Winning Jewelry Designs From 2014 AGTA Spectrum Awards

Best of Show: 'Tropical Storm' Ring by James Currens of J.W. Currens. Platinum ring is centered with a 22.10-carat emerald surrounded by swirling patterns of diamonds (11.47 ctw.). This piece also took first place in the Classical category.

Colored gemstone jewelry took center stage Monday as the American Gem Trade Association announced the winners of its annual Spectrum Awards competition and allowed the press to view nearly all of the entries at an undisclosed location in New York. 

Best Use of Color: Erica Courtney's 18k yellow gold earrings feature boulder opals (22.84 ctw.) and fire opals (2.62 ctw.) accented with orange sapphires (1.75 ctw.) and Paraiba tourmalines (.70 ctw.). 

Lined up on tabletops in an unadorned room was a variety of pieces representing the wealth of diversity and creativity of the worldwide jewelry industry. The competition and showcase, in its 30th year, is organized by the American Gem Trade Association, a North American trade organization representing the colored gem and cultured pearl industries. This competition is by far the largest and most prestigious for those who create with natural colored gemstones and cultured pearls.

Best Use of Platinum and Color: "Coleman's Smokey Blues" earrings by Deirdre Featherstone of Featherstone Design feature cushion-cut blue spinels (3.86 ctw.) and lavender spinels (4.02 ctw.) accented with multi-colored sapphires, garnets, tourmalines and diamonds.

The AGTA Spectrum Awards serves as the closest thing in the jewelry industry to gauge fashion trends. Unlike the other industries, the production cycle involving jewelry is much slower. Gather the materials, building the pieces and distributing them takes time. Plus, fine jewelry of the quality on display at the Spectrum Awards is designed to be a long-term purchase—even an investment. Finally, these pieces are largely created by individuals and small firms. They are more inclined to reflect a personal style rather than international fashion trends. These pieces, particularly the winners, will help set the standard for the coming year. 

1st Place Fashion Forward: Sterling and 18K yellow gold 'Robot Heart' necklace BY Katey Brunini OF K. Brunini Jewels. This extremely large piece features a 1363.96-carat heart-shaped opal accented with Diamonds (1.53 ctw.). The heart lights up in several patterns.

As far as trends do go there were a few. The mixing of colors seemed more dramatic this year. The best example of this is Erica Courtney’s 18k yellow gold earrings (second picture) with its mix of boulder opals, fire opals, orange sapphires and Paraiba tourmalines. 

Best Use of Pearls: 18K white gold drop earrings by Anil Maloo, Baggins, Inc., that feature 32 Japanese Akoya cultured pearls accented with round brilliant Diamonds (4.43 ctw.). It was also the winner of the Bridal Wear category.

Pearl jewelry showed more variety. There were necklaces made with carved pearls and multicolored pearls. For bridal, white is still the way to go but Anil Maloo, who took first place in the “Bridal Wear” category, managed to mix shades with drop earrings in a cage design using white gold and white diamonds with white Japanese Akoya cultured pearls peeking out through the openings of the cage (pictured above).

Business/Day Wear - 1st Place: 22K and 18K yellow gold "Blue Waters" necklace with opal doublets and diamonds (1.86 ctw.) by Jonathan Lee Rutledge of Jonathan Lee Rutledge, Inc. 

The one trend that involves color has been going on for so long now that it’s difficult to still describe it as a trend. Obviously color was always part of the mix in jewelry. However, during the global recession, jewelry designers and manufacturers were looking for ways to create less expensive jewelry with high design. One way was to creatively add color through a mix of less expensive gemstones to offset the spike in gold prices and more expensive diamonds. 

Evening Wear - 1st Place: Platinum and white gold "Blue Fin" ring by Leon Mege of Leon Mege, Inc. This ring features a 12.75 ct. Paraiba Tourmaline cabochon accented with diamonds.

This has created an explosion of creativity in all price points that continues today and now serves as a dominate part of fine jewelry design.

Men's Wear - 1st Place: 14K white and 18K yellow gold men's lapel pin by Mark Schneider of Mark Schneider Design. This lapel pin features carved black Jade accented with white Diamonds (.28 ctw), Rubies (.04 ctw.), and cognac and yellow diamonds (.99 ctw.).

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New Colorful and Golden Jewelry Designs from the Couture Show

The NightFall collection by Lagos was one the many new collections unveiled by designer Steven Lagos. It consists of black spinel, 18k gold and diamonds. It is available exclusively at Neiman Marcus through October.

