Podcast appearances and mentions of van cleef arpels

The drummer and percussionist Billy Martin, whose name many Time Sensitive listeners may recognize—he created the Time Sensitive theme song—defies any boxed-in or limiting definitions of his work. Best known as a member of the band Medeski Martin & Wood (MMW), he's spent the past three-plus decades making experimental, boundary-pushing, and uncategorizable instrumental jazz-funk-groove music, shaping sounds that feel as expansive as they are definitive and distinctive. Across all his artistic output, Martin continually, meditatively searches for harmony. He is also a composer, a teacher, a visual artist, and a builder and craftsman. His expansive creative practice comes most alive at his home in Englewood, New Jersey, where he has cultivated a bamboo garden, crafted his own Japanese-style teahouse, and constructed a music studio. Martin is someone for whom rhythm is not just something heard, but also seen and felt.On the episode, he talks about his MMW journey at length, his concept of “rhythmic harmony,” and why he views sound creation as a sacred act.Special thanks to our Season 11 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes:Billy Martin[7:31] Medeski Martin & Wood[7:31] John Medeski[7:31] Chris Wood[7:31] “Not Not Jazz” (2024)[10:12] Iggy Pop's “Avenue B” (1999)[10:12] Don Was[11:27] “The Lover” (1995)[11:27] “Friday Afternoon in the Universe” (1995)[11:27] “Old Angel Midnight” (1973) by Jack Kerouac[13:44] Ra-Kalam Bob Moses[13:44] John Scofield[13:44] David Baker[15:57] “Shuck It Up” (1993)[15:57] “It's a Jungle in Here” (1993)[18:12] “Latin Shuffle” (1998)[18:12] “Combustication” (1998)[18:12] Frankie Malabe[18:12] Art Blakey[33:25] Thelonious Monk[33:58] “Life on Drums” (2011)[38:32] John Bonham[38:32] Charlie Watts[38:32] Stewart Copeland[38:32] Elvin Jones[38:32] Max Roach[38:32] Danny Richmond[38:32] Charles Mingus[38:32] Jack DeJohnette[38:32] Joe Morello[38:32] Roy Haynes[38:32] Stan Getz[38:32] Airto Moreira[38:32] Naná Vasconcelos[38:32] Babatunde Olatunji[39:58] Gus Johnson[39:58] “Whatever Happened to Gus” (1998)[39:58] Steve Cannon[40:54] “Chubb Sub” (1995)[40:54] ”Uncle Chubb” (1992)[46:41] “Shack-man” (1996)[47:06] “Drumming Birds” (2004)[54:48] “Bamboo Rainsticks” (1999)[54:48] Amulet Records[1:00:23] Creative Music Studio

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Where do new ideas come from? What is the genesis of those masterpieces that have redefined Modernity?At the beginning of the 20th century, a revolutionary artistic movement emerged, with the ambition of changing everything. This movement was Art Deco. A new style, with clean, pure lines that owes its name to an event with global repercussions, held in Paris in 1925: The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.At the heart of this avant-garde event, and amongst the jewels that were awarded the Grand Prix, was a bracelet. Its name: Fleurs enlacées, roses rouges et blanches or “Entwined Flowers, Red and White Roses”. Signed Van Cleef & Arpels, this bracelet was the perfect combination of tradition and Modernity.Voice of Jewels, a podcast from L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts supported by Van Cleef & Arpels. Unveiling the stories and secrets behind History's most fascinating jewels.With Inezita Gay-Eckel, Jewelry Historian and Lecturer at L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Written by Martin Quenehen and Aram Kebabdjian, performed by Jean Ann Douglass and produced by Bababam. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

D'où viennent les idées neuves ? Comment naissent les chefs-d'œuvre qui redéfinissent la modernité ? Au début du XXe siècle, un mouvement artistique révolutionnaire émerge, avec l'ambition de tout changer : l'Art Déco. Un style nouveau, aux lignes franches et épurées, qui doit son nom à un événement au retentissement planétaire qui s'est tenu à Paris en 1925 : L'Exposition internationale des Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes. Au cœur de cette manifestation avant-gardiste, parmi les bijoux sacrés par le Grand Prix, un bracelet. Nommé Fleurs enlacées, roses rouges et blanches et signé Van Cleef & Arpels, ce dernier fait s'entrechoquer tradition joaillière… et modernité.La Voix des Bijoux est un podcast de L'École des Arts Joailliers avec le soutien de Van Cleef & Arpels, qui vous dévoile les fascinantes histoires et les savoirs secrets que renferment les plus beaux bijoux.Interprété par Marina Hands de la Comédie FrançaiseAvec la participation de Inezita Gay-Eckel, Historienne du bijou et professeur à L'École des Arts Joailliers.Écrit par Martin Quenehen et Aram Kebabdjian et produit par Bababam. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

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This week, we continue our post-game analysis of Watches & Wonders, with a perhaps surprising focus on some of the more fashion-forward brands at the Palexpo. Andy runs us through the offerings of Chanel, Hermès and Van Cleef & Arpels, as well as dress, dive and sports options from IWC, Zenith and Chopard. Beyond that, Andy ventured outside the fair to check out Atelier Wen, and we chat about how the new Santos de Cartier Dual Time will be big in Australia.  This episode of OT: The Podcast is in partnership with Cartier, find out more about their latest watches at cartier.com.au Love Cartier? Join our Discord. Show Notes: https://www.otpodcast.com.au/show-notes Cartier Cartierwatchcommunity on Instagram IWC's latest Chanel's latest Chopard's 2024 collection The 2024 Hermès novelties Zenith at Watches & Wonders Atelier Wen How to follow us: Instagram: @ot.podcast Facebook: @OTPODCASTAU Follow hosts: @fkscholz + @andygreenlive on Instagram. Send us an email: otthepodcast@gmail.com If you liked our podcast - please remember to like/share and subscribe.

Coucou everyone! We are so happy to present an episode of Laune x Europhile! Our friend Emma McDonnell is known for her excellent taste showcased in her creative endeavor, Laune. Laune is the place where Emma is able to compile thoughts, recommendations, conversations with interesting people - it's inspiring in every sense of the word! This week Emma was able to come on the podcast to share the history of Van Cleef & Arpels (another example of Emma's exceptional taste). Do you know what an Alhambra is??? Check out Emma's site Laune and her Instagram! Emma's recommendation: Sisi: Austrian Empress (2021) on Amazon Prime Don't forget to follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tiktok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ :) Cover art and logo by Kate Walker Mixed and edited by Catherine Roehre Theme song by Lumehill Thank you all - ciao! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/europhile/support

Stāsta rotu māksliniece un pētniece, Latvijas Mākslas akadēmijas lektore Ginta Grūbe. 20. gadsimta 20.–30. gadi ir laiks, kad rotās stila tendences bija cieši saistītas ar glezniecības un tēlniecības aktuālajām norisēm. Šajā laikā idejas avangarda rotām mākslinieki smēlās gan kubismā, gan futūrismā, gan arī Krievu konstruktīvismā tiecoties atainot moderno, industriālo pasauli. Šie, protams, nebija vienīgie iedvesmas avoti. Art deco periods sekoja kā pretreakcija pirms kara aktuālajam jūgendstilam. Pēc kara cilvēki nevēlējās redzēt neko, kas atsauktu atmiņā pieredzēto, tāpēc jauni vizuāli un simboliski motīvi bija likumsakarīgi. 1922. gadā pasaules presi pāršalca skandalozs atradums, Ēģiptē tika atklāta neskarta 18. dinastijas faraona Tutanhamona kapa vieta – vislabāk saglabājušos faraonu kapenes, kas jebkad atrastas Karaļu ielejā. Atradums bija vairāk kā trīs tūkstoši divi simti gadu vecs (atradums datēts ar 1327. g. p. m. ē.). Šis notikums aktualizēja ne tikai Senās Ēģiptes motīvus lietišķajā mākslā, bet arī deva impulsu jaunu kompozīciju tapšanai ne tikai rotās, bet arī citās lietišķās mākslas jomās un popkultūrā. Faraons Tutanhamons nebija bagātākais valdnieks Senajā Ēģiptē, bet atpazīstamību iemantoja, jo viņa kapenes bija nesenākais atradums, kas līdz tam bijis neskarts. Varam tikai iedomāties, cik bagāti bija citi Senās Ēģiptes valdnieki, ja Tutanhamona sarkofāgs bija zeltā veidots, inkrustēts ar kvarcu, tirkīzu, serdoliku, lazurītu un stiklu. Kopumā sarkofāgs bija viens no iespaidīgākajiem atradumiem kapenēs. Atradums bija revolucionārs, bet apvīts ar daudziem mītiem un ne mazums skandāliem, piemēram, par atradumu tika ierobežota informācija, jo drīz pēc atklājuma tiesības par to rakstīt presē iegādājās kāds Anglijas preses izdevums. Vairākus no atradumiem arheologs bija piesavinājies nelegāli, kā vēlāk atklājās, izsekojot viņa dāvinājumiem tuviem draugiem vai sabiedrotajiem. Francijā modes namu kultūra bija īpaši spēcīga, tāpēc rotu attīstības ceļš šajā valstī saglabāja sasaisti ar modes industriju. Modes nami kā “Van Cleef & Arpels” un “Cartier” reaģēja uz aktualitātēm medijos un sāka izgatavot rotas, kurās redzams lotosa zieds, Senās Ēģiptes valdnieku atveidi un skarabejs, kā daži no aktualizētajiem motīviem. Koši zilais tirkīzs, oranžais serdoliks un tumšāk zilais lazurīts bija akmeņi, kas bieži tika izmatoti rotās Senajā Ēģiptē un līdz ar nozīmīgo atradumu, šie akmeņi, vai dārgakmeņi ar līdzīgu tonalitāti, kļuva par biežu izvēli rotās arī art deco periodā. Līdzīgā veidā 19. gadsimta otrajā pusē pieauga pieprasījums pēc rotām, kas veidotas, atdarinot seno etrusku civilizācijas izstrādātās zeltlietas. Tas notika pēc tam, kad nozīmīgi artefakti tika atrasti arheoloģiskās ekspedīcijās. Tas rezultējās parādībā, ko vēsturnieki dēvē par Etrusku atdzimšanas periodu. Rotas un atrastie objekti ar īpašu meistarību izcēlās, pateicoties granulācijas tehnikai. Izstrādājuma virsma tiek noklāta ar sīkām zelta granulām, veidojot īpaši greznu, uzirdinātu virsmas struktūru. Galvenā pazīme, pēc kuras atpazīt vēlākā laika atdarinājumus, bija rotu tehniskā precizitāte un simetrija, ko bija iespējams panākt, roku darbu aizstājot ar mehāniskajiem darba galdiem un iekārtām. Pazīstamais austrāliešu rotu mākslinieks Roberts Bainss savā radošajā praksē pievērsies tieši rotu vēstures pētniecībai. Viņš pētījis viltojumu un pakaļdarinājumu vēsturi, lai iedvesmotu savu rotu un objektu tapšanu. Viltojumu vai vēlāku laiku pakaļdarinājumu bieži vien nodod sintētisku materiālu klātbūtne izstrādājumā. Savā praksē viņš interpretē kādu 11. gadsimta islāmu aproci, kurā izmantota gan granulācija, gan filigrāna tehnika. Veidojot tās kopiju, mākslinieks apzināti iekļauj tikai mūsdienām raksturīgus materiālus, piemēram košu rozā gumiju, kas kontrastā ar zelta filigrānu un granulāciju, rosina skatītājā neizpratni un pārdomas par seno laiku un mūsdienu rotu kontrastējošo dabu. Mūsdienās aizvien retāki ir apjomīgi arheoloģiski atradumi, toties ar vēsturisko rotu bagāžu varam iepazīties dizaina un mākslas muzejos visā pasaulē. Avoti: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-howard-carter-discovered-king-tuts-golden-tomb-180981052/ https://www.abebooks.com/9783897902909/Art-Deco-Jewellery-Accessories-New-3897902907/plp https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/679091

  Transcript: Auctions, appraisals, and the professionals who perform them are some of the most misunderstood elements of the jewelry industry. That's exactly why Gina D'Onofrio, independent appraiser and Co-Director of Fine Jewelry at Heritage Auctions, joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast. She discussed what a consigner can expect when selling jewelry with an auction house; how appraisers come up with values (and why they might change); and how consumers can protect themselves by asking their appraiser the right questions. Read the episode transcript here. What you'll learn in this episode: What questions to ask appraisers and auction houses before selling your jewelry. What education and networking opportunities an aspiring appraiser should seek out. Why an appraisal includes multiple values, and why those values will change depending on the reason for the appraisal. What the process of selling jewelry with an auction house is like, and why you might choose an auction house over selling online or to a store. What a qualified appraiser will look for while inspecting a piece of jewelry.   About Gina D'Onofrio With work in the retail, auction and manufacturing sectors of the jewelry industry since 1989, Gina D'Onofrio's experience encompasses jewelry design and production, appraisals, buying and selling of contemporary, antique and period jewelry, sales and management. Gina operates an independent gemological laboratory, appraisal service and consulting firm and has been catering to private individuals, banks, trusts, non-profit organizations, insurance companies, legal firms and the jewelry trade in the greater Los Angeles area. Gina received her Master Gemologist Appraiser® designation, upon completion of appraisal studies, written and practical examinations and peer appraisal report review with the American Society of Appraisers. In addition, she was awarded the Certified Master Appraiser designation with the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers. In 2013 Gina received Los Angeles Magazine's coveted "Best in LA" award for her Jewelry Appraisal Services. She conducts presentations and entertaining speeches about appraisal and jewelry related topics to private and corporate groups in Los Angeles and throughout the USA.   Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com Additional Resources: Website Instagram Facebook Email   Transcript: Auctions, appraisals, and the professionals who perform them are some of the most misunderstood elements of the jewelry industry. That's exactly why Gina D'Onofrio, independent appraiser and Co-Director of Fine Jewelry at Heritage Auctions, joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast. She discussed what a consigner can expect when selling jewelry with an auction house; how appraisers come up with values (and why they might change); and how consumers can protect themselves by asking their appraiser the right questions. Read the episode transcript here. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey, exploring the hidden world of art around you. Because every piece of art has a story, and jewelry is no exception.   Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com.    Today, I am glad to welcome back Gina D'Onofrio, an appraiser who just returned from being an independent appraiser. She returned to the auction house Heritage as co-director of jewelry. She was also on the podcast in the very beginning, and it's good to have her on again. Welcome back.   If you become a certain kind of appraiser, let's say real estate or antique jewelry or I'll call it regular jewelry, how do you continue your education in those areas? What do you do if you're a real estate appraiser and you want to be an expert, or an antique expert? What would you do to continue education in that area?   Gina: You mentioned real estate. So, you mean you're appraising houses and all of a sudden you want to appraise antique jewelry?   Sharon: No, if you're in a particular area, is what I mean. You work in jewelry. What do you do to further your education besides going to the conferences, handling the jewelry? Are there other things you can do to further your education in those areas? In that area, I should say.   Gina: If you're working in jewelry, you're basically filling all the educational holes that you might have. When you say you work in jewelry, if you work for a contemporary jeweler, then you need to have more exposure to vintage jewelry. If it's vice versa, maybe you're working with antique and estate jewelry and you're not as exposed to what present day Tiffany and Company and Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels are doing, then you have to self-educate and gain more exposure to that kind of jewelry. As a jewelry appraiser, anything can cross your desk. Quite often, I might receive a collection that belongs to somebody, and she may have something that she bought last week and she may have something that her great-grandmother owned and she has inherited. You need to be able to recognize and evaluate and appraise both pieces. So, you do need a very well-rounded education.   Sharon: You raised the point of Cartier and David Webb and the high-end pieces that designers make, but not everything you see is going to be that. As you said, there's the piece that the grandmother passes down. Heritage, I presume, isn't all Cartier. What do you do then? What do you do if a piece comes across your desk and it's not a Cartier or it's not a David Webb? Do you look at a David Webb as the benchmark and then go from there?   Gina: No, you don't, because a piece that has no stamp or signature doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a fine piece. That's where having an understanding of jewelry manufacturing is critical. You do need to gain an education on how a piece of jewelry is made. GIA is teaching a class called jewelry forensics. In that class, they teach appraisers and other members of the industry how to look at a piece and recognize how it was fabricated. Was it made entirely by hand? Was it made by carving a wax and casting it? Was it made via CAD/CAM design and 3D printing? Was made by using a die struck method? These are all different methods of producing a piece of jewelry, and as an appraiser you need to have an education in that so when you're holding that piece of jewelry in your hand, A) you recognize how it was made, and B) you recognize the quality of the workmanship. That plays into the value of the piece.    For example, you might have a piece of jewelry, and you recognize that it was made entirely by hand. A great deal of time and effort has gone into making it, and the workmanship is excellent. Flawless, in fact. That is going to inform you as to what it would cost to replace that piece if your client wants to insure it for another piece that has been made entirely by hand.    Or, you might look at a piece that is mass produced using CAD/CAM and 3D printing, but it's a piece that's not finished very well. It's poorly made, and the setting work is very poor, too. In fact, some of the stones are a little bit loose because they weren't set properly, or perhaps they're not straight in the piece. That's going to tell you that it's a mass-produced piece. If it's not signed, you're going to be looking at other mass-produced pieces of the same type of lower quality in order to determine what it would cost to replace that piece. Understanding production is really important.   Sharon: Can you be an appraiser without having this background of manufacturing and that sort of thing? Could you be an appraiser?   Gina: You can. I'm really sad to say that there is no licensing of jewelry appraisers. There is no regulation, no government regulation. We self-regulate. That's why if you want to become a professional appraiser and you want to be the best appraiser you can be, you should join an organization that gives you excellent education and network with other very experienced appraisers who can help guide you in the right direction to get the education that you need.    Unfortunately, anybody can appraise jewelry and nobody can stop you. As a consumer, it's best to look for an appraiser that has reached the highest level they can possibly attain within an appraisal organization that requires their members to requalify every five years. The International Society of Appraisers has a requalification program. So does the American Society of Appraisers. They do require their members to requalify every five years. Then you have the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers that have different strata of membership, different tiers of membership, so look for an appraiser within that organization that has successfully completed the Certified Master Appraiser program, the CMA, and at the very least is a certified appraiser. Someone who has sat for the exams.   Sharon: What is requalification? Is that a test on paper or a computer, or is it just that you came to class?   Gina: It varies. It depends on which organization. I failed to mention the American Gem Society, I apologize. They also have an Independent Gemologist Appraiser program. For requalification, you have to attend a minimum amount of education every year. You have to prove you have done that. There is also an exam you have to take as well.   Sharon: You answered one of the questions I had, which is what you would ask somebody you want to be an appraiser for you. What would you ask them to know if they're good or not? What should I ask? What would somebody in the public ask if they're looking for an appraiser?   Gina: Yes. Everything that I just told you. Make sure that they have reached the highest designation they can within those appraisal organizations.   Sharon: I took some antique jewelry to an appraiser not knowing that they did all kinds of jewelry, but they weren't an expert in antiques. Was there any way to suss that out in advance?   Gina: That's a great question, Sharon. That's tricky. As I mentioned earlier, I feel that it's difficult to get a formal education in jewelry history today, so you are getting it piecemeal from wherever you can, which is why I developed my courses. There is no way to look at an appraiser and have them prove to you that they are a specialist in antique and period jewelry. Unfortunately, that's something that comes by way of reputation. You may have to ask, "How did you become proficient?" You may have to just ask them to explain that to you. It's a tricky one. As a consumer, I'm not quite sure how that could be proven.   Sharon: What would you suggest the public ask if you want to know if an appraiser is credentialed, a credible appraiser?   Gina: You ask them what level of certification, what designation, they have achieved within their appraisal organization. Are they a member of the ASA, the NAJA, the ISA, the AGS? If they are a member—you could be a member and not attain any education. You could be a candidate member, or you could just simply be a member. Ask them, "What education have you completed with these organizations? Are you designated? What is your designation? What is your experience with antique and period jewelry? Are you proficient with that type of jewelry?" Just outright ask them to show you what their education and designation is.    Most appraisers who have achieved this level of education and designation have spent a great deal of time attaining it and are proud of what they've achieved, and they usually put up on their website for everybody to see. But if they haven't done that, you can ask them for their professional profiles so you can read through what they've achieved, and you can even check it. You can call those appraisal organizations to see if the information you've been provided is true and accurate.   Sharon: I'm thinking about something you said earlier. If somebody says to me, "I don't have a formal education in this, but I've handled a million and one pieces in this era, and I can tell right away if it's fake or not and who made it," what do you say to that?   Gina: That's quite possible. Absolutely. Then that makes them a connoisseur and a specialist in antique and period jewelry. But are they an appraiser? Do they have an education in appraisal report writing? Can they write that appraisal report for you? That's the other part. That's the other side of the coin. That's the other thing they have to have to be an appraiser. Otherwise, they're an expert in that period of jewelry, but they're not necessarily an appraiser.   Sharon: That's interesting. When I thought about being an appraiser myself, it was the report writing that scared me off. That's very detailed and very scientific in a way. Very precise.   Gina: Yes, and that education is something that you can study.   Sharon: Okay. I think I'll pass.   Gina: You almost looked like you were considering it, Sharon.   Sharon: No, I think I've heard too much about the classes for the report writing and how they're pretty onerous, in a in a good way.   Gina: They're fascinating. I highly recommend it. Anyone out there who is writing appraisal reports and doesn't have a foundation in appraisal report writing from one of the major organizations, I really suggest that you go out and get that education. You'll be amazed at what you'll learn. It's going to make you even better at what you do.   Sharon: Why would you say it makes you better at what you do?   Gina: This education is written by appraisers, not just one appraiser, but collaborative groups of appraisers who have been immersed in that profession for many, many years. They have learned the best approaches and the pitfalls. They have studied the government requirements. They may have had a lot of experience in appraising for litigation, and this collective information has been formally put into a course. It's only going to help you as an appraiser. It's going to help you avoid ending up in court or possibly being disqualified as an appraiser for the IRS because you did not follow the proper procedures. If you know what pitfalls to avoid and how to arrive at a more informed opinion of value, it's only going to make your appraisal a better product for the person that's using it.   Sharon: That makes a lot of sense. I keep going back to Antiques Roadshow. They talk about the auction value and the retail value and the insurance value. It drives me crazy because you see the glassy-eyed look in somebody's eyes. I want to say, "Didn't you hear what they said?"   Gina: As an appraiser and as a specialist for an auction house, this is the biggest problem. This is the biggest obstacle for a private individual, understanding that there is not just one value. There are multiple values for the same piece of jewelry. It just depends on the market. It depends on whether it's the auction market, whether it is the liquidation market, or whether it is the retail market or whether it is the antique and estate jewelry market. Is it being sold as a brand-new piece? Is it being sold as a pre-owned piece in a retail scenario? Is it a custom-made designer piece? The same piece of jewelry could have various values depending on what you need that information for.   Sharon: I wonder, you talked about this handmade piece. Is there a replacement? Yes, there's an insurance value, but could you find a replacement somewhere in the market?   Gina: That's a great question. You know what? Appraisal organizations, we all have forums, email chat groups where we ask each other questions and use the collaborative brain trust of your peers to help you solve a problem, and a problem came up today. There was a photograph of a bracelet that was posted by a professional appraiser. This appraiser recognized the designer. The designer and the manufacturer—they are one in the same—was a French designer called Georges Lenfant. He was a manufacturer of chains, particularly beautifully constructed chains and bracelets, and he manufactured for all the major jewelry houses, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, goodness me, so many of them. He was very active in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s. He had his own trademark that he would put inside a piece, but he didn't sign it. The piece was often signed with the jewelry house, Cartier, and then it had the Georges Lenfant stamp inside the piece. He was a French maker.  I tell you all of this to explain that today, when pieces of jewelry come to market made by this particular maker, there is an extra layer of interest and value because these pieces are so beautifully made. This appraiser posted a piece of jewelry by this maker. This is one of those pieces that wasn't signed by a major jewelry house, but the appraiser was very good and was able to recognize that it was the Georges Lenfant trademark and posed the question, "Can anybody tell me where I can find examples of this piece so I can arrive at an opinion of replacement value?" It was a 1970s bracelet made by this French maker. Where would you replace a 1970s piece made by this maker? It would be with somebody who typically sells vintage jewelry, high-end vintage jewelry. That should have been the answer to this question.    Unfortunately, one of the answers provided was, "Contact the manufacturer and ask them what they would charge you to make it today." It's not being made today, not that particular piece. It's a vintage piece by a collectible maker. I guess that's a very long example to your question. You need to determine, is this a piece that's typically being made today, or is this a vintage piece that has collectible value? Do you recognize who the maker is? Is there a stamp inside there? Is there some way you can look this up? If you can't look it up, who do you go to? How do you find out? You need to know to ask all these questions. All this happens by networking with your peers, by attending appraisal conferences, by self-educating, and by handling a lot of this jewelry.   Sharon: Do you have a favorite period that you like to appraise, or a favorite stone that you are more partial to?   Gina: Oh, boy. Gosh. Well, my focus is 20th century jewelry. I have no favorites. I love all periods of jewelry, but because I am very much immersed these days in jewelry from 1930 to 2000, which I feel is an area of education that is not being covered enough, I tend to focus on 20th century jewelry and preferably the latter half.   Sharon: I can understand. How do you bring the jewelry in, and what do you do with it once you have it?   Gina: A typical day as a consignment director at Heritage Auctions. Well, that varies from day to day, but if you're talking about the consignment process, I could be going to visit with a client. It could be in his or her home. I could be looking at the jewelry and studying the jewelry and learning about the history behind the piece from the owner. Based on that information and based on the collection, I could be coming up with estimate ranges of what the piece of jewelry may sell for at auction. At that point, the owner of the jewelry may consign it to the auction house, at which point I take the jewelry with me and it goes through the auction process.    It gets shipped to headquarters, where it is professionally photographed. If there are any repairs that need to be done, it's done at that point. If lab reports need to be obtained, they are submitted to the labs for grading reports or gem origin identification reports. Then they go through the cataloging process, where the pieces are tested, gemstones are measured, and weight estimates are provided and entered into the system. Then all this information is compiled into the digital online catalog. If it's a signature sale, it also goes into the printed catalog and it goes to print. Those catalogs are distributed to all the bidders.    Then the marketing begins. Biographies are written and researched. Anything that will assist in helping to provide more information to a potential bidder is entered. Then the publicity begins and the public previews begin. The pieces are shipped and sent off to our major satellite offices where they are set up in jewelry showcases, and they are available for public preview. Sometimes special events are planned around these previews, and the planning behind those special events takes place as well. Once all of that is complete, then the pieces are offered up on auction day. When the pieces have successfully sold at auction, then they are packaged up again, money is collected, and the pieces are shipped to the new owners.   Sharon: Do you ever have repeat clients or repeat people who call you and say, "Gina, I have something I want to show you," because you've developed a relationship?   Gina: Yes, definitely. I have regular consignors and I have regular buyers, and sometimes they are one in the same. There are people that are constantly refining their jewelry collections, so sometimes they'll sell a piece that they no longer need, but they're also collecting pieces that are more to their evolving tastes. We have collectors. Then we also have repeat consignors. I have many clients who have accumulated lovely jewelry collections over the years, and they're very slowly thinning the collection or letting each piece go once they're ready to sell it.   Sharon: Is that because they're aging out, let's say, or they get tired of a piece?   Gina: It could be either. If you're a collector and you're refining your collection, then yes, you're refining it and you're selling pieces that no longer fit in with your style that is evolving. If you're downsizing, you could be downsizing everything in your life, including your home, your clothes and your jewelry collection. Sometimes lifestyle. Especially today, lifestyles change. We no longer wear the jewelry we used to wear, and it's just sitting around. Maybe it's time to sell those pieces to put it into something else. Maybe you want to start a college fund for your child, and that jewelry you're no longer wearing anymore is going to go into that fund. There are all kinds of reasons why people sell their jewelry. Sometimes it's a divorce settlement. Sometimes it's by court order. We've had many sales that have been by court order. The government wants to collect their taxes and it's a liquidation. Jewelry is going up for sale because it's by court order.   Sharon: It's certainly true that lifestyles change very fast and what you wore. I think, "Well, you're a middle-aged woman now. Am I going to wear what I wore when I was 20?" It's very different.   Gina, thank you very much for being here. I learned a lot. It was great to talk with you and I hope you will come back soon.   Gina: Thank you so much, Sharon. It was such a pleasure to talk to you as well.   We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.   Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.    

