Podcast appearances and mentions of Sally Morrison

Elizabeth Taylor - the eternal icon for Hollywood, beauty, celebrity, and jewellery. Carol speaks to two people who knew her well: Sally Morrison, Director of PR at De Beers, who was once Elizabeth Taylor's publicist, and Ward Landrigan, who in his time at Sotheby's, sold some of the key jewels to Taylor and her then husband Richard Burton. A conversation packed with anecdotes and information about perhaps the 20th century's greatest movie star. This episode is brought to you by @fuligemstones Follow Carol Woolton: @carolwoolton Produced by Natasha Cowan @tashonfash Music & editing by Tim Thornton @timwthornton Creative direction by Scott Bentley @bentleycreative Illustrations Jordi Labanda @jordilabanda Read Carol Woolton in Vogue magazine – vogue.co.uk/fashion/jewellery and carolwoolton.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ron realizes that there is a price to being creative and it's a curse.......... Guest: Diamond Expert, Sally Morrison... VP of Affirm, Erika White

What you'll learn in this episode:   What jewelry can tell us about the aesthetics and values of a particular era. Why sustainability in the jewelry industry is essential, and why the definition of “sustainable” is much broader than we might think. Why maintaining purpose is the key to making our world and our creative work better. Why the term “ethical jewelry” is less about materials and more about our choices as consumers and makers. How Lisa decides which topics deserve attention at Initiatives in Art and Culture's conferences.   About Lisa Koenigsberg   Lisa Koenigsberg is President and Founder, Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC) and an internationally recognized thought-leader in visual culture. Koenigsberg's work is characterized by commitment to authenticity, artisanry, materials, sustainability, and responsible practice. Over 20 years ago, she established IAC's multi-disciplinary conference series on visual culture and has since been responsible for launching its web-based webinars and other offerings. She has held leadership positions at NYU where she also served on the faculty, at several major museums, and at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.   Koenigsberg's writings have appeared in such books as The Art of Collecting (ed. D. Jensen), Auspicious Vision: Edward Wales Root and American Modernism, Architecture: A Place for Women (eds. E. P. Berkeley and M. McQuaid), The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame (ed. E. Wilner), in journals such as Gems and Jewellery (the publication of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain), American Art Journal, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, as well as in magazines and in Trendvision's Trendbook.   A frequent speaker, she has also organized symposia and special sessions at universities, museums, and professional organizations throughout the US and abroad, including at the State Art Collections of Dresden, NYU, City University Graduate Center, the Smithsonian Institution, the Norton Museum of Art, and the United Nations, and has organized and chaired sessions at the American Association of Museums, the Goldsmiths Company (London), the Society of Architectural Historians, Yale University Art Gallery, the Aspen Institute, and the Jewelry Industry Summit and at JCK.   She holds graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and from Yale University from which she received her PhD. She is president of the Board of the Morris–Jumel Museum, a trustee of Glessner House in Chicago, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Ethical Metalsmiths and of the board of the NY Silver Society.   Additional Resources: Initiatives in Art and Culture Instagram Initiatives in Art and Culture Facebook Initiatives in Art and Culture Linkedin Initiatives in Art and Culture Linktr.ee Lisa Koenigsberg Linkedin   Photos are available on TheJewelryJourney.com     Transcript: What is sustainable jewelry? According to Lisa Koenigsberg, it's about much more than the materials used. As founder of Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC), Lisa has organized dozens of conferences to encourage people to explore sustainability, stores of value, visual culture and more, all through the lens of jewelry. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about what visual culture is and why it's significant; what it means for makers and jewelry professionals to maintain purpose; and what we can expect from IAC's upcoming conferences. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week. Today, my guest is Lisa Koenigsberg speaking to us from New York and environs back east. She is the founder of Initiatives in Art and Culture, which is focused on a number of issues such as women in western art. There's also a conference, which I just noticed, on arts and crafts in the art world. She is an internationally recognized authority on material culture. This July, she is chairing an important conference called “Maintaining Purpose” with a focus on how to make something we all love, jewelry. We'll learn more about her jewelry journey today and hear more about the conference. I didn't go into all the details of the conference and her background because it would take too long. Lisa, welcome to the program. Lisa: Thank you. It's so nice to be here. Sharon: Tell us about your jewelry journey. Were you a jeweler? Were you educated as a jeweler? Lisa: No, I am not a jeweler. I am the child of two people who are very object-driven and, of course, a mother with extraordinary taste. But in terms of how you might say I studied jewelry, jewelry was part of what we looked at when thinking about—a term I find not felicitous, but I'll use it for the moment—decorative arts, so fitting into the range of the useful and the beautiful. Silver, for example. Jewelry certainly had a space there, and that was the earliest point for me that was non-life-driven. One of the great blessings that happened to me was that I did my graduate work at Yale. That was when the arts and crafts movement wasn't codified in the same way it is now. We sat around and talked about it in the back room of the American Arts office. There were objects there, and we had the opportunity to hold, see, explore. At the time, I also used to wash silver and jewelry for an extraordinary dealer who wrote a wonderful book, Rosalie Roberian. One of the things that did was give me a sense of weight, dimension, proportion, of engaging closely with materiality. Although the arts and crafts is one dimension, I think that illustrates well one of the things that has been so important for me, which is looking