Strengthlets, LLC, announced its latest non-profit organization as a partner: Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. Strengthlets, a woman-owned brand based in South Florida, focuses on women helping women and raising awareness and support for select causes. More at

PURE LEPIDOLITE IS PURPLE MICA. Its softness — 2½ to 3½ on the Mohs hardness scale — and its perfect and easily developed direction of cleavage make it impossible to cut and set. When used in jewelry, lepidolite is always integrated into quartz. It m

Jewelers Mutual Group recently released a free online video on hurricane preparedness for jewelers and other business owners. The “Ask the Expert” video features Larry Spicer, Vice President of Loss Prevention and Risk Management, sharing expert tips

I’ve made some work I’m really proud of, particularly my collaboration pieces with Robert Lopez, but my biggest accomplishment is the number of students I’ve taught to get past their fear and learn to solder and bezel set stones. I’m trying to be bra

AS WITH METAL and all arts, becoming proficient in leather working is largely a matter of putting the time and practice into it. Although this design is pretty detailed, this also makes it more forgiving: there’s a lot of backgrounding that helps hid

You could say this is a story about illuminati, and you’d be right. It’s just not about the Illuminati of centuries past or any of the secret societies or conspiracy ideas that attend them. Our illuminati are three contemporary artists living and wor

Angles for R.I. = 1.540 55 + 16 girdles = 71 facets 2-fold, mirror-image symmetry 96 index L/W = 1.200 T/W = 0.756 U/W = 0.577 P/W = 0.435 C/W = 0.150 Vol./W3 = 0.273 Diane’s Bright Oval Design © Jim Perkins RECENTLY I ATTENDED MY 50TH high school re

Gem cutters use dops to help hold a stone for cutting. There’s no one way to dop a stone and no one adhesive for keeping it in place, as I’ve learned over the years. Here’s what works best for me these days. When I began faceting in 1990, I was taugh

I have enjoyed lapidary for several years, but it wasn’t until last year that I broke with what I call the small time. Once I’d made friends with my slab saw, though, I ventured into a phase of the hobby that has expanded my interest, output, and enj

Jewelry artist Vania Leles recently introduced the world’s first femaleowned African fine jewelry brand, Vanleles. Leles strives to bring African gemstones and the stories they tell to the forefront of the jewelry industry. She wants to increase blac

YOU CAN DO A LOT to increase brand awareness via Instagram posts and Facebook ads, but who will access those messages is hit or miss — likely not all the customers you want to reach. Where free marketing is concerned, many successful designers will t

The 2020 Halstead Grant for new jewelry businesses was presented to Christina Fandino, founder of Los Angeles-based TIN HAUS. Christina receives a $7,500 cash grant, $1,000 in jewelry supplies, a trip to Prescott, Arizona, features in Halstead print

IT’S HOT, HUMID HURRICANE SEASON as I write this, but thinking ahead to fall, winter, and Tucson travel, I chose this inventive group of goodies. In the uncertainty of a world turned upside-down by COVID-19, travel might not be on your schedule right

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