Articles and News
Industry News: Jewelers’ Harvey Relief Fund Expands To Help After Other Natural Disasters; More September 13, 2017 (0 comments)
JA Expands Jewelers Disaster Relief Fund
New York, NY—Jewelers of America, Diamond Council of America and National Jeweler have expanded the Hurricane Harvey Jewelers Relief GoFundMe page to collect donations for independent jewelers who are hardest hit not just by Hurricane Harvey, but also Hurricane Irma and other natural disasters.
JA is asking the jewelry community to band together and help fellow jewelers in their recovery efforts. Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma have left many independent businesses affected not only by damage, but by loss of income from closures. JA wants to join with other trade organizations as well as the entire jewelry community to help fellow jewelers in their recovery efforts. "We believe that by coming together to support one fund, we can maximize the industry's resources to support our own in their greatest times of need," says JA director of public relations Amanda Gizzi.
Jewelers Disaster Relief Fund can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/jewelersrelieffund. All funds raised will be dispersed directly to independent jewelry stores who are members of DCA, JA or any partner organizations. Business owners interested in receiving support from the Jewelers Disaster Relief Fund should click to submit their details.
Jewelers for Children Supports Hurricane Relief Efforts
New York, NY—Jewelers for Children has made a $ 10,000 donation to Save the Children to support efforts in the devastated areas following Hurricane Harvey.
“Everyone has been overwhelmed with the news from the affected region, and our board felt it was very important for JFC to contribute to the relief efforts. Our thoughts are with all the people impacted by this horrible tragedy, particularly those that are part of our industry family. Providing financial assistance from the industry’s charity was an easy decision,” said Dennis Ulrich, JFC chairman.
Jewelers for Children chose Save the Children for support after working with them in the past on other disaster-relief responses. Save the Children’s concentration on helping children and their families recover as quickly as possible and return to a more normal way of life clearly meets with the mission of the charity.
Including the contribution to the Save the Children, JFC has previously announced $ 2.2 million in support to their legacy charities this year.
Turkish Jewelry Designer Özlem Tuna Named Gem-A’s Gem Empathy Award Winner
London, United Kingdom—Gem-A announced that Turkish jewelry designer Özlem Tuna has won the 2017 Gem Empathy Award with her ‘Dance of Branches’ ring. The announcement was made during the recent IJL jewelry show in London, where Tuna is an exhibitor in the Design Gallery.
IJL exhibitors from across the globe were tasked with creating a hand-drawn or CAD rendered design based around a beautiful, fancy-cut gemstone sourced from award-winning gem-cutter John Dyer.
The Gem Empathy judging panel, made up of Gem-A CEO Alan Hart, IJL event director, Sam Willoughby, Gem-A chairman Maggie Campbell Pedersen, and guest judge Liza Urla of jewelry platform GEMOLOGUE, was tasked with selecting a design that uses the 4.14 carat zig-zag green tourmaline in the most innovative and captivating way. Tuna was unanimously selected as the winner for her ‘Dance of Branches’ ring.
The sculptural piece was inspired by nature and features two curved bands in either 18k green or white gold, designed to look like the branches of trees moving in the wind. These bands of gold meet at the green tourmaline gemstone, which appears to float above the surface of the precious metal like leaves on a tree.
Judges praised the design for its architectural yet fluid shape and the prominence afforded to John Dyer’s striking fancy-cut gemstone. Gem-A CEO Alan Hart commented: “I was instantly attracted to Özlem Tuna’s design, which not only showcases John Dyer’s eye-catching zig-zag cut tourmaline to great effect, but also offers a contemporary, sculptural aesthetic reminiscent of a work of art. We are pleased to continue the tradition of Gem-A’s Gem Empathy Award at IJL, and we look forward to seeing the ‘Dance of Branches’ ring come to life very soon.”
Özlem Tuna Design advocates sustainable design and cultural preservation through its contemporary jewelry and homeware collections, which have been designed, produced and sold in the Historical Peninsula area of Istanbul since 2003.
Ozlem Tuna, right, receives the Gem-A Empathy Award.