To Helen Molesworth, curating is much more than carefully selecting and positioning noteworthy artworks and objects alongside one another within a space; it's also about telling stories through them and about them, and in turn, communicating particular, often potent messages. Her probing writing takes a similar approach to her curatorial work, as can be seen in her new book, Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing About Art (Phaidon), which culls together 24 of her essays written across three decades. For nearly 20 of those years, Molesworth served in various curatorial roles at museums and arts institutions including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and most recently, as the chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA). In the five years since her departure from MOCA, Molesworth has built a thriving practice as an independent curator, writer, and podcaster, notably as the host of the six-part podcast Death of an Artist, which was named a best podcast of 2022 by both The Economist and The Atlantic.On this episode of Time Sensitive, Molesworth discusses her lifelong engagement with the work of Marcel Duchamp; the transformative power of a great conversation; and the personal and professional freedom she has found in recent years as a roving, independent voice in the art world.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes:[00:25] Helen Molesworth[03:50] Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing About Art[04:02] Marcel Duchamp[04:09] “At Home with Marcel Duchamp: The Readymade and Domesticity”[11:33] “The Creative Act”[12:09] Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain”[17:22] Frank Stella[17:28] John Baldessari[21:56] Paul Lafargue[22:32] Doris Salcedo[29:50] Josiah McElheny[35:23] Al Hirschfeld[36:41] State University of New York at Albany[36:43] Whitney Museum Independent Study Program[36:48] Cornell University[42:33] “One Day at a Time”[46:57] Kerry James Marshall[47:00] “This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s”[47:02] “Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957”[47:41] Death of an Artist[47:46] Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast[47:48] Recording Artists[54:53] Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles[54:51] Carl Andre[59:45] WBLS: The Quiet Storm

In another life, the German-born architect Annabelle Selldorf might have been a painter or a profile writer. In this one, she expresses her proclivity for portraiture as the principal of the New York–based firm Selldorf Architects, which she founded in 1988. Renowned for its work in the art world—from galleries for the likes of David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth to cultural institutions including The Frick Collection in New York, the National Gallery in London, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.—Selldorf's firm has also designed a wide variety of residential projects and civic buildings. Many of these designs serve as architectural depictions of their respective clients, revealing each one's inner nature and underlying ethos.On this episode, Selldorf discusses the links she sees between Slow Food and her architecture, the intuitive aspects of form-making, and why she considers architecture “the mother of all arts.”Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:31] Selldorf Architects[08:19] The Frick Collection[10:42] Lucian Freud[17:45] Dia Beacon[18:43] Art Gallery of Ontario expansion[18:54] Two Row[18:57] Diamond Schmitt[26:08] Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility[30:03] CSO Red Hook[30:05] CSO Owls Head[34:31] National Gallery, London[35:17] One Domino Park[37:15] John Russell Pope[37:28] Thomas Hastings[43:13] I.M. Pei[55:38] Ludwig Mies van der Rohe[58:54] Neue Galerie

What do Bianca Castafiore and Rihanna have in common? What about the Andes Mountains and the Château de Versailles? And JRR Tolkien and James Cameron?Here's a hint: they've been around since the dawn of time. They've induced passion and powerful emotions. Sometimes quaint or ostentatious… They're jewels.Whether connected with feelings or power, whether mythical, magical or romantic…their beauty has unveiled many mysteries and unfolded a slew of adventures! Discover Voice of Jewels, a podcast by L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts supported by Van Cleef & Arpels.Written by Martin Quenehen and Aram Kebabdjian, performed by Edoardo Ballerini and produced by Bababam. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quel est le point commun entre la Castafiore et Rihanna ? Entre la Cordillère des Andes et le Château de Versailles ? Entre Tolkien et James Cameron ?Un indice : ils existent depuis la nuit des temps. Ils suscitent les passions et les grands sentiments. Parfois discrets, parfois éclatants. Ce sont… les bijoux.Bijoux de sentiments ou de pouvoir, joyaux mythiques, magiques ou romantiques… leur beauté induit bien des mystères, et laisse deviner mille et une aventures !Découvrez La Voix des Bijoux, le podcast de L'École des Arts Joailliers, avec le soutien de Van Cleef & Arpels.Écrit par Martin Quenehen et Aram Kebabdjian, interprété par Pierre François Garel et produit par Bababam. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

To the landscape architect Walter Hood, “place” is a nebulous concept made meaningful only through the illumination of its history and the people who have inhabited it. Hood has dedicated his career to this very perspective through his roles as creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, and as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley, where he has taught since 1990. His projects include a series of conceptual gardens at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina; the grounds of the campus of the tech company Nvidia in Santa Clara, California; and the landscape of San Francisco's de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Currently, he's at work on the wayfinding for the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Chicago; a new park in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina; and twin memorials for Emory University's campuses in Oxford and Atlanta, Georgia.On this episode, Hood discusses the intersection of social justice and landscape architecture, his arguments against what we traditionally deem “memorials” or “monuments,” and the power of language to literally shape the world around us.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [03:34] Black Landscapes Matter[03:39] The World They Made Together[08:18] American Academy in Rome[08:27] Carthage[08:55] Loma Prieta Earthquake[13:48] Monticello[13:50] National Memorial for Peace and Justice[13:53] Gadsden's Wharf[14:28] Lorraine Motel[16:07] Montgomery County Justice Center[18:40] Double Sights[24:37] Macon Yards[25:32] The Power of Place[28:59] Confederate Obelisk[29:55] Splash Pad Park[30:16] Lafayette Square Park[38:21] International African American Museum[38:25] “Native(s)”[39:54] Water Table[40:51] McColl Park[42:28] Twin Memorials[47:11] Octagon House[48:43] de Young Museum[51:13] The Broad[54:14] The Future of Nostalgia[54:53] Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations[58:01] Solar Strand[01:06:02] Art Institute of Chicago

Au cœur des ateliers de la maison Van Cleef & Arpels, nous partons à la découverte des métiers de la joaillerie… Un bijou, c'est la rencontre d'une grande diversité d'expertises. Étape après étape, les artisans de la Maison font preuve de virtuosité et de minutie pour donner vie à une véritable œuvre collective. Au fil des épisodes nous rencontrerons les dessinateurs, experts pierres, joailliers, concepteurs 3D, sertisseurs, polisseurs…lls ont chacun leur parcours et leur propre histoire… Et ils partagent une même passion, celle des savoir-faire d'exception qui se transmettent de mains en mains.de Mains en mains, à la découverte des métiers de la joaillerie. Un podcast de la Maison Van Cleef & Arpels, avec la participation de Nicolas Bos, président et directeur artistique de la maison. Présenté par Karine Vergniol et produit par BABABAM. Pour en savoir plus sur l'initiative de Mains en mains et découvrir les métiers de la joaillerie, rendez-vous sur demainsenmains.vancleefarpels.com Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Min Jin Lee could be considered an exemplar of the old adage “slow and steady wins the race.” The author's bestselling 2017 novel Pachinko—a National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller that was adapted into a television series for Apple TV+ in 2022—took 30 years to write from its inception as a short story. Her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires (2007), took five years. These extensive periods of time become understandable, or even seem scant, within the sprawling, multigenerational contexts of her novels—Pachinko spans almost a century—into which she pours deep anthropological, sociological, and journalistic research. Lee is also the editor of the just-published The Best American Short Stories 2023 (Mariner Books) anthology, and she's currently at work on American Hagwon, the third novel in her diasporic trilogy.On this episode, she talks about the complex role of time in Pachinko, her miraculous recovery from chronic liver disease, and why she likens short-story writing to polishing diamonds.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:25] Min Jin Lee[03:39] Viet Thanh Nguyen[06:08] Free Food for Millionaires[06:10] Pachinko[06:19] The Best American Short Stories 2023[08:08] Amy Tan[08:09] Salman Rushdie[09:36] “Bread and Butter”[09:37] “Motherland”[09:38] “The Best Girls”[10:04] William Trevor[10:06] Alice Munro[12:45] Yale University[17:23] Harvard Business School[17:34] Fashion Institute of Technology[47:37] Queens Public Library in Elmhurst[49:21] The Bronx High School of Science[49:32] The Hotchkiss School[49:33] Phillips Exeter Academy[58:46] American Hagwon[01:03:33] Stoner by John Williams

In art and design circles, the name George Nakashima is synonymous with expert woodworking, exquisite furniture, and high-quality craftsmanship. Over the past 30-plus years, his daughter, the architect and furniture maker Mira Nakashima, has not only artfully built upon his techniques and time-honored traditions, further cementing his legacy, but also stepped outside of his shadow and carved a name for herself. Having worked full-time at George Nakashima Woodworkers since 1970, Mira took over as its president and creative director upon her father's death in 1990. Since then, she has carried on his unfinished projects, continued producing dozens of his designs, and also developed many of her own creations, including her Keisho and Shoki furniture lines. Through it all, Mira has remained as humble as ever and maintained a deep reverence for her father, his boundless creativity, and his exacting vision.On this episode, Nakashima talks about her family's time spent in a Japanese internment camp during World War II; the enduring “karma yoga” influence of the Indian philosopher and spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo, whom her father once studied under and worked for as an architect; and why her father considered his work “an antidote to the modern world.”Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [01:15] George Nakashima Woodworkers[03:39] Nakashima Foundation for Peace[03:43] George Nakashima[03:52] Altar for Peace at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine[04:08] Altar for Peace at the Russian Academy of Arts[04:14] Altar for Peace in Auroville, India[08:42] Hague Appeal for Peace[13:52] Sri Aurobindo[15:36] Bnai Keshet[15:45] St. Martin of Tours[15:50] Monastery of Christ in the Desert[15:58] Queen of Peace Chapel[17:14] Ivan Wyschnegradsky[17:22] Antonin Raymond[17:36] Golconde[21:00] George Nakashima Woodworker[23:07] Katsura Imperial Villa[23:26] Junzō Yoshimura[30:11] Udar Pinto[31:27] The Soul of a Tree[42:07] Nature Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima[45:22] The Krosnicks' furniture collection[49:54] Keisho collection[54:14] Shoki collection

Behind every unforgettable space and every extraordinary experience is a certain je ne sais quoi. If anyone has an idea of what exactly that is, it's the hospitality impresario and Studio 54 co-founder Ian Schrager. For more than four decades, Schrager has been a defining cultural catalyst and beacon across industries, from hotels and nightlife, to art and architecture, to fashion and food, and beyond. Since the early 1980s, Schrager has devised and developed more than 20 ahead-of-the-curve hospitality properties, including the Public hotel (2017) in New York City and the Edition line of hotels, as well as, going further back, the Morgans (1982), the Paramount (1990), the Hudson (2000), and the Gramercy Park Hotel (2006) in New York; the Mondrian (1996) in Los Angeles; the Delano (1995) in Miami; St. Martins Lane and the Sanderson (both 1998) in London; and the Clift (2000) in San Francisco. Beyond designing for mere aesthetic appreciation, Schrager cultivates places with a soul and spirit all their own.On this episode—our 100th—Schrager discusses his tried-and-true design philosophies and definition of luxury today; his admiration for the visionary thinking of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Walt Disney; and the enduring aura of Studio 54.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:33] Ian Schrager[02:54] Morgans Hotel[02:59] Studio 54[03:02] Steve Rubell[06:26] Edition Hotels[06:33] Arne Sorenson[12:44] Public Hotels[13:03] Paramount Hotel[13:29] The Royalton[14:45] Hudson Hotel[24:37] John Pawson[26:04] The Palladium[26:05] Arata Isozaki[33:24] “Studio 54” Documentary[42:41] Enchanted Garden[50:48] Bianca Jagger[50:51] Truman Capote[50:51] Andy Warhol[50:56] Issey Miyake[53:33] Paul Goldberger[01:03:01] Paperless Post

To Sanford Biggers, the past, present, and future are intertwined and all part of one big, long now. Over the past three decades, the Harlem-based artist has woven various threads of place and time—in ways not dissimilar to a hip-hop D.J. or a quilter—to create clever, deeply metaphorical, darkly humorous, and often beautiful work across a vast array of mediums, including painting, sculpture, video, photography, music, and performance. Among his standout works are “Oracle” (2021), a 25-foot-tall cast bronze sculpture that combines a Greco-Roman form with an African mask; his “BAM” series (2015) of gunshot statuettes; and his ongoing “Codex” series of quilts, which have, over his past decade of making them, become an especially potent and ritualistic part of his art-making.On this episode, Biggers talks about the influence that musicians such as Mahalia Jackson, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder have had on his art; why he thinks of himself as a “material polyglot”; and why religious and spiritual works like reliquaries, shrines, and “power objects” are the bedrock of his practice.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes:[00:26] Sanford Biggers[03:55] “Sanford Biggers with Yasi Alipour”[07:14] “The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers”[12:34] Moon Medicin[13:36] Mahalia Jackson[13:39] Ray Charles[13:40] Charles Mingus[13:41] Thelonious Monk[15:32] Stevie Wonder[16:06] Prince[18:00] Dick Gregory[18:01] Richard Pryor[18:02] Redd Foxx[18:47] “BAM” series[27:17] “re:mancipation”[29:05] Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture[30:08] John Biggers[31:41] “Codeswitch” at the California African American Museum[33:28] Dr. Leslie King-Hammond[33:30] Maryland Institute College of Art[37:47] University High School[38:23] Morehouse College[38:33] Art Institute of Chicago[47:34] Isamu Noguchi[47:36] Martin Puryear[49:06] “Lotus”[50:31] “Orin”[55:52] “Meet Me on the Equinox”[55:52] “Back to the Stars”

Previously Vincent was Managing Director of Swarovski Japan, Japan Sales Director for Van Cleef &Arpels, Japan Deputy Senior Manager at Cartier, Product Manager at Pernod Ricard Japan.  He has an EMBA from the Hult International Business School.

