I can’t forget the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards!

July 30, 2024

You might wonder, darlings, why we’re talking about the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards in summer of 2024? It’s a reasonable question, and I promise I have an answer.

I can’t forget the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards!

The American Gemstone Trade Association (AGTA) Spectrum Awards are a prestigious jewelry industry competition that gathers submissions from the finest lapidary artists, jewelers, and gem dealers in the country. I’ve had the pleasure of covering it a number of times, as you can see in my AGTA archive.

I had so much fun at the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards!

I intended to come straight home from the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards preview and publish this blog post full of photos for you to enjoy! But instead I had a scary medical emergency and ended up in the Emergency Room. It was a weird one that required lots of follow up appointments and testing. My Ehlers Danlos Syndrome means that this kind of thing occasionally happens to me, and luckily everything worked out just fine.

There was one casualty, however: I missed my chance to show you the treasures I saw at the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards Editor’s preview!

I couldn’t bear for you to miss seeing these beauties, so even though quiiiiiiiite a bit of time has elapsed, I am going to share you the treasures of the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards with you here today.

Robin Callahan Designs necklace with 64.54 Swiss blue topaz carved into a windmill scene. Accent diamonds and sapphires.

This Robin Callahan Designs necklace was one of my absolutely favorites of the day (and not just because it goes so well with my manicure).

It features a staggering 64.45 ct Swiss blue topaz carved into a windmill scene by lapidary artist Dalan Hargrave, set within a 14K white gold frame set with sapphires, diamonds, and London blue topaz.

Just look at this tiny work of art. If you wear this, you’ll have a petite masterpiece around your neck, no doubt about it.

Trying on this pastel rainbow necklace with colorful sapphires, garnets, and white, cognac, and champagne diamonds in gold. By The Crown Collection!

There are several things I enjoyed about this rainbow pastel dream of a necklace.

First, this color combo is spectacular – so light and dreamy and fun! And secondly, this was entered in the Men’s Jewelry section of the competition. I strongly believe that all jewelry is gender natural, but it delighted me that this designer eschewed convention to categorize this lovely candy-colored piece as Men’s.

Created by The Crown Collection, this pastel rainbow necklace features colorful sapphires and garnets alongside sparkling white, cognac, and champagne diamonds in gold.

Yael Designs' Sentience Bangle features a 26.44 ct carved aquamarine set with a 6.95 ct tanzanite, surrounded by diamonds and moonstones.

The kind of tone-on-tone color scheme was one of the big trends I noticed at the 2023 AGTA Spectrum awards – you may remember it also appeared in the Robin Callahan Designs necklace we saw above with London blue topaz set next to deep blue sapphire.

I am a huge fan of this kind of color combination, I find it so fresh and lovely.

This Yael Designs piece is another example of how beautifully dark and light blues can work together. In this design, called Yael Designs’ Sentience Bangle, a 26.44 carat carved aquamarine has a 6.95 carat pear shaped tanzanite actually set within the stone! How cool is that?

The bold double center stone is complimented by the piece’s swirling mass of 18K white gold tendrils, accented with diamonds and moonstones.

Opal rings at the AGTA Spectrum Awards 2023. By Omi Prive, Pompos, Nicole Mera, and Erica Courtney.

The 2023 Spectrum Awards were a spectacular year for opals, especially in the form of jaw-dropping rings! I love how these opal rings are ostensibly similar (large oval opal surrounded by accent stones) but the specifics of each stone and design make them all feel so different. Lots more tone-on-tone magic here to enjoy, with all the greens and blues!

Top left: by Pompos and features a 6.63 carat black opal accented with diamonds and sapphires.

Bottom left: by Omi Privé, and the winner of AGTA Spectrum 23 Best in Show and 1st place! This black opal ring features a 15.22 carat black opal with Paraiba tourmaline, tsavorite garnet, & diamonds.

Top right: by Nicole Mera, and features a 2.15 carat Australian black opal with tsavorite garnets and diamonds. (This beauty took home an Honorable Mention!)

Bottom right: by Erica Courtney and features a 2.07 carat opal surrounded by sapphires, garnets, and diamonds.

Suzy Landa rainbow pendant necklace with tourmaline, garnet, topaz, beryl, zircon, tanzanite, and amethyst (25.92 total gems), and diamonds.

Everyone loves a rainbow, especially when it’s a rainbow of gams – and this gemstone rainbow pendant from Suzy Landa is SO gorgeous. Look at the shapes, the colors! This thing felt like it was blasting everyone in a 10 foot radius with positive energy.

This Suzy Landa pendant features 25.92 total carats of gems, including tourmaline, garnet, topaz, beryl, zircon, tanzanite, and amethyst, as well as accent diamonds in 18K yellow gold.

After 12 years in the jewelry industry I can appreciate the amount of time, effort, and dedication that it must have taken for Suzy Landa find this full rainbow of complementary gems in the shapes, sizes, and cuts that she needed to accomplish this feat – it’s seriously impressive.

Butterfly brooch pendant with Beryl, Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Iolite, Diamonds, and Zircon! By Brenda Smith Jewelry.

This butterfly brooch is both dramatic and elegant, not a combination that’s easy to accomplish! I love how light it feels, despite its size – I think that’s due to the delicate color of the long tourmaline body and all the lacy negative space of the 18K white gold wings.