for the opportunity to hold, the opportunity to talk with makers. For example, every year, The Goldsmiths' Company in the U.K. does something called the Goldsmiths' Fair. At the Goldsmiths' Fair, there is one week with 67 or so makers. During that time, you can go and speak with any of the makers, explore the work in your hand, look closely at it. I think the journey of looking is probably one of the most important things. I've been interested in jewelry as a manifestation of the aesthetic of any era for a very long time as well. My background and training are cross-disciplinary. I'm an American studies person. For me, one of the things I always look for is what we are seeing as characteristic of an age, for example. I see jewelry as very much a part of the tangible expressions of an era. For example, if you're talking about a brooch, you can be working on a sculpture for the body, similarly with neckwear. It's one of the most intriguing forms of expression there is. Making jewelry, the impulse to craft out of whatever the culture sees as precious material, is one of the innate impulses we have, along with the urge to adorn. If you step back and think about it, jewelry is intertwined with so many events of state, events of faith, events of heart. The Pope, for example, wears the Fisherman's Ring, and at the passing of each Pope, that ring is shattered; a new ring is made. We're all currently fixated on the crown jewels as Charles' coronation comes up. All of that is actually jewelry. It's jewelry indicative of state, of lineage, obviously of aesthetics. The band that many of us wear on one left or right ring finger, as simple or as elaborate as it may be, that is jewelry. It's a signifier. It's also invested with tremendous emotion. Jewelry plays an enormously powerful role in culture. It's another kind of historical document. So, if we look at jewelry, we can learn things. For example, you can explore the kinds of ornament it was thought only men wore, but by actually going back and looking, as it was done in the exhibition “Golden Kingdoms,” you can see that women also wore certain kinds of major ceremonial ornament. You can learn from the inscriptions. You can learn about stylistic transmission from the aesthetics. One of the things we don't think about so much is what we leave behind. When we go and look at how we have explored previous cultures, past cultures, one of the things we see is that the documents are often what have been termed luxury arts. They are art that are made of objects that are deemed precious within a culture. They demonstrate a certain egis over resources and talent, but they also serve as documents of that culture. They tell us things about religion, about aesthetics, about faith, about ritual. We need to be thinking about that with regard to jewelry in our own age as well. What are we leaving behind? Sharon: You cover so many things in Initiatives in Art and Culture. You talk about gems and sustainability and art. It's so many things. How did you start this, and what is the conference about? Lisa: I founded Initiatives in Art and Culture in 2004. One of the reasons it was started is because I had developed a series of conferences that had, at their core, a concern for visual culture. What does visual culture tell you? Because there is much to be learned about materiality. What's it made of? How do we get those materials? And that opens the door to discussing sustainability. Then, what's done with those materials? What are the forms? What are the means of expression, whether it's three-dimensional, such as a ring, or two-dimensional, except that it really has a third dimension, however subtle it may be. So, within the category of good, better or best, what differentiates an object from another? Then taking it a step further, what does that object mean in terms of the way we use it, in terms of its place in society, in terms of what it says? Beyond that, how is it linked to the time, or does it presage the future in some way? I'm sure I've left out some foci related to political and social concerns, but it's that wholeness that is inherent in visual culture. That is the focus of what IAC does. We have deep commitment to artistry and materials as well as a commitment to responsible practice. Sharon: Several questions. Were you always interested in all of this, or is it something your professors taught you and you learned as you read? It's not the way I would look at something. I think it's really interesting. How did you start looking at this? Lisa: I was born into a family that was and remains very visually engaged and involved with art, very involved with looking. Well before I had what one might think of as a professor, I had my parents, who in effect included me in their world of looking from moment one. My experience of art, of objects, has been part of my life since the very beginning. For us, a shared experience was very often looking, whether it was going to an exhibition or a trip planned specifically to see certain things. This was very much part of my world, or the world I was lucky enough to be born into. That included the people that were friends of my parents, and that included curators and collectors and people who were very engaged in the world of looking. My mother herself is a very well-recognized either fiber artist or artist who does sculpture using wire to explore grid and void. I say that to avoid the nomenclature wars. I was very lucky to have some extraordinary teachers, but one of the best teachers I had was in high school. We reenacted the Ruskin Whistler trial. I was the attorney for Ruskin, so I had to know all about each one of the witnesses, each one of the people who appeared and testified in the trial, and that made art come alive in a way that was exceptional. Another thing was that during those years, there was something called the myth and image school. It's the idea that an era has emblems that are representative, that are invested with particular meaning. There may be a flip side to that emblem or a parallel that represents its opposite, but this idea, one which is very cross-disciplinary and often ranges through literature and art, was incredibly formative for me. This is the stuff my teachers exposed me to when I was 13, 14. I was reading these books because they had read them in school, in college, and they shared them with us. For me, going to university—I went to Johns Hopkins and did a BA/MA in history—it was, on the one hand, a new chapter and transformative, but on the other hand, it was in some ways a continuation of what I had been doing all the way along. Sharon: Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like—I've watched your