The London-based artist, master potter, and author Edmund de Waal has an astoundingly astute sense for the inner lives of objects. Each of his works, whether in clay or stone, is imbued with a certain alchemy, embodying traces of far-away or long-ago ancestors, ideas, and histories. This fall, two exhibitions featuring his artworks are on view at Gagosian in New York (through October 28): “to light, and then return,” which pairs his pieces with tintypes and platinum prints by Sally Mann, and “this must be the place,” a solo presentation displaying his porcelain vessels poetically arranged in vitrines, as well as stone benches carved from marble. As respected for his writing as he is for his pots, de Waal is the author of 20th Century Ceramics (2003), The Pot Book (2011), The White Road (2015), Letters to Camondo (2021), and, perhaps most notably, the New York Times bestseller The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010). All that de Waal does is part of one long continuum: He views his pots and texts as a single, rigorously sculpted body of work and ongoing conversation across time.On this episode, de Waal talks about his infatuation with Japan, his affinity for the life and work of the Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), and the roles of rhythm and breath in his work.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:28] Edmund de Waal[03:43] Paul Celan[08:12] 2023 Isamu Noguchi Award[08:17] Gagosian[08:20] “this must be the place” [08:22] “to light, and then return”[09:09] Twentieth-Century Ceramics[09:20] The Pot Book[18:23] “Letters to Camondo” Exhibition[20:32] Sally Mann[20:48] The Hare with Amber Eyes[28:00] “The Hare with Amber Eyes” Exhibition[30:56] “Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto” Exhibition[40:24] Dr. Sen no Sōshitsu[52:48] The White Road[52:49] Letters to Camondo[01:06:33] In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials

In 1989, a month before his fourth birthday, the artist and photographer Trent Davis Bailey (our host, Spencer Bailey's, identical twin brother) lost his mother in the crash-landing of United Airlines Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa. Now 38 and a husband and father, Bailey is at work on “Son Pictures,” an ongoing series of photographs piecing together fragments of his family's past, including details of his mother's life and the relationship he was never able to develop with her. Leading him to take deep-dives into newspaper and family photo archives, and from Colorado to Iowa to the Adirondacks, the project serves as a microcosm of Bailey's intensely personal and place-based body of work, which continually seeks to unearth the tangled roots of his identity. This summer, Bailey's first-ever solo museum exhibition, “Personal Geographies,” opened at the Denver Art Museum, and this fall he will release the corresponding project, “The North Fork,” in book form. Bailey is also currently at work on “Son Pictures,” an ongoing series of photographs piecing together fragments of his family's past, part of which was recently published as a New York Times op-ed titled “What a Motherless Son Knows About Fatherhood.” Leading him to take deep-dives into newspaper and family photo archives, and from Colorado to Iowa to the Adirondacks, “Son Pictures” On this episode—his and Spencer's first formal “twinterview,” recorded on their 38th birthday—Bailey talks about what it was like to grow up as an identical twin; his unusual and decidedly dysfunctional upbringing; photography as a device for commemoration; and his deep pictorial explorations of the climates, geographies, and landscapes of the American West.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:28] Trent Davis Bailey[09:58] “The North Fork” [10:02] “Personal Geographies” at the Denver Art Museum[10:12] “What a Motherless Son Knows About Fatherhood” [10:18] “Son Pictures”[11:54] Paonia, Colorado[17:37] Elsewhere Studios[20:10] California College of the Arts[20:22] Museum of Contemporary Photography's Snider Prize[20:28] Robert Koch Gallery[22:34] The Sublime[22:38] Shaun O'Dell[23:52] The Hotchkiss Crawford Historical Museum/Society[26:42] Robert Frank[26:53] Stephen Shore[26:55] Joel Sternfeld[28:27] “A Kingdom From Dust”[28:32] The California Sunday Magazine[28:36] Stewart Resnick[28:49] “Who Keeps Buying California's Scarce Water? Saudi Arabia”[36:40] Rebecca Solnit[37:00] “How Rebecca Solnit Became the Voice of the Resistance”[37:30] Wanderlust: A History of Walking[39:11] River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West[45:43] United Airlines Flight 232[45:46] Spencer Bailey Reflects on the Crash-Landing of United Airlines Flight 232[45:56] Sioux City, Iowa[46:02] Frances Lockwood Bailey[56:42] International Center of Photography[56:47] Anderson Ranch Arts Center[56:57] Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb[59:55] Robert Frank “The Americans” Exhibition at the Met[01:01:40] “Alex Webb: The Suffering of Light”[01:02:53] Harry Gruyaert[01:03:02] Helen Levitt[01:03:04] Garry Winogrand's “The Animals”[01:08:10] Lake Placid, New York[01:14:24] Brooklyn Darkroom

For each and every performance the theater director, playwright, choreographer, and sound and lighting designer Robert Wilson creates, time isn't just of the essence—it is the essence. Perhaps best known as the director of the four-act opera Einstein on the Beach, which he composed with Philip Glass and debuted in 1976, Wilson now has nearly 200 stage productions to his name. These include Dorian, which premiered last year in Düsseldorf, and The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which opened at the Manchester International Festival in 2011. What stands out about Wilson's work, among many things, is its rare ability to disorient viewers while also enchanting them. Duration is often another part of the equation: Some of the performances on Wilson's résumé have ranged from seven hours to an astonishing seven days. Many critics, writers, and scholars have agreed that Wilson has completely reshaped the landscape of theater, vastly expanding its vocabularies and horizons.On this episode, Wilson talks about his personal philosophies around silence and sound, the intersections of architecture and theater, and his enduring vision for the Watermill Center.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes:[04:31] The King of Spain[04:32] The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud[04:34] Deafman Glance[04:59] John Cage[09:02] Madama Butterfly[13:51] “Time to Think”[14:34] Marina Abramović[16:37] The Ring[16:39] King Lear[16:41] Einstein on the Beach[16:43] Philip Glass[18:14] Parsifal[18:50] The Watermill Center[28:55] Dorian[32:09] Time Rocker[32:15] Lou Reed[34:27] Ka Mountain and Guardenia Terrace[39:28] Festival of Autumn in Paris[40:38] The Golden Windows[41:04] Pratt Institute[43:45] Medea[44:48] Edison[44:58] Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights[45:00] Relative Calm[46:32] H-100 Seconds to Midnight[52:27] The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin[52:40] A Letter for Queen Victoria

What you'll learn in this episode:   How to know when to walk away from a purchase, and how to trust your intuition when buying Why you should always ask for a detailed receipt, even if it feels awkward Commonly misunderstood phrases dealers may use to confuse buyers How Jeff does due diligence before making a purchase How to navigate the many platforms where you can purchase jewelry today   About Jeff Russak Jeff Russak is principal of Lawrence Jeffrey Estate Jewelers. Jeff's expertise in antique and 20th century jewelry combined with an uncompromising attitude toward quality, condition, and style directs the acquisition process. His proficiency in signed pieces and hallmarks is especially useful in identifying and dating each piece. In demand as a speaker on antique jewelry at museums and shows, he also volunteers as a guest appraiser for charity.   Additional Resources: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter   Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com   Transcript:   When it comes to buying jewelry, nothing is more important than trust. That's why Jeff Russak, principal at Lawrence Jeffrey Estate Jewelers, won't hesitate to leave a purchase behind if his inner voice tells him something is wrong. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how he vets his purchases and the dealers he works with; what red flags buyers should watch out for; and why a receipt is more powerful than you might think. 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 Jeff Russak, one of the principals of Lawrence Jeffrey. They are estate dealers located in Litchfield, Connecticut. Jeff has had decades of experience buying and selling. He's also extremely knowledgeable about estate jewelry. Along the way, he has learned about what a good dealer should be doing and what you should know in order not to be taken advantage of. There are lots that dealers know about good dealers that the ordinary buyer doesn't know. He will fill us in on some of that today. Jeff, welcome to the podcast.    Jeff: Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.   Sharon: I'm so glad to have you. This is the second time you've been on. I'm glad you decided to come back.    I bought a diamond tennis bracelet several years ago—well, a long time ago—that I was told was Art Deco. Then, when I showed it to somebody else, they said, “That cut wasn't done until the 80s.” I still like the bracelet, but how could I have avoided that without knowing everything there is to know about diamonds?   Jeff: That's a really great question, and it's actually kind of a complicated one. The person who looked at it did something which is very basic. They looked at the cut of the diamonds. That's one of the things I do when I'm determining the age of any piece. We look at the stones. We have a good general idea of when different cuts, for diamonds or otherwise, were established.    The short answer is I think the only way you could have avoided that would have been to have a better handle on whether this dealer is expert enough to make that determination or not. That can be a hard thing to do. We've talked about how to buy, and a lot of how to buy is all about who you decide to trust. I think for the average buyer, figuring out who you trust and who you feel comfortable with is really the bottom line.   I'll tell a story about one of our better clients. We didn't know this for years, but they're people who have become friends. They started buying from us when we were very new to the business. They didn't buy just jewelry, but they bought decorative arts. We didn't know it, but every single piece they bought from us was going to one of the top appraisal firms in New York and being appraised and verified. After quite a number of years, they told us this. That that was one of the reasons why they kept coming back, because everything was O.K. We passed the test for authentication and for value. Perhaps that's a bit extreme for most people, but it's certainly one way.    I would say it's listening to that little voice in your head. I think today a lot of what I'd like to talk about is how I buy, because the way I buy is no different from the way I recommend that everybody buys. Of course, there are things I know that an average buyer is not going to know, but a lot of what I do is simply being a good detective and listening to that voice in my head. When the voice in my head says, “Don't buy something,” even a little bit, I just don't buy, or when the voice in my head says, “I don't know if this relationship is for me.” Maybe I think the person is a lot smarter than I am. That happens. So, how am I going to know I'm making the right connection, buying for the right price so I can present pieces to my clients for the right price? A lot of it is your instincts. Trust your instincts. It's so tempting to buy something that looks great or you've been told is great or you've been told is a good deal, but if you don't have that sense, that feeling you should, then you shouldn't.   Sharon: Is that how you buy all the time or most of the time?   Jeff: That is definitely part of what I do. It's a big part. We tend to make relationships, and we buy a lot from individual relationships. Some buyers are like bees who are busy pollinating every flower in the field. I think that's really funny. If that's your style, I think you should do it and you should enjoy it. That's a different risk level and a different set of rules. If find people who I really trust, people who are open and transparent with me, who answer my questions in a very forthright way, then those are the folks I go back to again and again. I have the same advice for anyone.   Sharon: Are they here or are they in Europe? Are they everywhere?   Jeff: They are everywhere. I have great contacts in the U.S., and I mean contacts from dealers that I might see in a flea market. I have a couple of local folks who run estate sales. One of them is the finest generalist I know. He is so incredibly smart and knowledgeable. I totally trust him. If I ask a question, he tells me what he knows and what he doesn't know.   Sharon: If he or one of these people that you trust called you up and said, “I have a piece I think you'll really like. I don't know anything about it, but I think you'll really like it,” and maybe they're far away or you don't want to go, will you buy it sight unseen?   Jeff: This goes back to what you and I discussed briefly. I think it's all about the return policy. Yes, I will agree to buy something, but I don't think it's sight unseen anymore. They're naturally going to send me a picture using smartphones. That technology is great, but the pictures don't always tell the whole story. Someone who's really honest doesn't have any fear of taking something back if it doesn't work for the client. I don't think there's anyone I deal with who won't take a piece back if it's not quite right for me.   Sharon: It's interesting you say that. It's probably true, but I hadn't thought about it. There probably isn't anything that's sight unseen anymore with the internet and everything.    We talked a little bit about receipts. Should we make sure we have the receipt?   Jeff: The rules for everyone are the same. There are a lot of laws in place, mostly federal laws. Some of them are laws that relate specifically to jewelry. There are several pages of regulations, and also there are laws that simply are contract law. Your receipt is your contract. You need to ask that every piece of information is included on the receipt.    Let's say you're buying a diamond ring and it's supposed to be by Cartier. You want to know that it's 18-karat gold. You want to know what the diamond grade is. You want to know about the color and clarity. I want to be clear that I'm not trying to create an environment that's very hidebound. We all understand that people do their best to approximate, but they need to be close, let's say. So, you're going to want the diamond colors and clarities, and then you're going to want it to say, “authentic Cartier” or “this ring is by Cartier.” Here's a little trick: if they say, “This ring is signed Cartier,” that doesn't mean it has to be made by Cartier.   Sharon: Who is it made by?   Jeff: It could be made by you and me and we got someone to engrave the word “Cartier” on it. Signed Cartier does not mean it is Cartier. It means they are guaranteeing that the word “Cartier” is on the piece. “Authentic” Cartier or “by Cartier” means that it is Cartier. There are quite a number of situations, especially online, where you do often see the phrasing “signed Tiffany,” “signed Cartier,” “signed Van Cleef & Arpels.” Now, they may fully mean that it is, but I've seen quite a number of situations where it was clear it wasn't.    Sharon: You're asking for a lot; maybe a lot that people don't put on the receipt normally. Have you had any push back? Were people getting annoyed with you?   Jeff: No, I think this is really simple. At my shop and at shows, I have definitely been asked to include all the information on my tag, which is all the information I've mentioned and more. People have said, “I would really like that on the receipt. Could you make sure it's on there?” I think if you get pushback, then I would decline to buy the piece no matter what. If they're someone who can't write that information on a receipt, for me, suddenly, there are alarm bells. Something is wrong. Now, maybe it's just a person who doesn't like doing that. That's possible, and they're a totally honest person, but if they don't want to put the information regarding the piece on the receipt, that's a problem. You have no recourse because your receipt does not state the proper information.    Here's the deal: that contract is forever. People will tell you you can't return things. People will tell you, “Oh, that was two years ago. That's expired.” If it says 10 carats of diamonds and it's only five carats, you can return it. You can return it tomorrow. You can return it in five years. Your grandchildren can return it in a hundred years. That's a contract that has to be accurate. It doesn't matter. It could be tractor parts.   Sharon: It's easier for you. If I see a piece and I have fallen in love with it—if you want it, you overlook a lot, whereas you can say no to a lot and pick out one where you think the person is trustworthy. Is it easier for you?   Jeff: I think you're making a good point. I made some notes before we started. Here's what I wrote about this: this is how I buy, but there are various rules. Let's just say we've discussed them. If I think I should start spouting the law, I remind myself to zip it and just move on. There's lots and lots to buy. It's not my job to tell people what the law is. It's not my job, except on this podcast.    The thing I'm not comfortable with is when someone skirts the law and won't make a proper contract. If you were buying a house and they refused to get a survey, I would say, “Hey, something's up.” I think it's reasonable to ask for a proper receipt, always, and it doesn't matter whether it's Walmart or Sotheby's or any number of famous dealers I can name all over the country. It's perfectly fine, and anyone who is selling things in an honest way won't have any problem with that. If it is what they say it is, why not write it? This shouldn't be any issue. I understand it's uncomfortable.   Sharon: I'd rather somebody tell me, “I don't know,” than guess and say, “I don't know what it is. I don't what it's made of,” that sort of thing.   Jeff: That's a great point. I would much rather people tell me, “I don't know.” But here's the thing: the “I don't know” price should be half of the “I think it's a sapphire” price, or maybe a quarter. “I don't know” means the price should be falling, falling, falling. If you say, “Oh, this is a beautiful turquoise necklace,” is it natural turquoise or is it reconstituted? Now, by law, they're required to tell you. If they say, “I don't know,” the law then requires you to insist they find out.    Once again, it's uncomfortable. If they say, “I don't know,” chances are you really should just walk away. Let's say this gorgeous turquoise necklace is gold. It's got all of these stones, and it's $12,000. Well, $12,000 is a lot in my world. Maybe it's not that much money to other people, but “I don't know” doesn't go together for me.   Sharon: That's interesting. I'm coming from the items I bought when I started getting into jewelry. Now I know a little bit more. For instance, there are people who seem to have a natural affinity for detail I don't have. They can tell. I'm thinking of a girlfriend who once said, “That's not an Art Deco. That's an Edwardian piece.” It was, and I thought it was Art Deco. I thought she was ridiculous.   Jeff: I think it's amazing when people know. There are lots of people who are so good at that. I think as a buyer, you should—I'll go back to what I said in the beginning. You find someone who you trust and who's going to explain to you what you're buying, and who will rely that on the receipt and who wants to have an ongoing relationship with you. If you have a problem, they will sort that problem out. Look, Jeff Russak at Lawrence Jeffrey is not made of sold gold. He does not have a brain the size of a Volkswagen. We make mistakes. When we make mistakes, we have to fix them. That's the way it is.    Sharon: I've heard the phrase, “Somebody has a dealer's eye.” Do you think there's such a thing as a dealer's eye?   Jeff: I think there is. I think what that refers to is someone who just knows when something is a good deal. I have a customer. When I get a piece I know is a good deal, that we bought well and the retail price is a great price, I tease her and say, “You're like a hound. You can smell the jewelry, that there's a deal.” I think that's totally true, absolutely.    Sharon: That's interesting. Well, I certainly don't have that. If a display case says that all the gems or stones inside are certified, what does that mean?   Jeff: That actually doesn't mean anything at all. It's meaningless. This is where we need to start being detectives. The question is certified by whom?   Sharon: Well, who can certify them?   Jeff: People often think it's a government agency, or they think, for instance, that it's a lab like the GIA, or they think the dealer is certifying. A dealer who's smart, who's on the up and up, isn't going to certify anything. Certifying means you agree that the information is true. Most appraisals, for instance, are very careful to have at the end something that says, “We've done our best job to approximate, to use our knowledge to establish what things are,” and then when they say, “I duly sign,” or “I hereby certify,” all they're certifying is that the signature is theirs. They're not certifying the information. They're saying, “We've done our best job.” They probably have, and the information is probably correct, but certifying is different.   Like at the GIA, when you study to become a gemologist, they wrap your knuckles with a ruler if you say certificate or certify. They don't certify things. They produce laboratory reports. It's a report, not a certificate. It doesn't certify anything. It is a laboratory process they have performed to the best of their abilities, which is pretty darn good.   Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.

