Highly Commended Orange Sapphire Jewellery

The Kayman Award winners for 2007 have been announced and Fameo was honoured in the Highly Commended category for the "Banquet 1930" Art Deco jewellery range - unique fine jewellery pieces, featuring cascading orange sapphire baguettes and diamonds which harks back to a time of grand formal dinners and cocktails at the Ritz.

The judges said: "Retro is definitely a strong look for 2007 and this sophisticated collection does it with verve and plenty of style. This glamorous suite exudes feminine allure and sophistication."



The Art Deco jewellery movement (1920-1930) introduced styles that often focused on bold colours and geometric shapes. Baguette cut gemstones and diamonds became fashionable and is as popular today as ever, but these days it is not as easy to find quality precious stones as it was 70 years ago. Modern Art Deco jewellery still features strong symmetry, streamlined shapes and geometric cuts such as baguette, emerald and triangle, but Fameo added an interesting twist of a cascading free fall effect achieving an extra sparkle and sophistication for jewellery pieces on the move.

The Kayman Award, is a national competition in memory of the UK jewellery manufacturer Gerald Kayman and is held to draw attention to the very best within the UK jewellery industry and to reward firms and individuals that can demonstrate their ability to design and produce to the highest standards. The competition is organised by the British Jewellers Association and sponsored by the Spring Fair Birmingham, with the backing of the British Jeweller, Giftware and Finishing Federation and Jewellery in Britain magazine.

Top 5 overrated gemstones

1. Diamond
2. Tanzanite
3. Yellow sapphire
4. South sea (Tahitian) black pearl
5. Blue topaz


Treatments, non-permanent, and worst of all undisclosed treatments and synthetics. Flooding the market with treated gemstones to make short term money reducing trust for the business and coloured gems.

Becoming a Jeweller - Where To Start?

You will need to learn the different techniques used in jewellery making and what makes jewellery good or not. You will be able to spot defects in manufacturing because you will know what techniques were used. You don't need to be a goldsmith or setter to know that but you need to learn their techniques and that comes with many years of experience.

You do not need to be a designer, but experience will teach you how to instruct a designer to translate your ideas on paper. You will be able to spot weaknesses in designs presented to you because you will know where the flaws are. This is a pretty tough path to take, requires lot of effort and above all you need to get the experience from real jeweller. You will also need to know about gemstones and diamonds and you need to see a lot of real qualityjewellery and a lot of gemstones and diamonds also.

Self teaching can be done but you need to have a very good artistic capability like drawing or painting, then you can pretty much catch up with jewellery design by reading a few books. Your best bet will be for you to enroll in a jewellery design course like the one offered by GIA. You will learn how to do basic design but in the end, don't expect to be Rene Lalique because if you don't have the gift of a designer, you will not be able to create anything artistic. However, taking a jewellery design course will help you understand a design if it is good or not when presented to you.

It is also very important to have a design that is as much as accurate and technically doable as possible. You cannot simply design anything and produce it in jewellery. First the design must be doable and for you to design something that can be produced, you need to understand jewellery making techniques. So the course you take in jewellery design has a basic course (you will learn the basics, course of 2-3 months) and advance (where you will learn jewellery making techniques, which can take up to 4 years).

My personal observations of the jewellery design process:

Step 1: Concept - few very rough drawings of the jewellery piece. Usually for some specific stone or gems parcel.

Step 2. Colouring - selected design detailed drawing including overall dimensions, colours and comments of the gems.

Step 3. 3D Rendering - final design drawing made in 3D in 2 versions. One is CNC file for rapid prototyping and another with full shadering, for the goldsmith's review.

Step 4. CNC file sent to the rapid prototyping machine for preparation of a plastic model. This model used to test jewellery design, and in most of the cases some modifications applied to the 3D design.

Step 5. Final CNC file sent to the milling machine for the wax model.

I would suggest taking a course in gemstones and diamonds, and even in basic jewellery design. Then your best bet would be to be a retailer that can resell jewellery and if you don't want to be just another retailer, then you will need to be very selective on the jewellery that you will sell.

Make a name for yourself, sell quality jewellery that you can produce by ordering as per your requirements and you might do well.

Gemstone Acquisition Of The Month

The long quest for alexandrite is over. Someone very lucky from Toronto will receive this alexandrite oval in a platinum setting. This alexandrite features an unusual combination of a fine colour change and exceptional clarity, making it one of the very top alexandrites ever to be unearthed from this deposit in Tunduru.

Although Russian alexandrite has the most historical value, fine stones are no longer available on the market and top gems like this stone is extremely rare. Alexandrite is the stone of duality. Green or red, good luck or misfortune, the significance is interpretive and related to social and historical context of time and culture. Forever changing its colors, alexandrite is a magical gemstone with universal appeal that continues to fascinate and be admired by astrologers, scientists, and gem lovers throughout the world.