conferences for a long time, and it seems that you focus on art and gems and other things. This idea of maintaining purpose and an emphasis on sustainability seems to be in the last few years. Am I incorrect? Do you just put on a conference when you think it's a really important subject and it's coming to the fore? Lisa: Sustainability is a dicey word when it comes to what exactly that means. At root, it is to survive, but in our thinking, sustainability is linked to responsible practice, which can involve how you source materials, how you make an object, what the circumstances and conditions of that making are. We actually have been interested in that since the first project. It was called “Green,” and it was in 2008. The reason that happened was there was an increasing concern with what was then called sustainability, which was often associated with the color green. We had something I definitely want to revive, which is a conference of 20 years of looking at fashion jewels, the zeitgeist of culture, photography, literature, etc. This term sustainability was being used, green was being used, and one of the things I didn't want to do was a superficial one-off. So, we decided that for the 10th year—I think it was the 10th year—of that conference, we would do something called “Green: Sustainability, Significance, and Style.” In that conference we looked at color, of course; we even looked at green diamonds, but we also looked at coral and organic material that's made into jewelry. The issues pertaining to coral were at peak interest at that point, and we did quite a lot in that conference with gold. That was the first time I worked with Toby Pomeroy, with whom I've been fortunate enough to be both friends and colleagues since then. At that point, Toby had done something that was then radical, which was to approach the refiner Hoover & Strong to see if it could be demonstrated that the materials, the scrap, that he came in with was the only material that was in the batch that was refined and that it remained segregated from everything else. That was what you might call an exploration in chain of custody, in the sense that he had a sense of origin of these materials and he wanted to ensure that he could attest to their integrity. Hoover & Strong met the challenge. At that point, Toby was making quite a lot of jewelry, and there was a term that was being used called Eco Loops. Toby has since gone on to do remarkable work with regard to mercury elimination, and he will be involved in the conference, “Maintaining Purpose,” that we are doing. With “Maintaining Purpose”—and actually with the “Green” conference, we had Mike Kowalski, who was then the chair of Tiffany, involved in the conference. There was a great deal of focus on things like land reclamation and after-mining and that sort of thing. Having said that, one thing I'd like to stress is that one of our speakers, who at that point was the head of Bono's RED, got up and said, “I know you're all wondering, ‘What's a red person doing at a green conference?'” I felt as if I had been hit over the head with pipe, because I had never thought about environmental sustainability or integrity as being isolated from social condition and well-being. Now, when you look at the 17 SDG, you'll see so many different issues broken out, but one of the things I thought was, “Gosh, we've got to do red now,” because this is a split I wasn't thinking about or perceiving. Green and red basically led to the creation of a conference. Our initial thinking was to do a conference that would look at precious substances. We did a coral conference; we did a diamond conference, which we were very privileged to do. We had wonderful support from Sally Morrison for that project. Then I woke up and realized we had never done gold, so effectively what happened is that the conference on precious substances became the Gold Conference. The Gold Conference is now entering its 13th year. We broadened gold to include gold and diamonds because we wanted to draw people's attention to stores of value, which these materials are, and also comparative approaches to things like mining, whether it's formalized or otherwise. And also because, of course, metal and stone go together. That's not to say we do not explore and include focus on other stones. We're very proud that Cruzeiro Mines, which is a tourmaline and rubellite mine from Brazil that has exemplary practices and absolutely beautiful stones, is participating in this year's conference. But the way the Gold and Diamond Conference evolved was it came to use jewelry as a lens for a 360-degree approach to the life and the issues associated with the material in question. On the one hand, you have great artistry, like Giovanni Corvaja. We were privileged to have Daniel Brush speak, whose loss I feel keenly. Every year we welcome wonderful jewelers. At the same time, we think about the issues related to extracting material or recycling material and what those words mean. What is recycling? We have repurposed since the dawn of time, so what gives something that halo of recycling? Do we have to think about what we're using? And, of course, jewelry is a created object. What are the environmental ramifications of extracting, creating the jewelry business writ large? Often in our heads, we think about jewelry and we see a craftsperson, a maker. That aspect of things is very dear to our hearts, and we're keenly interested in artisanry. At the same time, you have other aspects to this jewelry industry, large corporations that produce for particular market segments. You have the luxe maison. In some ways, they're all compatriots in a world, in other ways competitors in a world, and yet bound together by a common concern for ensuring that this world we have continues. Without this world, without this air, without this earth, we are nothing. We can't make anything. We have effaced ourselves. I think there is a point of critical mass that's been reached where there is a deep and general concern. One of the things I fear and that I hope I can help with is building community to encourage people to keep going forward despite the fears that we may have about doing something a different way. Last year our conference was “Boldly Building the Future.” How do you boldly build the future? We have many declarations that have been stated about gold, for example. There was a declaration drafted and shepherded through for the gold industry by LBMA and the World Gold Council. They have principles. Principles are not blueprints. How do you get from that vision, the abstract vision, to its implementation? How do you transform? We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.