Through his abstract paintings, the Miami-born, Brooklyn-based artist José Parlá explores themes ranging from memory, gesture, and layering, to movement, dance, and hip-hop culture, to codes, mapping, and mark-making. Coming up in Miami in the late 1980s and early '90s, Parlá spent his adolescence and young adult years steeped in hip-hop culture and an underground scene that involved break dancing, writing rhymes, and making aerosol art. The art form still manifests, in wholly original ways, in his abstract works, which, while decidedly of the 21st century, extend in meaning and method back to ancient wall writings and cave drawings.On the episode, Parlá talks about his recent near-death experience with Covid-19; his activism with the collective Wide Awakes; and how his large-scale murals at locations including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barclays Center, and One World Trade Center trace back to his early days of painting elaborate wall works with aerosol.Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [07:37] Rey Parlá[11:45] Ciclos: Blooms of Mold[12:19] Augustin Parlá[13:13] Curtiss School of Aviation[14:05] José Martí[16:20] “Phosphene” series[18:27] “Polarities” series[18:32] “Breathing” series[23:25] Wide Awakes[23:26] For Freedoms[23:29] Hank Willis Thomas[23:31] J.R.[23:35] Wildcat Ebony Brown[24:28] “The Awakening”[32:04] “It's Yours”[34:17] Snøhetta[34:45] Ghetto Gastro[36:50] Craig Dykers[36:55] José Parlá's Studio[38:20] James B. Hunt Jr. Library[38:22] “Nature of Language”[38:47] Far Rockaway Writer's Library[56:56] “Brothers Back to Back”[59:51] “Parlá Frères”[01:00:03] Hurricane Andrew[01:00:12] Savannah College of Art and Design[01:01:32] New World School of the Arts[01:01:51] Mel Alexenberg[01:02:29] “Combine” by Robert Rauschenberg[01:06:29] “Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture” at BAM[01:06:30] Barclays Center mural[01:06:32] “One: Union of the Senses” at One World Trade Center[01:06:33] “Amistad América” at the University of Texas at Austin[01:12:08] Gordon Parks fellowship

TITLE:Luxury Brand Events with a French Twist. Ooh la la! (ft. Thomas Serrano | Founder and CEO, Exclamation Group)OPENING QUOTE:“It's just those different levels of emotion that we lay down on the timeline of the event. So, it's not only about planning, you know, the menu, the cocktail, the entertainment; it's planning those emotions that will create an emotional connection and will make guests remember the brands remember the events in a very special way. ” - Thomas Serrano.SUMMARY:Founder and CEO of Exclamation Group, an experiential agency dedicated to opulent brands like Bulgari, Dom Perignon, Swarovski, Van Cleef & Arpels, to name a few; Thomas Serrano, a cultured French gentleman, knows a thing or two about creating exquisite and memorable events for the haute-couture crowd. According to Serrano, it's about mapping out the emotional journey for the guests, laying down the different levels of emotion you wish to provoke on a timeline. And it's about creating seamless, extraordinary moments for people who have it all and have seen it all. It's all so ooh, la la.But the cool thing about Thomas is that the methods he uses to curate these one-of-a-kind, off-the-chart affairs are transferable to any event planner.  He talks about the method and the steps, then shares the skinny on the fine detail.For example, he says... give your guests space.  It says luxury, exclusivity, and privilege...  And give them access to something that they would not ordinarily have access to.  It's mind-blowing...  And then connect it all to the story that embodies the brand.  It becomes unforgettable.Speaking of stories, Thomas regales us with quite a few of his own. Including one story of his personal journey from Paris to New York.  All of which is a perfect demonstration of producing nothing but the best events. C'est bon!GUEST BIO:Thomas Serrano began his career with experiential agencies in Paris. He relocated to New York and served as President of Havas Luxe Events and created Havas Events North America. Today, Thomas heads up the Exclamation Group, a one-stop shop for corporate and luxury events as well as cultural and sports partnerships.HIRE THEM TO SPEAK:Follow Thomas Serrano: Linkedin BioFollow Scott Bloom: eSpeakers BioFollow eSpeakers: eSpeakers MarketplaceABOUT NO MORE BAD EVENTS:Brought to you by eSpeakers and hosted by professional emcee, host, and keynote speaker Scott Bloom, No More Bad Events is where you'll hear from some of the top names in the event and speaking industry about what goes on behind the scenes at the world's most perfectly executed conferences, meetings, and more. Get ready to learn the secrets and strategies to help anyone in the event industry reach their goal of putting on nothing less than world-class events. Learn more at: nomorebadevents.comABOUT THE HOST:A veteran comedian and television personality who has built a reputation as the go-to choice for business humor, Scott has hosted hundreds of events over two decades for big and small organizations alike. Scott has also hosted his own weekly VH1 series and recently co-hosted a national simulcast of the Grammy Awards from the Palace Theater.As the son of a successful salesman, he was exposed to the principles of building a business at an early age. As a comedian, Scott cut his teeth at renowned improv and comedy clubs. And as a self-taught student of psychology, he's explored what makes people tick and has written a book (albeit a farce) on how to get through life. He's uniquely positioned to deliver significant notes on connecting people and making business seriously funny. And who doesn't like to laugh? Learn more about Scott: scottbloomconnects.comPRODUCED BY eSpeakers:When the perfect speaker is in front of the right audience, a kind of magic happens where organizations and individuals improve in substantial, long-term ways. eSpeakers exists to make this happen more often. eSpeakers is where the speaking industry does business on the web. Speakers, speaker managers, associations, and bureaus use our tools to organize, promote and grow successful businesses. Event organizers think of eSpeakers first when they want to hire speakers for their meetings or events.The eSpeakers Marketplace technology lets us and our partner directories help meeting professionals worldwide connect directly with speakers for great engagements. Thousands of successful speakers, trainers, and coaches use eSpeakers to build their businesses and manage their calendars. Thousands of event organizers use our directories every day to find and hire speakers. Our tools are built for speakers, by speakers, to do things that only purpose-built systems can.Learn more at: eSpeakers.com.SHOW CREDITS:Scott Bloom: Host | scottbloomconnects.comJoe Heaps: eSpeakers | jheaps@eSpeakers.com

The renegade British designer Tom Dixon has long had a roving obsession with raw materials—everything from cast iron, steel, and copper; to clay, glass, and stone; to felt, plastic, and marble; to, more recently, cork and aluminum. Entirely self-trained and without any formal design education, Dixon emerged in the design sphere in the 1980s by creating unusual welded salvage furniture that was at once antique, experimental, beautiful, and punk in spirit. Never short of bold, forward-looking ideas, Dixon works from a materials-first perspective. Over the years, he has created an industrial chair with upholstery inspired by the rubber inner tubing of car tires, furniture made of flame-cut steel, and even conceptual pieces grown underwater and built of Biorock. Central to all that he does is a quest for longevity and, in turn, sustainability; he has even, in the past, toyed with the idea of a thousand-year guarantee.On the episode, Dixon talks about how two motorbike accidents transformed his life, his days in the early 1980s as a bass player in the disco-funk band Funkapolitan, why he considers cork a “wonder material,” and the parallels he sees between his design creations and those of a baker.Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:56] Tom Dixon[07:02] Flame-Cut Furniture[11:27] Design Miami[12:06] Craig Robins[13:50] Wolf Hilbertz[31:14] S-Chair[34:41] Giulio Cappellini[35:12] Marc Newson[35:15] Jasper Morrison[38:56] Isamu Noguchi[38:56] Akari Light Sculptures[39:57] Constantin Brâncuși[40:33] Dixonary[46:34] Funkapolitan[49:16] Funkapolitan's “If Only”[49:17] Funkapolitan's “In the Crime of Life”[50:17] August Darnell[53:56] Guy Pratt[53:58] Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt[54:50] Creative Salvage[01:01:06] IKEA[01:03:37] Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec[01:03:50] Enzo Mari[01:03:51] Achille Castiglioni[01:03:52] Verner Panton

Few jewelry houses can match the elegance and craftsmanship of Van Cleef & Arpels. On this episode, Dan speaks with the brand's president and CEO, Nicolas Bos, from its headquarters in the heart of Paris. The pair discuss the origins of the house and its famed Mystery Set, the emergence of gender-neutral attitudes in the field, and the executive's undying love for the film "Barbarella." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Jessica B. Harris is renowned as the grande dame of African American cookbooks. One of the world's foremost historians, scholars, writers, and thinkers when it comes to food—and African American cooking in particular—she has, over the past 40 years, published 12 books documenting the foods and foodways of the African diaspora, including Hot Stuff (1985), Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons (1989), Sky Juice and Flying Fish (1991), The Welcome Table (1995), The Africa Cookbook (1998), and High on the Hog (2011)—the latter of which became a Netflix docuseries and, in turn, a New York Times bestseller. Through her cookbooks, her work, and her very being, Harris is a living testament to the polyvocal, far-reaching traditions and histories of African American food and culture.On the episode, Harris talks about her love of West African markets, her disregard for recipes despite being the author of numerous cookbooks, and the widely unrecognized yet critical differences between yams and sweet potatoes.Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [00:49] Dr. Jessica B. Harris[05:28] Harris's “French-Speaking Theater in Senegal” N.Y.U. Doctoral Dissertation[05:49] Carrie Sembène[07:45] Souvenirs du Sénégal by J. Gérard Bosio and Michel Renaudeau[10:17] R.A.W.[21:06] Hot Stuff (1985)[21:43] The Welcome Table (1995)[22:01] Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons (1989)[22:05] Sky Juice and Flying Fish (1991)[22:06] Tasting Brazil (1992)[23:12] The Africa Cookbook (1998)[23:15] Beyond Gumbo (2003)[23:28] Rum Drinks (2010)[23:56] Vintage Postcards From the African World (2020)[24:46] High on the Hog (2011)[25:46] High on the Hog Netflix Series[33:53] “African/American: Making the Nation's Table” Exhibition[33:57] Ebony Test Kitchen[34:00] Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture[34:29] New York Botanical Garden[35:41] Stephen Satterfield[01:05:00] My Soul Looks Back (2018)[01:05:14] Maya Angelou[01:05:15] James Baldwin[01:05:16] Toni Morrison[01:05:17] Nina Simone[01:07:46] Yahdon Israel[01:09:29] Nancy Harmon Jenkins

The term “polymath” is unquestionably overused, and often just plain wrong, but it suits the multi-hyphenate British designer, creative director, and artist Samuel Ross, whose hard-to-pin-down practice spans high fashion, streetwear, painting, sculpture, installation, stage design, sound design, product and furniture design, experimental film, and street art. Best known for founding the Brutalism-tinged fashion label A-Cold-Wall, which sits at the nexus of streetwear and high fashion, and for his work, earlier in his career, with the late Virgil Abloh, Ross also runs the industrial design studio SR_A and has collaborated with brands including Nike, Converse, and Timberland. On this week's episode of Time Sensitive, he talks about notions of ritual, essence, and alchemy; how his work straddles the line between the organic and the synthetic; and why he always thinks in threes.Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes: [03:59] “Samuel Ross: Coarse” at Friedman Brenda[06:41] Glenn Adamson[22:48] Hettie Judah's Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones[27:45] Vitsoe 606 Shelving System[30:46] Virgil Abloh[37:02] “Samuel Ross: Land” at White Cube[42:05] Rhea Dillon[46:24] Sondra Perry's Typhoon Coming On[46:43] Christina Sharpe's In the Wake[46:46] Saidiya Hartman's Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments[50:30] Steve McQueen's Small Axe[52:41] John Berger[58:19] 2wnt4[58:53] Pyrex Vision[58:55] Kanye West[58:56] Donda[01:04:09] A-Cold-Wall[01:05:46] Jerry Lorenzo[01:09:25] Black British Artist Grants[01:12:22] SR_A[01:12:50] “Fashion Design: Samuel Ross/A-Cold-Wall” at the V&A Museum[01:13:22] Grace Wales Bonner[01:13:54] Mac Collins[01:13:59] Nifemi Marcus-Bello[01:20:44] David Drake

Dans ce nouvel épisode, j'ai le plaisir de recevoir Térence, véritable passionné de montres et d'horlogerie. De Rolex à Van Cleef & Arpels, tour d'horizon du marché actuel, de ses salons et de ses évolutions. Comment et pourquoi devient-on passionné, quels conseils pour ceux qui veulent se lancer ? Et si on essayait d'oublier le temps plutôt que de le mesurer ? Allez, c'est l'heure !

Patrice Leguéreau est le directeur du studio de Chanel Joaillerie. Avant d'atteindre ce sommet, il a oeuvré dans d'autres sommets comme Van Cleef & Arpels ou Cartier. Cela fait trois ans que je lui cours après pour lui demander comment on passe de l'établi de gravure en modelé à l'école Boulle à la direction d'un des studios les plus créatifs de la joaillerie française. J'ai compris en arrivant dans son bureau. En voyant ses crayons avant de trouver son clavier. Sa table de dessin en marbre, nue, au centre de la pièce. Les couleurs dans ses carnets. L'extrême minutie de ses traits. Patrice Leguéreau est un homme qui dessine. Il dessine ses émotions, il dessine ses créations. Il a dessiné son chemin. Trait à trait. Page à page. Il a dessiné une trajectoire aussi précise qu'un gouaché et aussi vivante qu'une esquisse à la volée. La virtuosité d'un graveur et la sensibilité d'un créateur se conjuguent au creux de sa voix, à mon micro ce matin là.

Comment choisir son orientation professionnelle à 14 ans ? Difficile d'arriver à se projeter dans son futur métier, surtout à cet âge ou la vie active semble encore lointaine. Mais les parcours scolaires permettent parfois de faire d'heureuses découvertes sur soi-même et surtout sur ses envies professionnelles. On le sait peu, mais les métiers de l'art et de l'artisanat offrent de multiples opportunités de formations et d'emplois. La maison Van Cleef & Arpels a lancé une initiative appelée « De mains en mains ». Un programme de découverte des métiers de la joaillerie qui permet aux jeunes et au grand public d'entrer dans un univers incroyable de beauté, d'exigence et de savoir-faire. Partons ensemble à la rencontre d'Oumou, étudiante en CAP de joaillerie à Lyon, qui a participé à ce programme en 2021 et de Marie-Aude Stocker, directrice internationale des ressources humaines de la maison Van Cleef & Arpels. Deux témoignages empreints de sincérité et de douceur. Retrouvez le site "de Mains en mains" et découvrez tous les métiers et les formations de l'univers de la haute joaillerie. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