Created by Brenda Smith Jewelry, this butterfly brooch features a 37.33 carat tourmaline, a 5.30 carat aquamarine, and nearly 10 carats of additional gemstones: beryl, tourmaline, aquamarine, iolite, diamonds, and zircon! It can also be worn as a pendant, so it’s a double whammy.

I think it looks great with my dress, too!

Tiary custom jewelry gives you what you want.

April 15, 2020

I don’t know if you know this about me, my darlings, but…I’m picky. I know what I want and what I don’t want. When I shop for jewelry, I often find myself wishing a certain piece was half an inch longer or a quarter inch shorter or a slightly different color.

Tiary is a dream for particular shoppers like me. Every single piece of jewelry they offer is handmade and customizable: you can order it exactly as it is, or you can tweak almost every one of the piece’s details. It’s a whole library of already cute pieces that you can change slightly until they’re precisely what you want.

Let me show you.

Tiary was kind enough to send me a gift card so that I could try out their service for myself and I was extremely impressed by the entire process. The only downside was that it was really, really hard to choose just one piece.

After rampaging through the Tiary website and putting together 8 or so pieces of custom jewelry, I finally narrowed things down to my final choice: the Drops of Jupiter necklace. (You can see this piece’s listing in the screenshots above.)

I’ve been wanting a neutral-ish colored gem layering necklace, and I loved the movement and festoon-ish vibe of this particular design. I customized the length to 18 inches, the stone to simulated blue sapphire, and the metal to 14K yellow gold.

I was especially impressed by Tiary’s customization options that make it possible for most pieces to vary greatly in price.

Choose lower karat gold or silver and simulated gems and you can easily bring a piece’s price down by $900 – and if you choose all the lowest price options, there are quite a few Tiary designs available for under $100 and tons for under $300.

Did I mention their packaging is gorgeous? Custom jewelry is a really fun self-purchase, but this package is so luxe and satisfying that it would also make a really impressive gift. I’m fully delighted with my Tiary necklace and I can’t wait to keep layering it with everything I own.

Tiary is also woman-owned and offers free shipping, free returns, and free sizing within two weeks – even on custom jewelry. This is unusual and a really fantastic feature and so unusual for custom jewelry, which is usually final sale.

Did I mention how much I love my Tiary necklace? Again, it’s the Drops of Jupiter design in blue sapphire. I went for synthetic sapphires, because I’m trying to keep to a budget, but they’re still an utterly gorgeous blue. I’m wearing it here with my opals from Diamondoodles and a vintage gold chain from Stay Gold.

If you follow my IG closely, you’ve already seen this piece in my #JewelsoftheDay story posts. I tried to wait until after this blog post to debut it…but it’s too perfect to keep on pause.

The business model of an online jewelry store that offers customization isn’t new, but it’s rarely accomplished this successfully. The Tiary designs are genuinely cute and pretty and they’re on trend enough to feel fresh and exciting without sacrificing timelessness. The designs are just distinctive enough to give Tiary the feel of a cohesive brand, while still providing a whole collection of versatile, customizable pieces that can layer with anything.

The Tiary site is also really, really, really fun for browsing. Whether or not your jewelry budget has any wiggle room at the moment, it’s very satisfying to tweak the Tiary designs until you have the perfect piece of custom jewelry in your cart.

Tiary generously sent me a gift card for their website, but my opinions remain my own.

Loriann Jewelry’s powerful new collections.

March 19, 2019

Like all artists, a jewelry designers’ aesthetic evolves over time, and there’s a unique beauty in the progression of an artist’s designs. Witnessing that growth as part of a larger whole adds context and additional meaning to every piece in the body of work.

Loriann Friedman of Loriann Jewelry is someone I clicked with the moment we met. Her designs are a blend of passion, artistic vision, and thoughtfulness that results in compelling jewels that elicit deep feelings of connection in a wide range of jewelry lovers.

A wonderful diamond, enamel, and opal ring from Loriann Jewelry's new Galaxy collection!!

A ring from Loriann Jewelry’s new Galaxy Collection.

Today it is my great honor to become the very first blogger to feature all FOUR of Loriann Jewelry‘s gorgeous new collections!

This quartet of interconnected but individual collections is the result of many months of soul searching and growth on the designer’s part, the distilled and powerful artistic result of a period of time that brought both the birth of designer Lori’s first grandchild and the loss of her beloved father.

Necklaces from Loriann Jewelry’s new Unity Collection

I photographed Loriann Jewelry’s new collections in a garden, among the vivid yellow buds of the emerging forsythia, the pale remnants of a February snow and and even underneath the sparkling droplets of a gentle rain.

It felt right to show these pieces in the gentle chaos of the world’s yearly rebirth, captured in the moment between winter and spring.

Earrings from Loriann Jewelry’s Moderne Collection.

In the designer’s own words:

My intention as a designer is to create jewelry that is elegant, heartfelt and intended to empower and inspire. The messages are positive, personal and profound. The core themes of these collections are based on strength, love, harmony, balance and infinite possibilities. Each collection and its theme expresses a specific intention and are interconnected and relate to one another.”

These particular earrings are from the Loriann Jewelry’s Moderne collection, a modern take on Art Deco style. I’m a sucker for these clean, perfect angles.

Rings from Loriann Jewelry’s new Moderne collection.

Lapis and diamonds in gold was the original colorway of Loriann Jewelry’s Moderne Collection, but the Moderne has since been expanded to offer opal and rainbow sapphire designs as well, which I love.Read More

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I can’t forget the 2023 AGTA Spectrum Awards!

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