What you'll learn in this episode:   What jewelry can tell us about the aesthetics and values of a particular era. Why sustainability in the jewelry industry is essential, and why the definition of “sustainable” is much broader than we might think. Why maintaining purpose is the key to making our world and our creative work better. Why the term “ethical jewelry” is less about materials and more about our choices as consumers and makers. How Lisa decides which topics deserve attention at Initiatives in Art and Culture's conferences.   About Lisa Koenigsberg   Lisa Koenigsberg is President and Founder, Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC) and an internationally recognized thought-leader in visual culture. Koenigsberg's work is characterized by commitment to authenticity, artisanry, materials, sustainability, and responsible practice. Over 20 years ago, she established IAC's multi-disciplinary conference series on visual culture and has since been responsible for launching its web-based webinars and other offerings. She has held leadership positions at NYU where she also served on the faculty, at several major museums, and at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.   Koenigsberg's writings have appeared in such books as The Art of Collecting (ed. D. Jensen), Auspicious Vision: Edward Wales Root and American Modernism, Architecture: A Place for Women (eds. E. P. Berkeley and M. McQuaid), The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame (ed. E. Wilner), in journals such as Gems and Jewellery (the publication of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain), American Art Journal, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, as well as in magazines and in Trendvision's Trendbook.   A frequent speaker, she has also organized symposia and special sessions at universities, museums, and professional organizations throughout the US and abroad, including at the State Art Collections of Dresden, NYU, City University Graduate Center, the Smithsonian Institution, the Norton Museum of Art, and the United Nations, and has organized and chaired sessions at the American Association of Museums, the Goldsmiths Company (London), the Society of Architectural Historians, Yale University Art Gallery, the Aspen Institute, and the Jewelry Industry Summit and at JCK.   She holds graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and from Yale University from which she received her PhD. She is president of the Board of the Morris–Jumel Museum, a trustee of Glessner House in Chicago, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Ethical Metalsmiths and of the board of the NY Silver Society.   Additional Resources: Initiatives in Art and Culture Instagram Initiatives in Art and Culture Facebook Initiatives in Art and Culture Linkedin Initiatives in Art and Culture Linktr.ee Lisa Koenigsberg Linkedin   Photos are available on TheJewelryJourney.com   Transcript:   What is sustainable jewelry? According to Lisa Koenigsberg, it's about much more than the materials used. As founder of Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC), Lisa has organized dozens of conferences to encourage people to explore sustainability, stores of value, visual culture and more, all through the lens of jewelry. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about what visual culture is and why it's significant; what it means for makers and jewelry professionals to maintain purpose; and what we can expect from IAC's upcoming conferences. Read the episode transcript here.    Sharon: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week.    Today, my guest is Lisa Koenigsberg speaking to us from New York and environs back east. She is the founder of Initiatives in Art and Culture, which is focused on a number of issues such as women in western art. There's also a conference, which I just noticed, on arts and crafts in the art world. She is an internationally recognized authority on material culture. This July, she is chairing an important conference called “Maintaining Purpose” with a focus on how to make something we all love, jewelry. We'll learn more about her jewelry journey today and hear more about the conference. I didn't go into all the details of the conference and her background because it would take too long. Lisa, welcome to the program.   Lisa: Thank you. It's so nice to be here.   Sharon: Tell us about your jewelry journey. Were you a jeweler? Were you educated as a jeweler?   Lisa: No, I am not a jeweler. I am the child of two people who are very object-driven and, of course, a mother with extraordinary taste. But in terms of how you might say I studied jewelry, jewelry was part of what we looked at when thinking about—a term I find not felicitous, but I'll use it for the moment—decorative arts, so fitting into the range of the useful and the beautiful. Silver, for example. Jewelry certainly had a space there, and that was the earliest point for me that was non-life-driven.    One of the great blessings that happened to me was that I did my graduate work at Yale. That was when the arts and crafts movement wasn't codified in the same way it is now. We sat around and talked about it in the back room of the American Arts office. There were objects there, and we had the opportunity to hold, see, explore. At the time, I also used to wash silver and jewelry for an extraordinary dealer who wrote a wonderful book, Rosalie Roberian. One of the things that did was give me a sense of weight, dimension, proportion, of engaging closely with materiality. Although the arts and crafts is one dimension, I think that illustrates well one of the things that has been so important for me, which is looking for the opportunity to hold, the opportunity to talk with makers. For example, every year, The Goldsmiths' Company in the U.K. does something called the Goldsmiths' Fair. At the Goldsmiths' Fair, there is one week with 67 or so makers. During that time, you can go and speak with any of the makers, explore the work in your hand, look closely at it. I think the journey of looking is probably one of the most important things.    I've been interested in jewelry as a manifestation of the aesthetic of any era for a very long time as well. My background and training are cross-disciplinary. I'm an American studies person. For me, one of the things I always look for is what we are seeing as characteristic of an age, for example. I see jewelry as very much a part of the tangible expressions of an era. For example, if you're talking about a brooch, you can be working on a sculpture for the body, similarly with neckwear. It's one of the most intriguing forms of expression there is. Making jewelry, the impulse to craft out of whatever the culture sees as precious material, is one of the innate impulses we have, along with the urge to adorn.    If you step back and think about it, jewelry is intertwined with so many events of state, events of faith, events of heart. The Pope, for example, wears the Fisherman's Ring, and at the passing of each Pope, that ring is shattered; a new ring is made. We're all currently fixated on the crown jewels as Charles' coronation comes up. All of that is actually jewelry. It's jewelry indicative of state, of lineage, obviously of aesthetics. The band that many of us wear on one left or right ring finger, as simple or as elaborate as it may be, that is jewelry. It's a signifier. It's also invested with tremendous emotion.    Jewelry plays an enormously powerful role in culture. It's another kind of historical document. So, if we look at jewelry, we can learn things. For example, you can explore the kinds of ornament it was thought only men wore, but by actually going back and looking, as it was done in the exhibition “Golden Kingdoms,” you can see that women also wore certain kinds of major ceremonial ornament. You can learn from the inscriptions. You can learn about stylistic transmission from the aesthetics.    One of the things we don't think about so much is what we leave behind. When we go and look at how we have explored previous cultures, past cultures, one of the things we see is that the documents are often what have been termed luxury arts. They are art that are made of objects that are deemed precious within a culture. They demonstrate a certain egis over resources and talent, but they also serve as documents of that culture. They tell us things about religion, about aesthetics, about faith, about ritual. We need to be thinking about that with regard to jewelry in our own age as well. What are we leaving behind?   Sharon: You cover so many things in Initiatives in Art and Culture. You talk about gems and sustainability and art. It's so many things. How did you start this, and what is the conference about?   Lisa: I founded Initiatives in Art and Culture in 2004. One of the reasons it was started is because I had developed a series of conferences that had, at their core, a concern for visual culture. What does visual culture tell you? Because there is much to be learned about materiality. What's it made of? How do we get those materials? And that opens the door to discussing sustainability. Then, what's done with those materials? What are the forms? What are the means of expression, whether it's three-dimensional, such as a ring, or two-dimensional, except that it really has a third dimension, however subtle it may be. So, within the category of good, better or best, what differentiates an object from another? Then taking it a step further, what does that object mean in terms of the way we use it, in terms of its place in society, in terms of what it says? Beyond that, how is it linked to the time, or does it presage the future in some way? I'm sure I've left out some foci related to political and social concerns, but it's that wholeness that is inherent in visual culture. That is the focus of what IAC does. We have deep commitment to artistry and materials as well as a commitment to responsible practice.   