What you'll learn in this episode: How Beth became a self-taught expert and collector of antique jewelry The definition of antique jewelry, and how it's different from vintage jewelry What separates an enthusiast from a collector, and why collectors have different goals for their collections How to enjoy Georgian jewelry while keeping it safe The meaning behind popular Victorian jewelry motifs About Beth Bernstein Beth Bernstein is a jewelry historian, jewelry expert and collector of period and modern jewels—a purveyor of all things sparkly. She has a romance going on with the legend, language and sentiment behind the pieces. Her love for the story has inspired Beth to pen four books, with a fifth one in the works, and to spend the past twenty years as an editor and writer on the subject of jewels-old and new. She is a die-hard jewelry fan, so much so that she has designed her own collection throughout the 90s and continues to create bespoke jewels and work with private clients to procure antique and vintage jewelry She owns a comprehensive consulting agency Plan B which provides a roster of services in multiple facets of the jewelry industry. These include building, launching and evolving designer brands and retail brick & mortar/online shops and curating designer shows and private collections. Additional Resources: Website Instagram Facebook Twitter Pintrest Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: Diving into centuries of antique jewelry can be intimidating for even the biggest jewelry lover, but Beth Bernstein is proof that anyone can find their niche in jewelry history. A collector of sentimental jewelry across several periods, Beth is a jewelry consultant and author of “The Modern Guide to Antique Jewelry.” She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how antique jewelry periods are defined; what make a collector a collector; and how to keep antique jewelry in good condition without putting it away forever in a safe. 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 jewelry author, journalist, historian and consultant Beth Bernstein. She is the author of several books including “If These Jewels Could Talk,” “My Charmed Life,” “Jewelry's Shining Stars” and the recent and very readable “The Modern Guide to Antique Jewelry.” We will hear more about her jewelry journey today. Beth, welcome. Beth: Hi. So nice to be here. Sharon: It's great to have you. Beth, can you tell us a little bit about your jewelry journey? Did you like jewelry when you were young? Beth: Oh, yes. My favorite thing was to wear a tiara. Most young girls, I would say, think they're princesses, but I have a cute little story to tell. I had my appendix out when I was six, which is really young to have your appendix out. For some reason, they made me a Frankenstein scar. I hated the scar. Back then, they kept you in the hospital for two weeks. It really was the most horrible scar, so my mom wanted to make me feel like I was beautiful. Back then, Bloomingdale's in New York was the store you went to. So, we go to Bloomingdale's—I always had dime-store tiaras, the plastic rhinestone tiaras—and in the window I see this tiara-like headband dripping with Swarovski crystals. Later I found out my mom described it as the most ostentatious headpiece or even worse than that. Anyway, we go in. I'm l like, “I want that. I want that.” So, we go into the store, and she pulls over the salesperson. I didn't know this at that time, but I heard the story later on. She said, “Bring her out a lot of jewels. I'll make up a story about this one, but bring her out something for her age, like a little tiara-like headband thing.” She said to me, “I have to tell you something the salesgirl just told me. The tiara you love is reserved for a duchess from a faraway land.” I went, “Oh, my god, I have such good taste,” and she said, “You have royal taste, right?” From then on, I believed I had royal taste, and I got a pretty seed pearl headband, quite advanced for my age. I've loved jewelry ever since I was young. My mom wasn't a big jewelry fan, but my grandmother was. My grandparents didn't have a lot of money, but she saved, and she'd go to secondhand stores. I think they were like pawn shops. She'd find these gorgeous Art Deco jewelry there, and she'd get them for a great price. She had some faux and real. I would go over to her house, and she'd let me stay up way past when my mother would let me stay up, and we would watch a Late Movie. Most people don't remember the Late Movie, but it had movies like To Catch a Thief and Breakfast at Tiffany's, and even melodramas like Madame X and Back Street. I would watch all these wonderful movies, Marlene Dietrich movies, and I loved the jewelry. So, we'd dress up in jewelry while we were watching the movies. She'd pour ginger ale in champagne glasses, and we'd drink like we were drinking champagne. The next day we'd go out and buy the jewelry at Woolworths, the five and dime, like we saw in the movies, but for 10 cents. It was all plastic and rhinestone jewelry. It was a lot of fun. So, yeah, I've always loved jewelry. Sharon: Would you say that's why you started liking jewelry? Because of the tiara and dressing up with your grandmother? Beth: Yeah, and the movies. I was always very into movies, which is why I wrote “If These Jewels Could Talk.” It connects the celebrities in the movies to the back stories. I'm as much of a jewelry geek as I am a movie geek. I think it was the fun and the glamor of it as a kid. I'll be very honest; it was at a time when I was probably eleven and my parents started talking about divorce. They got divorced when I was 13. So, it was a time in my life when I needed something to escape from all of that. It was a good escape to get into the glamor of those old movies and the jewelry. When I was six, having my appendix out and having that horrible scar, putting that thing on my head actually did make me feel pretty and like a duchess from a faraway land. I did start believing I had royal taste. Sharon: That's funny. I've heard several people say they liked tiaras when they were younger. I'm not sure I knew what a tiara was then. As you got older, did your education bring you to jewelry? Beth: Not really, because I was an English major and a psychology minor. Basically, I was writing poetry and short stories, wanting to be the great American novelist and poetess. I was doing really well in school. I was going to Boston University. I had some poetry and short stories published, and I was editor of the literary journal. My father owned textile mills in Italy and my mother, when she went back to work after my parents got divorced, became a senior vice president of a huge sportswear company. There were fashion and textiles in my blood. So, I was going to school, and my father said, “I'm not going to support you while you're a starving writer trying to write poetry or a novel. Write about what you know. Write about fashion.” I said, “Absolutely not,” even though I love fashion. But then I did start writing about fashion. My first story was actually for McCall's magazine about rust-proofing your car, because I was a non-fiction assistant editor. I got turned down from Condé Nast and Hearst because I didn't type enough words a minute. I was typing on a regular typewriter, and I was just under. But McCall's didn't give you a typing test, so that was my first job. After McCall's magazine, I started working as a freelancer. I wrote about fashion. I also styled fashion shoots, but my favorite thing to style was jewelry and, for some reason, shoes. When I went to the big houses in New York, like Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta and Donna Karan, I loved to see what jewelry they were going to sell with their collections. Eventually, I continued to write about fashion for a bunch of magazines. Then, all of a sudden, I came up with an idea for a jewelry collection. Prior to that, I also became a wardrobe stylist for TV. I styled for MTV, Showtime, Comedy Central, all the cable channels. While I was doing that, because of all my contacts in jewelry through styling and by writing about jewelry and fashion, I had a sort of a collection. So, I knew who to go to to put the collection together. I went to this one company where I was very good friends with the owner, and he said, “Oh yeah, it's a great idea. I think it would sell great at Henri Bendel.” This was when Henri Bendel was really cool. So, I thought it would be a collection for Bendel. He helped me put it together, because I didn't know about castings and all that kind of thing. It sold at Bendel. Then a friend of mine, who was an actor and a comedian while I was in wardrobe styling, said, “Why don't you start your own jewelry company? You have really great ideas,” and I said, “You know what? O.K.” That was how my life went. I was like, “O.K., I'll go from fashion into wardrobe styling then to jewelry,” because I really did love jewelry. Sharon: You were designing it, too. Wow! Beth: Yes, now I'm designing it. I started a small collection, and it sold to over 250 stores. However, I was selling to Barneys New York, Beverly Hills and Chicago and Barneys Japan, but that was Barneys first Chapter 11. They owed me a ton of money, and I didn't know how I was going to produce for the other stores. So, long story short, they owed me a ton of money, but they kept us all in the stores and paid us up front to keep going, but we never got the money they owed us. I was really stretched to the limit because I literally wasn't making any other money. So, I started writing about jewelry because I knew more about it. Now, I knew about casting and setting and how to do waxes and all that. I wasn't doing it, but I knew all about that, so I started writing about jewelry for magazines I had worked with and other people in fashion had recommended. I was also very good at revamping magazines, making them more modern and into the future. So, I started writing while I was also designing jewelry. That's how it all happened. With Barneys, I got 30 cents on the dollar. Six years later, which is when I finally closed my business—back then, they rarely liked independent designers. There was only so much money to be made. I made so many mistakes with reps. A jewelry designer who was very smart said to me, “The worst thing that could happen to you is not having your own name on a collection,” and I said, “No, the worst thing that could happen is not having a volume, because I've been writing all my life.” He said, “So, you have the answer. Go design for these big designers. Get paid well and keep your bylines. Keep writing.” That's exactly what I did. Then I decided it was the smaller designers that needed my help. So, I started my own company to help small, independent designers with marketing, merchandising design and writing their press kits, as I was still writing for magazines. I'm answering you before you're even asking me a question. Sharon: No, this is free form. Go ahead. Beth: Basically, while I was doing all these different things, I started to collect antique jewelry. I had this feeling for antique jewelry. I love the idea of old mine cuts and the old rose cut diamonds. I didn't like a lot of bling or sparkle. I love the meaning behind Victorian jewelry. As I was collecting from the dealers, I was learning little by little. There were a lot of jewelers in New York back then. Eventually, I picked out a ring in the case at an amazing Madison Avenue shop, and she said, “It's one of my favorite rings in the case.” She and I had just met, and she's since passed away. I usually dedicate my books to my mom or my grandmother or both. My mom passed away young, and my grandmother lived until 97. They were the real inspirations in my life, but I dedicated “The Modern Guide to Antique Jewelry” to Hazel Halperin because she taught me so much of what I know. When I picked out the ring, she said, “It's a favorite in my case. I do layaways, so you can pay it off.” I'm like, “Great.” Then she said, “Do you want to come work for me?” and I said, “You don't know me. How do you know you can even trust me?” She said, “I know I can trust you. Every ring you picked out in the case is my best ring. It's like you have an eye for this.” She gave me books to bring home every weekend to read. I went to work for her on weekends. I was working seven days a week doing writing for magazines, still some consulting work, some custom work, and working for her, learning about antique jewelry on weekends. That really helped me learn how to collect antique jewelry. Through her, I was able to go to the big antique shows and meet other dealers, whom I still know to this day. A lot of them are still alive and are quoted in the book, because I've been dealing with them for 25 years. That's how that came about. Sharon: Did learning how to collect antique jewelry help you learn how to collect in general, or was it only antique? Beth: Only antique. Because I designed modern jewelry, I knew what I liked about modern jewelry. With antique, she taught me things to look for, like if something was repurposed, if something was put together, like if the shank was added later than the actual front of the ring. She taught me a lot of different aspects about antique jewelry. She taught me about the time periods and how to identify them. She taught me so much, and the books she had me bring home to read taught me a lot, too. She was a wonderful teacher. She'd always throw in a little story about my life as it was at that time, and how dating would relate to some jewelry stories. She was funny and I just loved her. She really helped. Sharon: Was she your inspiration? She was an inspiration for the antique jewelry book, but was she an inspiration for your other jewelry books, like “My Charmed Life”? Beth: Well, “My Charmed Life” isn't a jewelry book. It's a memoir. It's called “My Charmed Life.” Penguin published it in 2012. I'll tell you about why it's called “My Charmed Life.” It's “My Charmed Life” and the subtitle is “Rocky Romances, Precious Family Connections and Searching For a Band of Gold.” I was writing a memoir. It was a bit different because I also wrote first-person essays for women's magazines on dating, relationships and family. They always had to have some humor, so I knew that anything heartfelt also had to have a bit of humor. If it's grief, it has to have humor. So, I learned the combination of doing that, and I love writing those kinds of things. So, I was working on a memoir, and I kept hearing the word, “Platform. You need a platform.” I thought, “I have a platform in jewelry, but that's not going to work with this memoir, so I need to change it up a bit.” So, I connected different pieces. Every chapter starts with a piece of jewelry. There's love beads. There's solitary rings. There's the Claddagh ring from when I was going out with the Irish guy. There were a lot of different chapters. It was all metaphor for what I was talking about, and that was chapters from a young age up to age 50. It wasn't really about the pieces of jewelry; it was about what was going in my life and the jewelry related to that. People call it a jewelry book, but it wasn't. When you start reading it, you'll realize that it's really a book about life. It's universal. It's about parents divorcing, parents dying young, family relationships, relationships with nieces and nephews, being single when your younger brothers have kids, and all these different things women can relate to. What links do you like more than jewelry? It's the mosaic ashtray you make for mom in day camp that she still kept, or when she got divorced, how she traded in her Jackie O. pearls for love beads, which were my love beads. She was wearing my love beads because she was a young mom who got divorced. It was the 70s and she wanted to be cool. So, it was all about that. That was the first book. The second book was about emerging modern jewelers who I got to know from consulting and writing about them. I wrote about 38 designers who I thought really had it. These days, the market is saturated with modern designers. Stephen Webster was an amazing designer. I thought, “Who can write the forward for this book?” I went to Stephen because we were friends, and they knew he'd do a great job because he was once an emerging designer himself. He was funny, and he had all that heartfelt humor. He was a bench jeweler. He wrote a great forward. He said, “You're going to have to really fix this up,” and all I had to do was fix one word that I didn't think was right because it was very British, and I didn't think everyone would understand. Stephen had to fix one word. It was such a great book. The next book was “If These Jewels Could Talk: The Legends Behind Celebrity Gems.” That was about the stories behind celebrity jewelry and celebrity jewelry houses, like Van Cleef & Arpels, who made the jewelry for celebrities and films, and how the jewelry helped character development. I was very into the films, as I said. One of my friends said, “You wanted to write that book 20 years ago.” I said, “Yeah, I did,” because of my geekiness about film and because I could remember every line in certain films I loved. I learned more about who owned the jewelry as I was writing the book. Back then, a lot of the big stars like Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly—when she was Grace Kelly and before she was princess of Monaco—wore their own jewelry. Joan Crawford wore all of her own jewelry in films. Elizabeth Taylor wore her own jewelry in certain films. When it came to awards shows, when they were televised, they wore their own jewelry. It was really interesting. I loved writing that book as well. And then here we are with “The Modern Guide to Antique Jewelry.” I'm not only writing a book about antique jewelry, but I think—once again, I'm going on without you asking me a question. We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out.   Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

In the week that the French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels open their first standalone exhibition at London's Design Museum, Carol speaks to their director of patrimony Lise Macdonald about the show, and the company's dazzling history. The Art Of Movement is on until 20 October 2022. https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-art-of-movement-van-cleef-arpels This episode is brought to you by @fuligemstones For more information, please see: www.carolwoolton.com 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.

Comment choisir la bonne filière professionnelle ? Quels débouchés aurais-je avec un CAP ? Suis-je fait pour un métier manuel ? Vais-je évoluer et manager une équipe plus tard ?Sylvie a grandi bercée par les histoires fabuleuses de bijoux précieux de sa marraine. Rêvant du bruit des ateliers, du va-et-vient des artisans, de la magie du métier de joaillier, elle en a fait sa vocation et sa carrière…Découvrez le parcours fabuleux de cette passionnée de joaillerie, d'histoire de l'art et de pierres précieuses.Retrouvez le site "de Mains en mains" et découvrez tous les métiers et les formations de l'univers de la haute joaillerie. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Qu'est-ce que je vais faire plus tard ? Est-ce que je pourrai trouver un métier à la fois artistique et manuel ? Mon avenir est-il loin de chez moi ? Est-ce que mon métier me permettra d'aller au bout de mes rêves ?Après avoir grandit parmi les paysages paradisiaques des îles de Polynésie française, Thomas a trouvé dans les métiers de la joaillerie l'expression parfaite de sa créativité. Guidé par ses rêves et poussé par un esprit d'exigence hors du commun, il se lance le challenge de devenir Meilleur Ouvrier de France.Faites la connaissance de Thomas au travers de son parcours incroyable et de sa jolie histoire, commencée à l'autre bout du monde, au milieu de l'Océan, sur une petite île perdue au doux nom de Faa.Retrouvez le site "de Mains en mains" et découvrez tous les métiers et les formations de l'univers de la haute joaillerie. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Comment choisit-on son métier ? Qu'est-ce que j'aimerais faire plus tard ? Est-ce que j'ai une passion ? Et si je n'en ai pas, je choisis quelle orientation ? Est-ce qu'il y a des personnes qui m'inspirent ?Si Serge n'était définitivement pas fait pour l'école, on peut dire que les métiers de la joaillerie lui ont permis de révéler ses talents. Ce fils d'horloger arrivé dans la bijouterie sur les conseils de son père est doté d'un don rare : celui de savoir saisir les opportunités lorsque celles-ci se présentent.Retrouvez le site "de Mains en mains" et découvrez tous les métiers et les formations de l'univers de la haute joaillerie. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Quel métier est vraiment fait pour moi ? Comment exprimer mes goûts artistiques ? A quoi peut servir mon imagination ? Le métier que je choisis à 15 ans sera-t-il le métier de mes rêves ?Dotée d'une volonté de fer et d'un véritable don pour les arts, Stéphanie a toujours su qu'elle souhaitait réaliser des bijoux. Son courage et sa détermination d'athlète l'amèneront de poste en poste au sein des plus belles Maisons, jusqu'à la position de Expert Qualité Haute Joaillerie chez Van Cleef & Arpels.Suivez Stéphanie au fil de son parcours et découvrez comment cette coureuse de fond passionnée a su relever tous les défis.Retrouvez le site "de Mains en mains" et découvrez tous les métiers et les formations de l'univers de la haute joaillerie. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

This week we talk about two extremes in watchmaking. First, Andy and Felix ponder the theory that 2022 might actually be one of the most unexciting years on record when it comes to watch releases. Secondly, Felix speaks to a man who directly contradicts this claim — CEO and Creative Director of Van Cleef & Arpels, Mr Nicolas Bos. Van Cleef & Arpel's watchmaking is less concerned with the passing of minutes and seconds and more about creating emotion. This is why, in the world of VC&A's poetic storytelling, you're likely to find the time being told with a flower or the wing of a fairy. We chat to Mr Bos about the importance of this approach and the brand's Extraordinary Objects, one-off creations that combine high jewellery skills, timekeeping and automata that definitely live up to the name. Artem Straps , they're for daddies. Find them here. Want to debate the merits of boring watches? Join our Discord and do it. Show Notes: https://www.otpodcast.com.au/show-notes The Cartiers on Audible Francois Junod, automaton builder Van Cleef & Arpels Van Cleef & Arpels on Instagram Van Cleef & Arpels Fée Ondine in motion   How to follow us: Instagram: @ot.podcast Facebook: @OTPODCASTAU Follow hosts: @fkscholz + @andygreenlive on Instagram. Send us an email: otthepodcast@gmail.com If you liked our podcast - please remember to like/share and subscribe.

The French workshop of Georges Lenfant is having a major moment among vintage jewelry collectors. Although they've been registered in Paris since the turn of the 20th Century, Lenfant and their intricate woven gold jewels of the 1960s and 1970s have recently captured the eyes of stylish private women worldwide. We'll explore together some iconic pieces in the firm's repertoire and how highly unusual it is for an atelier--normally hidden behind the scenes--to share center stage with the international brands for whom they manufacture (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Hermès.) Everyone wants Lenfant!-----------website: https://www.neilmarrs.comemail: neil@neilmarrs.cominstagram: https://www.instagram.com/neilmarrs/linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmarrs/

What you'll learn in this episode: The surprising connection between dollhouses and jewelry Why vintage barware is so collectible  How the internet has warped some buyers' perception of antique pricing  Why you should always get a receipt when buying vintage How sellers can choose trustworthy platforms to sell their goods About Erik Yang Erik Yang is the founder of The Lush Life Antiques, which offers a selection of vintage designer jewelry, both signed and unsigned. His primary focus is on American and European costumes, Mexican silver, Native American Indian, Bakelite, modernist and contemporary designer jewelry. Each piece is carefully hand-selected for its design, quality, and construction. In his 25 years as a jewelry dealer, Erik has segued from exhibiting at shows to selling exclusively online. Photos available on TheJewelryJourney.com Additional Resources: Instagram Website (currently under construction) Transcript: The most valuable thing Erik Yang has isn't his collection of vintage jewelry and antiques—it's his expertise. As founder of The Lush Life Antiques, Erik has built a reputation as a trusted dealer for his integrity and in-depth knowledge of jewelry and antiques across several periods. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how to find trustworthy vintage stores and dealers; how the internet has shaped antique pricing expectations; and why you should always get a receipt. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please go to TheJewelryJourney.com. Today my guest is Erik Yang, founder and owner of The Lush Life Antiques. Welcome back.   We talked a little bit about the importance of a dealer's reputation. What makes one dealer more trustworthy over another? I would rather have somebody say, “I don't know,” if I ask them, “What is this from? or “What is this made of?” as opposed to giving me some story.   Erik: Right. There are a lot of people that don't know, and there are a lot of people that use that as a disclosure: “use your opinion, “buyer beware,” but they know. A lot of people pass off their mistakes to other people that are unsuspecting. A lot of collectors give their mistakes to dealers who don't really know and say, “Here, I'm divesting. Please sell this for me at the market. I don't need this. You keep the difference.” That happens all the time. They tend to use people that don't have the knowledge base, but the collector has the knowledge base. Maybe this is getting into a little more complicated discussion, but dealing with a reputable dealer is difficult.    We had this discussion when you were here for that exhibit. I think when you're dealing with somebody who has been in business for quite a long time, is very known in the industry, is a published author, someone you can Google and they'll have multiple hits for interviews or articles or this or that, someone who is respected, I think those are the type of people you can deal with safely. I always joke that I'll buy something from somebody I know very well, when they've been in business for 30-something years, and I'll ask them, “Can I have a receipt?” There are people that do the market every month, and they don't know how to write a receipt, let alone have a receipt book with their business name and their contact information on it.    When I receive a receipt and it just says, “Necklace, $30,” with nothing on it, I can make that myself. Someone like that, who is that casual about their business, if you have an issue with something, if you buy something from them, you have no recourse aside from going up to them and saying, “I bought this necklace from you for $100 and it turns out it's not gold. I would like my money back.” Well, you don't have a proper receipt, and they're probably going to say, “I don't know. It's been too long. I can't do anything.” That's quite common. If someone has their letterhead on it, their business name, their contact information with the information of the item, they will stand by that product because not only is there a liability with it, but they tend to be a lot more established and reputable in their business. At least that's my opinion.    I'm helping with an estate right now, and they're donating some of the pieces to the local museum. I didn't know when I first looked at one of the items that it actually had the receipt of purchase. The curator asked me for assistance with this piece. I looked at the letterhead and I knew the store; I knew the owner of the store. It had a very detailed description of the item and the price that was paid. I said, “Let me contact this person and get some information for you.” I did, and they said, “We definitely sold this item, but it was sold so long ago—it's been almost 10 years—that we don't have the paperwork on it. We don't recall X, Y, Z about the piece, but we are happy for you to send it to us at our expense. We will review it. We will give you a revised receipt of information for whatever purposes you need, and we'll send it back to you.” That's reputable, and that's why that person has a very established business. It's all about reputation. I was quite impressed with how they handled that. It was much more than I thought they would do. They went out of their way more than they had to. But if somebody doesn't have any kind of brick and mortar, and they just show up at a flea market one weekend, you'd better be careful with what you're buying.   Sharon: It's interesting you say that about the receipt. I hadn't thought about the information on the receipt and the letterhead. It's not that difficult to make something like that, but most people don't go into a lot of detail it seems.   Erik: No. I have my receipt book with my business name on it, and I try to give as much information. I ask them what they want, usually; “What do you need on the receipt?” because some people do buy things for investment, but most of my clients are buying some earrings to wear for an event and they could care less who made it. That's just how it is. There are different levels of collectors. Now, if it's something like a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond bracelet, they want something a little more specific, especially if it's expensive.    By doing that, by putting that down next to your name, you have a liability. They can come back to you and say, “You sold this to me as this and it's not.” I had this recently, and I'm glad I got it on paper. I bought a brooch that they sold to me as 14-karat gold with sapphires. It looked 100% correct and it tested for 14-karat, but it wasn't 14-karat; it was just extremely heavily plated. You had to file into it a little bit to get to the core metal, but it was brass, basically, with a very heavy gold plating. They did not want to stand by their product, and it's a very well-known store locally. I said, “I have your receipt saying this,” and they said, “Well, we'll give you store credit.” I said, “Well, I bought it yesterday. The credit hasn't even gone through,” and I basically forced them to give me the money back. I wasn't happy with that, and I haven't gone back. That's a good example of someone who has a very established business that's been around for over 30 years locally that didn't stand by their product. I didn't pursue it. I could have, but I'm not the type of person to leave bad Yelp reviews. It was just an unpleasant experience. When people have asked me about that particular store, I've told them, “You better be careful.” I didn't mention specifically what the scenario was. I said, “Just be careful with them. I know you shop there. Be very careful with your purchases.” That's all you can say.   Sharon: That's interesting. I'll have to think more about it and be more aware. I do tend to buy things a little quickly without looking at all the detail.    What did you do during Covid? You operate online. You don't go to shows. How do you sell?   Erik: People ask me that all the time, and I say I sell wherever I can. I'm in transition right now for a number of reasons, but at the time Covid was happening, I think I was in three stores. I'm down to two now. I originally had five locations in Dallas. Slowly the stores have closed or I pulled out for various reasons, bad management of the stores. I never had my own brick and mortar. I always sublease spaces. During Covid, though, a lot of stores here closed completely. We also had some issues with rioting here. I won't get into politics or current events, but there was rioting happening in New York and Beverly Hills, and that's when Bergdorf Goodman and all of Rodeo Drive was covered up. They just boarded up everything. Two of my stores were in prime areas that were targets for that, so at that time, I pulled all of my merchandise. That was during Covid. I pulled all of my merchandise out of the stores by request of the store owners because they were scared for their own items; they didn't want to be worrying over possible theft of my things as well. I left costume or things that don't have an intrinsic value, but anything that was silver or anything that was meltable that could be pawned, I did take out. All of my Native American pieces ended up getting boxed up and taken out during Covid.    Still, our stores were managing on Instagram and Facebook posts. We did curbside pick-up just like the grocery stores do, but these were big stores, and they're trying to sell for everybody in the store. I'm just one vendor. So, I took everything more online, and that's where I've been stuck for the last couple of years, which is fine. I'm back in the stores. We're fine now, but Covid was very brutal for a lot of people. A lot of local stores, especially the antique stores and the vintage stores, just didn't survive for obvious reasons. It's hard to experience a lot of things. You have to try things on, and it's a little difficult to do everything online.   Sharon: Are you focusing more online? Now you have several outlets online, it seems.   Erik: I am doing online. I'm trying to be more active with Instagram. They're dragging me into the 21st century. I've always used social media for different things, but not necessarily for selling. I have pretty big displays in both of my local shops, and I'm continuing online. I'm primarily selling on eBay at the moment. I am rebuilding a website which I had before. I let it go by the wayside. I'm trying to remarket it a bit for many reasons, but primarily I have some significant collections in right now that I've been hired to liquidate, and they're almost too good to go. I hate to say it, but they're too good for eBay. They need to go on a higher venue. I'll get to it. I'm still processing all the low-end pieces from these two collections right now. So, it's going to be a while. It takes time.    Sharon: Wow! We'll keep our eyes on everything because it's hard to find you.    Erik: I know. I've joked that if I ever had a brick-and-mortar store, all the Yelp reviews would say, “Wow, he's got great stuff, but he's never open.”    Sharon: You're on eBay under what name, The Lush Life?   Erik: The Lush Life on eBay. I've been on eBay since 1999. I took a huge hiatus for a long time. I had problems with eBay very early on, and I had a temper tantrum and said, “Enough with them. I'm going to go and open my own website.” I did, and I exclusively did that for at least 10, 12 years. Then I started doing shows, and then shows died. Then I started doing shows again, and then I'm back on eBay. So, it seems like I've come full circle. Nothing's really changed. You have to change with the times. There are other options. I've looked at doing Ruby Lane and other things, but I'll figure it out.   Sharon: But you are on Instagram as @arkieboy33.   Erik: Yes.   Sharon: Do you find that you sell through Instagram? Do people call you?   Erik: I have a little bit, not much because I wasn't active with it. I know there are a lot of people doing a lot of business, and there are a lot of people that are exclusively selling on Instagram. For now, it is a valid forum, but what's next? If you think about it, Myspace wasn't that long ago. What is that? There are a lot of different venues I hear about, and I don't know what they are. I'm familiar with TikTok and all of those, but there are a lot of other things. There are all kinds of apps now as well. I know I would not mesh well with something like Poshmark or Mercari or any of those, so I'll just stick with eBay; it's been around a long time.   Sharon: It sounds like you have it mastered. You've figured it out, at least.   Erik: The thing with eBay or that particular selling forum, as well as Ruby Lane and the more established platforms, is that the market for specific things right now is in Asia, and they are able to buy through those forums. It's a little sketchy when you start having international sales and you assume the responsibility. On eBay, you can use their shipping program, so it costs more for them as the buyer, but there's less responsibility as a seller. When I've had things go missing it's been because of eBay, and I've been taken care of on my end, as has the buyer. There is a level of safety or security that I like. There's something very stressful about sending very expensive items to someone you've never met, have never spoken to on the phone. Even though you have a credit card authorization, or you've run a credit card and you've captured the funds, it can be reversed. That's a scary thing.    Sharon: Yeah, that's interesting. Erick, you've covered a lot of territory. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today.   Erik: Thank you for having me again.   Sharon: It's been great.   Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