Colored gemstones, which were widely used in place of diamonds during the recession, have continued to find acceptance among designers, retailers and consumers. A variety of bold, precious gems, ranging from dark blue lapis to red spinels to multi-colored sapphires were on display during the Couture Show in the Wynn Las Vegas. Of course, emerald, the color of the year, was prevalent among the designs as well as citrine. In many cases these gems were matched with high-karat gold, which has made a striking and glittering return to the jewelry stage.

Below is a listing of some of the jewelry shown at Couture. 

A faceted citrine center stone is mounted on sterling silver with 18k gold beaded accents by Lagos.

Damiani Butterfly necklace made of 18k gold with sapphires, emeralds and other colored gems.

The deep, rich blue of lapis lazuli is prominent in this necklace by Coomi.

The Marina B Kashan bangle made of 18k gold combined with oval-shaped precious and semi-precious gems.

Black rhodium gold earrings with round brilliant and rose cut diamonds by Michael John Jewelry.

A set of mismatched emerald and opal drop earrings by Arunashi.

A half-white, half-yellow 60-carat citrine surrounded by diamond pave set on 18k gold by Parulina.

18k rose gold crescent ring with brown diamonds, red garnets, light orange sapphires and citrines by Octium.

Large green amber drop attached to an 18k setting with champagne diamond pave by Syna.

18k yellow gold necklace with champagne pave diamonds by Bavna.

18k oxidized gold earrings with pink opals and black diamonds by Ivanka Trump

Gold beaded bracelet by Marco Bicego.

Rings in 18k yellow and rose gold with brown and white diamonds, pink, smoky and lemon quartz, pink tourmaline, ruby mandarin garnet and aquamarine by Brumani.

Red spinel and diamond pave earrings by Erica Courtney

A variety of jewelry pieces made with fossilized materials such as woolly mammoth tusk and gemstones from Monique Péan. 

Independent metalsmith, Victor Velyan’s 22k crocodile-skin bracelet with emeralds.

Aquamarine and Roman coin replica earrings by the 1884 Collection.

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10 New Jewelry Designs from the Centurion Show

8k gold ring with diamond pave is centered with a large emerald cabochon.

It appears that luxury jewelry designers are through experimenting with less expensive materials (due to the economic collapse and high cost of materials) and have returned to producing creations with high-karat gold and platinum as well as big bold gemstones and lots of diamond pavé, if the Centurion Jewelry Show is any indication of what’s to come this year. And I believe it is.

The first major U.S. tradeshow of the year was held Feb. 3 - 5 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The invitation-only event caters to the luxury end of the market. One of the things it provides is the first chance for those in the U.S. to view new designs for the year. I presented an early appetizer of the pieces on display with the Centurion Design Award winners. Now here are 10 more jewelry designers that caught my attention during the show. Enjoy.

Erica Courtney is one of the few designers who can be on trend while maintaining exceptionally high standards, presented an entire collection based on green, including this 18k gold ring is centered with a large emerald cabochon (top photo). The intricate, sculptural-like details of gold are further enhanced with 18k diamond pave.

The Tilley engagement ring by Jeff Cooper Designs features a single row of pave diamonds that tapers toward the center, giving extra emphasis to the center stone. It is available in platinum or 18k gold.

Damiani has come out with a ceramic jewelry line called D.Icon, which includes this ring made of white ceramic with pink gold and diamonds (0.21 cts.).

The Mimi So Phoenix Stackable Band has18k rose gold and leaf work covered in diamonds. It is stackable with other rings in the collection.

Fope Gioielli introduced a flexible cross-over bracelet with elastic wrapping features to the Flex'it Solo line. It is made of 18-carat gold, with or without diamonds.

18k white gold heart shaped hoops with detachable London Blue Topaz drops by Lisa Nik.

Syna Jewels, a new exhibitor, presented a series of highly polished chalcedony drops set with 18k yellow gold from the Mogul collection.

All of the operations of the Frédérique Constant Classics Manufacture Worldtimer is done through the crown, which simplifies setting the time and date, and calibrating the worldtimer. The watch is powered by the FC-718 caliber movement, built in house. The dial is available in a guilloché design or with a silver world map in its center. The watch is also available in steel for $3,450 and rose-gold for $4,150.

The Links of London 8-carat rose gold necklace with a rose gold and black pearl pendant from the Effervescence collection.

18k white gold diamond band in a leaf pattern with yellow gold accents sprinkled with diamonds by Beverley K.

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