Sharon: Several questions. Were you always interested in all of this, or is it something your professors taught you and you learned as you read? It's not the way I would look at something. I think it's really interesting. How did you start looking at this?   Lisa: I was born into a family that was and remains very visually engaged and involved with art, very involved with looking. Well before I had what one might think of as a professor, I had my parents, who in effect included me in their world of looking from moment one. My experience of art, of objects, has been part of my life since the very beginning. For us, a shared experience was very often looking, whether it was going to an exhibition or a trip planned specifically to see certain things. This was very much part of my world, or the world I was lucky enough to be born into. That included the people that were friends of my parents, and that included curators and collectors and people who were very engaged in the world of looking. My mother herself is a very well-recognized either fiber artist or artist who does sculpture using wire to explore grid and void. I say that to avoid the nomenclature wars.    I was very lucky to have some extraordinary teachers, but one of the best teachers I had was in high school. We reenacted the Ruskin Whistler trial. I was the attorney for Ruskin, so I had to know all about each one of the witnesses, each one of the people who appeared and testified in the trial, and that made art come alive in a way that was exceptional. Another thing was that during those years, there was something called the myth and image school. It's the idea that an era has emblems that are representative, that are invested with particular meaning. There may be a flip side to that emblem or a parallel that represents its opposite, but this idea, one which is very cross-disciplinary and often ranges through literature and art, was incredibly formative for me. This is the stuff my teachers exposed me to when I was 13, 14. I was reading these books because they had read them in school, in college, and they shared them with us. For me, going to university—I went to Johns Hopkins and did a BA/MA in history—it was, on the one hand, a new chapter and transformative, but on the other hand, it was in some ways a continuation of what I had been doing all the way along.    Sharon: Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like—I've watched your conferences for a long time, and it seems that you focus on art and gems and other things. This idea of maintaining purpose and an emphasis on sustainability seems to be in the last few years. Am I incorrect? Do you just put on a conference when you think it's a really important subject and it's coming to the fore?   Lisa: Sustainability is a dicey word when it comes to what exactly that means. At root, it is to survive, but in our thinking, sustainability is linked to responsible practice, which can involve how you source materials, how you make an object, what the circumstances and conditions of that making are. We actually have been interested in that since the first project. It was called “Green,” and it was in 2008. The reason that happened was there was an increasing concern with what was then called sustainability, which was often associated with the color green. We had something I definitely want to revive, which is a conference of 20 years of looking at fashion jewels, the zeitgeist of culture, photography, literature, etc. This term sustainability was being used, green was being used, and one of the things I didn't want to do was a superficial one-off.    So, we decided that for the 10th year—I think it was the 10th year—of that conference, we would do something called “Green: Sustainability, Significance, and Style.” In that conference we looked at color, of course; we even looked at green diamonds, but we also looked at coral and organic material that's made into jewelry. The issues pertaining to coral were at peak interest at that point, and we did quite a lot in that conference with gold.    That was the first time I worked with Toby Pomeroy, with whom I've been fortunate enough to be both friends and colleagues since then. At that point, Toby had done something that was then radical, which was to approach the refiner Hoover & Strong to see if it could be demonstrated that the materials, the scrap, that he came in with was the only material that was in the batch that was refined and that it remained segregated from everything else. That was what you might call an exploration in chain of custody, in the sense that he had a sense of origin of these materials and he wanted to ensure that he could attest to their integrity. Hoover & Strong met the challenge. At that point, Toby was making quite a lot of jewelry, and there was a term that was being used called Eco Loops. Toby has since gone on to do remarkable work with regard to mercury elimination, and he will be involved in the conference, “Maintaining Purpose,” that we are doing.    With “Maintaining Purpose”—and actually with the “Green” conference, we had Mike Kowalski, who was then the chair of Tiffany, involved in the conference. There was a great deal of focus on things like land reclamation and after-mining and that sort of thing. Having said that, one thing I'd like to stress is that one of our speakers, who at that point was the head of Bono's RED, got up and said, “I know you're all wondering, ‘What's a red person doing at a green conference?'” I felt as if I had been hit over the head with pipe, because I had never thought about environmental sustainability or integrity as being isolated from social condition and well-being. Now, when you look at the 17 SDG, you'll see so many different issues broken out, but one of the things I thought was, “Gosh, we've got to do red now,” because this is a split I wasn't thinking about or perceiving. Green and red basically led to the creation of a conference.    Our initial thinking was to do a conference that would look at precious substances. We did a coral conference; we did a diamond conference, which we were very privileged to do. We had wonderful support from Sally Morrison for that project. Then I woke up and realized we had never done gold, so effectively what happened is that the conference on precious substances became the Gold Conference. The Gold Conference is now entering its 13th year. We broadened gold to include gold and diamonds because we wanted to draw people's attention to stores of value, which these materials are, and also comparative approaches to things like mining, whether it's formalized or otherwise. And also because, of course, metal and stone go together. That's not to say we do not explore and include focus on other stones. We're very proud that Cruzeiro Mines, which is a tourmaline and rubellite mine from Brazil that has exemplary practices and absolutely beautiful stones, is participating in this year's conference.    But the way the Gold and Diamond Conference evolved was it came to use jewelry as a lens for a 360-degree approach to the life and the issues associated with the material in question. On the one hand, you have great artistry, like Giovanni Corvaja. We were privileged to have Daniel Brush speak, whose loss I feel keenly. Every year we welcome wonderful jewelers. At the same time, we think about the issues related to extracting material or recycling material and what those words mean. What is recycling? We have repurposed since the dawn of time, so what gives something that halo of recycling? Do we have to think about what we're using? And, of course, jewelry is a created object. What are the environmental ramifications of extracting, creating the jewelry business writ large? Often in our heads, we think about jewelry and we see a craftsperson, a maker. That aspect of things is very dear to our hearts, and we're keenly interested in artisanry. At the same time, you have other aspects to this jewelry industry, large corporations that produce for particular market segments. You have the luxe maison.    In some ways, they're all compatriots in a world, in other ways competitors in a world, and yet bound together by a common concern for ensuring that this world we have continues. Without this world, without this air, without this earth, we are nothing. We can't make anything. We have effaced ourselves. I think there is a point of critical mass that's been reached where there is a deep and general concern. One of the things I fear and that I hope I can help with is building community to encourage people to keep going forward despite the fears that we may have about doing something a different way. Last year our conference was “Boldly Building the Future.” How do you boldly build the future? We have many declarations that have been stated about gold, for example. There was a declaration drafted and shepherded through for the gold industry by LBMA and the World Gold Council. They have principles. Principles are not blueprints. How do you get from that vision, the abstract vision, to its implementation? How do you transform?   We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out. 