Alrosa, un des plus gros extracteurs de diamant au monde, dans l'impossibilité de payer ses dettes. Sous le coup de sanctions britanniques et désormais américaines, le géant russe a reconnu son incapacité à payer une échéance de remboursement à la date butoir, fixée hier.  Le géant russe devait rembourser un peu plus de 11 millions de dollars hier. Mais le transfert d'argent est devenu techniquement impossible en raison des sanctions britanniques (depuis le 24 mars) et surtout américaines (depuis vendredi dernier). Il y a une semaine, les dirigeants d'Alrosa avaient pourtant assuré prendre les dispositions nécessaires pour payer cette échéance de dette via leur filiale américaine et leur banque britannique. En vain finalement. Alrosa – 90% de la production russe de diamant et 28% de l'offre mondiale – s'expose donc à un défaut de paiement et, si c'était le cas, à une saisie de ses biens à l'étranger. Comme les chemins de fer russes qui, jeudi dernier, se sont dits eux aussi incapables de rembourser à temps 605 millions de dollars. Mais Moscou a, là, promis que le paiement se ferait en roubles. Les tailleurs de diamants indiens s'inquiètent Les ennuis financiers d'Alrosa inquiètent ses clients. Notamment l'Inde, où sont taillés une grande partie des diamants bruts extraits en Russie. Le géant du diamant était déjà mis à l'index par certains joailliers et horlogers. Le groupe de luxe Richemont –propriétaire de Cartier et Van Cleef & Arpels – ainsi que le bijoutier danois Pandora ont en effet décidé ces derniers jours de se passer de diamant russe. Même si cela ne s'annonce pas facile et que cela aura forcément un coût, pour les acheteurs. Le cas Alrosa est même depuis des jours à l'origine de tensions au sein de la filière et notamment du RJC – Responsible jewelry council – un organisme international de certification qui valide les bonnes pratiques en matière d'approvisionnement d'or ou de diamant. Le diamant russe divise bijoutiers et horlogers de luxe Plusieurs membres prestigieux qui regrettaient que l'organisation ne se soit pas positionnée assez vite sur le statut des entreprises russes adhérentes ont quitté le RJC – Alrosa a d'elle-même fini par se mettre en retrait.  Face à la fronde interne, le Responsabile Jewelry Council a mis en avant, dans un communiqué daté du 1er avril, la nécessité de respecter les procédures internes, aussi inédit soit le contexte actuel, et réaffirme son engagement en faveur de la promotion d'une filière responsable et durable. ► À lire aussi : Diamant russe: l'Europe peut-elle s'en passer ?

What you'll learn in this episode: How David earned the nickname the “100-carat man” for selling some of the most expensive jewels in history What type of buyers are interested in eight-figure gems How David got the opportunity to write “Understanding Jewelry” with Daniela Mascetti Why the most incredible jewelry may be off the beaten path Why 18th century jewelry is so rare, and why people have refashioned old jewelry throughout history About David Bennett Regarded internationally as a leading authority in the field of precious stones and jewelry, David Bennett is best known in his role as Worldwide Chairman of Sotheby's Jewelry Division, a post he held until 2020, after a brilliant 42 years career at Sotheby's. During his prestigious career David sold three of the five most expensive jewels in auction history and as well as seven 100-carat diamonds – earning him the nickname the ‘100-carat man'. David has also presided over many legendary, record-breaking auctions such as the Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor (1987), The Princely Collections of Thurn und Taxis (1992) and Royal Jewels from the Bourbon-Parma Family (2018). Among the many records achieved during his career as an auctioneer is that for the highest price ever paid for a gemstone, the CTF Pink Star, a 59.60ct Vivid Pink diamond which sold for $71.2 million in 2017, and the world record for any jewelry sale where he achieved a total of $175.1 million in May 2016. David was named among the top 10 most powerful people in the art world in December 2013 by the international magazine Art + Auction. In June 2014, Swiss financial and business magazine Bilan named him among the top 50 “most influential people in Switzerland”. David Bennett is co-author, with Daniela Mascetti, of the best-selling reference book Understanding Jewelry, in print since 1989. They have also co-written Celebrating Jewelry, published in 2012. In 2021, David and Daniela launched a unique website showcasing their unparalleled experience and knowledge in the field of jewelry. David Bennett grew up in London and graduated from university with a degree in Philosophy, a subject about which he is still passionate, alongside alchemy and hermetic astrology. Additional Resources: Website: https://www.understanding-jewellery.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/understandingjewellery/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnderstandingJewellery Twitter: https://twitter.com/UJewellery_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/19192787 Photos: Transcript: Whether you know his name or not, David Bennett is responsible for some of the most significant jewelry auctions in history. Before retiring from Sotheby's in 2020, David sold the Pink Star, the most expensive gem ever sold at auction, and whopping seven 100-carat diamonds. He's also the co-author of the jewelry bible “Understanding Jewelry” with his colleague Daniela Mascetti. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about his new business with Daniela; what it was like to handle some of the world's most precious jewels; and why he thinks gemstones hold incredible power. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. Today, my guest is David Bennett, who you may be familiar with. He coauthored with Daniela Mascetti what is often referred to as the Bible of the jewelry industry, and that is the ubiquitous book, “Understanding Jewelry.” David spent his 40-year at the international auction house Sotheby's. When he left, he held the position of Worldwide Chairman of International Jewelry. He's a veteran of gemstones and is often called the “100-carat man” because of his multiple sales of hundred-carat diamonds at record-breaking prices. Welcome back.   So, you have hidden gems. Now, are the hidden treasures, the hidden gems, the ones you say, “We think this is a great piece of jewelry,” are those available for people to buy?   David: Yeah, not through us. Basically, we're offering to be the eyes for collectors. Let's say in London at a certain resale, we might find a great piece of 1925 Cartier. We'll photograph it and write what we think about it. It'll be an appraisal, as it were. This is what you wouldn't see if you went down the main streets. I think in London the most important resales of collectible jewelry are of the 19th century, early 20th century jewelry. Our offices are not at street level, only shop fronts. We hope at least it'll be used to appeal to collectors from the Far East who, if they arrive in London or Geneva or Paris, don't quite know where to go.    Daniela is an excellent lecturer and a great jewelry historian, so she's been doing these online courses. For example, one recently was on Art Deco. We're going to be offering those. That's the other rung, the other important part of Understanding Jewelry, the website we want to do. It's an education thing as well, not because it's just education, but also because I think the more you know about something, the more interesting it becomes. You could have some very beautiful jewelry, but the more you know about it, the more interesting it becomes. When you're wearing it, you know more about it. Does that make sense?   Sharon: Yes, it makes a lot of sense. She is an excellent lecturer. I took the Art Deco class online, and I'm looking forward to more of your educational classes.   David: Absolutely, yeah.   Sharon: You mentioned that when you started out in the auction world, it wasn't collectors or private individuals who came; it was people in the trade, and they'd break up the jewels and that sort of thing. Why did it change? How did it change? What happened?   David: This is back in 1974 with the first sales in London. It's difficult to imagine now, but there was absolutely no market for 1930s jewelry. If you had big, 1930s diamond bracelets, believe it or not, they were sold and immediately broken up. The stems were taken out and reused, very often poor or bizarrely. The cushion-shaped diamonds in the set were then recut. It's a modern brilliance. Everything changes. Nowadays people will pay premiums for the old stems and of course, as you know, 1930s jewelry is very, very sought after now.   Sharon: Yes, it's very hard to find, the 30s. You can find some 40s and of course 50s, but not the 30s. So, what changed?   David: It changes all the time. It happens. This is not something new. In the 19th century, jewelry was being broken up and redesigned all the time. Up until about the 1840s, all the gold had to be reused because they weren't finding gold—you had the California Gold Rush and then South Africa and everywhere else. In fact, it's been estimated that something like 90 or 80 percent of the gold in use in 1800 had been in use since Roman times. The other thing is that jewelry is set with stones that are very hard, very durable. Gold doesn't oxidize. It can be melted down very easily into this basal moss. So, all of this made it very susceptible to being remodeled and restyled.    In the 19th century, this was happening all the time. If you were a fashionable lady in the 1850s, you wouldn't want to wear, if you could avoid it, an 1830s or 1820s brooch because it would be out of fashion. Everything was in check. This is, of course, very good news for the jewelers who were reusing things, but it made jewelry from before that period much rarer. 18th century jewelry is really, really rare. Diamond jewelry is as rare as hen's teeth, but most of it, if you think about the great 18th century diamond jewelry, is in the Kremlin from the Catherine the Great period, even though they sold most of it. The Soviets sold it in the 1920s.    The point I'm trying to make is that refashioning and redesigning jewelry is nothing new. In the 20th century, the phenomenon I was watching was the grand jewelry. When you think about it, by the end of the decade—I'm talking about the 1970s—Art Deco jewelry was already becoming collected, so they weren't breaking them up anymore; they were trying to keep them. But who knows how many bracelets and jewels from that period disappeared. That was from the 1930s to the 1980s, about 50 years.    What we've noticed is that the gap between when something is out of fashion and then becomes a classic and returns to fashion has become shorter and shorter. Nowadays people are talking about how desirable 80s jewelry is. It is shortening. So, I think there's still a lot of room for new collectors to decide where they would like to position themselves. By the mid-90s, there was only one buying public; she was in the Middle East before the fortunes being made from the oil industry. It's significantly changed the whole look of jewelry, and it started at the end of the 70s. In 1970, you'd walk around Place Vendome in Paris, the great address, and see the great French jewelry. Everything in the windows would have been in platinum and diamonds and so forth, but by the end of the decade, you wouldn't really see platinum and diamonds; everything would be in yellow gold, which the Middle East likes. There would be colored stones. It would be very colorful. There was a mad scramble during the 70s and 80s to redesign everything for this new market, which had very clear ideas about what they wanted.    The one thing about jewelry, as I say, is that it can be designed relatively quickly, but the invention is the problem, coming up with these new designs, having a style. That's why everybody looks back to the great years from the middle of the 19th century to 1960, when all these wonderful, new designs were changing. They were really groundbreaking designs.   Sharon: What were your thoughts when you started seeing private individuals at auctions as well as dealers? Did they start trickling in? How did it happen?   David: There were very few private individuals that came to the London jewelry sales in the 70s. They were collectors, so they would argue as to what was coming up. There were a few, a handful of them probably. I can't think of exactly the date, but around this time, Sotheby's had purchased a New York brand, Park Van Ness. Very few offices existed at that time. I think there were offices in Florence and Paris when I was there, but there wasn't this massive expansion that happened in the 80s, which made Sotheby's increase worldwide.    It was a massive change, and I had my sales like the Duchess of Windsor's jewels, which was a career-defining moment for me. By then, you had people bidding by telephone from all over the world. It was completely different. The auction room was packed with private individuals clamoring to buy a piece of history, the jewelry where the King of England had given up his throne for the love of a woman. What an amazing story! It caught the imagination of every newspaper in the world. It was fantastic, and it was great jewelry.    The Duke of Windsor, before he was crowned—because he wasn't crowned—and Wallis Simpson, the American socialite, they both absolutely adored jewelry and had very clear ideas of what they wanted, so the collection was just stunning. I remember when I was doing the catalogue, interviewing Jacques Arpels of Van Cleef & Arpels. He was recounting these extraordinary stories about how the Duke and Duchess would come into Van Cleef & Arpels, and he, as a young man, would have participated in the design of these jewels because they knew clearly what they wanted. If you look at some of the designs in the catalogue, they really are museum pieces. They transformed the look of jewelry in the 20th century, so it was wonderful stuff. That catalogue was a memorable moment.   Sharon: Wow! I can understand that. That would definitely be seared in your mind. I was reading one of the interviews with you in the New York Times. You talk about the fact that with your new business, you wanted to instill a sense of wonder in jewelry. Do you think that has been lost a little?   David: I guess what I was trying to say was that you get to an age—I'm coming to 70 soon, if I make it, very soon actually, alarmingly soon—and you start thinking, “I ought to try to give back some of the pleasure that I've got out of this totally unexpected path that I've trodden for the last 46 years, or however long it is.” One of the things that used to amaze me, and still does, is the power. The world-record ruby that I sold, I named it the Sunrise Ruby after this wonderful poem by Rumi, the 14th century poet. The owner showed it to me and it literally took my breath away. I was so shocked by it. First of all, it was 25 carats, a huge size for a Burma ruby, the top color. Everything about it was absolutely sensational, magnificent, towering, sterling. I wanted to try to communicate the effects that stone had on me and why, and what I think some people miss. The reason a lot of people miss it is because they haven't been as fortunate as I have of seeing something like that. You wouldn't see it walking down Madison Avenue. It wouldn't be in a window.    Nevertheless, if you can imagine the most wonderful ruby you've ever seen, the most wonderful red, a stone like that has infinite power. I made a little video about the Sunrise Ruby. If you look at it online on the Understanding Jewelry site, I talk about why this is so important, particularly to me. It enters into this thing I have with astrology. Rubies, like all gemstones, are related to very important spiritual centers in the body. So, the effect, at least what I sensed, is really felt in the body. The ruby particularly, is known in India as the rise of the king of gemstones, more than diamonds, more than anything else, because it is so powerful. A lot of people say, “Yeah, a ruby's powerful.” It sounds a bit new age, doesn't it? But I promise you—like I said, I'm not telling a story; this is true—a ruby of that quality and that size and that color is unspeakable. It's a wonderful thing. What I wanted to try to communicate is a sense of wonder, because when you're looking at it, it's like there's nothing else; there is only that stone.    Sharon: Did working with gems lead to astrology, or was it philosophy and then to astrology? How did that work?   David: Actually, it's very interesting. As an astrologer, I was constantly look at patterns, looking backward, looking at the past. Where was it coming from? Where is it leading? Why did it go off in that direction and then come back? Because everything in the end is linked. There's nothing random about anybody's life. Nothing happens to you, none of the people you meet, none of the people you marry, none of the places you go are by chance. There's a reason why I know all of that—and actually, if you think about it, it's pretty obvious—but what's not obvious is what the reasons are and what the patterns are.    Let's say I'd been halfway through 20 years into working with jewelry at auction and at the same time, I was doing more and more in astrology, more and more consulting. I don't do astrology for money. I don't charge; I refuse to charge, but I also refuse to do somebody's chart if there's anything with which I can help. That's the playoff, but actually I don't need to charge. If ever I need somebody to feed myself, then maybe I would. It's as simple as that. I received it freely, and I'm very pleased to give it back freely. I began to say, “Look, I've spent 20 years in jewelry and gemstones out of the blue” when really, if you had asked me at the beginning what I was going do, I would have thought it would be something to do with astrology, making films about it, something like that.   Sharon: I think philosophy is such a brain twister just from my limited exposure to it. I just say, “I'm not good at puzzles.” I admire the fact that it was of such interest to you because for me, it was like, “Oh my god!”   David: Oh, really? I've got this property I'm setting out in Burgundy. It's quite a large, rambling place, and it has a room I'm making into a lecture room. The last two years, of course, nothing has happened. So, I've organized with a group of friends some seminars on various subjects. The last one was about ayurveda.   Sharon: It was about what? I'm sorry.   David: Ayurveda.   Sharon: Oh, ayurveda, O.K.   David: And we invited David Frawley, who has written more than 50 books about ayurveda. He's the great guru of ayurveda, and we built a seminar around him. That's just one example, but I've been doing them maybe once or twice a year, and we've done many things. 20 years ago, the first one I gave was about sacred geometry, for example, but more recently they've been about healing plants, wild healing herbs and so forth. That's been great fun. It's nonprofit. It's just for fun. Well, more than fun; hopefully people get more than fun out of it, but it's a different type of learning. It's trying to get people to look more inwards rather than outwards, if you know what I mean. It's been a great success, and it's a great success largely because people have made it a success. It's a great pleasure for me to be able to share this place with other people to make it work. Sharon: I'll have to look at my jewelry again and think about what I was thinking at the time. Sometimes I do ask myself, “What was I thinking?” David, thank you so much for being with us today. It's great to talk with you.   David: I was interested and it's good fun. Thank you.   Sharon: Thank you so much.    Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.  

Today, Brit is joined by Digital Product Manager at Citi, Zoia Kozakov! Zoia's path hasn't exactly been linear, but the common thread through it all is that she starts every new endeavor by setting goals and asking herself what she wants to learn from each experience. Zoia and Brit discuss how her military experience has influenced her varied career, her top tips for setting yourself up for financial freedom, and how she navigates being a woman in a male-dominated industry. Tune in to hear more of their conversation about lighting your own path to success.  IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT: The importance of taking every opportunity to learn from and to grow from How Zoia transitioned out of the fashion industry  Taking true project ownership within corporations  The decision to create her will before the age of 30  Zoia's advice for getting a handle on your finances  The best financial apps for budgeting and investing   RESOURCES Text GIRLFRIENDS to 310-496-8363 for updates and a chance to be featured on the show!   CONNECT WITH ZOIAWebsite: zoia-kozakov.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zoia-kozakovInstagram: instagram.com/zoia.kozakov Kozakov Foundation: kozakov.coListen to WIN/WIN: Women in Innovation podcast CONNECT WITH BRIT Instagram: @britdrisc Squeeze: @squeeze  CONNECT WITH LORI Instagram: @loriharder Lite Pink: @drinklitepink Earn Your Happy: @earnyourhappy Listen to Earn Your Happy:  CONNECT WITH ALLI Instagram: @alliwebb Becket & Quill: @becketandquill Squeeze: @squeeze  GUEST BIO In her day job, Zoia Kozakov is a Vice President, Digital Product Manager at Citi, working on building out digital payment platforms and apps with (and for) other major companies, such as Google. Zoia is responsible for both the vision and the strategy behind her digital products, as well as the day-to-day execution, developing new offerings with a team of designers, engineers, marketers, and other business partners. By night, Zoia focuses on disseminating and sharing her knowledge in a variety of capacities: as a lead instructor at Brainstation (a digital education company), as a founder of her own nonprofit, Kozakov Foundation, and as an advisor to other start-ups and nonprofits. She is also Global Product Lead at the 501c3 nonprofit WIN: Women in Innovation, where she hosts the WIN/WIN: Women in Innovation podcast (30,000+ downloads in 30+ countries). The podcast features senior-level women innovators from companies such as PepsiCo, Oracle, EY, Pantone, Omnicom, IDEO, and others. Prior to working at Citi, Zoia spent several years overseeing digital advertising campaigns for companies like Richemont (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre), EY, Shiseido, and others. She also spent two years as a Chief of Staff in theSpecial Operations unit in the Israeli Intelligence and as a Product Lead at an early stage blockchain company, Yup, where she helped the company raise a 3.5-million-dollar venture capital seed round. Zoia got her MS at Columbia University and her BBA at Parsons School of Design, where she graduated with honors, as the commencement Student Speaker.

