Nostalgia at The Gemstone House - En cabochon Jewellery

A large Brazilan cabochone amethyst  is surrounded by all rainbow sapphires. The impressive size of the center stone and the combination of colors, polish, and shapes are what set this piece apart and make it so exciting. Large high quality cabochons are always a rarity and this 18k gold ring will be a pleasure to look at and wear.

Designer ring of the day - Lady Lavender by David Wein

Sapphire, Amethyst,  Diamond and three tones of lavendar Sapphire ... all natural stones, nearly every astrological gemstone. Gemologists  and  jewellery  connoisseurs  would love this ring that combines many of the worlds coloured gemstones  in an elegant and bold one-of-a-kind design.

Available @ David Wein's Fine Jewelry Store

Gemstone dealer turned to jewellery design, and why not?

I am buying all kinds of colour gemstones. All day long. All year around. No weekends. Because my job is beautiful and I love it. I couldn’t care less about our jewellery design department, because half of the folks there don't know anything about gems and another half think too much.

But I get worried when my gemstone suppliers turn into jewellery manufacturing. I was worried when I saw Multicolour Gems opened it's fine jewellery store. I thought yeah, right, now where would I get my alexandrites and spinels? Turns out - now they understand my needs better, since they have the same headache as me - keeping goldsmiths and jewellery designs in bay.

And now my other favourite gemstone trader, Multicolour.com announced that they are planning to open a jewellery store. Oh, well. Every gemstone dealer thinks that jewellery is made of gold, when sometimes it's made of wood. Although I must admit, their first jewellery collection is very nice.
Organic contemporary ornaments. Good colour mix and interesting composition. Oh well, maybe now they will understand my needs better too?

Bridal Jewellery Collection of the Year 2008 Award.

Fameo won the Bridal Jewellery of the Year award, with their two bridal jewellery collections - a unique series of fine jewellery pieces, which includes an ensemble of special heirloom quality bracelets, earrings, necklaces and pendants. Award winning bridal jewellery collections include Imperial Wedding - a mix of cascading peach-colour morganite gemstones accented by princess-cut diamonds and the Tsarina - pearl jewellery range.

The UK Jewellery Awards event took place at the Grovenor House Hotel, Park Lane on Thursday 17th July 2008. A spectacular ceremony hosted by Mica Paris, soul singer and TV presenter, attended by British celebrities and the cream of the international jewellery world. The catwalk event that took place showcased stunning pieces of jewellery and the awards were presented to each winner of the jewellery categories. Retail Jeweller editor Sarah Carpin said: "It was a tremendous evening where we awarded and applauded the very best in our industry".

Other notable winners are:

Azendi - Multiple Retailer of the Year

Stephen Webster - UK Jewellery Brand of the Year
Elizabeth Gage - Lifetime Achievement Award

Fameo Announces Acquisition Of The Gemsuite.com

Fine jewellery designer and retailer Fameo announced the acquisition of Gemsuite.com, one of the leading online retailers of high-quality gemstones known for it's fine emerald gemstones.

The purchase of Gemsuite.com, a popular internet destination for colour gemstones and a bespoke jewellery service, is the first step of a planned expansion into the U.S online jewellery market, according to Fameo.

Gemsuite.com has over 8 years of experience selling colour gemstones and offering a bespoke jewellery service over the Internet and Fameo will be the first online jewellery retailer to offer thousands of individually graded and photographed gemstones as a customisation option for hundreds of Fameo's fine jewellery designs.

Online jewellery shoppers are primarily men who take jewellery purchases very seriously and continuously demand customisation options, including rare gemstone sourcing and jewellery design modifications. Gemsuite.com acquisition and planned intergation of it's loose gemstone inventory into Fameo's online jewellery catalogue is an important step in providing very best online jewellery shopping experience.

Fameo will continue to operate the Gemsuite.com website, and Gemsuite.com's customers will benefit from the expansion of bespoke jewellery services reinforced by Fameo's in-house jewellery designer team, award winning jewellery designs and Fameo fine gemstones selection.

Jewellery Retailer Wins IMA Outstanding Achievement Award

Fameo Jewellery website, a British fine jewellery online retailer o was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award in the Catalog category by The Interactive Media Council (IMA).

Fameo website, was given a complete makeover, enhancing the look and functionality of the website while streamlining the integration of the proprietary e-commerce platform, enabling Fameo to personalize the online shopping experience and allowing customers to find, share, customize and purchase fine jewellery, as well as register for gifts or create public wish lists.

In addition to the generic jewellery taxonomy and intuitive navigation, Fameo Online Jewellery Boutique offers powerful jewellery search capabilities, detail prodile of all precious materials and gemstones used in the jewellery pieces and powerful personal account management tools for an enhanced user experience.

The Outstanding Achievement award is the second highest honor bestowed by IMA and recognizes the high standards of planning, execution and overall professionalism. Fameo website excelled in all areas of the international competition’s judging criteria, earning an overall score of 469 out of 500 for design, content, feature functionality, usability, and standards compliance and cross-browser compatibility.

A new breed of e-commerce jewellery website

Pearlera created a new breed of e-commerce jewellery website, by taking advantage of cutting edge internet technologies and connecting in-house jewellery design, customer service, logistics and workshop departments to the online shopper through a state of the art website and achieving unprecedented levels of online jewellery presentation, featuring full discloser of materials (including grading of colour gemstones) used in the jewellery through in-depth specification, multiple illustrations and customer reviews.

In addition to the standard e-commerce features, such as keyword search, what's new, advanced search, e-mail a friend, e-mail subscription, coupons/rebates, dynamic imaging, product recommendations, real time product availability, product ratings and enhanced security (SSL) Pearlera offers an alternate version of  Pearlera Jewellery Boutique which has been specially designed for viewing on the mobile phone. Updated daily and includes all Pearlera jewellery catalogues, as well as some exclusive content, such as access to your order tracking facility and SMS alerts service for the latest jewellery arrivals, price changes, order status and special promotions.

Greatest Jewellers Of All Times

Alphonse Fouquet
Alphonse created pieces decorated with delicate interlaced motifs and set with gems miniatures and cameos and recognised as one of the leading Paris jewellers.

Fortunato Pia Castellani
In 1862 he displayed at the International Exhibition in London. Alessandro made jewellery decorated with early Christian symbols or Byzantine style mosaics which were very popular with visitors to Rome.

Carlo Giuliano
He made a number of Revivalist jewels in the style of Castellani in his Frith street premises and these were offered for sale in notable West End shops.

Rene Lalique
1860 to 1945 was famous for his Art Nouveau jewellery, he caused a stir at the Exposition Universalle in Paris when he exhibited his winged jewels, bronze figures and flowing lines of the Art Nouveau movement.

Carl Faberge
He encouraged his workforce to pursue new ideas and techniques and the Russian aristocracy loved his jewellery.

Henry Vever
He designed classic settings and floral themes using nature for his inspiration. The house of Vever became famous for using new techniques and different enamels.

Jean Schlumberger
Schlumberger's designs at Tiffany & Co. were remarkable for their whimsical interpretations of natural forms. He was especially inspired by sea creatures and other animals. Diana Vreeland wrote that Schlumberger "appreciates the miracle of jewels. For him, they are the ways and means to the realization of his dreams.

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.