Departing today from his usual comedy satire monologues, Ron serves up a special episode featuring all new interviews: Chef Jason Morse and his Thanksgrilling ideas, Dr. Julie talks about holiday meal digestive problems, Dr. Ian Smith has info about colds and the flu, a segment about the "twindemic", sanitize your nose with Dr. Manyak, Ereka Vertrini has some holiday tips and products, Dr. Charles Morin has a new cure for insomnia, Jason Tetro talks about cleanliness in your home and household germs, Sally Morrison says diamonds are hot right now

In This EpisodeIn this edition of The Jewelry District, you’ll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates talk about the recent announcement that Lightbox will be selling on Blue Nile. They'll also be discussing the closure of the Argyle mine, and New York City’s upcoming Jewelry Week. Listen Now[EMBED] Show Notes00:00 Rob and Victoria discuss Lightbox and Blue Nile teaming up.04:55 Are lab-grown diamonds just for fashion, or are they fit for bridal wear, too?07:50 The Argyle mines are closing: What that means for the industry.10:00 Colored diamonds were a staple of the Argyle mines. Victoria and Rob talk color variety and nomenclature.16:32 Victoria discusses all the fun to come at the upcoming NYC Jewelry Week. Episode CreditsHosts: Rob Bates and Victoria GomelskyEditor: Olivia BrileyProducer and engineer: Natalie ChometPlugs: jckonline.com, @jckmagazine, ebay.com Show Recap Blue Nile x LightboxLightbox made a big announcement right at the end of October: It will be selling its product on Blue Nile. When Rob spoke to the CEO of Blue Nile earlier in the year, it seemed like the company was leaning toward partnering with the fashion brand, and now it’s official. This partnership is Blue Nile’s first lab-grown diamond brand. Rob argues that Lightbox, despite all the criticism, is offering a genuine attempt to differentiate themselves in the market of lab-grown diamonds. Are Lab-Grown Diamonds for Bridal or Fashion?Even though Lightbox debuted in 2018, Victoria argues that the market for lab-grown diamonds still has such mixed messaging on whether or not the diamonds are up to par with their non-lab-grown counterparts. She recently went to see Mark Patterson, a luxury jeweler, and he told her that his retail business this year is through the roof, and that he had his first bridal lab-grown diamond sales. Despite people starting to buy lab-grown diamonds for bridal wear, Blue Nile and LightBox are still advertising them as just fashion pieces. The Closing of the Argyle MinesOn Nov. 3, the Argyle mine in Western Australia closed after 37 years in the business. Victoria asks Rob what he thinks of the closure and what it means for the industry. Rob says that the industry originally viewed what came out of the Argyle mine as inferior, but the mine managed to create a market for middle-class Americans wanting to buy diamonds at a lower price, thereby “democratizing” the market. Colored DiamondsThe Argyle mine produced 90% of the world’s pink diamonds, and it also produced champagne and chocolate diamonds. Victoria talks about how the gems get their color. She also mentions the 2.83 ct. violet diamond that graced the cover of the July/August issue of JCK. Rob and Victoria discuss the interesting nomenclature of diamonds out of the Argyle mine and how Argyle worked to differentiate themselves. New York City’s Third Annual Jewelry WeekNew York City is holding its third annual jewelry week from Nov. 16 through Nov. 22, and for the first time ever you don’t have to be in New York to attend: This year’s jewelry week is all virtual, with 127 events happening online throughout the week. Victoria talks about “Here We Are,” a category intended to shed light on underrepresented communities in the jewelry industry, specifically people of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ members. Victoria also spoke with De Beers' Sally Morrison, who will be appearing on a sustainability-themed panel discussion, talking about the resilience of the jewelry industry this year.