As Regional Chief Executive, Asia Pacific of Richemont, Alain is responsible for overseeing and cultivating the presence and development of some of the world's most coveted luxury brands. Alain has a wealth of experience in business development and international finance, gained through a series of top positions at various multinational corporations across Europe, Africa and the Far East. More significantly, his specialty throughout his career has been in distributing lifestyle products to mature as well as emerging markets. Alain's experience with the Asia Pacific region only made him a stronger match for the highly specialised requirements of the European luxury brands purveyor. The affiliation with Richemont was therefore a natural progression, and Alain has been at the helm of the region since his appointment in 2006. We will discuss the evolutions in the Asian luxury market happening right now, encouraging women to dream big and Richemont's training academy. Richemont owns several of the world's leading companies in the field of luxury goods, with particular strengths in jewellery, watches and writing instruments. Its Maisons encompass several of the most prestigious names in the luxury industry including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC Schaffhausen, Jage-LeCoultre, Panerai and Piaget. Richemont also owns leading online distributors YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP and Watchfinder & Co.  About this episode:Company Name          Richemont Asia Pacific LtdCompany Website    www.richemont.comAbout Infinite Luxury:LUXURY VOICES is a podcast curated by Infinite Luxury Group, a luxury Sales, Marketing, Communications specialist based in Asia.   www.infiniteluxurygroup.comFollow us: LinkedIN      www.linkedin.com/in/infinite-luxury-a132271bInstagram    infiniteluxurymanifestoWeChat       InfiniteLuxury-jxm Contact us: WeChat       InfiniteLuxuryEmail           hongkong@infiniteluxurygroup.com Podcast available on iTunes, Spotify, online or wherever you listen to your episodes

What you'll learn in this episode: Why much of Cynthia's jewelry has an old-world, Renaissance feel Cynthia's advice for aspiring jewelry designers How Cynthia designs her pieces around her customers' style Why creativity is the driving force behind change How understanding jewelry history can help designers find new forms of expression About Cynthia Bach Cynthia Bach has been a jewelry designer for more than four decades. After studying art in Munich, Germany, Cynthia received her BFA degree in art and jewelry making from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, where she met and apprenticed bench jewelry making with master jeweler Jim Matthews. In 1989 Jim and Cynthia were recruited by Van Cleef & Arpels in Beverly Hills to run design and fabrication of the jewelry department. In 1991 Cynthia launched her own collection with Neiman Marcus nationwide.  She has been the recipient of numerous awards from the jewelry industry including the coveted International Platinum Guild Award, the Spectrum Award, and the Couture Award. Her designs have been recognized and awarded by the American Gem Trade Association. She is internationally known and respected and in 2014 was invited to Idar-Oberstein, Germany to judge the New Designer Contest. In 2015 her work was part of the international traveling exhibition “The Nature of Diamonds” organized by the American Museum of Natural History and sponsored by DeBeers. An important piece of her work resides in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 2019 Cynthia's jewelry was featured in Juliet de la Rochefoucauld's “Women Jewellery Designers”, a magnum opus book of women jewelry designers throughout history. Additional Resources: Website  Instagram Twitter Facebook Pintrest Photos: 18 karat yellow gold Crown Collection maltese cross crown ring with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds 18 karat yellow gold Flower Bouquet Collection flower hoop earrings with multi-colored gemstones 18 karat yellow gold Gitan Collection, filigree paisley's with diamonds and rubies 18 karat yellow gold Royal Charm Bracelet  Transcript: Cynthia Bach has loved jewelry for as long as she can remember. That enthusiasm is what helped her land an apprenticeship with master jeweler (and later, her husband) Jim Matthews, scored her a 25-year partnership with Nieman Marcus, and continues to fuel her desire to create timeless yet innovative designs today. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the old-world techniques that inspire her designs; her experience working with Van Cleef & Arpels, Neiman Marcus, and red-carpet stylists; and her advice for budding jewelry designers. Read the episode transcript here.  Sharon: That's interesting. I'm thinking about a few things. First of all, that Fabergé and Schlumberger had an eye, whether it was for a shape or they were just extremely creative. What do you feel you have an eye for? Cynthia: I have an eye for shapes. My jewelry designing is classical and lyrical. I'm not doing post-modern shapes like the wearable art exhibit we saw. I think of my designs as more refined. I love to design jewelry for women. When I'm designing for them, I see what their style is and I want to design around their style, which is not necessarily the normal thing to do. When I design a piece of jewelry, I usually design something I want to wear. Having worked with Nieman Marcus for 25 years, after starting my collection with them, there was always fashion. Every season, I would follow the fashions that so that even though my designs are very classical, they would also be very now. What are the girls wearing now? What are the trends now? But I still wanted it to be timeless and able to be worn a hundred years from today.  Sharon: Have you ever found yourself altering your designs or pieces because you've sketched something out and you say, “Oh, that's too small or too large for what people want today. That's not what people want”?  Cynthia: I kind of design what I want to design, but because I've worked so hands-on doing trunk shows across the country and working with women, I know everyone has a different size earlobe and a different shape face. I will take a design and I'll make a smaller version and a medium and a bigger to go with the woman's style. Not every woman can wear a big earring. In that sense, I just take my design and make it more adaptable for different people. I usually design what I want to design because I figure if I want to wear it, other women want to wear it, too. Sharon: It sounds like that's been successful for you for decades. You said that you design around a woman's style. I guess what I want to know is if you saw a woman wearing jewelry that's very different from yours. Let's say modernist, angular, large. What do you mean you design around that? Cynthia: To clarify that a little bit more, I would say the last 25 years where I've really been a designer, I've worked with a lot of stylists for red carpet dressing. We would work with clothing designers, like when I did Cate Blanchett in the beautiful Gautier. I made the body jewelry—they're Indian-inspired—and she did the big chain down her back. I remember a lot of beautiful gowns coming in, and even though I would use my jewelry, I always wanted the jewelry to make a statement. To me, it wasn't all about the dress, but also to make a statement for the wearer. So, when I say I like to design around a woman's style, a lot of that came from working with stylists and doing red carpet things. It also comes from working hands-on with women at the Nieman Marcus stores. They would come in and have a dress they were wearing to the ball, and they needed jewelry to go with it. You can't just throw anything on them. It's got to go with the dress; it's got to go with them. I find the way I wear jewelry is I like very big jewelry. I like big rings, big earrings, lots of chains. I layer everything. There are women out there that are much more—they love an exquisite piece of jewelry, but they'll wear one exquisite earring and one necklace.  Sharon: What's wrong with them? Cynthia: You're another person who's very theatrical in your jewelry.  Sharon: I understand what you're saying, but I'm surprised to hear you say that because your jewelry seems very feminine and dainty. I can see how you can stack the rings and everything, but I'm surprised to hear you say you like larger jewelry. That's all. Cynthia: I mean when I'm dressing for myself. This is where I'm making pieces for other people. My collection I'm working on now is a lot of flowers with beautiful fall colors, orange and yellow, sapphires and reds and purples, all these colors together. I will take all those chains and wear like seven of them together, whereas if I were selling them in a store, maybe a woman would buy one chain. Ultimately, we have to make a living, but for me, selling my jewelry is my living. To some extent, you have to keep in mind who your audience is as well. Again, I can't always dictate the way I want them to look. Sharon: I was just thinking how impressive it is that you've been selling to Nieman Marcus for so long. That's a long run, and hopefully it continues for another 20 years. There are so many people who sell for one season and never see it there again. Cynthia: Like I told you, Sharon, I made up my mind at the age of 12 that this is what I wanted to do. My determination came from—it was very difficult being a woman. When I sold my collection to Nieman Marcus in 1991, we were brought out to Beverly Hills with Van Cleef & Arpels. The family-owned business went off to sell their company, so we were basically without a job. That was my window for, “O.K., you have nothing to lose. You're out of a job. If you want to be a jewelry designer, you're going to do it now.” Well, that was on Monday. On Friday, I called Nieman Marcus in Dallas and flew out there.  I had been making a little crown collection, because I had made a crown for a client for an anniversary present back in 1982. It was a design of a Trifari crown pin that he gave to his wife. He said, “I bought this for my bride in 1955, and now I can afford it in emeralds, rubies and diamonds.” It was a little Trifari crown pin, and I made her this little crown and she wore it every day on a chain. I just thought it was the neatest thing. This was in 1982, and I said, “This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make crowns.” So, I started researching them at the library, all the different heraldic imagery and all the crowns throughout the world that kings and queens wore, and I brought them to everyone, to the masses. I had presented them to Van Cleef & Arpels, and they were like, “We would never do a crown,” but I made them anyway.  After we lost our job at Van Cleef & Arpels, five days later, I flew to Nieman Marcus. I had 13 crown brooches. Some were fantasies; some were actual miniature crowns from Saudi Arabia or Persia, the English crown. I talked to the buyer, who was actually the president of the jewelry department at that time. In 1991, they did not have a developed jewelry department. There were jewelry designers; there were fashion designers, but jewelry was very generic, so they didn't have creatives in jewelry that stood out. I said to them, “You need a stable of jewelry designers like you have in fashion.” The same thing I did with my husband, “I want to make jewelry. Here are my crowns.” I was all enthusiastic about it, and he was like, “I'll give you $6,000,” and I said, “I'll take it.” That launched my career, but it was in 1991 when, like I said, there weren't really any established jewelry designers at the time. I think Nieman's had Jean Mahie and Henry Dunay was there, but that was it. So, they grandfathered me at that time, and it just took off. The 90s and the 2000s was a wonderful time to be in the jewelry business. It was a wonderful time to be in business in anything in 2000, before 2006. So, that is how I got into it. I don't know that I could do something like that in 2021. It's always timing. Sharon: That's true. Do you think you couldn't do that because it's not possible to call Nieman Marcus today and say, “I want an appointment with the buyer”? Cynthia: With 13 pieces? No, I think because the competition now is steep. Women are more independent now. In 1991, it was still hard as a woman to head a company and to be taken seriously as being able to run a company. Even though I worked with my husband, I called the collection Cynthia Bach because it was a time for women when if they did not stick up for themselves and be a little more aggressive and persistent, they would disappear. I guess I'm a feminist, I don't know. But at that time, I had to fight really hard. I worked with a lot of men and good old boys. The jewelry industry was made up of men. It was a whole different time, and Nieman Marcus, at that time, was still family-owned as well. It was small. Now, it's become much bigger, more investors, owners, more corporate, so I don't think you can start with 13 pieces. I think you have to have a pretty big collection to move forward, and a business plan. Sharon: Right, it sounds you started the seeds of— Cynthia: A revolution, a jewelry revolution!  Sharon: Really. Because when you think about Nieman's today, the jewelry department is so well-developed in terms of all the different designers. Cynthia: Yes. Sharon: I was just going to ask you. We both attended a panel at Bonhams on wearable art jewelry. I was asking what attracted you, because your jewelry is so different. Cynthia: I am very much interested in jewelry history, jewelers throughout history, and the whole evolution of jewelry in any form. I love the silver jewelry that came out of Mexico. I love the period of the 30s and 40s. Like I said before, that is when casting was developed, and that is when jewelry was in a more industrial period, the shapes and the forms, the industrial revolution. Jewelry parallels music and history and art and fashion, so all of that interests me, and it doesn't just have to be my type of jewelry. I was very fascinated with the jewelry of the particular artists that I learned about through the Bonhams exhibit, the wearable art, the Crawford Collection. I learned about these artists I really didn't know about, and that was exciting. Sharon: Was there something in particular that called out to you, a designer or something a panelist said? Cynthia: I really loved the work of Art Smith. I think he worked in New York, and it was sculpture. His jewelry was sculpture, body sculpture. There were also some Native American Indian jewelers from the 30s and 40s that did lapidary work, the interesting turquoise with wood and the bracelets that were so colorful and beautiful. Some of the lapidary work they did was very now, like that guy that did the space travel bangle. There was one necklace I just fell in love with, and it's from William Spratling. It was a big necklace with little beads, and I thought to myself, “What a fabulous design! That design would look so good with my filigree beads that I do.” I've always loved bib-style necklaces. A lot of times when I look at jewelry, I'll see my piece of jewelry incorporated in some of the shapes or designs. It's all very visual to me, the bibs. Sharon: Those are fabulous pieces, and a broad spectrum too. Go on. Cynthia: I was just going to say relatively unknown artists. It was so refreshing to have Bonhams bring these out to the public awareness. Sharon: Yes, I hope we see a lot of more of it. It was nice. Cynthia: Me, too.  Sharon: Since you've been designing for so long, what do you think motivates you today that's different than what motivated you decades ago, when you first started? Cynthia: Right now, I'm working with more color. I love colors mixed together. Like I told you, I'm working a lot with flowers. I think because history and fashion play such an important part in my designing, I look at the kids, what they wear now, harkening back to the 1980s. I feel myself very influenced right now by 80s jewelry. I feel like it's also intertwined, like I said, with music and art and fashion and jewelry. They work together. During the Blue Rider period, the abstract expressionism with Kandinsky and Klee, you had music of that time that reflected it.  Creativity is what makes changes in the world, even though we repeat a lot of fashion. Some of what the kids are wearing is very unique. They wear a lot of body jewelry with tattoos and earrings that climb all the way up their ears. That is really new and fresh. Every generation is evolving into a new creative style. I think the depth of a designer is to keep coming out with new designs and to keep being creative. It's paramount and important to me to constantly be coming out with new designs, and I get that influence from what's going on in the world around me. Sharon: You sound very open to seeing new things as opposed to, “Oh my God, look at that person with all those tattoos.” Cynthia: It's basically body art. Yeah, it fascinates me; purple hair, green hair. Sharon: You can be very creative with hair and body art and all that. Cynthia: Absolutely. It's the time of personal style and expression now. Sharon: Do you think it's different now? People think of the 60s as being a time of personal art and expression. Do you think the 70s had less of that or the 80s had less of that? Cynthia: I think every decade, every era has that. Even if you look at the Rococo and Baroque periods in France, where they had their powdered wigs and their beautiful couture, they were out of the box. The music was out of the box, and that's how change happens in the world. Sharon: I like that change happens through creativity. You can look at different ways of saying that. Is it through creativity in tech or is it creativity in fashion? I guess it's everything.  Cynthia: Yeah. Sharon: You mentioned that enjoy studying jewelry history. Do you think it's important for jewelers and jewelry designers to be steeped in that, to know the history of jewelry, to see the trends through the ages? How important do you think that is? Cynthia: I think it helps. It certainly helps me to visually look at a lot of different styles and see what's been around for hundreds of years, but I don't think it's necessary for everyone. Some people are just creative, and they come out with their own unique style. I don't know if you've looked at what Boucheron is doing now with this kind of glasswork. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. It really is wearable art. They're pushing the envelope as to jewelry and wearable art.  A lot of the young designers coming up now are especially working with the fashion houses, and the fashion houses are saying, “Hey, we need to incorporate some important jewelry with our fashion.” It's unique. So, the answer to your question is I don't know if it's important to know jewelry history. I think the most important thing is to be forward and to come up with something creative that is unique and your own. Sharon: What do you when you find your creativity has stalled? If you have writer's block in terms of jewelry, what do you do? Cynthia: In the past, I can say that when someone commissions me to do a piece of a jewelry or I have a new collection I want to come out with and I just don't know what to do, sometimes I just put it in the back of my head and go around my business. It is haunting me in my head, and then all of a sudden, I'll be sitting there and I'll look at a chair or something. I'll see a shape and a light goes off in my head, and that's it; that's the concept. It's almost a subconscious process. This has happened with me time and time again. I'll be sleeping and somehow something will hit me, “This is it.” Sometimes it takes a week or two. I don't think it's taken over once I make my mind up that I need something new over two weeks. It usually goes into my subconscious brain, and I guess my conscious brain is looking for ideas. Sharon: That is the way it works. You're meditating and something comes, or you're in the shower. Exactly, it's when you're not looking. Cynthia, thank you so much for taking the time today to talk with us. This has been really enjoyable and fascinating. It's great to talk with somebody who's been through decades of jewelry design. Cynthia: Does that make me old? Sharon: No, it doesn't. Cynthia: The creative mind is never old. Creativity is always young.  Sharon: Yes, that's definitely it. Thank you so much. Cynthia: Thank you for having me. I enjoyed this very much, and I look forward to next time.  We will have images posted on the website. You can find us wherever you download your podcasts, and please rate us. Please join us next time, when our guest will be another jewelry industry professional who will share their experience and expertise. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

