Lea Stein jewelry. If so, it's very eagerly awaited by the many collectors of Lea Stein jewelry around the world. Their distinctive size (many of the brooches are between 6 – 8 cms long) and design guarantees any collector and wearer to stand out in the crowd.

More info @ www.collectorcafe.com

Treasures In A Costume Jewelry Box

Deborah Ramey Jennings writes:

I suppose I can trace my first interest in costume jewelry back to a time as a young girl when I would sneak into my mother's bedroom and delve into the drawers in her dresser. In one particular drawer there dwelt a fascinating hodgepodge assortment of boxes of different shapes and sizes. Tiny fingers explored these small white boxes which all contained glorious treasures - my mother's costume jewelry. Although there were many types of decorative pieces sheltered there, I was almost invariably drawn to one particular silver-colored rhinestone necklace. Shaped much like an inverted tiara, I often laid the necklace on top of my head in a crown-like manner with visions of being a princess. This style was originally popular during the late 1940s and 1950s and I believed this necklace was the most glorious shining trinket ever beheld.

So, it was only logical as I developed an interest in costume jewelry, that the first pieces I would collect would be similar or complementary to this necklace. Incidentally, fashion designer Coco Chanel most likely coined the phrase "costume jewelry." According to author Nancy N. Schiffer, in her book titled Costume Jewelry - The Fun of Collecting, in the early years costume jewelry was called "fashioned jewelry," which might be more accurate. The term was used to describe all jewelry which did not use precious materials such as genuine stones and karat gold, silver or platinum in their manufacture. Shiffer mentions another theory pertaining to the great Florence Ziegfield who wanted jewelry to match the motifs of his costumes, and used the term costume jewelry whenever he referred to the jewelry of his Follies.

Whatever the derivation, I began to scour antique and junk stores for pieces of costume jewelry. I eventually amassed an interesting conglomeration of bracelets, earrings, pins and other baubles in various designs and configurations, some gaudy, others more traditional and all highly treasured. Somewhere along the way, my interest switched lanes and I found myself drawn to pieces that featured the combination of black stones with clear rhinestones. This would eventually segue into a fascination with solid black jewelry pieces. Perhaps it was due to my already obvious preference to wearing predominantly black clothing. It's hard to discern my original motivation. But, personally, I believe the more singular direction evolved simply because I found the all-black pieces stunning and quietly elegant. All quite logical when you consider that most of these pieces were considered "mourning jewelry."

Black jewelry appears in various forms; real or imitation jet, ebony or bog oak, made popular during Queen Victoria's period of mourning upon the death of her beloved husband Albert, the Prince Consort. According to the collectibles manual, Answers to Questions About Old Jewelry: 1840-1950, by Jeanne Bell, Albert's unexpected death left the English subjects shocked and grieved and Queen Victoria herself would mourn until her own death in 1901. Therefore, the entire nation went into mourning. A period of two years was customarily considered to be the time "in mourning." During the first year, only black was worn as a show of respect and grief. This, according to Bell was a time of full mourning and elaborate regulations as to appropriate dress for each relative of the departed was followed.

The second year was a little more lenient and referred to as half-mourning and the bereaved was allowed a few items that were not black such as an amethyst pin. Still, for all intents and purposes, the jewelry and dress were black. An all-black ensemble does present a very dramatic impression. Who doesn't recall the startling beauty of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara decked out in her stunning mourning out outfit in the movie Gone with the Wind? Consequently, "jet" became the solution to the question of what jewelry to consistently wear while bereaved.

Bell defines jet as a hard, coal-like material made from fossilized wood. The finest jet was mined in the town of Whitby, England, where the industry began in the early 19th century. The properties of true jet lent itself well to jewelry design; easy to carve, able to keep a shaped edge, lightweight and inexpensive. Jet lockets, chains, beads and brooches were very popular in the 1860s and 1870s. Naturally, such success would breed imitators. Jewelry made from French Jet began to appear. For the record, French Jet is, in Bell's words, neither French nor jet - it is black glass, which was cheaper to manufacture. However, French Jet was heavier and was used mostly in the making of beads and smaller items.

Today, true jet is somewhat difficult to find and usually expensive. Consequently, the name "jet" is often applied to anything solid black - whether it is French Jet, onyx, black rhinestone, black glass or true jet. l's tips for distinguishing jet from black glass or onyx is by weight. "If you pick up a strand of beads and are immediately surprised by their light weight," she relates, "chances are they are jet. Jet also has sharp, precisely cut lines." As for me, I'm not a purist. While I have several pieces of true jet in my collection, I'm personally fascinated by the use and combinations of gorgeous black beads and shiny black rhinestones to achieve a rich, elegant effect. This fascination is in no way morbid, but quite consistent. Either that or, if you believe in reincarnation, in another life I must have been a widow - and a fairly well-dressed one at that - for a very long period of mourning.

Article courtesy of ‘The Collector News’ Magazine.

More info @ www.collectorcafe.com

India Could Lose Duty-free Access To US

Economic Times writes:

The United States Trade Representative has identified six countries, including India, which could lose duty-free access to the American market in 2007 under a revamped trade programe signed into law by President George W Bush.

Brazil, India and Venezuela along with Thailand, the Philippines and the Ivory Coast could lose trade benefits because of recent changes Congress made to the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program for developing countries, the chief American trade negotiator said.

Under the current revamped GSP programme, the administration can revoke waivers when one of two conditions have been met: import of a certain good from one country exceed an annual cap of about $187.5 million, or comprise 75 per cent of total US imports of that good.

According to USTR statistics, a preliminary assessment shows that India would lose duty-free access for gold jewellery and brass lamps. The country shipped $1.6 billion in gold jewellery and $20 million in brass lamps to the United States under the GSP program in the first 10 months of 2006.

And Brazil stands to lose duty free access for brake and brake parts, which totalled $242 million in January through October, and for ferrozirconium, which totalled $700,000; and Thailand also would lose duty-free access for gold jewellery, of which it shipped $611 million to the United States in first ten months of 2006. Bush signed the legislation that continued the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program for two years until December 31, 2008.

The GSP program has proven to be very successful in creating US trade with and development in developing countries. Congress provided new guidance to address product competitiveness when it extended the program. "We will ensure that the program adapts so that it continues to assist developing countries in becoming more active participants in the global trading system," USTR Susan Schwab said.

The expectation is that the USTR will issue a Federal register notice in February 2007 which will identify those waivers that meet either of the new thresholds and thus subject to potential revocation.

More info @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/India_could_lose_duty-free_access_to_US/articleshow/873139.cms