With an eye on the fourth quarter, Sally Morrison, director of PR at De Beers' consumer and brands division, puts into perspective some of the lessons learned during the crisis. Morrison provides particular insight into how brands are changing their marketing as consumers gravitate toward more discreet, understated and restrained messaging. That should favor the diamond industry, she said in the first episode of the Rapaport Group's “The Recovery” webinar series with Senior Analyst Avi Krawitz. 

In This Episode In this edition of “The Jewelry District,” you’ll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates interview Sally Morrison, the chief marketing officer of Lightbox Jewelry. The three talk about how Morrison got into the industry and her own impressions of coming up in the diamond industry. You’ll also hear her discuss how society is changing, her partnerships with designers, and about the sustainability and ethics of diamonds. Show Notes 01:45 Sally Morrison talks about how she got into the industry. 14:20 Rob questions Morrison on our changing society and ad campaigns that try to keep up. 18:45 Victoria asks Morrison how she teams up with designers; Rob asks her about social media. 24:00 Morrison tells us about Lightbox Jewelry. 34:39 Morrison talks sustainability and ethics in the diamond industry. 38:00 Some final thoughts from Morrison about Lightbox and what it's like to be a woman in the jewelry industry. Episode Credits Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky Editor: Levi Sharpe Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet Plugs: jckonline.com, @jckmagazine Show Recap How Sally Morrison Jumped Into the Jewelry Industry Morrison had a long career in different industries in the United States before she got her start in jewelry. On getting her first job at Diamond Information Center, she relates what she learned and her first impressions of the industry. Women self-purchasing diamonds and people’s changing attitudes toward gold jewelry also pop up in the conversation. Morrison shares what ad campaigns she thinks should be emulated. Changing Times Call for Changing Measures Morrison realizes that there’s a need to keep up with cultural changes and trends. Rob and Morrison talk about early De Beers ad campaigns and their effect on the diamond industry, even years later. Morrison also enlightens us on the importance of partnering with designers. Of course, social media is always something to keep in mind in these changing times, and Morrison talks about the difficulties in navigating that terrain. Lightbox Jewelry As the chief marketing officer of Lightbox Jewelry, Morrison certainly knowns the ins and outs of the lab-grown diamond industry. Rob questions Morrison on whether Lightbox helped legitimize lab-grown diamonds—and Morrison has something to say about the word legitimacy. Morrison reflects on the commercial potential she saw in the brand and why 2017 was the right time for takeoff. Can There Be Transparency or Ethics in Sustainability? As Rob and Victoria covered in the last episode, there’s certainly a lot to discuss when it comes to jewelry sustainability and ethics. Victoria asks Morrison about responsibility in ad campaigns for sustainability and ethics promises from company to company. When asked, Morrison talks about how she sees promises of sustainability functioning for Lightbox. The episode wraps up with thoughts about Lightbox and what Morrison thinks about being a woman in the industry.