What you'll learn in this episode: Why much of Cynthia's jewelry has an old-world, Renaissance feel Cynthia's advice for aspiring jewelry designers How Cynthia designs her pieces around her customers' style Why creativity is the driving force behind change How understanding jewelry history can help designers find new forms of expression About Cynthia Bach Cynthia Bach has been a jewelry designer for more than four decades. After studying art in Munich, Germany, Cynthia received her BFA degree in art and jewelry making from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, where she met and apprenticed bench jewelry making with master jeweler Jim Matthews. In 1989 Jim and Cynthia were recruited by Van Cleef & Arpels in Beverly Hills to run design and fabrication of the jewelry department. In 1991 Cynthia launched her own collection with Neiman Marcus nationwide.  She has been the recipient of numerous awards from the jewelry industry including the coveted International Platinum Guild Award, the Spectrum Award, and the Couture Award. Her designs have been recognized and awarded by the American Gem Trade Association. She is internationally known and respected and in 2014 was invited to Idar-Oberstein, Germany to judge the New Designer Contest. In 2015 her work was part of the international traveling exhibition “The Nature of Diamonds” organized by the American Museum of Natural History and sponsored by DeBeers. An important piece of her work resides in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 2019 Cynthia's jewelry was featured in Juliet de la Rochefoucauld's “Women Jewellery Designers”, a magnum opus book of women jewelry designers throughout history. Additional Resources: Website  Instagram Twitter Facebook Pintrest Photos: 18 karat yellow gold Crown Collection maltese cross crown ring with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds 18 karat yellow gold Flower Bouquet Collection flower hoop earrings with multi-colored gemstones 18 karat yellow gold Gitan Collection, filigree paisley's with diamonds and rubies 18 karat yellow gold Royal Charm Bracelet  Transcript: Cynthia Bach has loved jewelry for as long as she can remember. That enthusiasm is what helped her land an apprenticeship with master jeweler (and later, her husband) Jim Matthews, scored her a 25-year partnership with Nieman Marcus, and continues to fuel her desire to create timeless yet innovative designs today. She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the old-world techniques that inspire her designs; her experience working with Van Cleef & Arpels, Neiman Marcus, and red-carpet stylists; and her advice for budding jewelry designers. Read the episode transcript here.  Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Today, our guest is multiple award-winning jewelry designer Cynthia Bach, who has been designing jewelry for 40 years. Her designs are in demand by celebrities and high-end jewelry showcases. She's recognized for jewels that harken back to yesterday with a nod to the Renaissance. She is also included among an extraordinarily talented group of jewelry designers in the beautiful book “Women Jewelry Designers.” We'll hear all about her jewelry journey today. Cynthia, welcome to the program. Cynthia: Thank you, Sharon, for having me today. I'm very excited to be here. Sharon: I'm so glad to have you, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your jewelry journey. Tell us a little about that. Did you play with jewelry when you were young, or were you creative when you were young? Go ahead. Cynthia: Sharon, since I was a little girl, I was very attracted to my mother's jewelry and all the sparkly stones and the colors. I would take her costume jewelry apart and redesign it. I don't know how old I was, very young, maybe six, seven, eight years old, and I always had this fascination with sparkly jewels. I can remember back in the day when W Magazine had the paper magazine that was like a newspaper, probably before a lot of people were born. We're looking at probably the 80s. I remember looking at pictures of Paloma Picasso and Tiffany and Elsa Peretti and thinking, “I want to be a jewelry designer. I love jewelry.” Maybe I was 12, 13. That was in the back of my head. Sharon: So, it was early on. Cynthia: Early on. When I went to college, my grandmother, who was living in New York in a retirement home, wrote me a letter that said, “Cindy, make up your mind what you want to do because you have opportunities that I did not have as a woman.” She was born, I think, in the late 1800s, turn of the century. She said, “Decide what it is you want to do and do it.” I was taking art classes at the university, and I said, “I'm going to be a jewelry designer.”  We didn't have a jewelry department, but I was determined. I went to the sculpture teacher and said, “I want to learn how to make jewelry,” and he said, “I've never taught jewelry, but if you get six students together, we'll form a class.” I recruited six students and we made a class and learned together. We would do casting behind the art building in the sand, like the old, ancient art of sand casting, where we would put our wax in a coffee can and dig a hole in the dirt and then pour. At that time, I worked in brass and copper because silver was like what working in platinum would be to me today. That was the start of a passion for me that I pursued.  Sharon: You went to college in Texas if I recall. Cynthia: Yes. My father was in the military. He married a war bride. He was in World War II, and he met my mother in Berlin during the bombing of Berlin and he brought her back. She was a war bride, but she loved living in Europe, so my father always asked to be stationed in Europe. I spent 13 years growing up in Germany. I did a year of college in Munich, Germany, before I went to Texas to finish my degree. My father was stationed in Texas then. Sharon: How did growing up abroad in Germany influence you as a jewelry designer? Cynthia: My mother really focused on culture more than anything. I don't know why. She wanted us to be very cultured and well-rounded and to experience good food. She would take me to the Stuttgart Ballet, and she'd take me to Berlin and say, “You're going to see the Berlin Opera. It's the best opera in the world.” Living in Germany, we would travel every summer and go to Greece or Italy and go to museums and concerts. In Europe, it's much easier for everyone to enjoy the culture, the opera, the ballets because it's affordable to everyone. For $30, you can go to the opera. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to become a member. Everyone is more a part of culture there, and of course Europe is so cultured because it's so old. It's hundreds and hundreds of years old, so you have that sense of history and architecture and the castles. It was a very creatively fertile place for me to grow up. I do equate that with a lot of my jewelry designs and my love of art and culture.  Sharon: I can see the influence in your jewelry when you say that, because your jewelry has a lot that appears Renaissance-like, let's say, and it has a granulation. Cynthia: Yes, I think it has a very European look to it. In 1991, when I officially became my own jewelry designer, creating my own vision and designs, it was based on medieval history and Gothic and Renaissance and crowns and all the symbolism I researched at the library. It really did harken back to a lot of what I saw growing up in Europe. Sharon: What is it that still attracts you decades later? You still have that sense in your jewelry, which is so elegant in many ways, in terms of having that European feel. What is it that still attracts you today? Cynthia: I think there are several things. One is that I look at a lot of jewelry books. One of my other passions is jewelry history and all the different designs throughout history: the 30s and 40s that were so industrial, when casting was invented back in the 40s, and the 50s, where jewelry could be made en masse, as opposed to when it was all hand-fabricated by the French and the Italians and the Russians. That was a turning point in jewelry.  What was the question? You were asking why it is still European. There are two reasons. One is I study art jewelry history. Art history, jewelry history, they're all related. The other is my husband who is my partner, Jim Matthews, who I met during college because I needed someone to help me set a stone. It was an amethyst, and I didn't have the equipment in college. I heard about this amazing jeweler downtown in Abilene, Texas. I went from Munich, Germany, to Abilene to Beverly Hills.  Anyway, he is just a genius. He started whittling wood when he was five years old. He ended up owning this jewelry store, and he would hand-carve the waxes making his own tools, which is very old-school and a dying art. I think it's the combination of my love of jewelry history and my influences of being in Europe, and then his old-school jewelry carving and filigree and this amazing, intricate carving he could do. To me, it's like Castellani or some of the Italian handwork that was done in the 18th century. I think it's the combination of that that gives it that old-world Renaissance feeling. Sharon: Can you tell us about the division of labor you have now? You work together, so how does that work? Do you design and then he takes the designs? Cynthia: Yes, we have been working together since I was in college, so for over 40 years we've worked together. We were brought out here with Van Cleef & Arpels. He ran the design and fabrication of Van Cleef in Beverly Hills. He had 13 jewelers there on Rodeo Drive when it was still family owned. We were hired by Phillipe Arpels, and they brought us out here from Abilene, Texas, which to me was like, “Wow, we've been discovered. Now, we get to make jewelry for kings and queens in Hollywood.”  We've worked together so long that we kind of read each other's minds. It's like we have ideas, and he has ideas. We have all these ideas on paper I'm sketching. I'm constantly sketching; I'm constantly thinking, and then he will take that and carve it in a three-dimensional space. Sometimes it changes a bit from two dimensions to three dimensions, but it's almost like we have one mind. Like if you cut us in half, maybe neither one of us could function. I hope not. Sharon: You sort of touched on this, because you describe your career over and over. When I was reading about you and reading different biographies, you say that your career was a fairy tale. Can you tell me more about why you say that? Cynthia: Yes, I often say that it was a fairytale for me. First of all, I've wanted to make jewelry since I was a very little girl, and then I had the opportunity to start jewelry in college. They actually have an official department now, and I feel like the six of us instigated that. At that time, I just wanted to be a bench jeweler. I wanted to sit down and hand-make pieces. That's what I loved. I loved fabricating with metal, not so much casting. Then I had the opportunity to start designing and working with Jim, and to have Van Cleef & Arpels call us and bring us out to Beverly Hills and start making jewelry for that milieu of clients. It was very Cinderella-like. My whole collection is about Cinderella. I even have a chain called the Cinderella necklace. It's making everyone princesses and kings and queens and adorning your court, bedecking them with jewels. I don't know if it's because I'm creative and an artist, but I go into a fantasy when I'm designing. It's a fantastical world. It doesn't have anything to do with the day to day, but that is what creativity and art is all about. Sharon: Wow! It sounds like a dream. Cynthia: Well, it's not always a dream. I call it a fairytale journey. I didn't think when I was a young girl, and even when we owned our own store in Abilene and then went to Van Cleef & Arpels, I didn't think I would actually be my own jewelry designer, Cynthia Bach, with my own vision, making my own jewelry. To me, that was like, “Wow!” That's what I always wanted to do and now I'm doing it. But it wasn't always easy because it's hard. It's a hard business. When Nieman Marcus bought my collection, it's very demanding and competitive. There were many times where I wanted to throw in the towel, but I kept pursing, persistent, persistent. You get your obstacles in life. I think the most important thing, if you really want something, is to be persistent about it and never give up. It is a fairytale, but there are a lot of hard knocks. Sharon: It sounds like that's what you would tell somebody starting out in the field, that they have to overcome the obstacles. Cynthia: Yes, because anytime you're starting something, any vision you have, the beginning especially is going to be one obstacle after another. You need to break through it. Sharon: When you graduated, did you work with your husband-to-be before you married him and then the two of you had a store?  Cynthia: Yeah, when I met him—Jim's about 13 years older than I was, so I think I met him when I was in my mid-20s going to college studying jewelry. I went to his shop, and I was very enthusiastic about how much I loved jewelry and wanted to be a jeweler and make jewelry. Two weeks later, he called me and asked if I would like to work in his trade shop. He also had a trade shop that was doing repairs and sizings and setting stones and casting jewelry, which was probably my best education because it was all basic, hands-on making jewelry. One of the things I am really proud of is that I started out making jewelry from the basic beginning onto now making fine jewelry. He had opened a jewelry store with some other investors, and I was apprenticing with him. After college, all the investors left. I don't know why. Maybe it was me; I ran them all off. Sharon: Probably not. Cynthia: We were the only two people left owning the jewelry business, but we were really the jewelers in it anyway. They were all businesspeople, and we were creative people. So yes, he opened the store before I finished college, and then after I finished college we worked together for three or four years before we married. Sharon: It's impressive that you say you were a bench jeweler before you were a designer because there are not many designers that can say that. Cynthia: That's very true. Jewelry's one of the fields in art that you can actually sit and hand-make the pieces yourself and call yourself an artist, or you can just be a designer and have a collection made by a shop somewhere. Back in the old days, to be a jeweler or a designer, you had to actually make jewelry; you had to actually be a jeweler. But what also sets jewelry apart is the creative. You look at Fabergé, he had a whole shop of artisans working for him, and he just had this vivid, fabulous imagination making some of the most brilliant jewelry in the world. The creative is, to me, one of the most essential parts to a great piece of jewelry.  Schlumberger had the creative. He didn't sit down and make jewelry himself, but he knew the shape of a woman's ear, and he would make this earring that would set his jewelry apart because of the shapes. He had such an eye for shapes. I always thought to myself, “Ultimately, what is jewelry? It is a beautiful shape to make a woman look beautiful.” That's not necessarily true, but that's how I look at jewelry when I'm designing it. How the wearer going to look in this piece of jewelry? How is it going to make her feel beautiful and look beautiful and enhance her beauty? Sharon: That's interesting. I'm thinking about a few things. First of all, that Fabergé and Schlumberger had an eye, whether it was for a shape or they were just extremely creative. What do you feel you have an eye for?

Brigitte Pery est l'héritière d'une famille connue près de la Place Vendôme. Une femme solaire, enjouée, rigolote et captivante ! Après des années de collaboration avec son client principal, l'atelier Pery est synonyme de qualité de fabrication.   Dans cet épisode vous découvrirez le lien fort le fabricant Pery et la maison Van Cleef & Arpels . Nous revenons sur certains best sellers comme le collier Passe-Partout, le clip Lion Ebouriffé et la bague Philippine. Comment l'Atelier Pery a gardé le cap pendant la guerre et les deux crises financières ? Et bien d'autres merveilleuses histoires …

Tea Drunk has made sure that America enjoys premium teas while we quarantine. Listen in to the founder of Tea Drunk as she opens up about how the brand started, why she picked that name and how Covid19 has affected business. Web: www.tea-drunk.com Follow: @teadrunk About: A celebration of an epic romance between man and nature - Tea Drunk is known for its finest and most prized tea that comes straight from the lands of China. One of the world's most popular luxury brands, Van Cleef & Arpels, known for its attention to detail and exquisite quality products has partnered with Tea Drunk for their corporate training courses. On the tails of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tea Drunk has started an online Educational Tea Club with a monthly subscription opportunity that offers the chance to meet and connect with team members, brew tea samples while following the video, receive special discounts on pre-sale teas, etc. Live and recorded classes are available in brewing, tea crash courses, and even tea connoisseur for those who want to gain higher experience in tea making. Tea Drunk provides tea service to corporations and institutes as well. "What I love the most is the level of online engagement we received during this time. We kept putting educational posts about tea on Instagram and received more inquiries about various topics on tea which in turn inspired me to do more virtual classes and events," said Tea Drunk founder Shunan Teng. The tea available through Tea Drunk is truly one of a kind. Like nature cannot recreate itself, no two batches of tea are the same. Some tea leaves are picked from ancient tea trees which are 200-600 years old with the actual harvesting season containing only 10-15 days per year. While more commercial teas are harvested all year long and are finished processing in hours. Every tea is prepared with lots of love and hard work by Shunan Teng who heads to the deepest mountains in China in the Spring Season. Shunan Teng is the educator for the TED-Ed lesson – The History of Tea and has collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to execute a temporary Chinese tea house in the museum. She is an avid educator on tea and has spoken on the subject matter at many institutions including Yale University, World Tea Expo, and Stony Brook University. About the show: ► Website: http://www.ashsaidit.com ► Got Goli Gummies? https://go.goli.com/1loveash5 ► For $5 in ride credit, download the Lyft app using my referral link: https://www.lyft.com/ici/ASH584216 ► For discount Pangea Products: https://embracepangaea.grsm.io/ashsaiditmedia3226 ► Want the ‘coldest' water? https://thecoldestwater.com/?ref=ashleybrown12 ► Become A Podcast Legend: http://ashsaidit.podcastersmastery.zaxaa.com/s/6543767021305 ► Review Us: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ash-said-it/id1144197789 ► SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://www.youtube.com/c/AshSaidItSuwanee ► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1loveash ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashsaidit ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/1loveAsh ► Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AshSaidItMedia ► Blog: http://www.ashsaidit.com/blog ► Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/1LoveAsh/ ► Newsletter: manage1.com/subscribe?u=2a2ca3b799467f125b53863http://ashsaidit.us11.list-c8&id=a6f43cd472 #atlanta #ashsaidit #ashsaidthat #ashblogsit #ashsaidit® Ash Brown is a gifted American producer, blogger, speaker, media personality and event emcee. The blog on AshSaidit.com showcases exclusive event invites, product reviews and so much more. Her motivational podcast "Ash Said It Daily" is available on major media platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio & Google Podcasts. This program has over half a million streams worldwide. She uses these mediums to motivate & encourage her audience in the most powerful way. She keeps it real!

Tea Drunk has made sure that America enjoys premium teas while we quarantine. Listen in to the founder of Tea Drunk as she opens up about how the brand started, why she picked that name and how Covid19 has affected business. Web: www.tea-drunk.com Follow: @teadrunk About: A celebration of an epic romance between man and nature - Tea Drunk is known for its finest and most prized tea that comes straight from the lands of China. One of the world's most popular luxury brands, Van Cleef & Arpels, known for its attention to detail and exquisite quality products has partnered with Tea Drunk for their corporate training courses. On the tails of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tea Drunk has started an online Educational Tea Club with a monthly subscription opportunity that offers the chance to meet and connect with team members, brew tea samples while following the video, receive special discounts on pre-sale teas, etc. Live and recorded classes are available in brewing, tea crash courses, and even tea connoisseur for those who want to gain higher experience in tea making. Tea Drunk provides tea service to corporations and institutes as well. "What I love the most is the level of online engagement we received during this time. We kept putting educational posts about tea on Instagram and received more inquiries about various topics on tea which in turn inspired me to do more virtual classes and events," said Tea Drunk founder Shunan Teng. The tea available through Tea Drunk is truly one of a kind. Like nature cannot recreate itself, no two batches of tea are the same. Some tea leaves are picked from ancient tea trees which are 200-600 years old with the actual harvesting season containing only 10-15 days per year. While more commercial teas are harvested all year long and are finished processing in hours. Every tea is prepared with lots of love and hard work by Shunan Teng who heads to the deepest mountains in China in the Spring Season. Shunan Teng is the educator for the TED-Ed lesson – The History of Tea and has collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to execute a temporary Chinese tea house in the museum. She is an avid educator on tea and has spoken on the subject matter at many institutions including Yale University, World Tea Expo, and Stony Brook University. About the show: ► Website: http://www.ashsaidit.com ► Got Goli Gummies? https://go.goli.com/1loveash5 ► For $5 in ride credit, download the Lyft app using my referral link: https://www.lyft.com/ici/ASH584216 ► For discount Pangea Products: https://embracepangaea.grsm.io/ashsaiditmedia3226 ► Want the ‘coldest' water? https://thecoldestwater.com/?ref=ashleybrown12 ► Become A Podcast Legend: http://ashsaidit.podcastersmastery.zaxaa.com/s/6543767021305 ► Review Us: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ash-said-it/id1144197789 ► SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://www.youtube.com/c/AshSaidItSuwanee ► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1loveash ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashsaidit ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/1loveAsh ► Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AshSaidItMedia ► Blog: http://www.ashsaidit.com/blog ► Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/1LoveAsh/ ► Newsletter: manage1.com/subscribe?u=2a2ca3b799467f125b53863http://ashsaidit.us11.list-c8&id=a6f43cd472 #atlanta #ashsaidit #ashsaidthat #ashblogsit #ashsaidit® Ash Brown is a gifted American producer, blogger, speaker, media personality and event emcee. The blog on AshSaidit.com showcases exclusive event invites, product reviews and so much more. Her motivational podcast "Ash Said It Daily" is available on major media platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio & Google Podcasts. This program has over half a million streams worldwide. She uses these mediums to motivate & encourage her audience in the most powerful way. She keeps it real!

Parce que le soir les pensées remontent, j'avais envie de vous lire une histoire. Parce que les temps sont incertains j'avais envie de vous envoyer un câlin, un bisou. Alors je vous propose le bijou comme un bisou du soir. Il était une fois le ZIP de Van Cleef & Arpels... On connait tous la fermeture à glissière, le zip et elle est tellement devenue commune qu'on n'y prête plus attention quand on ferme son jean, son sac ou son blouson.En 1851, ce système venait juste d'être inventé aux États-Unis à Chicago... En 1938, la fermeture éclair est alors non seulement une innovation mais le comble du chic...     Le Zip est aujourd'hui iconique et continue à être réinventé et ré-interprété au fil des saisons et des années par la MaisonVan Cleef & Arpels. Il est même exposé au musée des Arts Décoratifs à Paris.  Ainsi se termine cette histoire d'Il était une fois le bijou. Si cette histoire vous a plu, partagez la autour de vous, pour vous aussi envoyer plein de bijou bisou et encouragez moi en partageant et en me mettant plein d'étoiles et de like. A demain pour un prochain bijou, un nouveau bisou du soir Site Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Dans ce hors série, l'Ancien met un grand coup de pompe dans la fourmilière en analysant la ressemblance frappante entre Bois d'Iris de Van Cleef & Arpels et Bois d'Argent de Christian Dior. Alors que l'industrie du parfum s'évertue à luter contre la contre-façon et revendique chaque année un droit à protéger ses œuvres sous le principe des droits d'auteurs, elle tolère très largement le fait de se copier les uns les autres en interne, tout en s'acharnant sur les petites marques de parfums génériques. Coup de gueule ! Rejoignez-nous sur le site : LaParfumerie-Podcast.com Et venez commenter cet épisode musclé sur WhatsApp : +223 66 91 96 86, on publiera les vocaux les + pertinents dans le podcast !

On this episode of Finding your Frequency we spoke with Keren Aldad. As a business coach & speaker, Keren Eldad (“Coach Keren”) is a trusted advisor to industry-leading executives and superstar entrepreneurs who are setting records at the top of their fields. Since 2016, powerhouses have sought her out to help them make significant breakthroughs in the profitable growth of their business while revitalizing their energy and defining the meaning of their entire lives. Over the last three years, Keren has developed a measurably impactful and streamlined executive coaching process to do this, while working with top organizations including: J.P. Morgan, Christian Dior/LVMH, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, IWC, Waypoint Helicopter Leasing, Beyond Capital, YPO– and more.

Free and open to the public is a touring installation displaying legendary artist Robert Wilson's take on a Van Cleef & Arpels high jewelry art display. We sat down with both Wilson and the CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos, to hear about their collaboration to create a Noah's Ark-inspired exhibition that features brooches in the shape of animals. Each piece costs up to $500 thousand. We hear ruminations on the intersection of art and commerce, Wilson's approach to tackling projects and his startling act of kindness that led him onto his theatrical path. If you're able to experience the exhibition, it's said to be so immersive and theatrical, you might even forget to upload a photo to your Insta.

Olga Iserlis is the Director and creative force behind TWISE, a Singapore-based company specializing in high profile lifestyle event conceptualization, production and management. Whether they're gala events, charity fundraisers, or musical soirees, Olga's affairs are renowned for their originality, meticulous planning, elegant and unusual settings, and of course, plenty of glamour. Throughout the years, Olga has staged events for Audemars Piguet, Van Cleef & Arpels, Diane von Furstenburg and Black Centurion American Express Card among others. One of Olga's most recent large-scale projects was a full Valentino Retrospective, held at Resorts World Sentosa Singapore, developed in conjunction with Les Arts Decoratifs Museum of Paris and with assistance from the House of Valentino in Milan. iserlis@pacific.net.sg