We talk to Sally Morrison, CMO of Lightbox jewelry. De Beers group has a fun new name in it's Fashion house and it's synthetic diamonds! Sally explains where the idea came from, who they are reaching, and the future of her diamonds.

In this episode, Paul talks with industry marketing expert Sally Morrison, currently Chief Marketing Officer of Lightbox, De Beers’ lab-grown diamond jewelry brand. The conversation starts with a discussion about how the diamond industry has not moved fast enough in recent years to embrace a changing consumer. However, Sally expresses her enthusiasm towards the emergence of so many new, young jewelry designers and the positive impact that can have on the industry. Next, the two discuss the diamond industry’s supply chain transparency initiatives, generic diamond marketing, protecting the “gift of love” market and fine versus fashion jewelry. Last, the discussion moves to lab-created diamonds and the marketing process of differentiating the product from natural.   Hosted by: Paul Zimnisky Guest: Sally Morrison, Lightbox Guest plug: www.lightboxjewelry.com   Show contact: paul@paulzimnisky.com or visit www.paulzimnisky.com.   Please note that the contents of this podcast includes anecdotes, observations and opinions. The information should not be considered investment or financial advice. Consult your investment professional before making any investment decisions. Please read full disclosure at: www.paulzimnisky.com.

Sally Morrison, Director of Implementations who works in Tangoe's Abingdon, England office, has been with the organization nearly ten years and is quite resilient and adaptable, which are character traits that come in quite handy to Tangoe employees. In fact, Sally has survived the acquisitions of ttMobiles, Asentinel, and Anatole, as well as endured the pervasive General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and hopefully, she says, Brexit at some time this year. Sally reminds us that we are, in fact, a global organization.

The multiple award-winning jewelry marketing expert Sally Morrison sits down to talk about receiving the prestigious Jewelers of America 2018 GEM Lifetime Achievement award. Sally is a highly successful, world-renowned jewelry marketer. She has held top-level marketing positions with Miramax films, J. Walter Thompson ad agency, De Beers, Forevermark, the World Gold Council, the Diamond Producers Association and Gemfields.  Sally shares stories about being a publicist for Elizabeth Taylor, working with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax films, as well as, her illustrious career and insights into marketing jewelry today. 

In Rapaport's first-ever podcast, we share our views on the holiday season, this year's most exciting marketing campaigns, and what retailers are — or should be — doing to meet consumers' needs. Also, hear our exclusive interview with Sally Morrison — former De Beers and DPA marketing exec and millennial-in-training — for her take on today's consumer landscape, and our lively discussion on the most groundbreaking news in the industry. Hint: It has a royal twist.

Michael Dermer is our first guest today he will discuss his new book, “The Lonely Entrepreneur”. Mr. Dermer is an Entrepreneur, speaker, and lawyer. Our second guest is Sally Morrison, Director of Marketing for Gemfields. She discusses Will Your Holiday Gift Create a Story? Our last guest Tonya Shackelford, Director of Clinical and Professional Services for fred’s Inc. Shackelford, will offer insight on the 2016-17 flu season.This show is broadcast live on Tuesday's 2PM ET on W4CY Radio – (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (http://www.talk4radio.com/) on the Talk 4 Media Network (http://www.talk4media.com/

Scripture: Mark 10:13-16; Pastor Richard Strick with Sally Morrison, Ryan & Satin Lemon, Big Brothers, Big Sisters Representative, and Megan Condry

Episode #7 This Episode - Mike interviews the authors of "A Taste for Work", Terri Clancy, managing director of a company that provides coaching and consulting, and Sally Morrison, who has helped thousands of job seekers achieve career self-reliance. They are two founders of Career Partners 3 and they discuss with Mike their book, the job market and how great food fits in to all of it. The perfect holiday combination.